The World of Tomorrow

Chapter Three

My best friend Mickey and I climb the stairs to his room. I decided to head over to his house after eating the delicious Thanksgiving dinner my mom cooked. We celebrate all holidays in future, so even though my family isn't American, we can choose to celebrate American holidays. My family doesn't really care about Native Americans helping English explorers only to be cruelly massacred and forced off their land, we just use it as an excuse to get fat.
When we walk inside the door, Mickey opens the mini fridge next to his bed. It's got with soda and Mickey's all time favorite food: popsicles. Well, it's got one soda, and twenty popsicles.
"You want a soda?" Mickey asks me.
I laugh. "Dude, you might not have had Thanksgiving dinner, but I did! Besides, it's the last one. You never offer anyone the last one."
Mickey looks away, his eyes cloudy. "Yeah, I know. It's just, your birthday's in two days, man." That's what he's sad about? My birthday?
"Oh yeah! Why's that a reason to be sad? It's my birthday!" My face lights up in excitement. I may be seventeen, but man, a birthday is a birthday.
"It's your eighteenth birthday. You know, when you..." Mickey trails off, unable to finish his sentence. I realize why.
My eighteenth birthday. I'll be a legal adult. I stare at Mickey's walls. I've never liked the color. They smell like burnt toast. His walls are a dark grey color, unassuming for anyone else, but for me, I can't look at them. My head fills with the smell of burned bread, and I let facts swirl around in my brain. I'll be eighteen. I'll be an adult in Future. An adult with a disease. That's not allowed. Future knows about my disease. The second I turn eighteen, kind looking people with clothes that smell like lilacs will tell me to get in a van that smells like an old book. Black has always smelled like an old book. Black isn't actually a color, it's the absence of color. But old books never have a absence of anything. They're opposites, but for some reason, my whacked out brian smells old books. So the people with lilac clothes will tell me to get in this big van that smells like old books, and I will, and I'll be driven all the way to the edge of Future, and they'll drive past even that, and then, when we're well and truly outside of Future, in a place I've never seen, they'll tell me to get out, and I will, and the old book smelling van will drive away. Authorities have been through the entire process with me a hundred times. They made it sound simple, they made it sound like I'd be fine, but the truth is, I'll be left alone without anyone to help me.
I look over at Mickey. He's staring at the inside of his mini fridge, in the same state I was. "Mickey." I say softly. He snaps out of his trance and closes the door, leaving the last soda untouched.
I want to cry and scream and yell 'It isn't fair!'. But I know that won't help. So I slowly walk over to Mickey, and I hug him. He hugs me back, and we do nothing for a while but stand and hug each other.
Wen we finally let go of each other, Mickey has tears brimming in his eyes.
"I'm gonna go." My voice is barely above a whisper, but Mickey gives a tiny nod, so I walk down the stairs and out the obnoxious front door. I've never told anyone, but I like their front door. Whenever I see it, it smells like flowers. I've tried figuring out which flowers, but I've never been able to. All I know is that their front door smells like I'm standing in the middle of a vast field of flowers, and I love it. But this time, the flower field smells faint, like a faraway memory I'm only just able to see.
I drag my feet up the front steps to my house, and without looking at anything, I walk up the carpeted stairs and into my room. I flip face first onto my bed, and tears start to flow. To want is only human, and right now, I want nothing more than to be able to stay in Future for three more days, or four more, or five. I'd give anything to have more time with my mom and my dad, and even with Anza. I don't know anything about the world outside of Future, but I do know that my family isn't in it.