2043 A.D. Page 5

  “You don’t need to worry about getting him started. We spoke to him at school today, and believe it or not, he’s already joined the program!”

  “Really? Deron joined something?”

  “Yes. He did. And he started without delay.”

  “He didn’t come home after school today. I was looking for him when you found me. Why didn’t anyone talk to me about this before?”

  “I apologize for that. It’s a new program and things got a little disordered with different departments not communicating as well as they should have. But now you know where he is, and what he’s doing. He started the program today, and since it’s a residential program, he’s at our facility. If things had been done in the correct sequence, we would’ve spoken to you first and gotten your consent.”

  Johnny opened his briefcase and extracted a manila folder.

  “All we need now is for you to sign a few papers giving your consent for Deron to participate. If you’ll do that, he’ll be able to stay in the program and complete his orientation tonight and get acquainted with the other kids. It’s a bit like summer camp with all of the youngsters having plenty of time for group activities when they’re not in the special classes to teach them ideal behaviors.”

  Johnny slid some papers across the table and produced a pen.

  “Is there anything I need to know? Is there medication involved?”

  “That’s up to the study participants. Sometimes the kids will request sleep-aids, or anti-anxiety meds. There are physicians on staff who deal with that type of thing. But unless they make such requests, medication is not part of the program.”

  “It sounds like it would be very good for Deron. This is just so sudden and unexpected.”

  “You’re right. It is. And if Deron is going to become a model citizen and an example for others to look up to, the sooner, the better. Don’t you think, Kathleen?”

  After she signed the papers and Johnny returned them to his case, they finished their coffee and chatted briefly about the program in general. At some point Eric gave Johnny a signal Kathleen didn’t see and he excused himself and went outside to wait in their patrol car.

  “I hope you don’t think this is too forward or inappropriate since I’m the one who talked to you about your son entering this program, but I was wondering if you’d like to attend the Quarterly Event with me?”

  Kathleen blushed, looked down at the table for a few seconds, then looked up directly into Eric’s eyes and said she’d love to.

  Twelve

  One of the cool things about Jenny was that she not only had her own car, but she was allowed to drive it manually. Any kid could have one if they could get their parents to consent. And most parents were still hesitant to grant such autonomy to their teens, even with automated driving and the ability to know the car’s location in real time and see inside the car via the rear-facing dashcam. But Jenny’s parents were considered super cool, letting her do just about anything she wanted.

  On this night, Jenny and Michelle headed to a club where age laws for alcohol consumption and any other mind-altering substance were not an issue. Its location was not advertised, but the right people knew where to find it. Hallucinogens were not legal for those under eighteen, but authorities merely monitored such parties as well as the kids’ vital signs via their chips and allowed them to think they were getting away with something.

  "Did you hear about the bust yesterday in the library?" Jenny asked, hoping Michelle hadn't so she could deliver the news.

  “At school?"

  "Yeah. In the library of all places!"

  "No. What happened?" Michelle asked, instantly curious.

  "Do you know Deron - that total bookworm guy that's actually kinda cute?" Jenny now had Michelle's complete attention.

  Michelle thought Deron couldn't possibly have been arrested for anything other than possession of tobacco, but references to bookworm, library, and cute definitely sounded like "her" Deron. "You mean Deron Young?"

  "I have no idea what his last name is," Jenny answered.

  "I think I know who you mean. What happened?"

  Jenny said, "Well, I wasn't there, but I heard that he must've done something really, really bad because the FBI was at school today and they arrested him – in the library of all places! Can you believe that??"

  Michelle was concerned. She also felt guilt coming on strong. Surprisingly strong, and seemingly from out of nowhere.

  "I wonder what he could've done," she said, hoping her curiosity sounded normal and that her voice didn't betray her rapidly beating heart and the unsettling fear she was now feeling.

  Jenny swung the car into a diagonal parking space in front of what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse, turned off the car and said, "Maybe he killed his parents or something."

