Tomorrow

“We have run out of tomorrow.” I remember where I was when I saw it; in the cellar of this random mansion, drinking their fine vintages from a barrel. Future hedonistic escapades could never capture that level of fun. At the time I thought it was hilarious, this serious no-nonsense announcer, reading something that ridiculous. Though I thought everything was hilarious then, as I hadn’t been sober for months. But this one moment, I remember with perfect clarity, like it was today, which I guess it was.

I don’t know when I got into the habit of writing this down, but it does help me maintain some sense of personal continuity which is a rare and valued currency during this non-time. I’ll start from the beginning as I always do, or think have always done, I’m not sure.

It began innocuously enough, the day we all woke up on the same day for the first time. I was ecstatic, an opportunity to redo any mistakes I made, to try out something new, to enjoy things all over again. I’d seen Groundhog day, I knew how to maximize my time and succeed. Now, despite what anyone will tell you, you don’t have a perfect picture of how your day went yesterday, you have a general sense of the 24 hours and a few locked in memories. So it’s not like you’ll get to fix or change everything, but I assumed that even if I got one do-over, it would be enough.

I was so naive. The day was so weird, like everyone had been replaced by just slightly different dopplegangers. It did not end up the way I wanted, but I hoped that I’d get another chance to do it all over again. I woke up the next morning, and I exulted because it was the same day for the second time. Today would be the day I get that win. I don’t even remember what that win was. In any case, I went about my day and everyone was just as odd. I also noticed that there were changes to the day before I had the chance to affect them, so that was slightly concerning. I of course, did not put two and two together, until a friend of mine, during a group drink, blurted, “Is everyone else also remembering that they’re repeating this day?”

And we all stopped, looked at each other in shock, and I really forget the rest of the conversation, other than that everyone in the bar got drawn into it, and we all agreed that yes, we were all repeating the same day and we remembered doing so. I felt cheated for sure, it’s no fun if everyone else is also groundhog daying with you.

Woke up the same morning and social media was abuzz with the fact that everyone on earth was repeating the same day. I’m still surprised that it took 2 days to get onto social media, but once it did, the world was forever changed. Governments, businesses, corporations and more tried to hold on to some semblance of normality for a while, going with the assumption that just our brains still progressed through time, that we could sort of move forward. Dear God were they ever wrong. I mean we stumbled through it for a month or so, just from social inertia, going to work, remembering what we accomplished and keeping I dunno, track of what I call “brain time”.

I mean, it wasn’t to be. There was nothing that could stop the crumble. There was nothing actually being accomplished, people in manufacturing jobs were basically doing busy work. It’s not like anything you did mattered, making everything pointless. Social inertia helped, so it did take a while, but everyone eventually understood that when you’re stuck in the same day, money doesn’t matter. What do payments mean when your bank account will be the exact same the next time you wake up.

Now this didn’t lead to some sort of social awakening. What it did lead to, was hedonism. Partying was consequence free and there was no end to the fun you could have because you didn’t have to worry about tomorrow. The crumbling accelerated.

Now there’s certain segments of society, like the former rich that didn’t like this brave new world. It kind of put a damper on their spirits to realise that they weren’t really rich anymore and part of their enjoyment of being rich was being served and having an underclass to look down on. And they’d lost all of that. Who would want to spend time working for nothing? And so they tried, for a few todays, to reassert some order in which they were on top, through their law and order type lackeys, and deadly force. They really did try, killing those who wouldn’t listen, and imposing some fashion of martial law. The issue that they didn’t consider was that the dead wake up, remember what was done to them, and know how to stop you the next time. And they’re pissed. The people they tried to control had the numbers and when you know you’ll wake up again, you can use those numbers much more effectively.

The rich lost, and they kept losing because the rest of society decided they had to teach them a lesson. You might wake up whole and hearty every day, but your brain remembers what was done to you, and you’ll learn quickly that when there’s no tomorrow, people have all the time in the world to think of some very creative punishments. They learned, and another wave of hedonism lapped on our shores.

During this time, many of us started to consider the disparate ways we started the mornings. Like pilots on a flight, or on the highway in a car, or in a hospital bed that you were going to die in today. How many people were repeating deaths because of this? Opening their eyes and then dying. What could we do? A lot, it turned out, and for a while it was good.

But the crumbling could not be stopped. What was the point of anything, when eternity awaits where everything stays basically the same. Sure, inequality basically ended, but not because we’d become better, but because there was no point in perpetuating it. Societal ennui did our work for us. And I think this situation hit the children the worst, trapped in an unchanging body, with a brain that hadn’t fully grown, but with memories that stretched decades. They are not fun to be around.

We are now moving statues, full of memories that can’t be articulated, a tapestry showing a stuttering pattern that cannot stop. I lost count of which today it was many years ago, and I think the last time I spoke to a person was before even that. After all, what is the point of today without the promise of a tomorrow?