Time Enough At Last
Witness Mrs. Yomi Mizuhara, a charter member in the fraternity of dreamers. A bookish little woman whose passion is the printed page but who is conspired against by a bank president and a wife and a world full of tongue-cluckers and the unrelenting hands of a clock. But in just a moment Mrs. Mizuhara will enter a world without bank presidents or wives or clocks or anything else. She'll have a world all to herself, without anyone.
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At the bank-
Yomi is reading at her desk. A sign on the desk says "Next Window, Please." Her boss, Ms. Yukari Tanizaki, approaches. She taps Yomi on the shoulder
"Can I see you in my office for a minute, Mrs. Mizuhara? Or are you too busy reading?"
"Oh, Ms. Tanizaki, I didn't realize you were there. I'll be in your office in just a moment. I've been reading a wonderful book, David Copperfield. I don't suppose you've read it also?"
"No, I haven't. And I can safely say my life has suffered no great deficit without it."
In Yukari's office-
"So, Yomi, let's just get to the point of this. Quite frankly, you're not very good at what you do. You seem to want to devote more time to reading than to your job. You read on duty, you read during your breaks. Why, I remember how you tried to read the campaign buttons people were wearing last November. You will henceforth devote your time to your job, or you shall find yourself reading on a park bench from morning to night for want of a job. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, mam, but, it's just…"
"Just what, Mrs. Mizuhara?"
"It's my wife, Tomo. Every time I try to read in the house, she steals the book from my hands and hides it somewhere. It's the same with magazines and newspapers. I had to start reading the labels on the condiments, and now she won't even let me use ketchup."
Yukari smiled at this
"Well, Mrs. Mizuhara, I would have to say that your wife is perhaps a very intelligent woman. Now get out of my office at once."
At Yomi's house, several hours later-
Yomi had settled down into her chair, and, quickly looking around, pulled a book out from her jacket pocket. Just then, her wife, Tomo, came bursting in.
"Yomi! Didn't I tell you not to read in the house? I won't have my wife giving up the pleasure of conversation for some dumb book."-She snatched the book from Yomi's hands-"Oh, one more thing.-We're playing cards with Chiyo and Osaka today. We're leaving in about fifteen minutes, so go put on a fresh shirt."
"Yes dear."
Tomo walked out of the room. Yomi looked around, and, sure that Tomo was gone, carefully removed the seat of the chair. Hidden underneath it was a pocket-sized book of poetry. She quietly slipped the book into her jacket pocket. Just then, Tomo came back in.
"Yomi, what have you got there?"
"Got where, dear?"
Tomo reached into Yomi's jacket, and pulled out the book of poetry.
"A book of modern poetry. How did this get here, Yomi?"
"I… I don't know, Tomo?"
"Well, I can only hazard a guess."-Changing her demeanor-"Would you like to read me some?"
"Really? You want to hear some?"
"Yes. I'd be delighted to."
"Oh, well, I don't know where to start. So many wonderful poems, I… I just can't decide."
Yomi opened up the book, only to find all of the pages had been scribbled out. She began to cry.
"Tomo, why would you do this?"
"You should be thanking me. Always with the reading. You're going to drive yourself insane one day."
The next day, at the bank-
Yomi's shift had just ended, and she was going down to the vault to read the newspaper. The vault was the only place she had found that would afford her any peace and quiet on her break. She opened up the newspaper. The headlines proclaimed "Hydrogen Bomb Capable of Total Destruction". Moments after she opened the paper up, it happened-A massive shockwave, greater than that of an earthquake, hit. The vault shook violently, but somehow, left Yomi unhurt. She got up, and, the effects of the shockwave still taking their toll, stumbled her way out of the vault. What she saw was nightmarish-Much of the bank was in ruins. She stepped her way through the ruins, looking for anybody else. She found none. She stumbled outside.
"Hello! Is anybody there!?"
No one answered back. She realized the truth. There was no one left. She was alone. Unable to contain herself, he got on her knees and cried.
"Oh god, there all dead. They must be, there's no other explanation. They're all dead, except for me. I'm all alone-Tomo, Yukari, Chiyo, Osaka, all the others, they're all gone. And I'm alive. But do I even want to be alive? I don't want to spend the rest of my life alone."
She looked around. All she saw was rubble. Parts of old buildings she had known and loved for many years, all gone. She spied the ruins of the old pawn shop. She walked inside. Many of the cases were smashed by debris, but one stood. She looked inside, and saw her way out-An antique Luger. She smashed the case, and took it out. She checked it, it was loaded, and, despite the years on it, it still worked. She pointed it at her head. Moments before pulling the trigger, she had an epiphany-The Library. She tossed the Luger aside, and ran to the library. Surprisingly, much of it was still intact. She went inside, and, to her amazement, almost all of the books were there, seemingly untouched. It was a miracle.
"I…I can't believe it"-She took some of the books off the shelves, and opened them up-"Collected works of Dickens, Shaw, Shakespeare, Tolkien, everyone. They're all here. And it's all mine. I finally have the time to read every one of them, without Tomo, or Yukari, or anybody else getting in my way. All the books I want, all the books I'll ever need." She started sorting all of them out."And I'll read this pile in November, and this pile in December, and these ones the year after that, and these ones…An the best thing is- I have all the time I need now."
Just then she tripped. She felt her glasses fall off, and she could hear them hit the floor. She picked them up. She could feel they were broken. Once again, she started to cry.
"No. That's not fair. That's not fair at all. There was time now. There was finally time."
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The best laid plans of mice and men and Yomi Mizuharas, the small woman in the glasses who wanted nothing but time. Yomi Mizuhara, now just a part of a smashed landscape, just a piece of the rubble, just a fragment of what man has deeded to himself. Mrs. Yomi Mizuhara...in the Daioh Zone.