  "Deron only has a mom," Michelle said, without thinking.

  Deliberately, or not, Jenny didn't pick up on the fact that Michelle had more than a passing acquaintance with Deron. She turned on the dome light and checked her make-up, hair, and lips in the rear view mirror.

  "Are you ready to party?" Jenny asked with a mischievous smile.

  Feeling less and less like partying with every passing second, Michelle exclaimed, "I can't wait!”

  ***

  The elevator doors opened to a very different looking lobby; no carpet or oak trim here. Marble and chrome were dominant. Deron noticed that even the security desk was different. Only one guy here at a simple desk, and if he was armed, it wasn't apparent.

  Structurally, this floor was the same as the one they had started on. Again there was the desk in front of them, with a single narrow hallway beyond the desk with doors on either side of the hall. This lobby also had potted palm trees, giving it a more casual air.

  Deron saw that the doors in the long hall had nameplates on them rather than numbers like the floor he had woken on. They were apparently in an administrative part of the building.

  "This way, please," Doctor Fielding spoke. Deron followed wordlessly as they passed the security guard and went down a hallway to the farthest door on the left. The doctor extracted a key card, swiped it through the lock and opened the door to his office, motioning for Deron to enter.

  The first thing Deron noticed as he stepped from the light colored marble floor onto the plush, carpeted floor was that on side of the room there was an enormous aquarium that spanned the entire length of the wall.

  Deron knew as little about fish species as he knew about Indian cuisine or nano-technology but it was clear to him that this aquarium was filled with rare, exotic fish. He'd never seen anything like them. He recognized the sea horses and the manta rays, but the rest of the fish were an astonishing array of multicolored and unusual species that would've otherwise captured his attention completely were it not for the circumstances in which he found himself observing them.

  "Have a seat," the doctor said. Deron remained standing for a few seconds then walked closer to the glass wall of the aquarium. The closer he got, the more he sensed something not quite right about this aquarium, but he couldn't identify what it was.

  Doctor Fielding saw the combination of perplexity and admiration on Deron's face and said, "It's digital. Not an ounce of water or a single fish. Pretty nice, isn't it?"

  Deron declined to answer as he continued to stare at the fish and their digital habitat. Knowing now that none of it was real, he visually sought out but couldn’t discern any pixels or two-dimensionality in the entire aquatic display.

  "Deron, I have a lot to go over with you. If you'd like, I can arrange another time for you to come up and view my eQuarium."

  Deron spun around abruptly, feeling his anger return. "I'm underwhelmed by your hospitality. Let's forget the fish and get right to the point. You kidnapped me and now I'm being held prisoner. I want to know why."

  Dr. Fielding laughed and said, "Now, Deron… I apologize for the manner in which you were admitted to the facility, but I can assure you that you were not kidnap
ped, nor are you a prisoner. Let me begin by.... Deron? Deron! Please! Hear me out…”

  Deron had abruptly turned around and headed toward the door. As he opened it he turned to the doctor and said, "You said I'm not a prisoner, so I'm leaving." He shut the door behind him and walked toward the lobby.

  Thirteen

  After his bizarre conversation with Kathleen, Charlie found it harder than ever to continue reading. He couldn't keep his mind focused on the written words. He'd begin to read a sentence, reach the middle of a paragraph, then he’d find himself wondering where Deron was and realize he had no idea what he’d just read. He decided he would try to take a nap and got up to turn off the light he had turned on when Kathleen called. He almost never used verbal commands with the house.

  He knew that as soon as he turned off the lamp the house would turn on baseboard lights for a few minutes for his safety. It was almost impossible to experience total darkness anymore. When the house detected motion during a time of darkness, it would turn on the nearest lights that ran at twelve inch intervals along the baseboards in every room. These lights were designed to provide a minimal but sufficient amount of light with which to maneuver through the premises for brief nocturnal trips, such as to the bathroom or kitchen without imposing optical discomfort on the just awakened occupant. If Charlie's presence remained in the living room and continued to engage in detectable motion, then a lamp would come on, assuming that he was staying up regardless of the late hour and would thus need more light than that provided by the baseboards.

