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i’ve been inspired by the person who said if they got 666k notes they would practice self care. so ya know what? i’ve been in a spiral of depression for months so if this post gets 1 MILLION notes by the end of 2023, i will start taking care of myself and actually try to battle my depression and live my life. (this is never going to get 1m notes yall HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA)

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fuck it, if this post reaches 8787 notes, i'll start giving more of a shit about myself.

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PATRIARCHY CHICKEN GAME

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Recently, reedsy.com changed its rules for the weekly contest, which used to be free but are not anymore. So I came here to see if I can get the 5 dollars, which are not a lot, but still impractical in my current situation, considering that I live in Brazil and the dollar quotation is absurd.

Here is the beginning of the story I plan to send.

Here's the link

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It has been 2 months since my wife ran away with the stable boy after only 7 months of marriage. That was the social talk in our city during the dreadful October 1873 for me. All I wished was I was in her place. In 2 days, my family will come for the Christmas dinner. My father will scold me for not sustaining a wife, my mother will mourn her never-born grandchildren. And my grandmother will put doubts on my preferences for lovers. She was always spot on.

I thought of that while writing a letter to a factory that wanted to buy my wheat. A sudden noise in the basement. Probably a mouse or rat, so I should get a cat. I grabbed the chamberstick and went downstairs.

While going I started to notice something was different. Were the stairs always this dark and large? I kept climbing when a huge light engulfed me. The chamberstick was a black mirror. My clothes were very different

I kept walking, and the black mirror started ringing with "Green Button Put Ear", which I did.

"Keep walking forward. You will see a woman in a scandalous red dress. She will lead you to a building. Just say your name to a woman at a desk. Look at the phone, the thing you're holding, and you will see a photograph of her." The voice stopped, and I looked at the said phone. There was an image of a woman. I put it in my pocket and looked up. There she was. She looked at me and started walking.

I followed her to a building. I saw her entering when a voice called.

"Hi, how can I help you?" Asked a black woman at a desk looking uninterested.

"Hi, I'm Oscar Gallagher." As I said that her eyes widened.

"One second. I will call someone to help you." What is happening? She took something and put it in her ear. It is probably a phone. She then started talking: "He's here. Okay, I will tell him." She put the thing down and looked at me: "Mr. Gallagher, somebody will come for you." She then pointed at a bench, where I sat.

Sitting there I thought about where I was and what I was wearing. I haven't been more scared in my life. Before I went on a downward spiral of dread and anxiety, a woman in a floral green dress approached me.

"Mr. Gallagher? Hi, my name is Melissa Brown. I'm here to take you to Mr. Smith's office." We both left to go on elevators but by the size of the building, this was gonna take a little bit more than those at that department store in New York that I went to when I was a kid.

When we got into the elevator, there was a mirror. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. I was still honey blonde with green eyes. The only different thing was a sidecut. 

The elevator stopped and we exited. She guided me through some hallways and we stopped at a door.

"Come on in, he's waiting for you." She said, sitting at a desk near that door. I entered. 

"Hey man, how long has it been? You look the same" A dark-skinned man that looked very familiar talked to me.

"Carl? Why are you here? Where is here? When is it here? Did you bring me here?" I said.

The stable boy that ran away with my wife was right in front of me, but he looked older. He was 19 and she was 23, my age when they ran away, but he looked like he was in his mid-40s.

"A witch sent me and Anne to here about a week after we ran. We even thought it was something you did. This is Chicago, IL, on October 2nd, 2017. Kind of. She said she would bring you when we were ready. I've been ready for 17 years now. But Anne probably only got ready now. Or the witch just brought you here. I'm 43 in case you were wondering." He spoke like all of this would make this easy. 

After a long talk on how the phone worked, he gave me something he called a laptop with a bag to carry it and keys to an apartment that he had been holding for me with a paper with the address. He then called for someone to take me there.

"You will remember in the next hours how it is supposed to be your life here. Also, other people should remember you with time, like I just remember you being the son of an old friend, who died last year. There's already someone going after some basic info on you, that will be passed to me. I will give you a flash drive, which you can connect here." He pointed at an entrance at the laptop. 

A young man entered the office. "Ah, you are ready. Son, do you remember Oscar? You were friends when you were kids?"

"Yeah, kinda. Here are the documents that you asked me for, we couldn't get the printer to work, that stalled me a bit, but here they are." He put a rectangular thing on the desk. Carl took and put the thing in his pocket.

"So, I liked your presentation. I will keep in contact." He smiled at me and extended his hands for me. I met them for the handshake and there was the thing. I put it in my pocket. "Marcus, can you take him to his house? It's late to take the subway."

After Marcus and I left we didn't talk until we got to his car. 

"So where do you live?" He asked me

"I just moved, so I don't know the address right, just how to get there. Yeah, weird. Here" I gave him the piece of paper. He typed on his phone. Carl didn't tell me they work like maps.

"The last time we talked we had like 12, I think? So how long do you program? I remember you wanting to be a comic artist. I mean you loved computers, but drawing was your thing." Crap, he remembered me more than I remembered him. Quick, stale.

"So you do remember me, huh? I needed money and trying to build a good portfolio costs time and cash, so I had to go for the easy one. Like it was that easy." How did I know all this? The memories of here are probably coming.

"Isn't your dad loaded? Why do you... Oh, right. At least we can get married. I mean not as in us, like you and me together, I mean... Gay I mean, I'm gay and gay marriage exists." He was blushing. "Anyway, you are probably not going to get hired. Every time he asks for a background check, he never hires someone after that, no matter what we find. But I have a friend that works in a cafe that is hiring. I am setting you up with it."

"That would be great." A few memories came back, and they revolved around being a barista, whatever the hell that is, so I thought everything would be okay. At least for now.