Author’s note: In preparation for NaNoWriMo 2009, someone put up daily prompts on one of the forums. I did them in the spirit of warm-ups, but some of them turned into stories. Here is one such.

Prompt: I don’t know the person I see in the mirror anymore.

“Time was, I knew who I was.”

“What are you talking about?  You look the same as you ever did.  Better, even, since you’ve been eating well.”

“Yeah, these are good digs.  But things are… different.  I don’t know how to say it.  I listen to them talk about it and it’s not the same as I thought when I started.  I’ve seen the records now…”

“The records?”

“Famine last fall, remember?  Well, you could call it that, if famine means people going hungry.  But not an act of nature.  Certainly not an act of god, whoever that is.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  (Reaches for another roll.)

“It’s planned.  Surplus population, right?  Well, they’re getting that dealt with, sorted out, cleaned up—anyway, that’s what the reports say.  Efficiency, progress, all that.  Except… I don’t know the person I see in the mirror anymore.  I thought I believed in all that, you know, like the Brown Shirt Girl in the poster, but I’m not sure about any of it any more.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.  Food’s fine, here.”

(Process information: 10/14/2009 finished at 5:12 PM, 184 words, 7 minutes—made it up as I went along)