Chapter Two of Isolated!

Okay so you know that story/book I was writing that I showed the first chapter for? Okay, here is the second. Haven't been able to work on this a lot, so it's quite a bit short. Whatevs.

Two

7:33 PM, December 2nd, 2099

"So, what's your job?"

  "What do you mean, what's my job, Ma?"

  "Devin, honey, you didn't take the test yet?  Oh, Alexander, it was so different back in the fifties. Do you remember? We could just apply for one! That Google job was amazing."

  My mother is an amazingly nice and warm woman. She has green eyes that shimmer in the light and are accentuated whenever she wears a green blouse. Tonight she is wearing a turquoise long-sleeved top with some black slacks and boots. Every time she laughs, she looks young and rejuvenated. Her laugh lines look like laugh lines, not wrinkles, as they usually do on most women her age.

  "Yes, Talia, but it was very hard to get into," my father smiles. He also has a similar aura- a similar feel to his laugh- to my mother. A warm one. He has thinly wired rectangular glasses and short brown hair. He scoops up some potatoes and string beans and dumps them on his plate.

 " A what test?" I say, an anxious look plastered on my face, worry lines forming on my forehead.

 "Just your applications test, that's all."

 My stomach drops. "I just had my presentation at the town Redemption Office. Why didn't they explain it?"

 "I'm not sure. Might've been just a small glitch." I gulp at that response, a feverish heat engulfing my body. The Realmkeepers know no glitches.

  Dad plays with his potatoes with his fork, swiveling them around with the metal tongs on the shiny plate. I shove mine into my mouth. The silence is filled with awkwardness, making everybody fidget in their seats. How could I not have taken this so-called "application test?" Either it really was a glitch, or there's something seriously wrong with me. I hope it’s not the latter…

  I angstily change the subject, desperately trying to fill the gaps of the awkward silence. Mom is in the kitchen, wiping off some dishes. She returns to the table and politely sits down. Her hair, that she usually wears down on her shoulders, is pulled back into a loose chignon that sits on the top of her head. She adjusts her glasses. “So, um… I’m moving in to my Community House tomorrow,” I say.

  “Oh! I almost forgot to ask you about that! Do you know who your roommate is?” Dad says. He’s pretty shy, but he’s completely generous, so whenever he speaks, it’s usually something nice he has to say.

  “I’m not really supposed to know who it is yet, I guess? I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter, anyway, since I’ll meet her tomorrow.”

  “I hope she’s nice, Dev.” Mom lays her napkin down on her lap and serves herself a little bit of string beans. She is sitting in a silence so intense it doesn’t seem silent. I can see the tears making her eyes glossy.

  “Mom?”

 “Talia?”

  She lets out a slight chuckle, and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’m- um- I’m just going to miss you, a lot, Devin.”

  “Oh, Mom. You’ll see me plenty.”

  We wait there for a second.

  “And I’m gonna miss you, too.”

  We eat the rest of our dinner quietly, but a pleasant aura still remains. Tomorrow, I leave to start a new life for myself. But just because I am doesn’t mean I leave my family. It just means there’s a further distance between us. And that’s okay, I guess.

  “I don’t know why you’ll miss me so much. I’m not exactly what you’d call charismatic,” I joke, giving a rueful grin to let my parents know I am being sarcastic. The chuckle in response is half-hearted and teary.

  We eat the rest of dinner in silence.