The Fair

	It had been eleven years since the great explosion blanketed the sky in clouds of dust so thick that the light from the sun failed to reach Earth entirely and our satellites' signals couldn't reach us.  At first mankind blamed each other and went to war.  But no sunlight meant no water cycles for dam generators, solar power and thermal energy were long gone, and nuclear and coal power had long been outlawed and abandoned worldwide.  When batteries in flashlights died, firewood became scarce, and fresh food became a thing of dreams, the survivors set aside their petty differences and came together.  Eventually, what little high-science was left developed into a means to produce food from waste.  It was bland, flavorless, but it didn't taste bad and it did provide all the necessary nutrients to keep a person reasonably healthy.  Meanwhile, the Scandinavian government shared it's technological advance to the world.  Or, rather, sold it.  It was a strange, fitted headpiece that literally plugged into one's ears.  It converted sound waves into a strange sort of mental vision, and fed it directly into the ears, with the cost of shutting down all of one's other senses.  Since night vision required trace amounts of light and infrared only picked up heat, this was a Godsend, despite the inability to see what little there was or to smell the waste of the world around.
	It had been so long since she had seen light that Annalisa could hardly believe it.  There it was, in all it's resplendent glory: The Fair.  She had been hearing rumors of it for years, but nobody knew for sure.  And it was right there in front of her.  Shining so brightly down the hill that it caused eareyes to flare.  She had a crazy idea, and actually removed the headpiece for the first time in years.  At first she didn't see anything.  But eventually, as the electronic echoes died in her mind, her body turned back on her natural senses, and she saw, heard, and smelt for the first time in a very, very long time.  Great torches on long metal rods stuck into the ground burned brightly all around gave a warm, inviting appearance.  She heard, actually really HEARD people talking, laughing.  But the best part was the smell.  She could SMELL real food, fresh meat and vegetables, roasting over an open fire.  Her mouth watered at just the thought of tasting something again, and she dropped her headpiece as she sprinted down the hill.
	It wasn't until she got closer that she realized how big the place was.  From atop the hill, it looked like just another Fair from her childhood, but getting near she realized that the perpetual happiness of this place made it grow so much that it now extended further than she could see in any direction.  As she approached the outskirts she came near to a group of people talking excitedly about something she couldn't hear.  She attempted to walk past them, but one man held up a hand and the conversation stopped as he walked up to Annalisa.  He must have been able to tell she was new here, because he simply said "Welcome!"  He then took her by the hand and led her into the festival.  They walked past booths and tents, displays and shops and every manner of thing one could wish for.  Eventually, they reached a clearing with tables where people were eating, and he released her hand.  She looked back, but he was gone, presumably back to where he came from.
	She was soon in the middle of a decades-long party that showed no signs of ending, and she was happily lost forever in it's unending glory.  As a few children ran by, laughing at their game, she approached a food stall.  The smiling man handed her a delicious-looking leg of turkey or chicken or something else (it'd been so long she couldn't remember what it actually was) without asking for payment of any kind.  She took a seat on a well worn bench next to a woman she didn't know, and bit into the juicy, greasy meat.  It all came to her then.  Everything she had missed over the years; sights, sounds, smells.  It never would have occurred to her in the past, but the entire world could be taken for granted.  She something green, and the simple fact that her once-favorite color could still exist, somewhere in the world gave her undying hope.  She began to cry.  Large, happy tears rolled down her face as she came to the realization of why only rumors and not actual accounts of The Fair existed.  She had found it.  She wasn't sure how or why it was still here, great as ever eleven years later, and she didn't care.  She was here, and like everyone else who had ever made it, she was sure, she never wanted to leave.