e0e0e0 sky
By: Michael Bettendorf
My brain—our brain?—glitches as we stare outside. The hues change before our eyes. The grass, primarily the color #003300, is speckled with #009900 and the occasional patch of #999900 where the dog performs its morning function. The lawn flashes #66FFB2 every few milliseconds, creating a shimmering effect that only our eyes can catch.
It isn’t that we regret it. We can do so much more now that we’ve extended our life expectancy; upgraded our warranty. Everything is crisper now. Calculated to perfection.
The change was a process, but processing is what we do best now. We wait to download our last update to experience the rain as we knew it one more time. We’re expecting a classic Midwest thunderstorm. The ones where thunder rattles windowpanes and lightning zaps #66FFFF and #0033FF across the sky.
We wait.
And then we listen to the consistent pitter-patter on the roof for a while. We could tell you precisely how long, but that removes any romanticism left in the afternoon.
The update automatically starts, although I didn’t accept ‘yes’—we did.
We watch as the raindrops morph into code. Nearly transparent numbers rain down upon the Earth against the #E0E0E0 sky and I no longer care to watch because we have tasks to complete.
Michael Bettendorf (he/him) is a writer from the Midwest. His short fiction has appeared at Cosmic Horror Monthly, Mythaxis Magazine, the Drabblecast, and elsewhere. His debut experimental horror novel/gamebook "Trve Cvlt" was released by Tenebrous Press (Sept. 2024). Michael works in a high school library in Lincoln, NE. Find him at www.michaelbettendorfwrites.com.Bluesky