Once Opal became a speck in the distance and rounded the corner out of sight, Garrett left the transporter behind and made his own way home. Thinking of how many times Opal had made this trip, he figured that it wouldn’t be a big deal for him to return to the library the following day. True, he would have to make another excuse that his mother would believe. She’d never believe that he’d gone to the library two days in a row. No, his mom was too smart for that. However, he had a whole day to come up with a better excuse.
His interwave rang in his pocket. Retrieving it and holding it up to his ear, the call automatically answered upon contact with his skin, “Hello?”
“Hey, Garrett, what are you up to?” wondered Opal.
Startled, Garrett responded, “Nothing, just sitting in front of my desk, staring at the empty page that is my Life Plan.”
“You still don’t know what you want to do?”
Garrett shook his head even though he knew she couldn’t see it. “Nope. There are so many possibilities and none of them really strikes me as something I’d be okay with doing for the rest of my life. In fact, in class when Mr. Gargen made me write, I listed everything I knew I didn’t want to happen in my life. That seems to be the only thing that I can write down.”
“What were some of the things on that list?”
“Well, number one was that I wouldn’t marry Miranda.”
Opal’s laughter was as sweet as honey. “That’s so obvious to everyone except Miranda that I think The Council’s got you covered on that one. No way they’d do that to you.”
“I don’t know. I’m not convinced that The Council is comprised of nice compassionate people.”
There was a pause at the other end of the line before Opal responded. “Are you still obsessed with finding out more about The Council?”
“Yeah, I am. They’re just so mysterious and no one seems to know anything about them. I mean people that should know about them don’t. If they hold the fate of everyone in the world in their hands, why don’t we know anything about them?”
“That’s never been the way it is. Perhaps if we all knew them, it would be more difficult for them to effectively do their jobs.”
“Do you really believe that?” questioned Garrett, his eyebrow instinctively raising.
“I don’t know, Garrett.”
“Well, at least agree with me that it is odd.”
On the other side, Opal pressed her lips into a thin line of defeat and replied, “I suppose so.”
“See! I tried to tell you! But why is it that no one else seems to care? Could it be some kind of conspiracy?”
“Garrett!” Opal’s tone shifted to irritated. “The entire world with the exception of you wouldn’t be stuck in some kind of conspiracy…that doesn’t even make sense.”
Garrett covered the microphone of the interwave as someone in a personal transporter zoomed by on the street. He’d entered one of the more well-to-do areas of the city as he moved toward the nearest station with a line eight train. He knew Opal would be headed for a line six train, so he had to avoid that one. When the sound had gone, he said, “Fine, you’re probably right about that.”
“Where are you? I thought I heard something in the background.”
Kicking a random stone in the street back into the yard in which it must have come from, Garrett tried to brush it off. “That must be something on your end.”
“No, I don’t think so. It came from your interwave.”
“Oh, that must have been the movie my parents are watching downstairs. I’ll have to ask them to keep it down.” Garrett pretended to call downstairs to his parents, garnering him some looks from the few people out and about. Grimacing, he returned the interwave to his ear. “How about now?”
“Yeah, it’s quiet now. But, hey, I have to go. I’m at the transport station. I’ll see you at academy tomorrow, okay?”
“Yeah, see you then.” With relief, Garrett ended the call.
As Opal climbed into the transporter lit with bright white lights, she sat in a random empty seat and rested her feet. Reflecting on the day she’d had, she couldn’t get over the celebratory surprise from the kids at the shelter. Their warmth and kindness were so sincere. What Garrett had said about The Council being unkind and unforgiving, perhaps he was right. Those children didn’t deserve to live that way just because they were born into Undecided families. Although, in a way, those children would be given a second chance when they were allowed to write their own Life Plans. If they succeeded in getting their plans approved, they would be allowed to leave the Undecided sector behind. But how could you dream to be something better if all you’d known was a life of poverty and misery?
Opal pondered these ideas as the transporter left the station and slid across the thin rails throughout the city. Rail line six wouldn’t take more than twenty minutes to reach her home neighborhood. From there, it was only a five-minute walk to her house.
The glow of the moons fell upon the grassy patches between the buildings and neighborhoods. The iridescent light of the ever-lit lamps gave her side of the city reliable light throughout all hours of the day in the busiest parts of the city. No one had to worry about walking to work in darkness. An air of peace and serenity lay everywhere around her. Secretly, she hoped that every child she’d grown to love in the Undecided shelter would feel this way one day.
Before she realized it, the transporter slid to a stop, and then she trudged the five
