Garrett stood and paced between his desk and bed. “Nothing really, Opal.”
“Garrett.”
“Okay, fine.” Garrett threw his arms into the air in defeat. “Don’t you think this is odd?”
“What do you mean?” Opal’s eyebrows creased into waves of confusion.
“While we were at the Cultivation Dome today, I began to wonder how it is that they grow everything so well. Like, how is it that the crops rarely fail? Don’t you think that’s suspicious?”
“Suspicious?” Opal stared at him.
“Yes, suspicious…like it doesn’t make sense. Think about it, how can you grow that immense number of plants with hardly any failing?”
“Garrett, if you’d paid attention instead of sneaking off to do whatever it was you did, you would have learned that the cultivation scientists have spent decades perfecting growing conditions for the plants inside the dome. They also monitor each plant closely for any signs of illness. Every plant has a camera trained on it so it can be watched on a consistent basis.”
Pacing again, Garrett considered Opal’s words. It made perfect sense. The monitors he’d seen and all the personnel in the back room working with different plants. Perhaps he was blowing things out of proportion.
Shaking off his previous thought, he countered, “Okay, what about how our society works. Don’t you ever wonder how it all works so perfectly? How creating a Life Plan allows us to plan out our lives to give us everything we could ever want?”
Speechless, Opal allowed her mouth to hang agape.
“Haven’t you?” Garrett awaited a response with his arms outstretched and palms up.
“Not really, Garrett. I just know that it does work. It always has. Plus, it doesn’t give you everything that you could ever want. You aren’t permitted to detail every single thing. There are still surprises to be had in life.”
“I know, but who decides and controls how they’re implemented? We submit our Plans to City Hall and on Submission Day we are approved or denied. Then the following day—Declaration Day—we’re told if it was approved or not in front of the entire city. But who does the approving and denying? Why is the year we turn seventeen our deadline? Why not twenty? Or thirty? Or ten?”
Shrugging, Opal responded, “I don’t know, Garrett, but why does it matter? If you think that questioning the system is going to keep you from having to write your Life Plan, then you’re wrong.” Standing and striding over to Garrett, Opal added, “Do you really want to become one of the Undecided?”
“No, I don’t. But who decides that people will be one of the Undecided? Who assigns the Undecided their jobs and overall fates?”
“The Council does…you know that.”
“What council? All everyone does is to refer to it as ‘The Council.’ No one has ever seen this so-called council. We don’t know if it is a person like us or something else.”
Puzzled, Opal couldn’t help asking a question herself. “Where is this coming from? I’ve never seen you so inquisitive about anything this much before.”
Collapsing down onto his bed, Garrett groaned, “I don’t know. I’ve just been thinking about it a lot lately. I guess today really solidified it for me.” Rising to a sitting position, Garrett further explained, “That’s why I went exploring at the Cultivating Grounds today. I had to find out what was going on there. How are the Cultivating Grounds able to produce enough food for the entire province and maintain a sustainable harvest each season? How is it that nothing dies? How is the system so perfect?”
This side of Garrett was one Opal had yet to see. Usually, Garrett was the type of person who skated by on the bare minimum level of effort. Never had he been so curious about anything in their society.
Guessing that the increasing pressure from the impending Submission Day had something to do with it, Opal sat down next to Garrett. “Garrett, I think you need to start writing your Life Plan. This inquisitiveness about the inner workings of our society is just driving you mad. You’re asking questions that no one knows the answer to. Not to mention that most people don’t even ask these questions.”
Garrett whipped around to face Opal. “How have you never asked these questions, Opal? You’re the smartest person our age I know. You’re probably the smartest person I know altogether. How can you not ponder this?”
Ashamed, Opal couldn’t admit that she had thought of those questions. Ever since birth, she was raised that her entire life depended on the choices she made for her Life Plan. It was simply the way things were.
“I can tell by your silence that you haven’t.” Garrett shook his head. “I’m disappointed in you, Opal. Out of anyone else in the world, I would have bet on you having thought these same thoughts at one time.”
At that moment, Mr. Snuggles appeared, rubbing his gray body against Opal’s leg and meowing. Opal leaned down to pick him up and stroked his fur. “Garrett, I don’t think any of that matters. It is what it is. We can’t change the way the world works, it’s just this way and we have to live with it.”
A flicker of the excitement and passion in Garrett’s brown eyes diminished and Opal began to feel bad. “Look, Garrett, I’ll help you with your Life Plan. You don’t have to do it alone. I know each person has to write their own, but nothing in the rules says that they have to plan everything on their own.”
“Forget it, Opal.” Garrett stood and walked over to the silver sciorb cube on his desk. “I just thought maybe you’d be as curious as I am about it. I thought we could try to uncover the answers to it ourselves. Perhaps we could figure it out and be the ones to tell everyone else.” Garrett ran the fingers of his right
