Week 15 Story: Two Facebook Friends
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Arthur and James were childhood best friends. As the years passed by they grew older and decided that no matter the circumstances, dead or alive, the first to get married would invite the other to their wedding. While this was a strange pact to make, this was typical of the young Arthur and James.
When they were both 25, James became ill and passed away. Arthur was devastated, but found catharsis after meeting Elena and becoming a couple. James seemingly had forgotten about Arthur; however, he often would get reminders about his friend from timelapse Facebook photos.
Arthur turned 28 and proposed to Elena. Remembering his old promise, he invited his friend Arthur to his wedding via Facebook. A couple week passed and it was finally his wedding day. James updated his status to "heading to the wedding." James was surprised to see that suddenly after he received a Facebook video chat call from his friend. James, being confused, opened the chat and was astonished to see his friend Arthur on the phone with him.
Arthur told James to take a shot of whiskey with him. James agreed and grabbed his finest whiskey that was said to be 100 years old. James took a first shot and a hundred years passed. After some convincing, Arthur and James both took another shot and two hundred years passed. Finally, they took a third shot and three hundred years passed. James wished his friend goodbye and then turned off the video chat.
James turned around and saw that his house was no longer there. His neighborhood had been demolished and was a chemical wasteland. He saw an old man who appeared to be homeless on the side of the street while walking in awe. He noticed the man had a device that was similar to that of a phone but allowed the man to project it and touch it out of the air. Confused James asked the man what year it was and the man replied,
"Son, it is 2320, you should know that."
James was shocked and wondered how this could happen. He asked the old man what had happened and he said,
"I've heard of this. You and your fellow Millennials looked at your screens too long that life passed you by without you ever noticing. Look at what the world has become as a result of that."
James looked around and wondered what would have happened if he had just looked away from the screen and enjoyed his life while it was the way it was.
Reading Notes: The original story is "Two Friends" and talks about two young friends who make a promise to invite the other to their weddings, depending on who gets married first. One of the friends passes away and the other eventually get engaged. On the day of his wedding, he goes to see his friends grave and is invited in to drink liquor. They drink and three hundred years pass and the man leaves the grave confused. The man goes to a church and figures out that this is a phenomenon that has happened before, as the other man actually took his wife and married her.
I wanted to change the story to first create a modernized version but also make it have a deeper meaning. I changed the majority of aspects of the story to create a story about the overuse of cell phones and the problems it could create. I feel like we spend too much time on technology and don't look up to see what is around us until it is gone. I hope you all receive that message from the story.
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