Ryan Boudinot - Blueprints of the Afterlife

I asked him how. He said, “Say we figure out how to lower the global temperature and find a way to safely break down all the plastic we’ve dumped, all the toxins we’ve unleashed. Maybe we find a way to bring population growth down to a sustainable level and resurrect species we’ve killed off. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Wouldn’t that be just peachy? And if that’s the case, our little group, we become nothing but happy fools. That’s Plan A for humanity. We’re launching Plan B. We’re the ones who love life so much that we have to pass it on. What is to come is a beautiful age, a heroic age.”

But I couldn’t go. “My family died here,” I said. “They didn’t know they were about to die. I don’t have that luxury. I need to be here to take care of the people who don’t live on that island with the scientists and artists. The impending dystopia you talk about only looks like dystopia to those of us who’ve lived surrounded by privilege. To everybody else it’s called history. I need to be here for those people. They’re my people. I belong to them.”

And then he left?

Yes.

And now you’re here.

Are we finished? Is it time?

Yes. Are you ready to see what the real world looks like now?

Yes. Show me.

I would like to thank the following people and organizations for their encouragement and support. My family is tremendously loving and giving. Thank you Jen, Miles, Scarlett, Em, Mom, Dad, David, and Amy. My agent PJ Mark somehow manages to be both an incredibly generous and giving human being and a relentless bastard. Amy Hundley, my editor, is wise and exacting, a dream. Matthew Simmons, Fleetwood Robbins, and Suzanne Stockman read an early draft and provided invaluable feedback. Rick Moody, Aimee Bender, Rebecca Brown, and Stephen Elliott have been terrific friends and inspirations. Dave Cornelius, my great mentor, led me to literature. Nate Manny, whom I knew before he was a rock star, did a bangup job on the Web work and marketing stuff. Greg Comer provided amazing architectural renderings of many of the settings. Corey Jurcak and Jeff Johnson tolerantly answered my questions about speculative civil engineering, as did my father. Dr. Roger Freedman, friend and gentleman astrophysicist, provided valuable insights about space colonization. I thank the wry and talented Lori Piskur Macklin for the Spanish translations. Thanks to Tom Nissley and Brad Parsons for their wise counsel over the years. I raise a glass (or three) to Bob Braile. Richard Hugo House and Goddard College’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program saved me from a slow death in a series of cubicles. I would especially like to thank Brian McGuigan, Alix Wilber, and Sue Joerger at Hugo House for the gift of their kindness, and Paul Selig at Goddard for giving me a chance. Thanks, finally, to the Washington State Employment Security Department for the four generous writing grants.

The Littlest Hitler

Misconception

Copyright © 2012 by Ryan Boudinot

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