The Soul Mate Program

Three

Today's the day, I thought, pulling my hair into a bun. It was the beginning of my sixteenth birthday, a birthday like no other. I wasn't walking out of the bathroom to birthday morning pancakes, or go to school with a birthday lunch. I wouldn't come home to a 'surprise' birthday party with my whole family. No, that day I was walking out of the bathroom, in a white one-piece uniform, to my 'soul mate.'

"Mom, I'm ready." I said, after giving myself a mental pep-talk. You see, no one tells you about what being
in the program is like. They say it's so you can find your soul mate easier, but I think they just want the whistles and bells to surprise you.

"Okay, dear, I'm starting the car." Mom said, walking out of the house without me. It was January in Pennsylvania, which ment it was nice and cold out.

I grabbed my jacket and followed mom out, where she was busy scrapping snow off of the car with the motor running. I got in and slammed the door shut. It was twilight out, too early to go say goodbye to anyone other than Dad, of which I ready did.

"Damn, it's cold." Mom said, getting in the car. She slammed the door and rubbed her hands together, blowing on them to warm them.

"Yeah, it's freezing." I said, emotionless, while looking out the window into the fresh snow banks. A plow truck had just went through but a few minutes before this scence.

"Well, I guess we better get going." She said, turning the heat on full blast after waiting for the engine to heat up. She drove with the radio on to 90.5, "You should probably sleep, it'll be noon by time we reach Philadelphia."

There had been a Soul Mate Place, SMP, put at the capitol of everything, every state, country, and anything else that was of importance.

I laid down in the back on the make-shift bed Mom had made. There was plenty room for the mattress she had stuffed into the mini-van, but I still felt uncomfortable. Heck, it might not have been the mattress making me uncomfortable at all.

...

I was awake by time we reached Philly. The place was as busy as a capitol of a state would be. There were bunches of places for tourists to stop by, and loads of things worth looking at, but we didn't have time for that. We didn't even have time for a lunch break, we were just running late as it was.

"Okay, we're here!" Mom said, indicating to the large building with loads of smaller, one room sized ones behind it.

The buildings were all made of the same concrete that looked freezing to touch. There weren't any roofs or windows on any of them. All they were, were concrete squares with heavy looking doors on them.

"Coulda convinced me we were at a prison." I mumbled to myself, opening the back, seeing as it was easier to get out through. Mom met me when I got out. She grabbed my shoulders and lead me to the door. It was snowing lightly and getting colder by the minute.

"Who's here?" A lady behind a desk said in a robotic voice. The inside of the lounge was just like the building itself: big and bland.

"Alice Taylor Ferson, we enrolled her about a week ago." Mom said, letting go of me to cradle her own arms, see if as there was as much heating in here as there was outside.

"Yes," the lady said after digging through a filing cabinet, "Alison Ferson, age sixteen, parent Mike and Rochelle Ferson, correct?"

"Yes, that's her." Mom said, nodding eagerly.

"I'm sorry, but this is as far as your allowed to be taken, you may say your goodbyes here if you wish." The lady said, gathering more paperwork.

"Goodbye, sweetie." Mom said, hugging me tight, as she said more goodbyes. I hugged her tightly back.

"Mom," I said, taping her shoulder, indicating I wanted to let go, but she held on tight, "Mom, leggo. I'm not dying! You can see me once a month, remember?"

"Yeah, okay." She said, brushing tears from her eyes. I gave her a kiss on the cheek, and one last hug before she waddled back to the entrance.

"Now, Ms. Ferson, if you will please follow me, I'll lead you to your house for the stay." She said, as if she was leading me to a room in a hotel, not a jail-looking block of a house that I would be living in until God knows when.

She lead me down a walkway barely etched out in the snow. It had to be piling up for a while by then, the few weeks prior to my arrival had been just light snow. Frost, really.

"Here you go," She said, opening a door to one of the houses around the middle of the lot. She held the heavy door open so I could get in.

The place was just as I expected. No carpet on the floor, bare walls, a single pull string light hanging from the ceiling, a little bit better than less than average bed in the corner, a kitchen that connect to the main room, and a small bathroom with a toilet, sink, and a shower that probably ran cold water.

What I didn't expect to see was a chair straight across from the door. It looked like a chair from a salon. The ones that you get let me with, or heat fresh foils in one's hair. But this was a bit different. It had a heart monitor besides the half-sphere that went over one's head, and bunches of wires and cables that connected to it. All running to outlets on the wall.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing to the chair. She smiled a little bit, ignoring my question.

"Another assistant will be here in a few minutes to tend with your questions and other needs." She said, closing the door without another word to me.

I glared at the door for a minute, as if it would make the lady come back and answer me, then took off my jacket, seeing as it was heated in there. I threw the jacket on the bed, and fell down on it.

"This place is a dump." I said to myself, before zoning out while looking at the ceiling.