Francesco Chiocchio

Candidate number: 001386-051

English Coursework Short story Future issue Candidate Name: Francesco Chiocchio

Candidate number: 001386-051

Words count: 1,290 Title of the short story: The trip

The following piece of writing is a short story related to future issues. One of the main features of the text is the ability for the reader to imagine. This is given from the fact that the passage has an ambiguous ending, which enables the reader to imagine their own closure of the text. Furthermore the protagonist of the story is in a mission with a vague aim. The only information the reader has, is that a jump in time is present. Throughout the text, a certain group of people are named only They. This creates both, the possibility to imagine who They are and suspense. However, the descriptions of places, which can be found, are in most cases very complete, reducing the capability for reader to use their creativity. The effect I wanted to give to this aspect is that readers could create their own ending and meaning of the story, in a limited scenario defined from the complete descriptions. In the beginning of the text we have precise information of when the story takes place, but along the story a space in time is discussed. I did this to create a confusion between the content and the meaning of the story. As the text relates to future issues, I used my imagination to visualize how the world would look like in a 100 years. My descriptions relating to this, were mainly positive The air was fresh, the cleanest air I ever breathed the reason for this, is that I wanted to create a world where everything looked perfect, but in reality there was something sinister going on, this can be given from the last question And what happened to the missing aged people?. In the text I used some jargon; this had the aim of making the reader feel like he was part of the story and of the problem. This leads to the understanding of the main idea of the story. We are all in the situation where we are ruining the world. The only solution to save it does not lie on incredible time capsule or special agents, but on the willingness of normal people to save the planet.

Francesco Chiocchio

Candidate number: 001386-051

It was a cold evening of January, I had just turned 31. I had to be ready to enter the time-freeze 231 L-series. This 2-meter tall machine had been invented just for me and my project. The room I was in was positioned in a secret location, even I did not know where I was, and the driver of the black government truck did not talk to me except for ordering me to get in the car. I was panicking; everything I could see was white: the walls, the table, the four plastic chairs and of course the capsule; there wasnt even sunlight, just noisy neon light. In my opinion when building the room, They were really trying to give it a nauseating feeling of danger. The question that was obsessing me, was if I would be able to accomplish my mission successfully. I did not believe I could, but what I thought wasnt important at all. They decided I had to be the one doing the mission, They did not ask for my opinion nor cared; I lost my status as a human being and became property of the I.S.A. General Mc.Douglas, president of the international security agency, the director of the United Nations entered the room followed by a short, funny dressed man, who I discovered to be the inventor of the time-freezing capsule. The general talked first. His voice was hoarse but calm, oddly enough quite reassuring too. He ordered me to sit; I obeyed, just like when I was still a private in the marines. The general continued talking, he was making sure that I knew the entire plan which I revised and checked for more than 5 years. The director of the U.N. asked me if I was ready; I wasnt but it really did not matter, thus I lied, assuring him I was. They walked with me to the capsule, they smiled at me while I was entering it and getting in place, it was, luckily, very comfortable. The General looked at me, this time more severely, and said Mr. Jefferson, you know what you have to do. Save us all. Good luck. He closed the machines glass door, the three people outside were looking at me proudly till the general ordered something to the scientist, who immediately activated the process of hibernation, white freezing gas started surrounding me. Those are the last memories of the year 2015. I woke up it was freezing inside, I was in the machine and felt as if just few seconds of my life had passed, but I unfortunately I knew that I had remained in there for more than a century. I was excited but at the same time afraid to see what was waiting for me outside the glass door. I could see a man who was opening the glass door; at least the human race wasnt extinct! The door was open. My eyes burned, I wasnt used to light anymore, I thought I would have lost my sight forever but after one minute I tried opening my eyes again and succeeded. The first thing I noticed was that the room wasnt white, it was a light green, the table that used to be empty the day I was hibernated, was now full of glasses filled with very dense substance, it seemed like liquefied food, maybe that was how people ate in those years, the changes made to the room, made it look more cosy, friendly. As I was discovering all the adjustments which had been done to the surroundings, a man came up to me, he lookednormal, very handsome but still similar to what I remembered of people, we shook hands, but his were cold, too cold. I immediately looked at his face again, blue eyes, nicely brushed blond hair, a nice smile with perfect white teeth, cheeks without the smallest trace of a facial hair I couldnt believe it, it had to be a robot, no one could have such cold hands, but I had never seen any robot as similar to humans as this one. He talked; telling me to follow him, nothing else, no greetings no sign of respect for someone who was send there to save the world. The robots voice didnt sound metallic but it was cold, it had no intonation, no emotions in it, I was very disappointed and slightly hurt, I expected some of the most powerful generals and people to welcome me, to congratulate me for my courage, but no, there was just an unemotional robot. We went out of the room, I found myself in a large and long corridor, and at every meter

Francesco Chiocchio

Candidate number: 001386-051

there was another door. I was sure that when I passed through the corridor years before, there was just one door, the one to my room. I asked the robot what was behind those doors, he simply answered, with his impassive voice which was starting to frustrate me immensely, that there were other people who, just like me, were in time-freeze capsules. Others? I thought I was the only one Passing through a door at the end of the corridor, which didnt have a door knob; you just had to walk through it, I found myself outside the building, in a place which in my time, would have been called a metropolis. The air was fresh, the cleanest air I ever breathed, and it made me feel good. I was standing on a huge pathway which was covered by a gentle layer of fresh snow, I had completely forgotten about snow, before my hibernation there was no more snow in most of the cities around the world. I was trying to look at as many thing as I possibly could, I was turning around, enjoying the view: huge coloured skyscrapers next to the pathway, people wearing many different type of clothes, no polluting cars, everyone was moving on what seemed to be fast bicycles, what impressed me most was the amount of trees and grass there was. In 2015, in big metropolis there were no public parks or green spaces, the forests all around the world were being destroyed to make more space for domesticated animal which were used for the production of food. When I left, the situation on earth was critical, that was one of the reasons why They sent me into the future, but now it seemed like They and society as a whole, didnt need me anymore, I gave up everything I had for this time-travel, I left my children without a father, my wife without a husband just for this trip, just for what I believed could save us, but apparently I was wrong. The robot and I were walking on the crowded sidewalk. Out of all people I had seen there wasnt one who seemed to be aged, I wondered why, therefore I asked the robot, he simply answered that there werent any, anymore. After the shocking brief answer, the robot asked me if I remembered what my mission was. I nodded, he looked at me with his perfect face and he had a smirk smile, he told me that society was stronger than ever, it didnt need my project and my mission anymore, I could have started a new life in a better era; immediately after he finished talking, he smiled and left me, in what I thought was a better era. There were just two problems, what had happened for the last 100 years that could have saved us from the auto-destruction? And what happened to the missing of aged people?