May 23 is the best day during the entire year. It's my birthday. Usually Venning comes up and brings along a cake or something that's loaded with sugar, frosting and a ton of junk. It's the one day where my usual schedule doesn't apply and I get to do whatever I want for the whole day. I often have a movie marathon instead of running a real one. For my fifteenth, I decided to watch comedy shows from the early 2000s. Ada made me a giant bowl of popcorn covered in butter and salt. Halfway through the afternoon, Venning shows up with the cake in a plastic bag. When he sets it down, I pause the TV and try to get a glimpse of the cake, but Ada puts it in the fridge before I get to the kitchen. I plop back down on the couch and play the show. Venning comes into the living room and looks at the show that's on.
"Move over," he says.
I scooch to the end of the couch and he sits beside me, reaches into a bag beside the seat and pulls out a soda and a beer. He offers me the soda and opens the beer. Another reason I like my birthday is because Venning stops being his usual commanding self and suddenly becomes almost like a father who's hanging out with his son.
"Happy Birthday, Damon," he says.
"Thank you, sir."
As we watch, I hold the bowl of popcorn close to my chest and wrap my arm around it protectively. When Venning reaches for a handful, I slap his hand away and it he retreats. I love this. It's almost as if I'm a normal kid who's watching TV with his family. To be honest, I'm not sure what normal really is, but based off of what I see on TV, I think this is normal for a teenager like me.
"What kind of marathon did we do last year?" Venning asks.
"Sci-Fi from the twentieth century."
"Right. Star Wars and Star Trek, right?"
"Mm hmm," I say through a mouth plugged with popcorn.
Venning watches the show for a few more minutes before talking again. "When I was your age, this show was really popular and on it's tenth season."
"Did you watch it?" I ask.
"Yes. Your mother and I were friends when we were younger and we'd get together to watch these comedies all the time."
I fall silent. Whenever the topic of my parents comes up, I feel a pang of longing for them. Even though I never knew them, I miss them.
"Tell me more about them." I say, surprising myself and Venning. He looks over with his drink halfway to his mouth and his eyebrows raised.
"What do you want to know?"
I take a shaky breath. This is the first time I've asked about my parents in a while and the first time Venning is offering to tell me about them.
"I know that they were scientists, and I know that I can't ask you anything about their work."
"Correct."
"What about their personalities? Do you know how they met?"
Venning takes a long drought of his drink before answering. "They met in school. Your mom was in neurology and your father was pre-med in biology. I was taking psychology."
"You went to school with them?" I ask.
"Yes. Your parents had an elective together and then they started dating."
"And then?" I say. The show I was watching is totally forgotten as Venning sighs and drinks again. I can tell he's not entirely comfortable with this conversation. "Never mind," I say and I turn back to the TV.
"After that, they got married once they got jobs with the Endurance. The rest is classified information."
"Of course," I reply. "And you're not going to tell me until I'm eighteen or when I do the OSP, right?"
YOU ARE READING
The Wrong Side
Science Fiction"I'll tell you when you're an adult." These are the few words that have been repeated to Damon Ophia for his whole life. Damon's life is made up of secrets. In some cases, secrets are being kept from him, in others he needs to keep secrets, and in...