  Technology made modern living easier, they said. But Charlie thought of it as one more way that control of your own life was taken away from you. What if he wanted to sit there and enjoy the fading light and just feel the night coming on? What if he wanted to read until it was too dark to see and then lapse into a nap? Or what if he fell asleep reading while there was still daylight, and wanted to stay asleep but got wakened by the lamp being turned on automatically, as had happened to him before?

  "Ah, nuts!" he exclaimed as he turned off the lamp. Then he turned it on again and off again, repeating the sequence about five times with the childish hope that he'd cause the computer's brain to overload or short-circuit or something. After he stopped playing with the light switch, during which time the computer actually did nothing but wait, Charlie just stood there as if he didn't know where to go or what to do next.

  Ordinarily, he would be reading or napping, or he would start to manually cook dinner at about this time. Or he might turn on the television, which he did less and less now, to watch the news and get caught up on how much more wretched the world had gotten. But right now, he wasn't hungry. He had tried and failed to read. The thought of the news broadcast filled him with a thick sense of frustration and dread. He hated the world he lived in now. He knew he was a relic; longing for a world that was dead and had no hope of ever returning.

  He felt there was no place for him in this new world. Post-war rebuilding had given people a chance to rebuild their nation better than it was before, but in Charlie’s opinion the government had reconstituted itself with an eye toward keeping the worst elements and with less good than ever.

  If pressed, he would probably concede that his definitions of good and bad were not empirical. Yes, it was true that crimes against people were practically non-existent, and that was good. But the amount of ridiculous crime was through the roof. People were cited with infractions every day, all day. It wasn’t safe to go outside anymore with the Equality Enforcement Corps everywhere you looked, and the fact that if you merely failed to wave to what Charlie referred to as a “BLTG” neighbor, they could report you as a possible bigot. At least before the war, you knew when you were doing something wrong.

  Thinking of the war reminded him of his beloved dog, Feenix. He called her name and listened for the sound of her jumping down from his bed to join him in the living room. Charlie had found the German shepherd puppy in Phoenix, Arizona where he had taken his daughter and her young son to get them away from the corruption of California. When Charlie went to the police to tell them that his fifteen year old daughter had been impregnated by a thirty-seven year old man, the officer at the desk stared at him expectantly, then finally asked, “And…?”

  Charlie concluded that his child and grandson were no longer safe in southern California, despite the burgeoning peace and prosperity. But Arizona was worse. If California had too much government that cared about all of the wrong things, Arizona had no government. It was like the old west, but without so much as a single sheriff. He reluctantly returned to Orange County and vowed to keep Kathleen locked up until she was an adult. That lasted about a week before she invoked her recently instituted Child’s Rights and resumed her regular partying, leaving him to take care of Deron most of the time. Charlie didn’t mind having to watch his grandson though. Raising the young boy and the dog gave him a new lease on life. He had been convinced he’d never love again after the death of his wife.

  Charlie headed down the hall to his darkened bedroom to see if Feenix was asleep. He knew she didn't have a lot of time left, but each day he tried to avoid thinking that this could be her last.

  He entered his room and said, "Light," instead of touching the wall plate as he normally did. The light came on in its gradual way – starting as a soft illumination, decorating the room with shadows and continuing to brighten until the occupant either said, "Stop" or it reached the full 50 watt illumination. Charlie let it reach full brightness as he stood there staring at Feenix on the bed, certain that she wasn't breathing.

