Social Media.(Kevin Hughes) Miles had a small smile on his face. The Mona Lisa would have been proud of the wryness of it. Once again…it was moving day. He had enjoyed most of the last eighty years…but it was time to move on.

He let his body grow cold. He checked his smart phone one more time. Only one text was on it. It was from Hilda. Hilda had been his housekeeper for more than a decade. Even though she retired a few years ago, she still texted him once a week to see if he needed anything.

For the first time since he retired…he did not text back. He knew she would check on him tomorrow if he didn’t text back. He wished he could tell her everything was okay. But it was better this way. He had outlived all the important people in his life. He always did. It was time to move.

He lay under the covers. He slept naked. Always had. It was necessary for his plan. Hilda would call the Police. They would do a Welfare Check. And they would find what Hilda feared they would. A scrawny, wiry, scarecrow of a man. A man well into his late nineties.

He would be naked, cold…and dead. Very dead. The Paramedics would declare him “unresponsive.” The ER would declare him…dead. The Funeral Home would declare him ashes.

His Will would make sure his ashes were placed at the base of the big sycamore tree down in the valley. Hilda would spread those ashes carefully. Just like the Will stated:

“I want my ashes to be placed in the small depression at the base of the Sycamore tree. I want some water poured over them. I want to feed the roots of my favorite tree.”

And that was what was done. Hilda’s husband Glenn poured a small bucket of water over the carefully placed ashes. Hilda held his hands afterwords.

“You did a good job, Glen.”

“You too, Honey. I knew he liked you…but to leave you a small fortune? I never guessed. He seemed, not tight with money, but he sure didn’t spend it on frivolous things.”

“I know. I never knew he was rich. I just thought he was frugal. I never even knew what he did for a living. He was a good man.”

Hilda and Glen headed back to their car. Had they turned and looked back…they might have changed their mind.

For the tree was starting to glow a very pale blue. A bulge was already beginning to show at the base of the Sycamore tree. They didn’t turn around though. They drove off... back into the part of the valley where people lived.

Behind them in the growing darkness, the pale blue light grew brighter. The bulge grew bigger. A few hours later, under the shadow of a new moon, the bulge broke open.

A young man a little over six feet tall, with red hair, green eyes, and the build of a lithe ballet dancer- stretched his arms skyward. Words that hadn’t been heard in almost a century poured from his lips. Those words finished the transformation.

He was clothed again. His pocket contained all he would need. Passport, Money, Birth Certificate, and a history lost in time. He would walk into the Valley, catch the early train into the Big City, make a few arraignments and then be on the first flight out of the Country.

He had lived for almost three centuries in this country. He had tried his best to help it grow, to steer it in the right direction. He had lost. As old and wise as he was…he never foresaw Social Media. Three centuries of groundwork ripped apart in a mere decade... by the most innocent of Apps.

The Civil War was coming. It would later become the Third…and Final, World War. He had a decade, maybe two, to help shape the world that would come to be... after that war.

He flew to a far Northern Country…and went further North by car. When he couldn’t go any further by car…he walked. It was there, in the secret cave he had built more than nine millennia earlier, that he would start recalling the kinds of people he would need to make sure that Humanity survived.

First he would gather all of the other Methuselahs - all nine of them. Each had tried…and failed…to get Humanity to think of themselves as the People of Earth. Once they all arrived- they would call home for the first time in over fourteen thousand years:

“We failed. Send the Garden Ship.”

*****

A man and a woman stood alone in a Garden. It was beautiful, peaceful, and bountiful. They waved up at the sky as the ship flared a goodbye, and was gone.

In a small grove, hidden from the eyes of the young couple still holding each other as the ship faded from sight, ten creatures smiled out at them. It wouldn’t be long until there were more people in the Garden. And then more people. And then…the first towns would appear.

The young couple would grow old and forget their origins. The ten creatures would not.

This time their job would be to stop certain technologies from advancing. They would not be caught off guard by Social Media again. The next wave of Humanity would not surrender to Algorithms- they would be brought up along side AI’s that shared the goal of keeping the Garden Growing.

Hate and ignorance would no longer be channeled. Instead it would be shunted and discarded in favor of real Humans with real emotions, facts, and caring. Kindness would rule the Earth.

They tried to teach the Golden Rule once.

This time they would make it Law.

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