A-Void by Babak Govan (phonics readers txt) 📕

empty security kiosk overgrown by plastic GREATCO (“Celebrate the joy that everything can be yours!”) palm trees and giant birds of paradise.

“They don’t put parkways in these communities?” I asked Joaquin, my younger brother, the last time we had a “reunion” with him and his wife, Syla.

“It saves on landscaping.”

“Well, one day it would have given you beautiful tree-lined streets, like in older neighborhoods.” I studied him. “Those neighborhoods smell woodsy, like parks. Look at me, Joaquin.”

“Is that a v463.2 that you’re holding?” he asked.

“Yeah, I just got it.”

“Dude, you’re outdated. Do you know how much information you’re missing?” He reached out to me with his Organelle. “You need this one.”

“How can you keep up? There was already a newer model coming out before I preordered this one.”

“You just do. You have to.”

“Jasmine and I don’t want to live like this anymore.”

“You need a life, B.”

“Why do you say that? Why are you calling me ‘B’?”

“What’s that in your other hand?”

After years of my having a beard, he still hadn’t noticed that I’d shaved it off. “Tea and milk.”

He leaned over with his Organelle and scanned my beverage. “Look what it says here.”

ITEM ANALYSES

Sustainable manufacturing: FAIL

Fair trade: FAIL

Local economy: FAIL

Organic materials: QUESTIONABLE

Green materials: INACCURATE

Recyclable materials: ACCEPTABLE

BPA: PASS

Genetic testing: QUESTIONABLE

GMO: FAIL

Animal testing: FAIL

Hormones: PASS

Antibiotics: PASS

Noise pollution: NOT APPLICABLE

Grass-fed: NOT APPLICABLE

Free-range: NOT APPLICABLE

Pasture-raised: NOT APPLICABLE

Gluten: FAIL

Synthetic preservatives: QUESTIONABLE

Hydrogenated oils: PASS

Chlorine: QUESTIONABLE

Fluoride: QUESTIONABLE

Aluminum: QUESTIONABLE

MSG: PASS

SLS: QUESTIONABLE

Phthalates: QUESTIONABLE

Propylene glycol: PASS

DEA: PASS

Parabens: QUESTIONABLE

Fragrances: INACCURATE

Minerals: FAIL

Colors: INACCURATE

Dyes: FAIL

Pesticides: QUESTIONABLE

Waxes: PASS

“Fuck that, Joaquin.” I pushed back his Organelle.

“You need to be more PC. Do you know what your beverage is made of? You shouldn’t have bought that.”

“So like I was saying—I think older neighborhoods even have more birds, more singing.”

“Have you been taking your sleeping pills?” His attention was back on his Organelle. “I need to talk with my Organelle, B, and then I have to recalculate the time you’ve taken up.” He flapped his hand dismissively. “Let’s just schedule some ‘free time’ to talk. And, step back a little. You’re stepping over my personal space.”

The air smells of fire smoke. No one is coming to answer the door. Through overgrown banana trees spaced at intervals with stake lanterns, I reach the back patio and cup my face on the sliding door.

“Joaquin? Syla?”

I can feel from how the dust moves inside that no one is home. I wasn’t really expecting to find them, but I was hoping. Has it really gotten this bad, really gone this far?

I try every door latch until I discover an open kitchen window, and pop out the screen with my key. I push away some emergency food bars and crawl onto the counter.

“Joaquin? Syla?”

The open door to the garage reveals a camping backpack outspread along the floor. I finish packing it, with matchsticks, batteries, tape, a hammer, and scissors. Before returning inside, I turn back to grab the baseball bat leaning against the wall, and then my foot kicks a can of vegetable soup, and I remember the first time I saw Jasmine.

At the end of the long dinner table, beside the dusky wine chamber, our seats were the closest to the restroom in case Kayla needed to vomit.

She waved anxiously to Jasmine, who was greeting Ella, the birthday girl, at the other end. A few strands of Jasmine’s dark brown hair escaped her ponytail, swung past her turquoise stud earrings, and obscured her green eyes as she twisted side-to-side, squeezing through the aisle of bulky chairs to reach us.

In a soft yellow pencil skirt, with miniature hem slits at the hips and a turquoise, sleeveless blouse ruffled up her sternum, Jasmine Fitzgerald was the automatic centerpiece. She was the kind of girl you feared would catch you wondering if it were possible for such a person to have a lover.

“Hi there, pretty girl,” she called to Kayla halfway down the table.

Kayla reached her thinning arms up to Jasmine, like an old woman unable to stand. She quickly adjusted her blond wig. “Hey, at least I get to see what it’s like being a blond,” Kayla said.

Almost as an afterthought, Jasmine cupped Kayla’s face between her hands and gave her a big kiss on her cheek. For a second, Kayla appeared very sad.

“Jasmine, this is my fantastic boyfriend.”

I half arose and shook her hand. “I’ve heard very nice things,” I said.

“Thanks, so have I,” she said, leaning over Kayla’s shoulder.

“It’s strange,” Kayla said, “there’re all these new ways to connect, and yet I feel less connected than ever before. Before we leave tonight, let’s set a date for all of us to get together. I’d love Billy to get to know you.”

“Definitely,” Jasmine replied. A waiter leaned in to dispense tomato-citrus soup from a vintage wine bottle. Jasmine glanced down the table and then waved softly to us and left for an empty seat at the opposite end.

“She’s pretty, isn’t she?” Kayla asked me.

“Yeah, she is.”

“You’d make a great couple.”

I slip the can of soup into the backpack. Kayla has been on my mind more, the more likely my own premature death seems.

A swishing noise startles me. At the sliding glass doors’ bottom railing, a spider barely escapes the dotting sprinklers. Watching it test for friction, I wonder how other animals are still alive.

TIME 2

“Why did you invite me here?”

“We have no one else, you know,” The Director said.

“How do you mean?”

“Dudley’s dead and Chang and Hamid, they’re the last of the contractors we’ve been lucky to score. So, that means you’ll have to take one of the path labs now.”

“Me?”

“You have a microbiology degree, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but that’s years ago. I barely remember anything.”

“Well, that makes you the most qualified person we’ve got.” He finally looked at me. “B, if you do this, there might be some vaccinations in it for you and your family.”

TIME 1

DISNEYLAND

2:35 PM

It’s no more likely that someone’s alive inside Disneyland than anywhere else, but I’m compelled to look.

I turn at the detour signs and arrive immediately outside the ticket booths. Walt Disney probably never imagined these