You are reading part 2 of the 9-part serial story An Object in Orbit. Go here to start at the beginning.
That was the year things began falling from the sky. First it was a car. It had been sent up there, supposedly, as some sort of symbol of human triumph, but everyone knew it was just space junk, a cheap publicity stunt, an advertisement for an electric car company.
Not to be outdone, another billionaire sent up an Airstream trailer filled with outdated technology: a fax machine, a flip phone, a printing press. It was a not-so-gentle insult, a reminder that the electric car was obsolete as soon as it shot into space. “Everyone knows new cars lose twenty percent of their value the moment they drive off the lot,” the second billionaire said. “By the time the car went into orbit, it was already backwards technology. An Airstream, at least, is a thing of beauty.”
After the Airstream it was a free-for-all. Every major company shot up a rocket and sent some product into orbit. There were laptops and cell phones, trampolines and talking dolls, Corning Ware and combat boots. If it was worth mass producing, it was worth sending into space. Gazing up at the night sky, one saw the heavens rotating, that vast conveyor belt of product placement, so many twinkling objects, one could not dream of counting them.
“Imagine! A little boy in Shanghai and a little girl in Zimbabwe are staring up at the sky, seeing the same stainless-steel refrigerator you are seeing. We are not so different.”
This is what the mothers said. The mothers who remained.
Thank you for reading my author newsletter. “An Object in Orbit” originally appeared in Boulevard in 2019.
Such a great image like a cosmic used Amazon where everyone else's inventory of unique used and obsolete items not for sale is floating around. I hate the idea of motherlessness but this story is visionary in terms that it seems as though motherlessness is where society is headed if it gets too patriarchal for too long. Like when baby elephants get lost because the mothers are trying to survive and herds have to keep moving and the mothers disappear. The suspense is in how all came to be so it is a excellent opening. Other readers might see other things which it would be great to read about.