in the year 33,003, part 1

by bofa xesjum

a man was walking down the street. when ? excuse me? when was the man walking down the street? you mean the time of day? i suppose you could mention that, but what i had in mind was - what year was it? was it in the present, in the past, in the remote past, in the near future, in the distant future? um - in a timeless place. really? that is pretty boring. if you can not be more specific, i am not interested. all right - it is in the year 33,003. and he is a man walking down a street? that is what i said to begin with. how do you know there will be streets in the year 33,003? or cities? or, for that matter, human beings, men, women, whatever? i guess i am just guessing. so you have not really thought about it? there will probably be a lot of changes in 31,000 years, don’t you think? that is probably a safe assumption. but in spite of that safe assumption, you persist in stating a man - i assume you mean a human male more or less like those walking the streets and driving the highways and byways - and jetting to tokyo or monaco or the maldive islands or wherever today - is walking down a street. that is what i had in mind. all right, go on. why is he walking? does he have a destination? no, he is just going for a walk. really? he has nothing better to do in the year 33,000? just going for a walk is a big deal in the year 33,0003. and why, pray tell, is that? because most of the population is confined to their small apartments in the great towers that cover the earth, and it takes a great effort, and light years of red tape, to get permission to walk in the street. and this fellow, who has gone to all this trouble, he has done so just to walk around - he has no other motive? that is a good question. but before we go any further, do you not want to know his name? i was about to reveal it, before being so pointedly interrupted. very well, then, what is his name? this was a difficult decision, it came down to a choice from four names. don’t keep me in suspense. what were the four names? they were a) joe smith b) omar khayyam c) alpha crawfish and d) 386-559-385 -k part 2