Year 2024, inside granddaddy's living room, near the fireplace

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“Dead! He’s fucking dead!!”

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A voice blasted out of a holographic screen. An old man was throwing logs in his chimney fire. A young boy was sitting on the sofa, staring at the news.

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“Putin is fucking dead!!” The TV newscaster repeated while showing youngsters screaming and rioting in the streets.

 

"Grandpa! What’s happening on TV?" asked the 8-year-old boy.

 

"On the TV?” asked the old man while throwing another log in the fire. “Oh, just the usual..."

 

"But grandpa, the president just died!!"

 

"Did Trump die?” grandpa asked.

 

“Maybe so.” replied the boy who didn’t remember what the name of the president was.

 

“So finally got him?” Good for us!” replied the grandpa who suddenly got interested in the news, looking at the screen. “Oh, but it’s the Russian president who died, not the American one! Lucky Russians! Poor Americans…”

 

“Are we in a dangerous situation, grandpa?”

 

“No, Stephen, not at all. it’s always been like that anyway. I’ve spent most my life in terror.”

 

“In terror?’ the boy wondered.

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“Oh, I mean taming terror. And now I’m a tough old man not afraid of anything anymore.”

Grandpa lowered the fire’s intensity by closing the chimney’s window.

 

“But grandpa...” said the boy as if asking for a confidence. “I thought we were the luckiest people on Earth. Are we still the luckiest people on Earth, grandpa?” 

 

“Yes, Stephen, we are, and now it’s time for you to go to sleep.”

 

“No, I don’t want to go to bed! Tell me a story, grandpa. Grandpa! You’re the best grandpa in the world. And I’m not tired. And I don’t want to go to bed. And I’m afraid.”

 

“Afraid of what?”

 

“I’m afraid of dying grandpa.” The boy now said in a whisper.

 

“Oh, you are so young. How can you be afraid of such a thing – a thing that doesn’t even exist. That doesn’t exist, Stephen. It’s not real. Especially that our discovery of immortality has eradicated it. Death is now an old fear. It doesn’t exist anymore. It’s not part of our reality anymore, Stephen. There is only one reality: the present time. And that is right now. You and I, in our well-heated little house of Michigan during this everlasting cold winter.”