Page 1 of Magically Generated
Chapter 1
Everythingwasascam.
That’s what it felt like to Nora Blackburn, at any rate.
Take the phone, for example.Once upon a time, her mother had taught her how to use it in case of emergencies.Her little fingers had struggled with the dial on the old rotary phone.
That phone—which had been replaced by the time Nora started kindergarten—bore almost no resemblance to the device that she currently held in her hand.She took it wherever she went, and she rarely used it to actually speak to people.When she did get a call, there was a good chance it was a scammer, and as a result, she almost never answered her phone when the number wasn’t in her contacts.But she answered it now, only because she was expecting a delivery.“Hello?”
She was met with a recorded message that was almost certainly not from where it claimed, and she ended the call with a stab of her finger.She was even more frustrated with the world than usual today.
Since she’d finished work for the afternoon—she worked from home as a technical writer—she navigated to a social media app, even though it would annoy her further.She immediately saw a post spouting something utterly ridiculous.
Fake news.Engagement bait.
It never ended.
The signal-to-noise ratio on the internet was appalling.She had to be suspicious of everything she saw, and she was tired of it.Many things were mostly harmless—more annoying than anything else.Some were propaganda.Others were trying to get money or personal information out of her, and she couldn’t afford to be deceived again; she had to remain vigilant.She didn’t trust anyone but the few people who were close to her.
She came across a news article—yes, it was from a reputable source—about a tech company trying to do something that was clearly a terrible idea.Why, science fiction from decades ago had warned of this exact scenario!Did nobody read books?
When Nora was younger, she’d sworn she wouldn’t become one of those people who constantly reminisced about the good old days, yet that’s exactly what she was doing…and she was only forty.
But technology had given her one good thing: she could sign out books from the library without leaving the comfort of her home.She picked up her ereader.Soon, she had an old book from one of her favorite authors on her device.Excellent.
A moment later, the silence of her apartment was interrupted by a ringtone in the hallway.Specifically, the first few notes of “Deck the Halls.”She wondered if the owner of the phone used that ringtone all year round, or if they changed it for December.Or maybe it was a ringtone just for one person on their contact list—a friend or relative who loved Christmas, perhaps.
Nora didn’t particularly like Christmas.She wasn’t quite the Grinch, but she’d long found the whole thing…too much.Crassly commercial at times.
And this was the first year she’d have to spend it alone.
It shouldn’t bother her, given her feelings about the holiday and the fact that she spent much of her time alone anyway, but it did.She’d struggled with getting through the Christmas season ever since her mother had passed away almost three years ago, in between Christmas and New Year’s.
She sighed as she got up to make herself a cup of tea.She was forever drinking tea in the winter because she was always cold.Not that it was officially winter yet, but it was December 2 and there was snow on the ground.A lot more would be coming soon, if the forecasts were to be believed.Ugh.The first big snow of the year always brought up bad memories of trying to rush to her sick mother’s bedside as traffic screeched to a halt.
Her phone beeped, and this time, the message wasn’t from someone who wanted her to click on a suspicious link.No, it was from her sister.
Brianna:I don’t want you to travel in this weather.Next Sunday?
For Christmas, Brianna, her husband, and their two children going to Nova Scotia, where Brianna’s husband had lots of relatives, so they’d planned to celebrate early with Nora.Just a small get-together this weekend.They were her only family now, and Nora had been looking forward to this dinner, but yeah, it made sense to put it off another week, especially since half of her nephew’s gift still hadn’t arrived—that was the delivery she was waiting for.
Nora:Sure!That’s probably best.
She didn’t express her disappointment.There was no reason to make her busy younger sister worry about her.
She set down her phone before flopping on the couch and reaching for her ereader again.A long weekend alone stretched before her.
The only positives?She didn’t have a driveway to shovel because houses were too expensive, and unlike last December, she hadn’t picked up a part-time retail job to replenish her savings.
She just needed to make it through the rest of the month.Sometimes, simply surviving was the best you could hope to do.
Yes, Christmas would not be merry for Nora.
Everett Sun took a break from decorating his tree and looked out the window.Snow had started falling.They were supposed to get at least 15 cm this weekend, then another 10 cm midweek.
Perfect.
Finally, he’d be able to put his plan into action.He’d been waiting for years, but there was never enough snow.Last year, Toronto had barely gotten any until February, and that was too late.But this year?Lots of snow before Christmas, and it wasn’t supposed to melt anytime soon.
