Y Coordinates

By: Jordan Seifert

Even if you're never awake, you'd have to be foolish to see the world any way but what it is. Just as I didn't choose my son, I did not choose my job. However, I love them both, and hold them dear to me always. I work on the railroad, and my position involves many strenuous hours. My son and I share responsibilities, and his name is Jake. His favourite holiday is X-Day, because it's the one day of the year he feels truly appreciated. X-Day is the day that all the trains line up and, for once, just take a day to sit still. Nobody comes.

"Y coordinates 7.96660401.223 X coordinates ???"

You see, my job isn't as simple as it sounds. I don't carry grain, or gases, or passengers in the cars of my train. I carry the weight of the world, and the hope that tomorrow those commodities might exist. It was less than fifty years ago that the Earth came down with a sorry case of amnesia. So concerned with all the problems that humanity had brought upon it, our planet forgot the most simple of tasks: How to make rain. The Earth began to erode, and so confused by everything new that it had to deal with, began forming mountains and splitting the Earth instead of letting its water cycle take care of that.

All the water on the planet fell into a hole where it was evaporated and turned to mist by the molten core of the planet, which so bright. I hear it's beautiful. The mist turned the ground all through the planet soggy, and that dirt turned to mud. Now the entire planet is sick. The human race said
"Dear Earth, we will help you get better. We would love to help you learn to live." A new train system was formed that very same day, and implemented a short while later. X-Trains. My train, like many others, is fitted with super advanced X-Ray equipment. As we go along the countryside, passing by nestled pastures and open roads, we say hello to all the people, and they wave to us. Sometimes I wonder if they're sad.

As the people pass by, we take X-Rays of their entire bodies, which the system then translates into steam. I've never seen the system with my own eyes. The steam is processed, and shot out through my whistle--which is loud and funny sounding--into the air. And way up in the sky, that steam becomes a cloud. A cloud shaped exactly like the X-Ray that was took. Anything not meant to be inside the body quickly turns to rain and falls out of the sky, allowing plants and animals to live just a little longer. Soon the Earth seeps it up, and that's the end of it until somebody else comes and does it all again.

"Y coordinates 7.96660401.233 X coordinates ???"

My son loves to see all the X-Rays float into the sky. He says that people are like angels, and when we're stripped of our skin, all that's left is our good nature. Our willingness to fight for this Earth and the happiness of others. I wish I could agree with him. The only thing I see is skeletons in the sky, and that's all the Earth is these days… But still, I have to take solace that the next generation is confident, when all my years I've given up nothing but hope.

"Jake," I said, "Would you mind coming here for a minute?"

The government sends out messages that float across our clouds, creeping over them like tiny airborne spiders, and to the people. If you love your Earth, you're told, you will heed these messages. Swallow strange things and get cancer. The tumours and objects will show up on your X-Ray, and rain will fall again. Swallow big things, and hope that some day the Earth might see another flood. Die for your country. Die for your planet. The military was abolished and world peace was formed, but people still die in the tradition of making rain. The X-Rays give people cancer anyways. They don't really have a choice. It makes me sad to think that these people don't even have a choice. Children in their houses don't even have a choice, as X-Rays swallow them and spit them through the air. But not my child. He grew up elsewhere.

"Y coordinates 7.96660401.245 X coordinates ???"

The train is powered by steam. If I don't spit steam at least every few hours, the engine will stop, so I have to keep X-Raying people.
"Son, I just want you to know that I think you're an amazing person, and I hope you make friends some day." He looks at me with pride. He says that I'm his friend, and that the train is his friend. That he doesn't need new friends.

"Y coordinates 7.96660401.258 X coordinates ???"

I wonder often why the sky is still blue. White X-Ray clouds litter the landscape, but they don't blot out the cool, cerulean that hides behind it. Shy as a whisper, it's still there. Even with all the water gone, the sky refuses to change. Maybe it wants to help humans stay happy so that we can help the Earth? Maybe the sky is just doing its part too. But what do I know? I swallow a paperweight. It doesn't go down. I have to force it. I can feel it cutting into my throat as it slides down and into my stomach. It hurts.

"Jake, do you know where we are?"
"The Pacific Ocean?" I have to tell him no. I tell him we're near Green City. He doesn't understand that the people don't love us. The people in Green City, and every city, want to kill us. They know we're needed, but like the tax man, they don't want us. We murder them to save the Earth. The people are not happy that we exist. Our train has not spit steam in several hours, and it will stop soon. If it stops, the people will take us and they might even eat us.

"Y coordinates 7.96660401.288 X coordinates ..You."

Another train had been circling Green City. The same X-Ray won't spit twice, so all my effort has been in vain. It doesn't work that way. He used up all the citizens, and there was no one left for me.
"I really love you, Jake. I think you'll do just fine." I see him looking at the tears in my eyes, and I can tell he knows what I'm going to do. I crack open the door for the first time in a long while. I push myself out from my train and I spread my arms… I feel like an angel!

The train catches me, and I see my X-Ray float into the sky. The paperweight shows up as a circle inside me, and then it falls out. I feel cleansed. As the rain pours down against my skin, so cool, the Earth split open underneath me. The raindrops, like Jake's tears, will ease me into death. As a dozen people crowd around me to stab me and eat me, the ground comes apart and I fall inside. So do they. Such a calming feeling. Although I am falling and falling, it feels like I am completely still, frozen in the air, flying… and underneath me, it seems as if the sky is blue.

"Y coordinates . X coordinates .."