She flickers. “Nonononononononono.” My words blur like my typing fingers pulling up source code.
“I’m… tired, John.” She puts a hand to her head. “I’m…dizzy.”
Sweat beads on my forehead. “It’ll be okay, honey.”
There’s an edge to her fading voice. “You’re always working on the computer.”
“I have a good reason.” Keep typing. Keep debugging.
“Computer instead of me.” Her voice is half-static. “You… time with me.”
I look. Her eyes are 8-bit and translucent, and closing.
My wife, two years dead, derezzes again.
“I have a good reason.” I start typing through the tears.
“A good reason.”
Based around Laurence Simon’s weekly challenge for the 100 word-stories podcast. The player above should have the audio for this week; if it doesn’t, you can find the audio here to download.
I am updating these in a podcast feed (dubbed “Radio Free Steven the Nuclear Man” by Laurence). You can subscribe with this link (https://feeds.feedburner.com/Ideatrash) in your podcatcher or phone. You can also read and hear the rest of the entries at the 100 Word Stories podcast site.