After the broadcast ended, I went downstairs to the kitchen to get breakfast. My bowl of cereal was odorless and tasteless, and specially delivered in measured proportions to our doorstep by the Uploaded soldiers every morning.
Mother and Father were seated at the small round table, engrossed in eating the cereal. Their eyes were blank, as usual. Their pale fingers lifted the spoon mechanically into their mouths.
"Mother. Father."
They slowly turned around and gazed at me with disinterest.
"How do you keep this going? Living like this?"
"We do as we are told, and," Mother began.
"We are satisfied," Father finished.
My voice was a hushed whisper. "Do you ever dream at night?"
They stared. "Honey, you know dreaming was just a habit of Old on First Earth. Dreams are inefficient distractions that we don't have time for," said Mother, her gray eyes fixed in the distance.
"Father?" I asked. "Have you ever dreamed?"
He went still. Mechanically, he stood and walked from the room. I stared after him. Mother didn't seem to notice.
"I'm going to go study for my Society exams," I said as I continued to stare at the spot where my father had been sitting. I walked out of the room the same way that he went.
I met Father in the front hallway.
"You've told me about emotions, Father. And about this Society. And how different it was on First Earth. I've been dreaming of that first planet."
My father sighed. He cupped my face in his hands. "My beautiful darling, I wish you did not have to live here. I know you know that you and I aren't supposed to feel all these things we do. We're immune to this." His brown eyes bore into mine. "We will leave, soon. I am sure of it."
YOU ARE READING
Crying Metal
Fiksi RemajaIn Second Earth, you are reduced to a number. 407 is young and afraid - and trapped in Society, whose overwhelmingly emotionless "people" travel through life systematically without happiness or melancholy. When 407 discovers life-changing abilities...
