Chapter 17

Twenty nine years ... it's not long ... it's forever.

2210 rolled around and nothing happened ... nothing major ... to everybody.

The requisite numbers of people died ... quite a few violently ... which was major to them ... but not so much to the living. The pool of isolation in the cities meant that those few with neighbors whom they liked noticed when the individual pebbles of death made ripples in the pond, but most people don't know their neighbors, don't want to know their neighbors and those deaths went unnoticed ... except for the few who were dead long enough to smell. Very rude.

Ships sank ... airplanes crashed ... one hundred and forty thousand teens ran away in the FED A ... no biggie ... happens every year. Happenings like are only important to parents ... and some of those were glad to be rid of the insolent brats.

The young learned very quickly that running away means running to worse than at home ... some went home ... most found out too late. There are damn few dreams that include prostitution.

"What do you want to be, when you grow up?" Not very many included coke whore. Male or female.

The planet chugged along like it always did ... even geologic time noticed. Old Sol flared now and again ... the planet received it's normal dose of inconvenient radiation, mutants ... now there's a word ... shall we say, next generation? ... were born.

The core cooled ... global cooling marched along with global warming and things pretty much stayed the same.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

We're all a whole lot more average than we care to admit.

2220 and Vee was wondering ... did they get it wrong? New Sol and New Earth weren't exactly running out of room but the South end was thriving. There were slightly more than five million pioneers learning that that fruit was good and that one killed. The SAS explored and settled arguments ... most of which were trivial.

2222: The bunch that created the crater on the far side of the moon stopped by...