Big Data, Little Girls

By Cameron Gallant

Topic: Surveillance Society
Time: Futuristic
Word Count: 1495

This story participated in Future Problem Solving Program International's 2014 International Conference.

SAMPLE (257 words out of 1496 words)

I’m lying on my back in the dark room. A black-haired girl keeps telling me to stop talking to myself. I’m not crazy.
I avoid the other girls whenever I can. The black mascara and bubblegum pink lipstick they wear makes them look strangely subhuman. I probably look the same way, but these girls are different—ominous reminders of my bleak future. Whoever the girls were, they were changed: their wills broken, their names erased, their pride and freedom replaced with subservience and omnipresent fear.
I focus my vision on the only girl in the room who is not wearing makeup. She looks pretty, her features like my sister’s. My eyes begin to tear thinking about my family.
“What’s your name?” I ask the girl who looks like my sister, but the black-haired girl interrupts.
“My name’s Abigail.” I know it is a lie because that’s the name our masters assigned her. Each of us was assigned a new name upon arrival.
“No!” My voice is mingled with defiance and frustration. Even though I wasn’t talking to her, I feel compelled to answer. “It’s not.”
Abigail bites her lip, as if expecting a pain serum to be released from the microchip under her skin. She hesitates, but turns away.
A couple moments later, the girl who looks like my sister says softly, “I’m Flora.” She looks down shyly and brushes her brown hair from her face.
Jasmine is my assigned name, but I hate it even though it’s a flower name.
“Hi Flora,” I murmur. “I’m Lily.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cameron Gallant
• Release date: Sep 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370736775

Cameron Gallant

I love writing with purpose. I meticulously craft my novels, short stories, and poems in order to cause readers to think, laugh, and/or feel warm and fuzzy inside as if they just drank something hot on a frigid day. I enjoy reading stories with twists and surprise endings, stories with powerful friendships between characters, and stories that make me laugh.

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