Living History
January 15th, 2021
Starring: Old Friend 1 (OF 1, 50’s) & Old Friend (OF 2, 50’s)
2050. A home theater, inside OF 1’s new home. Rows of comfy recliners lined in front of a floor-to-ceiling glass wall, which is some futuristic television screen. There’s even an antique popcorn machine! On both side walls, there are shelves upon shelves of DVD cases, arranged in boxed sets. OF 1 leads OF 2 inside.
OF 1
Here it is.
OF 2
Good gravy.
OF 1
Remember what I said to you in middle school?
OF 2
Something like “It’ll be so big, I’ll never have to go to the movies again.”
OF 1
We’ll. You’re always welcome.
OF 2
Aw, thanks.
OF 1
I mean it. It all started with you.
OF 2
Don't start me with nostalgia, I’ll get emotional.
OF 1
That’s all I’ll say.
…
So you wanna watch?
OF 2
Uh, duh.
OF 1
Pick something off the wall, I’ll boot it up.
OF 1 sits on a recliner. OF 2 goes to the wall and scans.
OF 2
These are movies?
OF 1
My entire collection.
OF 2
I only see dates.
OF 1
That’s when I made them.
…
OF 2
Made them?
OF 1
Yeah.
OF 2
What happened to the whole VCR collection? And the blu-rays?
OF 1
I sold them. So I could afford this.
OF 2
So...what are these?
OF 1
My vlogs.
OF 2
I...I didn’t know you vlogged.
OF 1
I started when everyone else started doing them. In the mid teens. For a minute I thought I had a career in it, but realized it was better to keep for myself.
OF 2
How many are there?
OF 1
Has to be 25, 30 years worth. Every day.
OF 2
That’s a lot of vloggage.
OF 1
I’m still adding on. Pick one, I’ll show you.
OF 2
Uh
It’s not too personal?
OF 1
I want you to see it.
OF 2, a bit hesitant, turns around and looks at the library. They go through a random row and put their finger on a case. They pull it out and hand it to OF 1.
OF 1
Hm. 1/15/29.
OF 2
21 years ago. Have you seen it?
OF 1
I’m about to.
OF 1 takes out the DVD and opens a cabinet in the back of the room. They pop in the DVD, the lights automatically dim, and the black wall-screen morphs into pixel perfect illumination. The screen now casts a much younger OF 1, in their mid/late 20’s. Less wrinkles, a bit thinner. They sit in a car, seemingly in a store parking lot. Their voice booms in the state of the art surround sound:
OF 1 (video)
I gotta get this out.
So I was just grabbing some food in the store. I was in the dairy aisle, and it was just me and one of those little automated shelf stockers they’re trying out. And as I’m reaching for the milk, I see this thing pick up 50 bags of shredded cheese at once and try to put it into one of those spring coiled shelves, where if you take one of the items, the next one automatically moves down? Am I making sense? Anyways, so this thing tries shoving 50 of them in at once, but it must’ve forgot it was a spring coil, so the coil comes shooting back down and pushes every bag off the shelf at once. So I’m watching as a tempest of shredded mozzarella packs rains down on this robot, smacking it right in the face.
I start laughing. Uncontrollably. I can’t breathe, I’m like, howling. But it doesn’t notice. It just picks up all the fallen inventory, and starts to restock again. It would be so embarrassing to me, but not to them. It really stuck with me.
Is there a bigger lesson in that? I don’t know. Maybe something can be funny and that’s it.
The vlog ends. The wall screen goes dark, and the lights come back up.
OF 2
Are they all like that?
OF 1
No day’s the same. That’s the beauty of it. Whatever it is, it’s real. A true slice from my life.
…
OF 2
I respect it. Really, it’s an achievement.
But it doesn’t really make sense. It’s your life, it’s your journal. Why would you want to show anyone else?
OF 1
I don’t do it for me.
OF 2
Then why do you?
...
OF 1
You remember when my Mom passed?
OF 2
Yeah. We were young.
OF 1
21. The first thing that hit me was if I had kids, or a niece, or a spouse, they were never going to know her. Only through stories. Some pictures, a few videos. There’s no way anyone can know anyone that way. There’s only one way to capture someone, and that’s to capture them. Each day, a little piece. So by the time it’s over, there’s a whole. A living history. So someday, my kid’s kid’s kid’s kid could come in here and get to know me.
Our whole lives, we’ve had the ability to capture who we are. I owe them the chance to see it.
I think you do too.
…
You’re sick again. Right? It’s coming back?
…
OF 2
What did my family tell you?
OF 1
Nothing. I saw your holiday card. You looked happy, but you looked worse. I was worried. I wanted to help.
OF 2
By telling me to start filming myself? To vlog my hospital visits so my ancestors can screen them?
It’s too late. It’s not right. I don’t feel right. I’m not the version of me I want people seeing.
OF 1
You think that. But whoever’s watching will just be happy to see you.
Something’s better than nothing.
…
OF 2
I’ll think about it.
Silence. They sit with themselves for a bit. Then, OF 1 gets up and pulls out a box set on the far corner of a shelf.
OF 1
I kept a few Blu-rays when I sold everything.
Avengers.
Do you want to—?
OF 2
Yes. Please.
OF 1 nods and sets up the disc, sitting down next to OF 2. The wall screen blasts on again, engulfing them both. The movie begins, displaying the red Marvel logo. The Avengers theme pulses through the speakers. The Old Friends start to grin like idiots.