SHIFT

CHAPTER 2 @LOST@

I wake up at Mid-Sleep and i'm crying. I had a dream that Aaron and I could never see each other again.
I can't go back to sleep.
I lay in my pod and the dark swallows me. I realize that just in a few more hours I'll be separated from Aaron. My nightmare will come true.
I roll out of my pod onto the floor and crawl over to the teleporter. My parents are definitely sleeping, I can hear my dad snoring. I step onto my legs so I can walk, and then when I'm by it, I step onto the teleporter. I need to do something before the adjournment. I need to make up for tonights lost time with Aaron. I press the button with my foot.
The best way to describe teleportation is the feeling of weightlessness, and the temporary loss of memory. Then I'm in Aaron's room. The great thing about the new teleporters is that you don't need two or more to get from place to place. Thank god for that, Aubree barely got one, she definitely couldn't have gotten two. And with the old ones, one is practically useless.
The room is dark but the smell of Aaron lets me know he's here. I find his sleep pod, and then him. I shake his arm to wake him.
"Ughhhh," he moans into his pillow, "five more minuets."
"No, it's me Kaleb," he rolls over to face me.
"What are you doing here?" He asks quite loudly, drunk with sleep.
"Sshh"
"What are you doing here?" he whispers, his eyes wide now.
"I wanted to see you," I say. He scoots over so I can climb into his Pod with him, I do. He wraps his arm around me and kisses my head, "I had a dream about you"
"I had one too"
"Tell me yours first"
"Okay," He says. "I dreamt that I had to leave you, and I went to this place like a puzzle, and I was lost forever. I tried to call for you, for anyone, but my voice would get dissolved in this fog that was surrounding me. I was stuck." his voice trailed off and I could tell there was pain there. "I woke up sweating and crying, but I finally went back to sleep, then you woke me up."
"Sorry" I say.
"It's okay, I'm glad you did. Your turn to tell me your dream."
"Okay. I also had a dream like that. You left me, and I couldn't find you. Aubree told me that you left Purview, and when I asked how, she didn't know. I was alone." there's a long silence, and the air is thick with all our thoughts. Are our dreams related?
"Hey, whatever happens, i'll always love you"
"Me too"
We kiss, and fall asleep.
The Mid-Wake bell chime wakes me up and I kiss Aaron on the forehead before I get out of the pod and groggily walk over to the teleporter. I step on the button and I'm in my own room. I walk to my own pod and crash into the comfort, and fall asleep.
I wake up to my dad shaking my shoulder.
"WAKE UP TODAY'S THE DAY!"
Shit shit shit.
"Hurry get out of bed and put on your Cull cloths. You're gonna be late, and we wouldn't want that now would we," I would love to say my dad's enthusiasm was infectious, but it wasn't. I had been dreading this day for years. I put on a fake smile for my dad's sake.
"Okay dad"
"Hurry hurry hurry"
Cull clothes are traditional for community meetings. They consist of a black tunic and white pants. But because we are part of this "special occasion" we also have golden pins that say 133287 ADJOURNMENT, and, TRUST IN PURVIEW. I brush my hair and teeth, and put on white dress shoes. My mom comes in and fixes my collar.
"I love you sweety," she says. I've always been a mother's child. Don't get me wrong I love my dad. I just love my mom more.
"I love you too mom." I'm taller than her, but I feel like a little kid when I hug her. And not in a bad way. I get reminded of all those times I hid, shy, behind her, when I met someone new, or a kid my age talked to me. I'm transported to when I was younger and stress free whenever I smell her lilac perfume.
She breaks away from our embrace and looks up to my face. Both our eyes swell with tears, and she pulls me back into a short hug before she lets go.
"I love you" she whispers, and wipes away a tear with one finger. "God, my little Kaleb's all grown up."
I look in the mirror one more time, and walk with my mom into the living unit where we have a family teleporter. My dad's already there waiting. We're all in our Cull clothes and we step onto the oversized round platform. We're all holding hands and my dad presses the button.
We woosh through space.