In Another World by Robert McBrearty

My son and my nephew, in their early thirties, both scientists, were sitting in my kitchen drinking and talking about going to Mars, while I stood at the stove flipping burgers. This world was more or less ruined, they thought, and we’d best start fresh on Mars. They wanted to be among the first to go, and they swished their glasses about and tapped them on the table as they discussed the problems of how to get there and survive. They needed to figure out something to do with the algorithms, and I said, turning from the stove with a platter of food, yes, that’s always the problem isn’t it, the algorithms. Their eyes shone brightly with mild inebriation, and they asked eagerly if I would like to go to Mars with them. I brought over our burgers and sat down with them, said sure, it would be okay if I could do the things I like to do here, like sit in a café, or watch a football game on TV, or play a round of golf now and then. They hoisted their thick burgers and glanced at each other, and I could tell they thought they’d better leave me behind, that Mars would be wasted on me.

Robert McBrearty’s work has appeared previously in The Pushcart Prize, The Cafe Irreal, Whale Road Review, Cleaver, Fiction International, Laurel Review, Narrative, The Missouri Review, and in many other anthologies and literary journals. His latest collection of short stories is forthcoming in University of New Mexico Press.