Argent Glass

Chapter 13 - Transplant - Jordan

"You can't just run off every day with Jinho and ignore the chores. Part of living in this kind of a community means everyone does their part to support it. That means chores. And homework. You couldn't get a better education anywhere in this country. We have the best scientists on the planet working here and they all do their part in this community. Are you even listening to me?"

Jordan stood at the window of the living room staring vacantly at the fields underneath the dome. The early morning light filtered through to shine on her but held no warmth in the climate-controlled apartment.

"You need to find Marybeth and ask her who did your chores yesterday so that you can do theirs today. Do the right thing, Jordan. And start making better choices. Everyone's life inside here is contingent on everyone doing their part."

Jordan rolled her eyes. Someone was already at work in the fields below, the white of the lab coat stark against the vibrant green stalks of corn and the lower lying soybeans.

"I hardly think taking the trash out is going to save someone's life," she murmured sarcastically to her pale reflection in the glass.

"What did you say?" her mother demanded as a door opened behind her.

"Are we ready to go?" Jordan's father walked out of her parents' bedroom with damp hair. He was reading something on a tablet, but as he reached the door leading from the apartment, he slid it into an oversized pocket on the white lab coat that matched the scientists in the fields below. He held the door waiting for them.

"Finally," Jordan spun from the glass and stalked to the community cafeteria ahead of her parents.

She fixed a plate from a long buffet filled with fresh fruit, raw vegetables, nuts, and grains. Good nutrition was a cornerstone of the education Jordan and Jinho received and every meal offered an abundance of healthy choices. Meats were rare and when Jordan's family had first moved it, she thought it was because they didn't raise animals in the dome. She had asked Marybeth about it and found out it had more to do with the facts that all the foods were shipped in, and meat needed refrigeration. The dome wasn't equipped with a deep freeze so any meat delivered to the dome needed to be eaten right away.

Besides, Marybeth had whispered conspiratorially during a lesson in Nutrition, meats aren't really a necessity for a healthy diet. Marybeth's lessons were more fun than the other scientists. She was always cooking up something new to taste and could explain everything in terms Jordan understood. The other scientists were too...sciency. They used big words Jordan didn't understand and didn't even care about.

Jordan put some almonds on her plate and then waited for her parents to catch up and decide where they wanted to sit. They found a seat at a long trestle. Her father smiled at the woman across from him rubbing red-rimmed eyes. "Morning, Carolyn. Another late night?"

"Good morning, Lapointes." Carolyn gave a friendly nod to each. "Can't seem to get used to the time change."

"You need to do a 24-hour reset," Farmer said.

"A 24-hour reset?"

"You stay up for a full 24 hours and don't go to sleep until a 'normal' hour with the rest of us. It resets your circadian rhythms."

Jordan quit listening. Just what she needed. Another science lesson. Science, science, science. It was all anyone talked about here.

She picked at her food and half-listened to her father ramble on about the new batch of soybeans he was growing. He made a point of proudly saying Mandy was the genetic engineer on this batch of beans, though Jordan was sure everyone in the dome would already know it. As he spoke, he pulled out his tablet, swiped a security code to unlock it, and then swiped more until a graph came up. He turned the tablet toward Carolyn and showed her the screen, then scrolled the graph around to make his point.