I've just entered the Guardian/Sony Futurescapes Short Story competition with a story entitled Signals. Here is a short extract below. Much Love.Signals
Alex’s hand halted over his keyboard in the middle of typing a report. His eyes no longer scrolled over the screen but stared distantly out of the window to his left. The signals on the track opposite the back of the house glowed a twinkling red, the colour separated by rain droplets slipping on the exterior of the glass. Red turned to amber. Amber turned to green. Green disappeared behind a four second flash of metal and windows and faces and eyes. The 10:14 High Speed Rail Train was on time again.
“What’s wrong baby?” The smart-hub chirped up in the corner of the room. It was effectively a smooth grey ball on tripod legs with a blue neon line across the front to detect voice and movement. It was in the voice of Denise, his ex-wife. Alex ignored it.
“Alex, don’t shut me out! Talk to me.” The neon line blinked. The program installed on the OS was originally designed to record a person’s phrases, speech patterns and moods. It subsequently picked up speech or movement in the room and replied accordingly. It gave the overall effect of comfort for the owner if the voice belonged to someone long deceased, especially if they had died suddenly and the owner wasn’t ready to let go. Alex however, used it a little bit differently.
“Sorry love, I need to give the office a call, and the HSR always reminds me.” Alex looked up at the touchboard that displayed his reminder’s, calendar and notes. He still had deadlines for report completion but his on-site attendance and dropped dramatically. He counted the days he hadn’t been back into the city to his office. He lost count at fifty-three.
“Go on?” the smart-hub replied.
“How can I go in after all this time, they’ll think I’m a laughing stock. I just…” Alex couldn’t get his words out and put his head in his hands. The smart-hub stalled in replying for a second as it scanned its database for a possible retort. All it could muster was “Go on?”
“This is ridiculous Denise, I’m talking to a machine.”
The neon line blinked twice.
“Alex, don’t shut me out! Talk to me.”
If he shut his eyes it was as if she was in the room. Even without sight his hand found the bottle of whiskey on the desk and managed to pour a decent glass.
The next day Alex arose at the same time, ate a good breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs and beans, and got dressed for work in a pin striped suit and blue shirt. He wouldn’t let anything hold him back from doing his job anymore.
“You off out baby?”
“I certainly am Denise. I’m going out and leaving the past in the past. I’m never going to talk to you again, and I’m sending the smart-hub back. What do you think of that?”
It took a second for the smart-hub to find a reply.
“Remember to pick up bread! Love you too!”
“Yeah thought so.” He picked up a stylus off the desk and threw it at the smart-hub.
He was just about to climb into the exit cot when his phone vibrated. Alex stopped in his tracks. Not that it was unusual for a phone to go off, but his hadn’t gone off in two weeks. Picking it up, he noticed a message on the screen:
Friendfinder located Annabel! 10:12:36
Friendfinder disconnected from Annabel! 10:12:37
Alex stared at the message until the text on the touchscreen became blurry. He felt a bit sick. After a year of searching without luck, his phone had found his daughter in a second. He spent the rest of the day drinking.
