Futurechronicles - From the Diary of Lara

December 25 of 2050
Hour 14:45
Seventeen Year (Nearly Eighteen Year!!)

Dear Diary,

I know it’s antiquated that I call you that. “Dear Diary.” But I found my great-great grandmother Sophie’s personal log when I reached eleven year and that’s how she began every entry. I thought it was a cuter term. “Diary.” It sounds more whimsical. Like a place to put meaningful memories.

Anyway. Today was mostly the same as any other day. Cai (my companion AI) woke me up at 08:00. He let me sleep in cause it’s the holiday and I was having a particularly good dream about virtual hang gliding. I got him for Christmas two years ago for my fifteen year present and he’s finally catching on to when he should let me rest. It was tough the first year, as you might remember, cause he was going off of my school schedule and always yelling at me at 05:00 to get up, even on universal sleep days! Mom forgot they came set to military AI configurations (read: really persistent and EXTREMELY LOUD) and since I was still a minor I couldn’t fix him without her override! So unfair. But despite that obnoxious side effect I’m really glad they got him for me. I’d been begging for eons. All my friends got their own for thirteen year. I was so far behind. Mom said that I should learn to do stuff for myself so I couldn’t get one until I could use this super old and completely outdated household AI. It was from 2030!! Ancient. Always glitching out. They stopped making updates for it and all it could do was access the household appliances. My Life Implant (you know, the thing they insert at birth so you can connect to the rest of the world?) can do that and I don’t even have to speak! So, basically, the HAI did nothing. Anyway, when I got my companion AI at first all my friends made fun of me for calling him Cai, which is just an abbreviation really. They all gave theirs real names like Ziek or Kestra. I don’t know. I think Cai is pretty cool too. If unoriginal.. But I digress.

Cai woke me up like any other day, except he was nice today and let me sleep in a bit. He’d already heated the bathroom and the shower was set to my preferences. Mom told me once people used to use water to clean themselves. What a waste of resources. Showers clean us now using some sort of molecular er.. mumbo jumbo.. (I’m not good at the sciences okay? Let me live.) So I stepped in and stepped out five minutes later clean as could be, with my hair styled, and my Christmas dress in place.

We’d programmed the tree early this year. Thanksgiving night we got to picking out the size and shape we liked. (Of course we don’t eat real turkey anymore. Everything these days is artificially created but as far as I’m concerned tastes great. Mom would argue that with me but she’s picky and is really old. She was around when there was still some farms where they slaughtered like.. pigs and stuff. Gross right?) Our tree hologram sits right in front of the big windows in the living room. I picked out my favorite style of ornaments this year for our friends and family to choose from and they’ve been populated all over. You can barely see the branches now! My dad’s always going on about how he read in some ebook once that you used to have to put ornaments on by hand and how a lot of families had passed them down for generations! I asked him once if we still had any of ours but was told all environmentally toxic stuff like that was seized back in 2025 when the World Government was created. Something about how humans used to be so horrible to the planet that it was dying and they had to find a way to save it by getting rid of all the stuff leaking pollution? Again. Not a scientist. But something like that. Which was unfortunate because a real ornament would probably be incredibly beautiful. Everything is mostly virtual now. I guess on the plus side you can’t accidentally break them all?

So when I was finished getting ready I went down to the living room and my parents were there drinking their coffee smiling all secretively to one another. And I went up to the tree and selected one of the ornaments. Another plus side? Now each ornament hanging on the tree is opened to reveal a message from close friends or family. When your tree goes online everybody can post from their Life Web to an ornament which then gets placed on the tree. You can send funny holographic greetings or well wishings or just chat about your day. You can’t access them until Christmas though which is both fun and slightly annoying cause I hate waiting. But still. So much better than a Ping. I hate having voices chatting at me in my head all day. Even if they are just wishing me a merry Christmas. Plus, the more people send you ornamentograms, the prettier your tree is!

Much to my surprise my sister’s hologram popped up in front of me. She was holding a holographic version of one of the very real presents currently sitting under the tree when she filmed it, and her face beamed at me. As soon as I opened the ornamentogram she was also chatting a mile a minute. Apologizing for not making it back in time for Christmas. Telling me how much she thinks I’ll like the present. Talking to Mom and dad.

Anyway. After another hour of opening up ornamentograms we got to the best part of Christmas. The presents. Now I know what you’re thinking, Diary. What could you possible have gotten that you don’t have already? Well I’m glad you asked! To be fair I was in the same boat as you. There wasn’t really anything I could reasonably think to ask for this year. And despite the fact that literally everything is centered around technology my parents have always been insistant that I grow up at least slightly self sufficient. They’re weirdly worried that like the whole grid will stop working and nobody will know how to exist without electricity or something. Like we’d ever go without electricity. Ridiculous right?

So imagine my surprise when I opened my sisters present to me and it’s none other than a Screen Port!! Okay okay. At first I was a little disappointed cause I really have no use for a Screen Port without access to the Life Web. I don’t reach eighteen year until next month and that’s when I get the “child block” for lack of a better term lifted. So I can do basic stuff. Like phone calls. School research. Ornamentograms. Kid stuff using my Life Implant but all of that can be done either just with the Implant or using a Base Port. Screen Ports are only accessible for adults and are a portable version of a Base Port with infinitely more possibilities. At least thats what my best friend Kartli said when she got her’s for her eighteen year celebration two months ago. So you can imagine my surprise.. and disappointment.. when I opened the gift from my sister to see the beautiful glass screen taunting me.

But then, Diary, hooboy!! Best. Christmas. Ever. So basically there’s this trip at the end of winter break for Final Years at school and only people with full access to the Life Web can go. Something about only being able sign up through it and certain aspects of the trip using it. Or whatever. You know. Basically since I wouldn’t gain access until a day into the trip, and that’s too late, who cares? I can’t go so whatever. Well, I mean, obviously I’ve been complaining about the unfairness of life to my parents for months now because of it. But it’s not like there was anything they could do. But. Then. You’ll never guess what happened Diary!!

I don’t know how they did it. But they did it! It must’ve been in the works for at least a half year. Anyway they handed me this box. A tiny. Infinitesimal. Box. Yes. But what was inside the box, Lara? Okay. Okay. It was a chip. Not just any chip. THE chip. You know.. the replacement for the “child control chip” or CCC that I’ve been handicapped by for my entire life? The one that means I have access to the Life Web. No restrictions. The one that means I can go on the trip in three weeks with all the other Final Years and not be part of the “second semester” gang that always misses out on everything!

So basically, Diary. Today started off as a normal day. Cai let me sleep in. I got dressed. Went downstairs to the tree. Opened ornamentograms. And then it turned into the. Best. Day. Ever. And all before the big fancy Christmas dinner. And yes. I’m writing this entry early. Yes. Normally I’d wait until Reflection Hour to share this with you. But I couldn’t wait to tell you, Diary. I was too excited. If I didn’t write it all down I knew I’d forget how wonderful it all was. That or I’d be so hyped up that I wouldn’t be able to eat the R-Stuffing we’re having as part of the feast (my favorite). And I couldn’t have that, obviously.

So I gotta go get ready for dinner. What a day, man. What. A. Day!!

Talk to you soon Diary.
As always:

Love, Lara

~

This is a Steemit #futurechronicles original...all words and art by Elew and RC (our daughter)