  "No," he whispered, straining to see if her chest was moving up and down, even a little bit. "Please don't be dead, Feenix." He walked to his bed and lowered himself to his knees. He reached out and gently laid his left hand on her ribcage. He felt soft fur and no movement at all. She didn't suddenly wake up and look at him as she normally would’ve. Charlie buried his face in her fur and felt a pain in his heart that seemed stronger than a pain could possibly be in the absence of physical injury.

  Feenix wasn’t just Charlie’s best friend. She was his only friend. All he had left now was family.

  Fourteen

  The two girls stood in a line of more than forty people waiting to get in to the underground dance club. Jenny took a drag from the real clove cigarette she and Michelle were sharing, blew out half the smoke she had drawn from it and inhaled the rest before passing it back to Michelle. From where they stood, about ten people back in the line, they could feel bass sound thumping through the walls. The fast electronic beat filled Jenny with anticipation. They'd only been standing in line for about five minutes, but to Jenny it felt longer. She wanted in now. The whole line thing was a joke, she knew. The club was illegal to begin with so there was no need to monitor occupancy. Making people wait was just to make them feel really special for getting in at all. It was also a way to make extra cash on bribes. Some people were turned away by the doorman when they reached the head of the line. Others were motioned to bypass the line when the doorman felt so inclined.

  Jenny had thought their matching sexy outfits would have gotten them right in without delay. Maybe they still would if she could manage to get the doorman’s attention. Even with the outlandish costumes most of the people in line were wearing, Michelle and Jenny stood out in their black rabbit fur bikini tops and matching micro skirts. Michelle had at first rejected the outfit when Jenny presented it to her earlier in the evening, but after a while, she was talked into it when Jenny made a detailed list of things wrong with what Michelle had planned to wear.

  Michelle finally relented and went into the bathroom to try on the few inches of furry clothing. She felt extremely exposed, even though her outfit covered more than Jenny's. As the two girls stood in front of the large mirror above Jenny's bureau, Michelle saw how the tiny top was insufficient to cover Jenny's breasts. Both outfits were the same size, but Jenny was more endowed, causing a half inch or so of the bottom of Jenny's breasts to be visible. Michelle
tugged down on her top a little as if her own breasts were exposed. Then she pulled her skirt down a little as she noticed that Jenny's skirt also failed to entirely cover her ass.

  "My god, we look hot!" Jenny had exclaimed, unable to take her eyes off her own reflection. Now, a few hours later, she decided to put her outfit to its first good use and see if she could get them moved to the head of the line. "Let me see that," she said to Michelle, indicating the clove cigarette. Michelle handed it to her and Jenny dropped it to the ground and stepped on it, twisting the front of her high-heeled shoe left and right, swiveling her ass as she did so.

  Michelle looked at her, puzzled.

  "Watch," Jenny said, then she stepped out of line and headed straight for the big, bald man guarding the door. She had planned to use needing a light as her excuse for talking to the doorman, but ended up not needing to.

  As she passed other people in line who were also provocatively dressed, she didn’t doubt her ability to be more attention-getting than her competition. She saw a girl near the front of the line with tight black pants and a painted on top giving the appearance of a shirt where there wasn’t one. Less is more, Jenny thought to herself. Show 'em everything and they've got nothing left to be curious about.

  Zeke, the doorman would have agreed with her. He'd seen plenty of skin as a doorman/bouncer at underground clubs, and even more at his regular job at a strip club. Now he found himself more drawn to girls that were less exposed, leaving something to the imagination. When he saw Jenny approaching alongside the line of waiting people, she had his full attention. His eyes went straight to her top and the exposed flesh coming out the bottom of it. "Hey, baby. According to your tits, your top is too small."

  Jenny, feigning ignorance of what he was talking about, glanced down at her chest and said, "Oops!" She smiled demurely at him and said, "I just painted my nails and they're not fully dry yet, could you help me with my top?" Zeke smiled and slid his fingers under the furry top and pulled it down to cover the bottom of her breasts. He pulled the top down so far that he fully covered the bottom of her breasts, and at the same time exposed her erect nipples.