Stubenhocker

Stubenhocker [A4A] [nostalgia] [looking ack in time] [scifi] [old memories from 2020]

A little piece I wrote, it was based on a single word, a word I didn't know exist before 2020. A word that does describe a part of who I am though. So, I just imagined how it looked like from afar, how 2020 will look like from the future. I would like to thank the inkwell discord server for being awesome in general and for launching a "one word challenge" in particular.
stubenhocker describe people who tend to stay at home and only have a few social interaction.

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Stubenhocker… stubenhocker…
Do you remember the first time you saw this word?
It was quite, quite some time ago…
What was the year?
One of those crazy mid-century years?
No, it was earlier, wasn’t it?
That year when things changed.
The year of red skies…

Many things had happened before, but it was…
How to put it?
Outside of your little world?
Outside of your daily life?
A drought here, a war there, but so far away…
And, you, you were the little stubenhocker.
A few friends, a small family, a little garden…
But history, human, doesn’t happen far away.
It doesn’t happen in the past.
And liberty is an eternal fight.
And life too.

Yes, you do remember now, it was the year 2020.
2020, 20 times worse any.
“The year of the virus, fires,
Locusts and red skies.”
The year of red skies…

Don’t you remember?
Being a stubenhocker was the law.
People weren’t protected back then…
People weren’t used to it.
And, as weird as it seems, some didn’t even believe in it.
In drought, death in the air and red skies.
It is weird how the mind works, isn’t it?
But physics doesn’t negotiate…
And viruses don’t believe in conspiracies.

There were also those preppers.
Those who planned for the apocalypse.
Those who loved the apocalypse.
Those who put their trust in canned food and bullets.
Where are they, now?
You have some pity when you think about them.

Although you were envious at the time…
Don’t you remember, human?
Envious and afraid…
But there is no hope in a canned life..
And bullets don’t cure loneliness.
They only shorten suffering…

And, you, you were the little stubenhocker.
A few friends, a small family, a little garden…
But history, human, happened, as it always does.
And you went through it.

History, human is also about those neighbors.
Don’t you remember?
Those who came and see you?
Those who opened the shell?
The door of your house, little stubenhocker.
The door of your house.

Don’t you remember?
They weren’t pure, but who is?
They needed to survive, who doesn’t?
And you needed to, human.
You needed to.

But closed shells don’t live.
No more than those who piled canned food and bullets.
And your neighbors saved your life.
They saved your life.

They didn’t come for that.
They just came because they wanted to see you.
Also, they needed your tools.
Also, they had food to share.
And you had some too.
And not only that, human.
Not only that.

Don’t you remember?
Their children playing with yours?
Behind the closed doors?
You do remember don’t you?
The same way you remember that liberty is an eternal fight.
Liberty is an eternal fight.
And life too.

They saved your life that day.
And you saved theirs, human.
Although none of you realized it, at the time.
Under the red skies.
None of you realized.

You softly laugh when you think about it.
How did you miss something that obvious?
Something that humans had known forever?
Nobody thought about it.
They just did it.
You just did it.
You just felt like it was normal.
And it was in a way.

In a way, it was…

It was quite a long time ago, wasn’t it?
The time when you were a stubenhocker.
In the weird twenties.
And now, a new set of twenties is coming.
And they seem to look better.
Nothing ever is sure, and liberty is a fight.
But things look better.
And you do.

You look much better now.
And you know what saved you.
What kept you alive.
What keeps you alive and strong.
You know why you want to see these twenties, and the next ones.
You also know why you will see them.
And why your door has no lock.

Your door has no lock human.
And, it is so evident, that there is no name for that.