Keep Scrolling

Keep Scrolling by Eric Hammitt

**Image belongs to Blue Chair Ep. 59 - Busy-Work**

Post a funny picture, not mine, but with my own original caption so that makes it okay;

Blip;

Check on it and see that it got eight likes;

Don’t really care, but I get a sense of gratification anyways;

Check my feed, some funny stuff, some dumb stuff, some horrifying stuff;

Keep scrolling;

See a black and white picture of a former coworker I haven’t seen in over a year;

Stop scrolling;

Thinking back, she was nice, and attractive, I wonder what she’s been up to;

Read the post;

RIP Rachel we will miss you;

What?

Go to her page, it can’t be that she’s…

Dead;

Keep scrolling;

Rachel, we miss you;

Rachel, you were a great friend;

Rachel, you will be reunited with your mom soon;

Keep scrolling;

Obsessively look for any details;

Natural causes?

Car accident?

Drug overdose?

Keep scrolling;

Anything would be better than not knowing;

Nothing;

Just the same three black and white photos over and over;

Rachel, you left too soon;

Rachel, you were an amazing person;

Rachel, we didn’t tell you how much you meant to us;

Keep scrolling;

Why?

There are wars happening, people starving, lives burning down across the world;

Yet all I can think about is a girl that I barely knew, dying, just across the Mississippi River;

Search her page;

Nothing;

Search the obituaries;

Nothing;

Search the entire web;

Nothing;

Can’t find a cause of death and it’s driving me insane;

Blip;

Stop scrolling;

My post from earlier got another like, this time from my crush;

Forget why I was so angry, so confused;

Attention set elsewhere;

Some pop star I don’t care about nor listen to is apparently having an affair;

Twelve articles pop up about the adulterous act;

Don’t find any amusing or interesting in the slightest;

Give them a like;

Blip;

My post is up to seventeen likes;

Keep scrolling;

Rachel already forgotten…