[ WP ] The year is 2500 . The world is not the dystopian place we thought it would be by now . The human race has managed to avoid the fiery hellscape that seemed to be an almost certainty . Earth is now a thriving , peaceful haven . What happened between 2017 and 2499 to make this happen ?

He looks out the window. The rain is washing away the old collected trash. Rivulets on the grey. A cold apartment. 
 
 Tess had died. What was it, three weeks back? He ca n't remember. A kid sits out in the street on a lawn chair, the water up to his knees. He looks too old to be a kid, but too small to be so old. Would ours have looked like that? He puts his hand against the counter, to steady. 
 
 The orange juice has expired but it still drinks. Mattress in the corner. The white washed walls with so many tiny cracklies that the paint has given up on. He folds into her indention in the bed. The red button has worn to a dull smooth with so many years of wear. The one in the crook of his arm. The one he traces in light concentric circles like she used to do him, and he closes his eyes and feels it like the crooks of hers, where he used to lick and taste her soft, and she'd always pull away and say It Tickles. His finger plunges down. 
 
 Whatever happened to us? 
 
 A kid washed away in the wet. A pleasure synthesized by button push. A man nods off without watching the time passing by. The leftover world eroding with a sound like clacking keys, a million little places, a million little people, pushing into the dark incumbent warmth. A little more loving to death.
