A Goode Life

Chapter 4

The summer did wonders for Grace. She grew out her hair and got a nice tan playing sports just about every day. She thought that 'Brad getting in a coma was very uncool.' But once he woke up, which was about four weeks into the summer. Things got strange. For one thing, he wouldn't take up maintenance work anymore. He also said he wasn't going to be living at home anymore.

"Hey Brad, what do you mean you aren't going to live here anymore?" Grace asked.

"Oh Grace, I just have to follow my heart is all," Brad said.

'That coma must have done something to his brain, he's acting strange,' she thought. 'For one, he would get up so early in the morning doing god knows what. Understandably he would have so much energy from sleeping for so long so maybe that part wasn't strange. Thinking about it seriously though, if he left the house, the maintenance work would be left to the rest of the family like right now.' She thought maintenance work would be temporary but now it looks like it'll be a permanent addition to her household chores. Brad being out of the house would be strange. His being away temporarily only served to demonstrate that.

His labor was important in the household. But he did more than just maintenance and other chores. He was always just there. To Grace, his presence was familiar. He was part of what made home feel like home; he was a fixture. It would be a shame if he went. There were lots of times in her life where having Brad around made a difference.

Like the time when she thought she lost her friends—she was nine at the time. What really happened was that they all went away on vacation in the middle of the school year. She had to deal with feeling abandoned and Brad always played with her during recess instead of being with his friends. He was kind. Of course, they would have fights, they're brother and sister after all. But the coolest thing about having Brad as an older brother is that he always came around first. He'd make sure that everything was all better.

He had a way with people. Being empathetic and sensitive to the feelings of those around him would make him a good addition to the government, which is why Grace was his most vocal supporter in that goal of his. This made getting mad at him difficult; he was good. But right now, she just felt pained and confused. She couldn't believe that he was serious about leaving the family.

Putting those feelings aside, she went on to do some maintenance work. She took Grant's gadgets and did her work. Grant didn't mind because he was watching T.V., Monsters was on. It was her favorite show growing up. It was about monsters working together to find their parents. It taught the value of friendship and had cool fight scenes with monster powers. It wasn't overly complex, but they were able to show real emotions in non-humanoid figures; that's where most of the show's value was.

Finished with the maintenance work she changed into appropriate outerwear and went out. She was going to meet up with some of her girlfriends and find something to do. It was that point of the summer where boredom set in. They had been playing sports nonstop for the first few weeks of the summer. They had wanted to start doing something else. One of them even suggested that they go off grid.

The CNS had a sphere of connectivity where everyone's data is collected and it tracked everyone constantly for safety reasons, it was colloquially called 'the wall'.

Going outside the wall would be a real adventure but would be taking a risk. Grace had never been outside the wall's protection. Going outside the wall was something she never thought of doing. Yet they did it. Grace and her girls took a train to the edge of the wall. The ride was familiar as it was the same train ride they took to go to the beach. They took the train to the end of the line and planned to go further.

It was anxiety filling to Grace, the idea of going past the wall. 'What if they are found and mauled by a bear? Things like that could happen,' she thought. They got off the train, but the view was anything but breathtaking. It was merely the end of the train tracks which then lead to a forest. Exactly what Grace feared.