Jonathan Booker jumped up. He laid out his arms into the bright sky, along with the thousands of other people in the street. Everyone around him, with faces streaked with colors and smiles, cheered on the balloons that flew overhead. Jonathan yelled with shouts of happiness, with everyone chanting in a harmonious voice, "Hooray!" over and over again.
Confetti streamed out of cannon into the sky, with fireworks in the distance. They all marched, their steps echoing through the city, rumbling the ground as one big giant. Jonathan could feel the heavy vibrations of the steps, the brush of someone's silky hair, or the music that blurted from black speakers that hung over every streetlight. Jonathan felt the glitter and the confetti fall onto his face, sliding down because of the sweat. He smelled the aroma of perfume, sweat (others and his own), delicious food steaming, sweet smells of candies, and the occasional smell of almost bitter almonds. Sounds of exploding fireworks filled everyone's ear, and from buildings, projectors attached to the corners hologrammed fake confetti.
Jonathan's cheeks hurt from his stretched grin, and he was beginning to feel tired. It was so much fun participating in the parade and the celebration. Up above, planes zoomed by and circled buildings, their shells out of many colors of red, blue, and yellow.
Walking back onto the side-walk, he passed by the brightly lit shops, advertising clothes, toys, bags for lovely women, and jewelry, real or plastic kid ones. Around him, Jonathan saw the confident strides of glorious women, handsome men, silly children, even the happy yaps of newborns. More music blared out and Jonathan decided to go into a store. Smelling of bitter almonds and lemon scented polisher, its wooden boards shone from the hanging oval-like lights and glitter reflecting off the porcelain mannequins in poses. He went into the men's section, searching for a new jacket for himself. Wiping off his sweat on his forehead, he grabbed a black leather jacket from a rack full of the same. All of them were the same black leather casual jackets, with a 911 on their back. Smiling, he pushed the button on the rack and, from the ceiling, descended a scanning machine and suddenly, the jacket flew through a tube, disappearing. He walked to the front of the store where the jacket appeared from the tube, and the lovely fake cashier greeted him.
"Hello there!" its fake eyes fixed on his own. It was almost dizzying, but Jonathan didn't really mind.
There were a lot of smiles to feel startled by this humanoid fake cashier. Jonathan gave the robot his credit card, scanned it, scanned it through another rectangular silver device, before in big bold letters hologrammed in front of him proclaimed, "Card Accepted". There was a cartoonish ding of money, before he got his receipt and put the sweater into a thick plastic bag.
He went outside, the parade still continued, and Jonathan was still tempted to join back in, but he decided not to. The growling in his stomach told him to search for a place to eat. He reached into his pocket and took out a small black device and pushed the button. Out of nowhere, holographic screens appeared before his eyes, phasing through the reality in front of him. Everytime he did that, he was amazed. He was fascinated by how technology had advanced, especially in the last two decades of his life. Jonathan's finger, almost instinctively, reached for the holographic screen and scrolled through the restaurants near him. There were Mediterranean Food, Chinese Food, Italian Food, Korean Food, Cafes, Even The Fancy Restaurants. Feeling a bit craved, he decided to go to the Fancy Restaurant, down by the intersection of 8th and 10th. It was about two blocks from where he was. Arriving at the restaurant, he heard the festival continue from afar, and it was coming in this direction.
By sundown the next day, the entire city would be up, chanting and dancing in celebration of the Holiday. If Jonathan had to guess, this was probably the fourth most known holiday in the United States. The robot at front greeted him with the usual, "Hello, welcome! Where would you like to sit?" Jonathan chose a booth by himself near a window, so that he could survey the upcoming crowd. Surprisingly, inside here, the sound was muffled. Of course, he thought, everything was sound proof these days. A menu appeared from the ceiling, held by a metallic arm. He read the contents out loud to himself. "New York Strip, $50.99.... Wellington $70.98.... Pigeon $100..."
It was surprising to see the price of the pigeon meat. They had become a rarity to see, and were often hunted for their meat. They were really rare actually and they only existed in some northern parts of Canada or Mid-West of the U.S.
He decided to order the New York Strip with the money he had and ate quite joyously as he looked outside of the ongoing crowd. Tomorrow morning, he would probably join them again, but with his friends. They were out of town recently, and they will return tomorrow. Then, they would get drunk and have fun all day along with the other crowd celebrating the holiday. When the meal arrived, he devoured it out of pure hunger of his empty stomach. The seasoning was perfectly balanced, and it was quite delicious and juicy. When he finished his meal, a robot rolled over to him, holding a slice of a cake, decorated with an airplane and colored white and gray and red.
"For the Holiday!" said the robot, in a cheery automated voice.
Its metallic hands placed it in front of him and sped away to attend to other customers, or consumers, whatever term was more appropriate. He grabbed the fork and ate the cake, this time slowly to enjoy its flavor that exploded in his mouth. The cake, oozing out with milk, was silky, creamy, soft, and sweet. So sweet with frosting, that Jonathan licked the plate clean. It was a little gross of him, but he didn't care. He loved the cake and he loved the Holiday!
When he paid for his meal, the robot waved goodbye to him. He looked at the toy airplane from his cake and smiled. He put it into his jacket and was heading out the door.
Before he could though, the robot spoke aloud, "Happy 9/11!" it said, with a laugh. Jonathan laughed too and opened the glass door to the Festive Holiday of September 11th. Year 2323.
