Future Parts
Orange Juice
The man sits at the table, and he says, “I bought this bottle of orange juice that was the single greatest bottle of orange juice I’ve ever had… sold by the actual farmer who made the oranges”, and he looks at the girls’ smiling faces and he says, “no really, you don’t get juice like that any more”. The girls look up at him through thick lashes, and one girl says, “I’ve never tasted orange juice”, and he looks at her and he says, “Yeah? I drink that stuff all the time”, and the other girl leans towards him and smiles, and she says, “you should buy us some”, and he laughs and leans back into the booth. “This stuff here’s not even worth drinking. It’s farm of nothing, seriously”. He looks over their heads, knee dancing. “I’ve got to take you girls out to the farm sometime”, and the girls nod and say “yeah”. “Bet you haven’t even seen the night sky before now”, and one girl laughs, but the man looks at her seriously. He picks up his fork and waves it at her. “Sky’s not even real below the 50th floor. Can’t even see the stars”. He picks up his knife and cuts savagely into his steak. “I’ll take you girls higher sometime. You know…” he fills his mouth with steak. The girls watch him grind it down. “Not straight away though. All you girls ever want is to get on a higher floor. But you know,” he swallows. “There needs to be a real connection”. The girls nod. “Yeah”. The man grows confident. “It’ll change your life” he says. “Really puts a bit of perspective on things”.
