Supplemental

2025

“One and two and three let’s go! Work your body on the floor!”

‘That didn’t even have an exact rhyme right there,’ Edna Timbers thought. She, nevertheless, completed her daily workout. When the video had finished she switched off the television and sipped water. She peered over at the bottle of capsules that had just arrived in the mail. As she ambled over to the pills, she looked at the writing on the package. It read: “Delawhole Technologies, Wilmington, Delaware, 1576 Thomas Dr 19803. She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

She put down the package with the instructions as well as the bottle. She picked up food for her fish and dropped the pellets which snowed into the tank. Another glance at the pills propelled her to just go to her sink for some water. She filled a glass and fought the urge to dump the capsules down the sink into an abyss of the place for some discarded foods. She banished the thought. She went to get her glasses and read the directions. Simple enough. Seniors over sixty five take two pills daily for longevity. Avoid heavy machinery and drink plenty of water. Edna shrugged. She didn’t chug but placed the pills on her tongue and let the liquid flow down her throat.

Edna showered and changed clothes. As she walked through the park downtown, she felt a bit peppy or like a mild high. She smiled at everyone she met. Some offered stares and looked at her cross. She didn’t mind it. The boost of energy felt welcome and although she had not read all the side effects of the products, she felt springy. This winter day with all its coldness seemed to melt away. Edna decided to go shopping. As the thoughts of restraint coursed through her body, she also felt the need to be a miser when it came to purchases. But this was the bon bon shop and she had just finished a workout and decided to treat herself to some petit fours. The sugar continued to keep up her spirits. When she had returned to her apartment, she looked at the ingredients for the first time and the instructions once more.

As she sat to read, she ate more of the little confectionary wonders. Like a scientist poring over an experiment, she studied each word carefully. A letter came with the directions as well.

It instructed her to use her smart TV to view the welcome video.

‘Well, that seems alright,’ she thought. Edna followed the instructions and turned on her TV with the code to the channel to watch provided with the pills. A young brown skinned woman named Dr. Deepa Samra stood in the center of the screen in a pristine, white doctor’s coat.

“Hi, Edna. You have been selected for the Delawhole Supplemental Medical Plan or DSMP. You will find that you will be happier, quicker, and more aware of everything. This supplement will grant you the power to live on and on throughout all time.”

‘You say what, now?’ She said in her mind. Her jaw slacked a bit.

“You’re going to be the age you are for the rest of your life.”

Then some fast talk outlined various conditions. “You will not be protected from accidents, homicide, or any other forms of deaths outside of pathological concerns. Take the supplements with caution.” The video returned to Dr. Sarma.

“Now, you will potentially live forever. Just be on the lookout for slips, falls, fires, and murderers, gang members, and Floridians from the main coast.”

Edna chuckled a bit. “But seriously, I hope you enjoy your new extended life and may all of your days be filled with perkiness!” The video faded to black.

2075

Edna felt fine in her advanced years. She had the same sixty-five-year-old body and mind. For half of a century, she managed to not get mugged and killed, not drown, not get hit by a car, not be electrocuted, among many other unhappy circumstances. Instead, she enjoyed the digital visions that became the rave. She ate all the digital sweets she wanted and then just worked the calories off altogether. She even found a male friend. Jasco Brill, 61, stood a bit taller than her. He took Edna to an ice cream parlor that sent digital readouts of the food.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Edna started.

“What’s that?” Brill asked.

“I’m over a hundred years old!”

“I thought you were in your forties!”

“It’s these supplements I take. They allow me to continue to keep living on and on and on like that.”

“That’s fantastic!”

Edna sighed as she savored the digital creaminess of the frozen treat.

“What’s the matter?”

“I can’t die. I want to die. You’re not going to be around forever…no offense.”

“Gee, thanks!”

“I’m serious. I’m going to outlive all my grandbabies. They’re already in their nineties. They’ll be this body’s age pretty soon. And then they’ll die, too.”

“Let’s just savor the moment. Let’s keep the positive thinking going,” Brill spoke with a raise in his voice. He smiled.

2100

Edna knew she couldn’t take her own life because she recalled that her family would incur penalties and probably be put in the poor house. She, though, felt so low. Brill had died decades previously. She looked at herself in the mirror with a bit of a smile but her eyes looked wet. No plot to have her murdered could survive as Delawhole monitored her every move. When she found another partner she didn’t even explain her situation. Orton Taur looked at her in his seventy years in mind and body. They floated in their thought pods. She could project her ideas onto him without divulging the facts of where she stood. By finding someone else who had been part of the experiment in the previous century, she felt empowered and her eyes lit up a bit. Taur, looked at the fact that he’ll be that age forever, too, barring any of the unpleasant actions occurring against him.

The two looked at each other with digital lenses as they floated over the city of Wilmington.

“I can’t believe it. How many are like us? Do you know?” Edna asked with enthusiasm.

“Many have cost their families financial and societal pain as they’ve killed themselves. There may be a few more like us who have stuck around.”

Edna looked straight-faced. “Why couldn’t this product have been brought to us in our twenties? It’s not fun being this age. I just want to be happy.”

“You can be happy with me,” Taur said.

“Let’s see.”

“That’s okay. You say that now.”

“What do you want with a woman as old as I am? Usually men your age go younger, like women in their twenties.”

“I want your mind. I want your dreams. Your body is just part of the package. It’s all digital anyway.”

Edna scoffed. “There’s no guarantee these products will actually kill us one day.”

Taur laughed. “Yes, but let’s just enjoy our lives now.”

“Have you ever thought of stopping the supplemental treatments?”

“You still have to read all of the instructions thoroughly. It goes along with the suicide idea. You stop taking them and you die, that’s a detriment to Delawhole.”

“So?”

“So they go after your family and everyone you love.”

“Everyone I ever loved is dead.”

“I’m not dead.”

“Who said I loved you?” Edna smiled for the first time in a long time.

“I love you.”

Edna sighed. “You know, I kinda love you too.”