Janet and Aaron

The government has changed it’s name to the Regime in an effort to sound less intimidating. The Regime has taken control over most aspects of everyday life for citizens. Jobs and work hours are assigned to everyone to maximize productivity. Children attend school and study before being assigned their job, work hours, and housing at age twenty. After age eighteen people are allowed to get married. Marriage guarantees that the couple will be assigned the same housing unit.

Janet sits at her computer, in her cramped cubicle on the fifty-second floor of the Spargers Incorporated office. She can hear her co-workers gathering around the coffee machine across the hall. They remind her of the shows she used to watch on T.V. The ones where people stand around a water cooler with a big blue jug on top. She listens in on their conversations to keep herself entertained. It’s always the same mundane thing. About a topic that nobody cares about.

Her light blue fingernails tap quickly on her desk. She watches the seconds hand on the clock crawl in circles like a snail around a five-mile track. She begins getting impatient as it ticks. She’s been at this desk for five years and every single day she does the same thing.

She never wanted this damn job. She was assigned it. The regime monitored her and everyone else in school, found what they were good at and assigned jobs accordingly. They were told that it “maximizes productivity” and it’s “what’s best for everyone”. She could’ve been an actress or an architect or a chef. Instead, she found herself working for a garden sprinkler company because she made a spreadsheet once in high school and all of a sudden she’s doing it for a living. Sitting in an office and constantly looking for excuses to leave her desk.

She reluctantly returns to her computer and continues the company’s monthly finance report. She constantly glances at the clock until finally, it reads 10:00 PM. She lets out a sigh of relief after the twelve-hour shift that she works every day. She packs up her things. She rushes to the elevator. She rides home on the passenger side of her self-driving car.

When she gets home, she finds a hot bowl of soup sitting upon a set table for her. “Oh,” she says, pleasantly surprised. She enjoys the soup before getting ready for bed.

Aaron stands at his post, downstairs at Spargers incorporated. He taps his foot to the beat. He sings along silently to the melody that’s stuck on repeat in his mind,

“Pick a petal eenie meenie miney moe

And, flower, you're the chosen one”

He stands post guarding the building while everyone is sleeping. He watches the moon go down between two buildings on Rockwell St. He then watches the sun’s bright orange reflection descend onto the east facing windows of the buildings across the street. The alarm on his watch beeps. 10:00 AM, the time he was assigned to go home.

He parks his car in his garage and walks into the kitchen to find that the dishes have been done and the laundry is folded in neat, warm stacks on his bed. He smiles before putting it away in his drawer. He eats his dinner, then goes to bed.

He lies with his eyes wide open, staring at the flashing green light on the digital alarm clock on his dresser. He rolls onto his back and sees a green blinking light on the smoke detector above him. He extends his arm to the other half of the bed. It’s cold and empty. He was half hoping to find her there but knew she wouldn’t be. She never is. It’s stupid for him to get his hopes up just for them to be trampled and squashed until he’s got mashed hopes soup. She won’t be home when he is, she never is. He thinks about her straight black hair, her gentle blue eyes, her soft red lips. The way that she looked at him, filled with compassion.

Janet comes home from work. She finds a note pinned to the fridge “I love you”. She smiles and she pulls it off and grabs a pen out of the drawer. She writes: I love you more. She leaves it on the counter. She eats dinner. She showers. She brushes. She climbs in bed.

She reminisces about her life before she was assigned her job. When she was in school and would spend all of her time with her friends and she would laugh and sing with them. She remembers a time when she could live without stress, without boredom. She remembers meeting Aaron in high school. They would see each other every day and hang out. She remembers falling in love and being happy. He had short, curly, dark brown hair with the eyes to match. His hands were tender to the touch. They were so massive, he could wrap his hand around her fist and engulf it completely. They don’t see each other anymore, she wishes that they would, but they don’t. Their schedules are too different, she works during the day, and he works during the night.She yearns for him. She remembers a time when they did. Now all she does is work. She sits in her tiny cubicle and works all day for twelve hours without a break, she works. Every day.

In her time off, she visits her friends from school, the ones who work the same hours. She becomes jealous of couples around her. Couples that were assigned to work the same hours. Couples that get to come home from work and find their spouse at home. She asks herself, why did we get assigned separate working hours? Why did the Regime disregard them and separate them? Do they just not give enough of a crap to show any care for their citizens?

She calms down. She knows that if she tries to stay home to be with him, she’ll be charged with treason. The Regime has strict laws put in place against treason. Janet has seen people found guilty of prison and has seen their lives ruined. First, the Regime takes all of their belongings, including their home, car and any other luxuries. Then they are expected to work and save money until they can pay the Regime for their assets. If they refuse to sleep on the streets and work every day, they are thrown in prison for life with no bail or parole. If she tried, she knows she would never get to see Aaron, ever again.

Aaron comes home and finds Janet’s note on the counter next to a hot steeping teapot. He smiles as he reads it. He knows that she is thinking of him, missing him. He smiles as he goes to bed, hoping that he will see her when he gets up. Knowing that he won’t.