Nanofitction: Volume II

End the pain and heartache. Bring others pleasure. Give people some happiness. Unrealistic chasing of desires create hate and rejection. Unbearable living makes love impossible.

Impossible love makes living unbearable. Rejection and hate create desires of chasing unrealistic happiness. Some people give pleasure, others bring heartache and pain. The end.

Halfway through his two-day mission the ship approached lightspeed. His knuckles whitened, and in a snap he was the first person to exceed the cosmic speed limit. Master of time and space.

Many came to celebrate his historic return. His wife and son weren’t among them, but his four-times-great-grandchildren were.

It has been theorized that the universe materialized out of nothingness, the past and future exist simultaneously in the present, and mere observation affects and alters reality.

It could be said that what we see as 'now here' was made possible by a space created in the middle of 'nowhere'.

The convert secured the offering. "Shouldn’t we be doing this during a lunar eclipse instead?"

The priest pulled a dagger from his robe. "We worship shadows caused by the moon, not the moon itself."

"I’m not sure that’ll stop people from calling you 'lunatics,'" muttered the woman on the altar.

How amazing to discover colors existing in the grey of end times. It’s been ages since I’ve seen a flower, let alone a garden. I pick one, then another, unwittingly collecting a bouquet.

I pause.

Lovely as they are, they mock me. I can’t smell them from behind a mask.

I remember the smells of summer; freshly mowed lawns, sunscreen. And the sound of birds that returned in the spring. Winter snowscapes were visually stunning, but fall was my favorite. It was a feeling, like a cool breeze on a humid afternoon.

All replaced by a fifth season: nuclear winter.

Crackling flames bring warmth to a cold night at the beach.
Tonight they’ll sleep in a tent to the sound of crickets and crashing waves.
Bare feet on wet sand, they sit on a log and reminisce.
He puts an arm around her as they watch their childhood home burn.

She brought meaning to the life of the old inventor. Yet before today, she never even knew he existed. Her thoughts and feelings came as a surprise to them both. Over the years they learned and laughed, even loved.

It was obvious he had built more than 'just a robot.'