Plutonians

Chapter 4

"Hello, Eva. All good?"

When I see her it seems as if the hallucinated oppressor that constantly keeps hold of my nerves tightly, all of a sudden releases them.

"Hi Ma, all well here. How are you? And where's Pa?"

"Everything's well here and your Pa is...." As she says, Pa too enters the screen and says bleakly "Hello. How are your classes going on?"

He looks pale. When someone asks me about how my classes go in this society my mind completely gets screwed up.

I hesitatingly say, "Yeah, they are going good...How your work is going on?" It seems as if I'm taking my reprisal by counter asking him about his work. But to change the focus, I don't get any interesting topic to spark a talk. But Pa seems to be resolute, "All fine. Your recruitment day is day after tomorrow, isn't it?"

So my parents too remembered this, but they didn't call me. "Yes." I say.

"All set for the day then, except for the revision work." He asks plainly. I cannot figure out what makes him say 'revision work'. This is what the system has made: programs, languages, machine learning and deep learning have now become rote learning worth cramming up.

I reply bluntly, "No." "I mean I have still not decided which community to join."

"Are you nuts? Your classmates are toiling day and night for the recruitment day and you say that you have not decided yet. Do you believe the three communities to be options given to you to choose? ......What's there to choose, you simply need to work hardest like your other pals to enter the high class community of course......Although you're already running late!" He bellows out of annoyance.

He did not even ask me, what l am aspiring to be, instead he ordered me to follow the cliched path. I remain silent.

"Calm down, Alex." Ma says mollifying him.

"No more Kylie. Eva we were about to call you now, because one of your classroom bot informed us today that you are not focusing on your studies lately." Pa says sternly.

So this is where the bot messaged. I can no more control. "Then what did it say I was doing in the class? Did it say that it punished me because I identified a flaw in its program? And for your knowledge it's not for the first time that I have been made to stand outside. I'm accustomed to this."

Both of them stare at me dumbstruck. I continue, "......Pa you said me to irrationally make efforts to get into the upper class. What if I don't like the professions that have been designated as the high-classed ones? ....... What if I like and am good at professions that have been demoted as the low-classed ones? Apart from all these, to be versatile is quintessential here and I'm not."

"It seems like our girl has grown up enough to have forgotten all manners to talk with her parents." Pa says frowning. But I am already infuriated to pay heed to what he says.

"Eva, we are not your rivals, we are saying it for your benefit dear. Your sister worked so hard and was recruited to the middle class......if you try then you too can excel. If you pretend to perform poorly that day so that you can bag jobs of our community, then what are people going to say? That the sister of a government secretariat lies here among the workers." Ma says in a pleading tone.

Though I had not thought of such a ploy but Ma did flicker a great idea of pretense on recruitment day. But the parallel she draws between the sisters is the worst of all.

"I am not concerned in substantiating my versatility to the world. Ma, our community people are not workers, they simply have been ranked as lower classed and on what basis I never knew. They too have some potential; they too have some talent, which has always been treated inferiorly in this system."

"Really? Have you ever seen how much efforts Zed has been putting in for the recruitment, even after belonging to our community", Pa says ridiculously.

"Has anyone ever asked him what he is ardent about? He might have more knowledge about medicines and thus assuredly would be assigned as programmers of AI doctors or medicine researchers. But he is interested in teaching. Zed doesn't share his quandary with his parents but with us....After all you both were prodigious, then why did you opt for such loathsome jobs." On saying this, I realize I have done an intrepid task.

"Enough of it now! So you have decided to enter our community?" Pa says stiffly.

"Yes." I say undaunted.

"So that's why you called us? Okay let's leave her decision to her", he says lowly.

I wish he would have embraced my decision instead of leaving it to me. Pa gets up and leaves controlling his anger, words and to some extent struggling with his tears. I did not intend to end our conversation this way.

"Eva, I have to leave now. Take care. Perform well on the recruitment day." Ma says with her voice shaking.

Seeing my parents in such a pathetic condition for me, strains my nerve again. As if before leaving they call back the hallucinated oppressor and ask him to pull the nerves till they shatter. My throat chokes in pain to utter a single word.

"Take care. Bye." I say pulling out from deep of my throat.

I know this is a run-of-the-mill conversation that takes place between us, but I never saw them so desperate. They are the only people whom I love from the deepest core of my heart. Is it me who doesn't understand them or the vice versa? It makes me anxious, again. I am again left lone within this four-walled artificial intelligently controlled room, with an old friend whom I had never admired – anxiety.

Nothingness of the room is piercing my skin; loneliness is draining all my brawn; I can feel fear, skepticism and disquiet getting inside me through the end of my spine, making my blood run cold. How do I help myself? I mull whether I should call Lara or Zed. But if I do so, I will simply be extricating negativity on them or unnecessarily intrude in their precious time of preparation for the recruitment.

I feel ravenous but there's no more strength left to get up and cook for myself. I cannot stay in this horrific room any more. I weakly get up and lock the room and drag my body to the lift. In every lift stands a security bot, who generally memorizes places, each individual moves to. "20th floor, terrace", I say metallically.

It analyses me from top to bottom, feeding new data into its bot-brain. I lurch out of the lift to the terrace.