Godsend

Little Lonely Lacie Woodle

February 17th, 2015

The world had completely changed in less than a month; the school system had been revamped to include the higher populations of students, bus routes were changed, school lunches were sparse, but worst of all, now there were double the teachers. Lacie sat on the gelid gym floor, listening to Mr. Dara drone on about the Chinese workers that were killed building the railroads of America. His other self, or "Godsend", as the government and nice makers of society refer to them, was patrolling the gym, looking for children on their phones. "I can't believe they keep the stupid phone policies still." Lacie thought to herself. She looked around at all her classmates talking to themselves, literally talking to themselves, it made her feel so alone. Lacie didn't have a Godsend, some people just didn't. On January 20th, or "Dupe day" as it is commonly referred to, Lacie woke in the dead of night to her parents screaming. She ran down the hall towards her parents room, only to find two sets of parents staring at each other with terrified eyes. She pushed the thoughts from her mind.

Lacie peered over her shoulder to see Audrey, her ex best friend, talking with a boy she didn't know. Both of their dupes were talking as well. "Who needs a girlfriend when you can just hang out with yourself, right?" Mr. Dara's Dupe was standing beside Lacie, looking down at her with a sullen grin on his face. "Yeah, I just want things back the way they were." Lacie sighed and looked forward to pay attention to the original Dara. "Well excuse me for existing." Mr. Dara's dupe walked back across the gym to join the original in front of all the students. School ended at 3:40, and luckily for Lacie, she lived close enough to the school to walk home. Ever since Dupe Day, she wondered why, out of all the people in the world, why did only some people get Godsends?

She heard some theories that the government was throwing around, about certain people not having the same brainwaves as those who did have Godsends, but that theory was quickly dis-proven. Then there were the religious affiliations, all claiming that their God had begun a reckoning, sending the dupes down to earth to show us our true selves so that we'd repent. But if that were the case, then why would he make criminals come back as well? One theory in particular that appealed to Lacie was the most rational seeming one; just because she was a fifteen year old girl doesn't mean she didn't have common sense. Since Dupe day, most of the elderly population didn't get dupes, along with others in various categories. Some guy Lacie saw in a video on Facebook said that this is probably because all of the old people were going to die soon, and thus didn't get dupes. This theory did not explain how this rule applied to the younger population, however, and baffled Lacie all the more.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, Lacie arrived home; apartment #26. The faded red brick apartment building wasn't the most glamorous place in town, but it also wasn't too shabby. She made her way up the stairs and around the corner, holding the cold handrail as she walked. Before reaching the door, she jammed her hand into her pocket, fishing for her key. It took her a moment, along with some leg wiggling to get the key loose from the grip of her jeans. She unlocked the door and walked inside. "Moms, you guys here?" She called out from the entryway. A moment later, two woman rounded the corner, Lacie's mother, and her dupe. They were essentially the same person, except for a streak of blonde that had been colored into the Dupe Mothers jet black hair to tell them apart. "Hey honey, how was school? Come in here, me and me are cooking this dish we saw on instagram earlier." she smiled and whipped back into the kitchen. "Come tell me about your day!" the dupe said as she followed Real Mom back into the kitchen.

Lacie set her things down and pulled her boots off, smashing them together to get the snow from outside off of them, and made for the kitchen. The kitchen in itself was rather small, one counter ran the length of the left wall, it housed the oven and stove top, as well as the sink. On the other side of the kitchen was the fridge, likely with little to no food in it. Sitting at the dollhouse sized dining table was Dupe Mother, watching as her counterpart worked at the stove. 

"So this is what you guys have been up to all day? Cooking?" Lacie asked the duo.

"Well what else are we supposed to do, the friggin house is spotless since we both clean it, and we can't go out and do anything in the middle of winter. Why? You got a problem with my cooking? Huh?" Real Mom replied jokingly.

"How was your day, anyway?" Dupe Mom asked

"It was okay, Mr. Dara got mad at me, i think. Well his dupe did anyway." Lacie didn't meet Dupe Mom's gaze.

"Don't call them dupes, Lace, that's like saying the N word to a black person." Real Mom put down her frying pan and turned to look at Lacie, "Just because you don't have a Godsend doesn't mean you have to hate everyone that does."

"I know, Mom, it just sucks."