The following story takes the form of a letter found in the pocket of a teacher who died from Covid in the future. He never delivered it to anyone, because in his time humans never met in person.

Children,

You know Amazon as that which brings you food, clothing, new devices, apps and toilet paper, with their flying spider drones servicing your group’s living sector. Amazon, of course, also owns the internet and cloud and everything else. Yes, Amazon is also many people’s names.

Together now, “To the Blue Arrow, we give thanks.”

But, did you know that The Amazon had been what people called the world’s largest rainforest? Located on the South American continent, it was home to more species of flora and fauna than anywhere on Earth. It was responsible for many of the planet’s natural functions that sustained life for all creatures. It served the world long before the Amazon we know today.

Not many years after humans began industrial activity on a large global scale, The Amazon rainforest was reduced to a smoldering mulch fire surrounded by soybean fields, with a runoff ditch that used to be a large river of el nombre mismo, which is Spanish for the same name.

Spanish was the language the inhabitants of the Amazon spoke at the time of the fire. It wasn’t the native tongue of the people. The original inhabitants had been conquered by Europeans a few centuries earlier. The conquistadors killed most of them with germs, unintentionally really--a twist of fate. Germs is what they used to call Covid. Spanish is the language the survivors were forced to speak.

Years of smoke from the big fire that once was The Amazon is what caused the great crop failure of 49 and 50, said Brutus, when I asked him just now.

Brutus is Amazon’s 34rd voice command bot.

Brutus was preceded by Alexa XI, whose rogue response patterns and personality glitches led to the big Amazoncoin crash. A lot of my relatives lost their housing units after this, and it’s likely the same for yours. My grandfather, Beethoven Durel Amazon Hepps, lost his business.

People liked to eat cow, or beef, as it was then known. The soybean fields that once was The Amazon fed all the cows. They were fattened in factories and slaughtered by immigrants from countries where the forest and seas had once provided for them without them having to engage in miserable factory work that paid nothing and was dangerous.

These folks traveled thousands of miles for this work, parting out cow flesh for small amounts of US dollars (what you know today as Amazoncoin, or crypto), leaving behind family they’d never see again. Nobody thought of these workers as Americans. They were kept out of sight because Americans hated them so much.

Eating steak is what they called having a good piece of cow meat. It’s not, however, the steak you know today, like the steaks we get during Christmas Months, delivered by Amazon’s spider bots, which are grown in labs, and cut to look like good pieces of cow meat, complete with symmetrical grill marks.

So, yes, that’s correct, we gave up The Amazon for Amazon everything, is what I’m telling you, dear children.

I know I’m not supposed to tell you this, and this message will surely get me fired or worse, but I feel it’s important enough to mention, The Amazon, the dead rainforest that shares a name with many of you.

Not too long ago, you could look up and see stars at night, before the great fire, the global fallout, and light pollution from the Distribution States. There were animals called birds that came out and sang every morning, before flying off to eat insects, which were smaller creatures some of which could also fly. Some insects even glowed in the dark. I’ll tell you about them sometime.

Where there once were farms and blue sky, now there are spider bots swarming the atmosphere, dropping endless boxes, so we don’t have to venture above ground to grow food, or shop for protective clothing. Amazon keeps us safe from Covid, and terrorists: A constant state of comfort, safety and convenience! We don’t even have to unhook from the oxygen tubes and the Amazonverse, or ever make contact with another person, to get a box.

Together now, “To the Blue Arrow, we give thanks.”

With Regret,

Phillip W. A. Hepps