Ah, this one.
So I actually wrote this one, Last, and Lost and Found all in the space of a couple nights back when I was a young teen. Something big was coming up like my parent’s anniversary or something and I didn’t have a gift, so I figured I’d write them a couple short stories. I stayed up late into the night over the course of a week typing out these little shorts, and I think the lack of polish shows. Beyond that, I dunno why I thought three dark, twisted tales would be a good gift, but then, I don’t understand the half of why young me did what he did.
Regardless, I was reading a lot of Ray Bradbury at the time, and this one was probably heavily influenced by “Fever Dream”. Still, beyond the inspiration, this does speak to a question that has always lingered in my mind;
If we were to be replaced one day by someone better than us, would people care? Would they even notice? In the Outer Limits episode “The Hundred Days of the Dragon”, when the presidential candidate was replaced by a clever actor with a chemically-duplicated face, everyone around him noticed the little imperfections were missing, the little quirks that made him “him”, and caught the perpetrator. But that’s for a well-beloved man, and a candidate to presidency. What about an average Joe?
If you were to one day vanish, and something else took your place, a kind you, a you that didn’t procrastinate, a you that called your parents on the weekends, a you that saved money, worked hard, cleaned their room, and contributed to the community, would people actually miss the old you?
In other words, how much are we valued for who we are, and how much are we valued for what we contribute to those around us? Just something I think about from time to time.
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