The Living condition

9

There were better ways to spend one's day than to feel like this. You could name at last three off the top of your head. Maybe..not being in a home alone. Maybe..not being on a planet where you were the only organic organism? And maybe, not making friends with drones that feel so familiar to you and yet not at all.

You were homesick.

It's a nasty feeling,really. It started plaguing your mind after Uzi left in the morning for school, and Khan had left to work. You were left to your own devices in a cold, metal home, and though you were fully capable, more than capable, of taking care of yourself and keeping yourself entertained, it gave your mind time to wander away from you.

And wander it did. Far away from yourself, until you felt just..disconnected. Not all there. Vaguely aware that there was something very wrong with feeling like this, and yet finding comfort in it. You wanted to be home. There was nothing you wanted more than to feel the warmth of your sun, to see your friends, not to project the memory of them onto drones you didn't know too well, and didn't know you that well. You didn't want to be the only living thing–that was organic–for miles anymore. You didn't want to risk freezing when you stepped outside anymore. Itd lost its amazement for you the day you woke up to the shattered glass and danger. You still don't know what that thing was. Uzi didn't know how to explain it to you, and you figure that she doesn't really know either.

Even if she did, you wouldn't want to make her remember something that gripped her head like an apple in someone's hand–for your sake.

You feel disconnected and gone, remembering things that you didn't want to think about while you were missing old friends. For you, you'd seen them a month and a half ago–you'd been keeping as close a check as you could– For them, it'd been 17 years. You can't fathom it. She'd be 35 now. She'd lived an entire life without you, and you were still just as young and baby-faced as when you went into stasis.

You wonder if you'd ever see her again. What would she think? What would she say? What would they say?

—-

You'd walked to your friend's home. It was a further distance than your legs could take, but it was a place that you considered to be safer than home. Away from your family. Away from their reputation, and what that all meant for you. It was safer here, and you felt it as soon as you were standing on the beautifully manicured lawn. You didn't need to be let inside, less her parents find out that you were there to bother their daughter again, as was a bi-daily occurrence.

So you wandered the property,breathing to yourself slowly as you relaxed, shut your eyes as you walked and stopped short in front of the flowerbeds. God forbid you stepped on them. Her mother would have your head...and THEN call your mother. Careful as ever, you stepped over the freshly planted flowers and spun on your heel to make sure you didn't drag your shoes through the dirt too much. They were already starting to wear from the walk it took to her house, you wouldn't dare add getting mud onto them. Your parents would be upset enough as it were.

"Hello," Your name is spoken by a small voice, and you jump, scrambling backwards a few steps when you'd turned to see the tilted head of a friend.

"Oh, gosh–Hi. You scared me. When did you–"

"I was looking at the posies." She states, and crouches back down beside the flowerbed. Bewildered, you stared down at her for a moment, swallowing dryly as you laughed off your nerves, carefully crouching beside her.

"Do you like posies?"

"I don't like any flowers. There is no need for them." she states, turning her head slowly to stare at you, before back to the flowers "The color. I did not know they come in White. Only Pinks were ever planted."