“And I know you’ve probably already looked into this with your genius brain. Do you know how it happened?”
Simon didn’t respond for a few seconds. Garrett was about to speak again, but Simon finally replied, “Say I did look into it, and let’s just say I did know what was wrong…why would I tell you?”
Garrett sighed. “Come on, Simon. There’s got to be something going wrong here. Opal’s mother lost her job and hasn’t found a new teaching one yet. And one of my friends in the Undecided sector had a family member just get offered their dream job.”
“Ah, that’s right, you’re living in the Undecided sector now, aren’t you? How’s that going for you?”
Garrett gritted his teeth. Insulting Simon wouldn’t help him get the answers he needed any faster, but he also didn’t like Simon’s mocking tone. “It’s a challenge.”
“Ha, ha, I bet it is.” Clicking from a keyboard came from the other end of the line.
“Simon…so are you going to tell me or not?”
“Hmm, I’m still trying to figure out what’s in it for me if I tell you. I’ve already informed you that I won’t be taking any favors and quite honestly, with you being one of the Undecided now, it’s not like you’d have anything to offer me anyway.”
Getting impatient with the lack of results, Opal snatched the interwave from Garrett’s ear and placed it to her own. “Simon, it’s Opal Carneth here. I want to know what’s going on and you’re going to tell me.”
“Opal?” asked Simon, his voice laced with mock confusion.
“Yes, Opal Carneth…the girl you had a crush on for two years. Yes, I know you liked me. Tell you what, I’ll go on a date with you if you’ll help us out right now.”
Garrett gawked at Opal, both shocked and impressed by her.
“What makes you think I’d still be interested in going on a date with you?”
Opal considered her response, but answered quickly, “Because you didn’t say no right away. If you weren’t still interested, you would have immediately responded no.”
Simon went quiet again on the other line. “Fine, I’ll make a deal with you then, not Garrett. He’s no longer trustworthy with deals for me anymore.”
“That’s okay with me,” agreed Opal.
Garrett took the interwave back from Opal, covering the microphone portion. “Are you serious about this, Opal? You know he’s technically a criminal mastermind.”
“Yes, a criminal mastermind who had his Life Plan to become a sciorb programmer approved. Now let me talk to him again before we lose our chance at discovering what’s going wrong.” Opal snatched the interwave back and said, “We’ll meet tomorrow at Blue Moon Café at 11am.”
“Good, that fits into my plans,” agreed Simon.
“Okay, so now tell me what you’ve discovered about Brian’s death.”
The rolling of desk chair wheels emitted through the speaker as Opal placed the interwave on the table and turned on the speaker. “As soon as I found out about Brian’s death, I thought the same as you and Garrett did…something must be going wrong with the Life Plan system. The Life Plan rules are very clear. You will live long enough to fulfill everything on your Life Plan. According to what Brian always bragged about around academy, he wanted to become an architect and design one of the most famous buildings in Taeopia. He wanted to get married but have no kids. He also wanted to win an award for work in architecture and retire at age 60. Except for attending the Academy of Higher Learning, nothing on his Life Plan had been fulfilled yet.”
“Which means something must have gone wrong,” added Opal.
“Precisely. So that’s when I started digging further. I tried to see if this has ever happened before. I checked everywhere on the dataweb and even hacked into some non-disclosed government records. All above-board, of course, Opal. I’m a changed young man, after all.”
Opal just shook her head in disbelief, grateful Simon couldn’t see it. “Yes, I’m sure. And what did you uncover from those records?”
“Nothing. This has never happened before…like ever. In the whole history of our world, this has never happened.”
A shiver went down Opal’s spine as she listened to his words. With a glance at April and Garrett, she saw they wore the same fearful expressions. “So that means…”
“So that means that whatever is happening isn’t good,” finished Garrett.
“That would be an accurate assumption,” harrumphed Simon. “I’d be a little more specific on that if I were you.”
“What do you mean?” Opal looked down at the interwave.
“Based on the fact that Brian wasn’t the only one affected, I would assume this is just the beginning. With Garrett’s friend in the Undecided sector getting a job they shouldn’t have and your mom losing hers, Opal, I’d say this isn’t going to stop anytime soon.”
“Which means,” began April, her voice shaking.
“Which means the Life Plan system is falling apart,” breathed Garrett.
Garrett and April locked eyes and she knew he spoke the truth. Somehow, their entire world was falling apart.
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Acknowledgments
Life Designed has been a novel over eight years in the making. I first thought of it years ago when I was frustrated with how the plans we make in life rarely seem to play out the way we expect. Since then,
