Seth

Seth awoke to the sound of his alarm. Turning it off, he grabbed some clothes, and a towel. He took a shower, and then after drying, got dressed. After walking downstairs, he poured a bowl of cereal, and had breakfast. He slipped into his shoes as he left for work.

At work, he typed in front of the computer screen. Reading his new emails about what his next assignment in the project would be, he prepared a new project space for his programming. After a few hours of working, he was off duty, and he headed to college.

When he arrived, he went to the cafeteria, where his friends normally spent their time between classes. He sat at their table and listened to them talk about things. A few minutes later, he pulled out his lunch which he had packed the previous night. Quietly eating, he continued to listen to his friends talk about a wide range of topics. From the absurd, to the crazy, to funny, and serious, Seth found the flowing conversations his friends had intriguing.

Shortly after his friends had started to depart for class, Seth also had to leave for class. He had been hanging out with his friends for an hour and he didn't want to be late. As Seth walked to class alone, he frowned slightly. It was going to be just another day, after all, he thought.

Arriving in class, he paid close attention to the teacher. There was a test next week. Seth took notes, and highlighted several lines in his textbook. Seth would likely make a "B" on this test, after all, his record in testing was fairly consistent. After class, Seth went to the library and looked up a few materials he needed to reference in a paper due in a few weeks.

When he had finished at the library, Seth sat outside the Student Facilities building. There were lots of people there, and some of them were doing interesting tricks on the pavement. One guy was juggling, another guy was riding on single-wheel mini-skateboards (one for each foot), and there was a group of girls who were playing hacky sack with a rainbow colored Hacky ball.

Seth waited for several hours, hoping one of his friends would hang out with him, but none of them did. Many of his friends passed by, but none of them spent any time with him. Feeling a bit let down, Seth drove back home.

Before he started on his homework, he started dinner. It would cook while he was studying in the dining room. He spread his books out on the table, as well as his notes and reference materials. He studied, and when it was time to check the food, he found that it was ready to eat. Putting his study materials and homework away, he got out his plate, and served his dinner. Seth was a bit tired of eating alone, but the food tasted good, so he ate in silence again.

As he headed to bed, he softly sang a song. It had a tune, but no words. As he sang, he thought about his routine. It was typical. Today had been another regular day. Nothing new or special had happened. Nothing terrible, and nothing especially good either.

Quietly, he set his alarm for the next day, and then went to sleep. Laying in bed, waiting for sleep, tears fell from his eyes. But it was all part of his routine. Tonight would be no different.

The next day, Seth got to experience something different. After arriving at his college, he dropped his wallet getting out of his car and didn't notice. Then he tripped while he was walking to class. He fell down the hill, and landed in a ditch, slightly hidden from view. His head hit a sharp rock, and Seth died an hour later while he was still unconscious.

Several weeks later, someone smelled something horrible coming from the ditch, and when they looked, they found a decaying corpse. There was no form of identification on him at the time, so they tried to match his dental records. They found him. Seth's cause of death was obviously an accident, and even after investigation, it was determined he was a victim of circumstance, not foul play. There was no next-of-kin to call, so he got a typical state cremation. His assets were sold to pay for expenses, and his house was put up for sale.

A month after Seth's accident, Seth's boss sent out an email asking if anyone had seen the program for the project that should have been completed by then. The reply he received was that nobody knew who was supposed to do it. He reassigned the program to one of the other workers, and sent an email to Seth's email account.

"Stx035, because of your failure to turn in the work that we requested of you, your independent service contract has been annulled. Should you wish to turn in the program, you may do so no later than November 8th to receive compensation for work completed."

On the following day, Seth's friends (whom he had sat with daily) at college were talking when one of them suddenly stopped, asking an unusual question. "Hey, guys... does it feel like... something... or someone, is missing? I thought we had more people here normally."

Another one of the people at the table spoke up to address this claim. "Nah, I don't think so. I mean, we would have noticed, right? After all, we're all here every day, give or take a few. Seems like we're all here. You're probably just imagining it."

At the end of the semester, several teachers were disappointed. One professor wrote in her personal journal that there had been a student named Seth whom never showed up for class, but somehow always had his assignments turned in until around October, when he missed the first test. After that, not only did he never show up in class, but he failed to turn in any further work. She guessed that he had probably withdrawn from the class, but had not done so officially, and she was sad that she had to give this otherwise average student making "B"s on most assignments an "F" for the semester.

Nobody living knows about Seth's past. Although in pain and alone, Seth still had lived somehow, but now all that is left of Seth is this story. Nobody remembered him, nobody noticed him, and nobody cared.