Hughtopias

Buddha’s Wife -   2020-2021 - ver09e - short fiction by Hugh Tayler I closed the dishwasher on the breakfast dishes and called up the stairs to my wife in her studio, "I'm going to check the Free Table, see what's out there this morning." It was a nice day, considering that there was a pandemic. People were de-cluttering that summer as they spent more time at home. Lots of that clutter ended up on the Free Table, out on the boulevard in front of our townhouse. One of the principles of running a Free Table or a Free Store or a Free Space in an apartment recycling area is that someone has to fill in the gaps left by volunteer anarchy. I put on my baseball cap, checked my t-shirt and sweatpants for dishwater, put on my mask and gloves, and went out to the sidewalk. Some jerks had left two paper coffee cups on the Free Table next to a big pile of free kids' clothes. Better coffee cups than another bag of dog poop. I edged away from the table because there was a woman

 Why the plural name? I wrote a set of notes years ago where I used "Hughtopia" to describe a world where more people thought logically, the way I would like to think myself. But there are a lot of better futures that are possible, better than a Hughtopia where people are literal and logical to a fault. So: Hughtopias. Plural. Besides, the singular form was already taken. ***