THE FOREVER MEDICINE

                                               THE FOREVER MEDICINE

“All aboard, this is the last train to vandu!”, the conductor yelled. Jimmy got into the train, stowed his luggage and took his seat. After he took his seat, the train’s doors began to close, it seemed everyone had gotten on the train. NO MORE PASSENGERS WERE COMING IN! This felt weird because the train seemed empty. Jimmy also felt the emptiness of the train but he just told himself, “No one wants to go back to rural and backward, vandu”

Jimmy himself didn’t like going back to his small hometown but this time he had to go, his childhood friend, Lucius took his own life! He had to be there even though he didn't want to be there. The slow movement of the locomotive made Jimmy think about his friend’s death. He asked himself, “why? Why did he do it?”. His thoughts made him weep. Jimmy was very disconnected with his emotions, he didn’t like feeling emotional, he tried his best not to cry but his consciousness didn’t let him.

He told himself, “We were close! We were very close! VERY CLOSE TO FOREVER. VERY CLOSE TO ETERNAL LIFE!”. Jimmy’s phone then vibrated softly in his pocket, the vibration was soft and it felt kind to his mourning body. He took his phone from his pocket and he gave it a gaze, it was a lengthy message from his boss. Jimmy took his time and read it slowly. It was trying to be a heartfelt message, it tried to make Jimmy forget about the death of his friend but it was pretty obvious that his boss just wanted to make sure Jimmy was at his desk by 9am on Monday.

He finished reading the message and the depression came back creeping in but he was also thinking of work, he was 135 years old but he was still working! But for Jimmy it was worth it because they are close to curing death and he wants enough money to buy the “forever medicine”, that’s why he couldn’t comprehend his friend’s decision to take his life, THEY WERE VERY CLOSE TO FOREVER. Jimmy remembers the day when Gradhi Suntra, the CEO of Primula corp announced that his research team had cracked ageing and that they can extend the average human lifespan to about 200 to 400 years. Gradhi was charismatic on that day, he knew he had the world’s attention, HE HAD DEFEATED ONE OF MAN’S GREATEST ENEMIES, AGE! He had this smile on his face when he made the world changing announcement, he tried to make the idea of living that long not abnormal, he tried to make it feel like it was fate.

Gradhi quoted the Bible saying, “Eternal life is here, let us all rejoice”. Jimmy was a mere 30 years old then, he was in awe when he heard Gradhi’s announcement. Jimmy was excited, Lucius was too and the best part is that the cure for ageing was in a pill, just a pill imagine. It didn’t feel right, it seemed too easy. Imagine ageing gone with the swallow of one pill. Gradhi said 400 years added to a person’s lifespan wasn’t enough. He said in the near future, he will SLAUGHTER death and people will live forever, he promised. 30 year old Jimmy couldn’t wait for the miracle pill.

Once the pill hit the stores, people flooded the stores to get it. Queues were so long that they were almost kilometres long. Everyone wanted a dose of immortality but the pill came with backlash. The catholic church labelled the pill, “THE DEVIL’S TOOL” and Gradhi himself was labelled the “Antichrist” but even the church couldn’t slow down the sales of the pill. For some Gradhi was a long awaited messiah, he was after all the man who conquered death. Gradhi took down the claims that he is a messiah, that he is of divine origin. He told the press that he was just a businessman trying to earn a profit and that he is concentrating on the real “Forever pill”. Jimmy worked and by the time he turned 33, he had bought the pill. He didn’t feel different but the specialist told him that he will at least live to 200 years, that was guaranteed. 

Jimmy just sat there still trying to understand why Lucius killed himself? Jimmy’s phone gave another soft vibration but this one was less comforting than the first one. It was his daily news briefing. The main story was “THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE HANG THEMSELVES AS A DEMONSTRATION IN NEW YORK”.  Jimmy looked at the title and just sighed he was already too sad, there are many groups of people that commit mass suicides as an act of rebellion against the pill. Many say humanity was lost when Gradhi unveiled the pill to 400. Life felt worthless for some who took the pill, IMMORTALITY FELT TEDIOUS.

Jimmy remembers when he turned 60 years old, he thought he’ll retire but because of the pill, people can work more. He remembers his boss telling him we are stuck together forever, Jimmy just giggled at that statement because he didn’t grasp what it really meant.

Since the pill was released the world changed drastically, governments had to change retirement laws and pension plans. Even age groups had to change, who was considered a child now that people keep their youth at least to the age of 200. Some people protested against the pill saying it was unnatural. They said the pill took away the human experience. Things like love, friendships, careers felt worthless now that we live forever. Jimmy himself was divorced, Jimmy married at the age of 65 because he had no rush to marry at an early age. He married Denise, a woman he thought was the love of his life but when he turned 108 years old they divorced, Denise said the “love had died” and since then Jimmy has a hole in his heart but he believes he’ll fill it up with someone one day, HE WILL LIVE FOREVER, HE HAS ALL THE TIME TO FIND LOVE.

The news stories have grown grim ever since the pill was unveiled, the number of people who suffer from chronic loneliness has increased, no one wants to have kids anymore and people are now labouring for eternity for the corporate giants. Gradhi amassed great wealth from the pill and influence too, he was worshipped as a god and some even said he was Jesus who had returned from heaven but he did have his fair share of criticism and hate. People said he just wanted to enslave people, that he didn’t like the idea of people retiring and finally resting when they died, they say Gradhi wants to put the world in a new world order where he is a god.

People then started to take their lives, since disease and ageing has become irrelevant. Men take their lives in the most brutal of ways, jumping from the highest skyscrapers or shooting themselves in the head and many other horrendous ways. People see these acts as acts of great courage and recently men who choose death are given respect. One man jumped off Jeddah tower without hesitation, before he died he stated “It is better to live a short life than to live a long life with no meaning”. Those words echoed the world for a while but Jimmy saw these people as idiots, they made no sense for choosing death, “Why exist only to not exist later on?”, he asked himself.

Jimmy thought about the world and how it has changed and how it might have made Lucius do what he did but he still didn’t understand. He remembers Lucius was “pro-pill” but Jimmy also remembers Lucius growing sadder the more he aged. Jimmy remembers when Lucius left the big city to go live in Vandu, he told Jimmy that he wants to spend his final days in the land of his ancestors, Jimmy didn’t get Lucius’ statement, so Lucius wanted to spend his eternity in Vandu, boring tedious Vandu where nothing happens but now Jimmy understands that Lucius didn’t yearn for eternity but instead Lucius yearned for the opposite, he yearned for death! He yearned to rest like how his ancestors did

All the thoughts made Jimmy forget he was in a train, the brakes gave a slow hiss as the train came to a stop, Jimmy came back to the real world. He just had to accept that Lucius is dead and he can’t do anything about it. He just whispered to himself, “I’ll never do something as stupid as that. I yearn for forever, I worked so hard for forever”. Jimmy took his luggage and went off the train, ready for his first funeral in almost 70 years.

EPILOGUE

Hello dear readers,

I have been writing less and less because of school, I have been busy and time hasn’t been the most abundant of resources. My last blog post was a reflection on mortality, I remember bringing up the idea that death is scary but people still want it. So in this long story I try to explain how a society would be if people lived longer and maybe even forever. I do not think my story is the best or most creative way to show this idea but I tried to.

I hope you enjoyed my story, please comment to tell me what you think about the blog post, the blog overall and philosophy as a whole. I’ll try to answer your questions. If you like this post please read the other blog posts and let your friends know. 

Thanks for reading, it is appreciated.