Young Leonard goes feral, Part 1

Image by cruiznbye via Flickr

 

[Editor's Note: While T/S blogs, this and others, are usually a mix of opinion and news, Beaufinn's new "Fiction Fridays" will offer a mix of short story and news.]

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Dear Ma–

The main thing I got to do is get this Social Security number off me. It’s a taint They inject in you at birth and until you have purged it you are Theirs to diddle, kick, and squeeze. But it’s hard to erase. You have to die to do that. I think I might figure out how to fake it. Dying, that is. 

I have nearly succeeded in everything else that I had to do first. Trying to get rid of the credit card was actually a bit more troubling than I expected. They wouldn’t let me do it! They told me I had to have a credit card. That’s when I knew that They were probably tracking me with signals coming out of the magnetic strip, so I put the thing in Delia’s microwave oven before I left the house and you should’ve seen the sparks. I hope I didn’t tag her house with some kind of electronic impulse that They can see on their sensors. She was too nice to me for that.

The good thing so far about being out here is this little bitty library. That’s how I can write to you — I can walk into town once a week. I can’t tell you the name of the library, but the word “Bumpo” is part of the name, and when they see me coming in, I think they think I’m some kind of Bumpo guy and they don’t throw me out. I’ll try to e-mail you as much as I can, but I don’t like Them reading my words. You know they will, ma. Read this: 

It turns out that computers can learn a lot about causality by reading personal blogs. Of the million or so blog entries that are written in English every day, most are comments on news, plans for activities, or personal thoughts about life. Roughly 5% are narratives telling stories about events that have recently happened to the author.

The web could be mined to track information about emerging trends and behaviours, covering everything from drug use or racial tension to interest in films or new products. The nature of blogging means that people are quick to comment on events in their daily lives. Mining this sort of information might therefore also reveal information about exactly how ideas are spread and trends are set.

That’s from an important magazine called the Economist and they seem to think reading your thoughts is a good thing. I don’t want to be around for that, Ma.

I’m staying in a place with a lot of big trees and big boulders and hunks of rocks. I think it’s a really good place, and all that stuff you got me for Christmas is working out good, especially the waterproof boots. You didn’t think I’d use all this stuff, did you? You and Delia kept saying, “You’ll never go camping.” 

I met a guy out there in the forest, and older gentleman who I think knows a lot of things. He told me that the fish and game department is dropping snakes and cougars from helicopters. I didn’t believe him, at first. A few days ago, though, I saw a dark-green helicopter flying real low over the trees. Later that night, while I was trying to fall asleep, I heard a loud screech like that big tom cat you used to have. So then I knew it was true. It’s just amazing the things They’re doing without us knowing. Even Mexican army is trying to do this to us too: 

The Zapata County sheriff Thursday was questioning why a Mexican military helicopter was hovering over homes on the Texas side of the Rio Grande.

It was one of the more jarring incidents of the fourth week of border tensions sparked by drug killings, and rumors of such killings, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said he’d reviewed photos of the chopper flown by armed personnel Tuesday over a residential area known as Falcon Heights-Falcon Village near the binational Falcon Lake, just south of the Starr-Zapata county line. He said the helicopter appeared to have the insignia of the Mexican navy.

That’s the kind of thing that made me run away, Ma. People looking at us — Them, looking at us. They are always looking, looking, looking. I only look at things I need to look at, Ma, and if I see something I shouldn’t, I try to forget it, like you taught me, like that time we saw those drunk old men fighting in the supermarket. I never forgot them fighting over the tomatoes, fighting in slow motion they were so old, but I wouldn’t have told a cop anything about what I saw. 

You’re probably worrying I don’t have enough clothes. I have plenty, Ma. The underwear is good, too. I can’t claim it’s clean, but I have a good amount of it — I wear my UnderArmor leggings, and then a jock over that, and then I’ve got a knotted strip of raccoon fir tired around my waist to honor of the Mohicans, who were the last ones of their own a long time ago. 

I think there are many many people around this country, ma, who are the last ones. 

–Your Leonard

[End Part 1 of 6. Part 2 here]