Impractical

The City

1:3

I arrived at home, tired and ready for some dinner and sleep. My mom was there, ready with dinner and had already prepared a hot bath for me and my father (not the same one). Since my dad was there, I had to be careful not to say or do anything impractical. He could easily bail me out to the headquarters (he was a complete practical) and he didn't care about me, or my mom at all, who would never tell anyone about the stupid things I do. I wondered why my grandpa (my mom's father) chose him. Probably his good looks, but I didn't see how that made a difference.

My father and I sat at our small dining table as mom brought the dinner over. It was a nice chicken potpie, one of the twenty meals we alternated between, this one not being my favorite.

We ate in silence as the blood red sun set over the grey rooftops of the distant buildings. As soon as the sky started to turn an eerie purple I picked up the scraped clean dishes and set them in the sink for mom to clean up later. The bare floors squeaked in the silent house as I walked to the bathroom. I missed the nights when dad was gone and I could have long and impractical conversations with my mother, me mostly doing the talking. I didn't know what I was, but my mom wasn't an impractical, that was for sure.

But, now my dad would always be home in the evenings when me and mom were together and I wanted to talk. It always made me miserable. I needed an outlet for my emotions, unlike everyone else.

I locked the bathroom door behind me and set the timer. Everyone in the city was to have lights off and go to sleep at 10:00. It was 9:00 then, so I set the timer to 45 minutes. Yes, people other than teenagers have curfews here. Its great.

I thought about that day as I relaxed in the tub. I mostly wanted to talk to my mom about that boy who smiled in the lunch line that day. Maybe he's an impractical, like me, I thought. It wasn't very often I ran into an impractical, most of the people on the cart were people I didn't know. But I also felt disturbed that I almost made the whole class see a scene, but I guess there was none there to see.

The whole day was boring, we learned more about how impractical the human race was before us and some of the things they used to do before the system came in. I would've liked it back in those days, when people did stuff for fun, even if it was the most ridiculous stuff. But then again, back then there was bad stuff too, like stealing and people living on the streets. I could've ended up on the streets if I lived back then. That was a scary enough thought to keep me staying in the city.

That, and the canyon. Even if I survived the climb down without becoming the next scene, there was nothing out there but mundane grass plains that went on forever.

The timer buzzed, so I climbed out of the tub and dried off. I crept into my room with my towel on and slipped on my pajamas, which was the same skirt, tank top and hoodie, and climbed under the warm, fuzzy covers.

Then is when I realized I forgot to turn the lights off. And pull my curtains back off the window. And lay out my outfit for tomorrow. And turn down the air conditioning. And leave my slippers out for the morning. With a groan, I got up and did those things, turning off the lights last, right when the clock struck 10:00.

I laid there, waiting for sleep to come along with dreams that would take me out of this place. But it never came. I tossed and turned, and when I started to sweat, I knew that I probably wouldn't sleep that night. I stared out at my window tiredly, only seeing the front of a house across from ours, above it the purple sky.

A while later, I heard the distant hooves of the dreaded cart, but this time there were no cries for help. I frowned, that definitely wasn't normal. I heard the hooves echoing through the strangely silent streets. I started to panic. Should I make a break for it? Or hide? Stupid, you're being paranoid! It might not even be coming for me. But as the hooves of that dark horse echoed through the silent streets nearing my house, I stopped being so sure.

With a start I realized something was quietly tapping on my window. The longer I laid there, the more I was sure it wasn't just my imagination or an echo. I quietly got out of bed and avoided the squeaky floorboards on my way to the window. I couldn't see anything under the dark, eerie night sky, but as soon as my eyes adjusted, there was another face pressed up against the other side of the window, smiling. With a start I jumped back and fell flat on my butt.

The other person outside whispered something I couldn't make out then started to pry the locked window open. I was frozen in fear, I didn't know what to do, so I just stood there like an idiot, just waiting to get killed. The person got the window open. It was the boy I saw from school who had smiled. What was happening finally registered in my brain, and I took a deep breath to scream and alert my parents, but he quickly clamped a hand over my mouth to keep me from making any noise.

"It's alright." He said in a whisper. "I'm here to save you from the cart. It's coming for you." The hooves were getting closer, so I decided to stop struggling and relax, but not because I trusted this guy (who seemed like a stalker). He took his hand off my face. "Please, don't scream." I listened and didn't scream, so I bolted right past him out the window. I figured it was the only way away from him and the cart, at least that's all that my terrified brain thought. But sadly, I ran right into three other people. One was a girl, and the other two were boys.

"Why the heck would you run out of the window? Just about the stupidest thing you could do in a situation like this." The girl said in exasperation, one of the boys holding my arms behind my back. With a huff like she was annoyed at me, she reached her hand out and pressed her fingers in the soft spot behind my ears before I could really register anything. And the whole world went dark.