We begin in media res. The space object, Omegalith, has been visible from Earth for seven years. It has thus far been considered inactive. The scientist, Perleski, is about to tell the general, Obiro, something to the contrary.
Perleski: “I believe it’s affecting us. Changing our mind…”
Obiro: “About what?”
“Not our mind. Our mind.”
[?]
“I have one mind. We have multiple mind.”
“Perleski?”
“How many child do you have, general?”
“Five child… three son and two daughter—what… the… fuck?”
In that moment, the two man realised something odd was going on. They decided to inform the president so he could tell the American person.
They flew to washington.
“are you crazy!” the president yelled, after obiro had explained the situation.
“no, sir,” said perleski. “try it. say something plural.”
“i’m the goddamn president of the united state,” said the president—his voice suddenly dropping, “of america.
“and the one… of you is… sure this is caused by omegalith?”
he said in unison, “pretty sure, sir.”
meanwhile, somewhere in nebraska, a boy asked his teacher, who was writing on a whiteboard, “how come big a looks like that?” the teacher laughed and—
“humanity has lost capitalisation,” perleski told the gathered press.
“what about other language?” asked a fox journalist.
“can i do anything?” asked one from abc.
“every language is affected. the most you can do is communicate with your loved one while theres still time.”
and so it was that, as a species, i lost plurality, capital and apostrophe. yet that was merely the beginning. over the following week and month, i began to lose other form of punctuation, including semicolon, colon and all manner of dash. comma and period persisted the longest but even it was destined for destruction
it was evening perleski sat hugging his wife and daughter watching the setting sun i love i i said
i love i too said i wife
i looked at i
i daughter looked at i too i expressions blank
pronoun i said finally
i cried
together i cried together i grieved the disappearing sun knowing i daughter would never know the beautiful language i once had called i own
but i was not the end of i
the president of the united state committed suicide in the oval office during a televised speech i shot i after declaring i could take no more madness the transmission was cut but i had seen i do i and amid the ensuing chaos i lose the past and future tense
i speak now only in the present
one night omegalith pulses in the sky emitting blinding ray of light
i hide with i wife and i daughter
i is scared
i is scared too i say
omegalith opens and i watch as out from i appears
i
oh god i cannot look at i i cover i eyes as i eyes melt and pulsing i approaches i
what happens i ask
if only
if only i have the word to say