{"id":2225,"date":"2024-07-09T11:13:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T15:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/?p=2225"},"modified":"2024-08-03T16:04:47","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T20:04:47","slug":"the-future-is-not-what-was-promised-but-is-almost-here-regardless-by-aaron-burch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/?p=2225","title":{"rendered":"The Future Is Not What Was Promised But Is Almost Here Regardless by Aaron Burch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We were taking our nightly walk when I paused, looked down at the ground at my feet. Claire paused next to me, looked down where I was looking. \u201cDon\u2019t do it,\u201d she said. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d even had the idea to, until she said not to. \u201cI have to!\u201d I answered. I bent down and picked up the key that we\u2019d both stopped, one after another, and looked down at. \u201cYou\u2019re never going to find what that goes to,\u201d Claire said. Of course I wouldn\u2019t. Was that why I\u2019d picked it up? Probably. Claire knew me better than I did. I put the key in my pocket and we completed our walk, neither of us saying anything more about it. The next day, at work, I spent hours staring at the key. Wanting it to speak to me. Wanting it to tell me its secret. What do you unlock? <\/em>I asked it, though only in my mind. I knew better than to ask out loud. The day after that, I did the same. And then the same again. And again. And again. Weeks passed. Months. Time just keeps passing when you let it, and there\u2019s no way to not let it. \u201cThat\u2019s new,\u201d Claire said one night when I came to bed. I\u2019d been wearing the key on a chain around my neck for weeks but only ever under my shirt, and always taking it off for bed. \u201cI\u2019m so close,\u201d I said. I was afraid to be away from it when it finally chose to let me hear it. Claire rolled her eyes, read her book, fell asleep. I never again removed the key from the chain, the chain from around my neck. It was ok, by then I\u2019d memorized its every contour. More days, weeks, months. Years. Who can keep track? I got a promotion with a big raise; I don\u2019t know why. Claire moved out. Forests burned, glaciers melted, global temperatures rose, animals went extinct. My skin started growing up around the key, holding it into my body. I was almost never not rubbing the key in the center of my chest over my shirt. I wouldn\u2019t say pushing it into<\/em> me, though that seemed to be happening. More months, more years. You can\u2019t even see the key anymore. You wouldn\u2019t even know it\u2019s there. I do though. I know it\u2019s there; I know it\u2019s inside me. It\u2019s getting so close to unlocking something. So close. At night, I go on walks, dreaming of the lock I might one day be able to open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aaron Burch is the author of an essay collection<\/a>, a novel<\/a>, and a short story collection<\/a>; the editor of a craft anthology<\/a>, a journal built on spontaneous submission calls<\/a>, and another journal for longer short stories<\/a>; a teacher; and some other things. He is super excited to be back<\/a> on <\/em>hex. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were taking our nightly walk when I paused, looked down at the ground at my feet. Claire paused next to me, looked down where […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2225"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2276,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225\/revisions\/2276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}