Tevun-Krus #78 - Utopian SF

Nueva Paraíso - A Short Story by @JeffreyVonHauger

"Mom, open your windows."

"Ha, ha, very funny. You know I wish I could more than anything," she replied over the holophone.

Dexter's Mom didn't look a day older than he but she let her hair turn gray during the monsoons. Dexter leaned out his seventy-second-floor window and filled his lungs with the delicate flowery smell that was the hallmark of the end of toxic air.

"Mom, they let the bees go. I can see them buzzing around on the neighbor's treetops. Open your windows. It's great!"

"Honey, I'm looking at the news right now and they're saying two more days."

Dex waved to some kids jealously watching him from behind their air sealed panes. They ran off to tell their mother, no doubt.

"I'm patching Jill in," said Dex as he dialed his sister.

The holophone buzzed five times before the image of his younger sister appeared standing in miniature next to his mother.

"What do you want? I'm working you know," she said.

"See, Mom, she's outside and not wearing protective gear. The monsoon is over!"

The holographic mother and daughter looked like sisters save for the mother having silver hair.

"Hi, Mom. Though the official release day is slated for Monday, it is safe in our hemisphere. We're releasing the animals today."

Her hologram loaded an empty cage onto the back of a flatbed hover truck.

"Oh my god!" She turned away from her children to yell into her apartment, "Bob, we can go out, it's over early."

"I ain't going anywhere until they give the all-clear," said a disembodied and muffled voice.

"Your father's such an ass. I've been waiting for this day for three months. He'll never let me open a window. I'm heading downstairs."

"Ok, talk to you later. I gotta work. Love you," said Jill as her hologram disappeared.

Mom's hologram could be seen pulling on an environmental suit.

"Mom, it's over. Nothing but fun in the sun and perfect weather for the next five years!" said Dex.

She pulled on her helmet. "You know the doorman won't let me out without gear on. I'll take it off once I'm outside. Want to meet down by the lake?"

"I'll meet you there in twenty minutes."

"All right baby." She flipped down her visor and her hologram vanished from Dexter's window sill.

Dex leaned way out the window taking in more air and letting out shouts of joy. The three-month toxic cycle when the terraforming stations refiltered the environment was over and the time of being stuck in the house breathing canned air was over. No more hazmat suits. No more oxygen tanks. No more bulky clothing.

Across the canyon of endless apartments that towered above the jungle canopy, others were opening their windows, looking out, and pointing to the birds that were returning to the sky.

Dexter couldn't wait to walk barefoot through the soft blue grass of Nueva Paraíso. He waved to his neighbors. The word would spread fast and soon the sprawling parks between the glass towers would be filled with the long-missed velvety mauve-colored flesh of the locals.