0:00

You

0:00

try to let your father down easy.

0:03

Well, that's not strictly true.

0:05

First, you try to avoid the question for

0:08

little longer. But then he

0:10

mentions that he's been pricing out flights

0:12

and you realize he might buy himself

0:15

a ticket and disappear on you.

0:17

and that's when you try to let him down easy.

0:21

It doesn't go well.

0:23

You feel like you're crushing his dreams.

0:26

In fact, he tells you you're crushing

0:28

his dreams. He pulls the I

0:30

might not have much longer to live card

0:32

more than once, and he's

0:34

not wrong. You call

0:36

Imani for backup, but even though for

0:39

once, she agrees with you, her bedside

0:41

manner leaves something to be desired.

0:44

By the end of the call, you're all

0:46

shouting at each other.

0:48

Somehow, the conversation is

0:50

no longer about a trip to Manila.

0:53

about everything? All

0:56

the things you've decided for your

0:58

father. All the things he hates about

1:00

his life, his condition, The

1:02

way he's losing control, the way

1:04

you've taken control from him.

1:07

Imani screams at you for taking him

1:09

away from Vanguard and he screams

1:11

back at her that he's happier at home with

1:13

his friend Manny. Imani

1:15

is convinced Manny is out for money,

1:18

or

1:18

his kidneys, or both. You

1:20

try to point out that your father's kidneys

1:23

probably aren't worth very much. And

1:25

apparently, that's the wrong thing to say.

1:28

Your dad threatens to go to Manila anyway.

1:31

Imani threatens to camp out outside his

1:33

home. At some point,

1:35

you hear the robotic cat in background

1:37

asking if everything is okay. There's

1:40

more yelling. Towards

1:42

the end, you put the phone down and lay

1:44

your cheek on your crappy kitchen counter

1:46

and close your eyes. You can

1:48

still hear them arguing. but it's reached

1:51

the stage where the two of them just

1:53

have to exhaust themselves. The

1:56

sound becomes a kind of stressful white

1:58

noise.

1:58

Your mind

1:59

drifts away to

2:01

your own future.

2:03

Your own eventual decline.

2:06

your

2:06

own currently non existent children

2:08

who might try in the future to

2:11

do the right thing but struggle.

2:13

and maybe even fail. You

2:16

hope they don't hand you over to robots. You

2:19

make a note to put that somewhere in a will

2:21

you don't currently have.

2:25

The argument winds down, and

2:27

it finally ends the way these things

2:29

always do. Good

2:30

shot.

2:33

That's that's one way to

2:35

put it.

2:36

Talk to you next week?

2:37

Yep. Lovey

2:39

Dad.

2:41

Lovey too.

2:43

They

2:43

hang up. Having forgotten about you,

2:45

which is normal. and

2:47

this time, oddly reassuring.

2:51

A month later, your father

2:53

dies peacefully in his sleep. he

2:56

leaves everything to Manny.

3:09

Vanguarda States is a production of FlashForward.

3:12

Story was written by me, Rosa edited

3:14

by Ace Tilton Ratcliffe and Georgia Wyatt

3:17

and produced by Aussie Minas Gibbon.

3:19

Sound Design is by Misha Stanton and the

3:21

music is by

3:22

Elon Bloch. Marcus

3:23

Jones was played by Keith Howiston. Amani

3:26

Jones was played by Shara Kirby. Robot

3:28

number one was played by Ashley Kellum.

3:30

Missy was played by Angelique Knappini You

3:33

can find out more about all of those amazing

3:35

editors, producers, sound designers, musicians,

3:38

and voice actors at flash forward pod

3:40

dot com. An earlier version of Welcome

3:42

to Vanguard Estates was performed live for

3:44

pop up magazine. You could also play

3:46

through a web version of the story at

3:48

flash forward pod dot com slash Vanguard,

3:51

which features some really cool illustrations by

3:53

Maddie Uchinsky. And of

3:55

course, if you don't like the way this one went,

3:57

there are thirteen other endings for you to

3:59

hear. So if you wanna know what else could

4:02

happen, head back to episode one

4:04

and start again.