Chapter 1: Mervie

  All Mervie needed to fly was a pair of wings and a clear blue sky, and a reason too. Mervie was appalled at the thought that she had none of the aforementioned, but, somewhere, deep in her mind, she didn´t care. The strange sensation to do something outrageously silly without a reason, to break tradition, was tempting, why not? I´m only daydreaming, she assured herself, it is only a dream, so, why not? As she contemplated the vastness of the sky before her, a sole wish grew in her heart like a tumor:  to explore what lay in the darkest voids of her imagination.

 “Imagination is a very dangerous thing, children, to both your trifling brains and to The People. Wishing is enough to annihilate idyllic happiness and wellbeing…blah blah blah…” the sound of the teacher´s voice droned on, lecturing the kids in the conditioning room but strangely enough, the danger surrounding Dreams made them lavishly appealing. Plus, she liked the way they bended reality until it unwillingly broke, how she could daydream for what seemed like seconds when she´d actually been daydreaming for hours. She nodded to Ms. Ann absently. This lesson had been going on for weeks, “Nothing is better than The People”. Mervie believed this, but she not only believed, she knew it as a fact, as did all of the children in The People’s Town .If not for The People, the world would have collapsed under the slippery slope of human greed.

She blinked as the sense of safety the warm solid walls of the school around her radiated; it was enough to make one dizzy with pleasure. Years ago, she would have asked herself, “How could something so perfect be manmade?” but now it was all too simple to answer that question with one idea: Symmetry and pi. Her hands brushed her soft uneven skin, and reflected on the progress they had made. A few years ago, humankind had finally conquered nature and time with synthetic biology and now everyone had a perfectly symmetrical face with pi written all over it. What was better than beautiful girls hand in hand with perfectly cute boys? She may only be twelve but she already had her eye on some especially cute boy: Tad Ovis. His angelic blonde curls and strong but not bulky build could make a room full of girls faint. She let out a sigh; she could daydream about Tad and his easy charm forever. Suddenly, the bell rang and she watched, trancelike, as Tad, a few desks in front of her strolled outside the room, seemingly unaware of all the love sick female eyes he drew. A few sulky boys followed him, obviously jealous that he had all the ladies’ attention. Mervie was about to follow too when the teacher, her voice stern, called her back and purred in her ear:

 “You were daydreaming, Mervie, and that is against anything The People have taught you. You know very well that The People would never lie, and only they know what is best for you,” she laughed, breaking her robot talk with, “I am only the intermediary, am I not?” she paused abruptly as if silenced. “What did you learn today, pumpkin?” she smiled again, her white teeth blinding and actually reflecting fear, something Mervie was not capable of noticing.

“Schedules bring order into my life, daydreaming is bad…” the ever-obedient Mervie recited automatically while wincing at the reflex. An approving nod from the teacher indicated that she was free.

 She had to stop daydreaming, if the teacher caught her again she’d have to go to the Re-Teaching Machine and if that didn’t work… She shook her head, the Re-Teaching Machine rarely failed and when it did, which was never, people just disappeared and the whole society forgot they even existed. Mervie was acutely aware of this, because the first victim of this erasure was a staggering blow to her, as the forgotten person was her father. “We have to forget in order to go on, Mervie, those people who no longer exist in our minds are burdens to you and me as well as to everyone you know and love” her mother had explained but Mervie knew that he was real and that she missed him, too! How could someone she’d known and loved her whole life suddenly turn into a burden?

 A high pitched yet solemn voice of a child made the hair on the nape of her neck stand up, “Schedules may bring order but they don´t let me breathe!” Elli Instrumentum screeched as he trotted beside her on the sidewalk, his spindly legs frantically trying to keep up with her long legged pace, “Don’t you agree, Minerva?” he wheezed. At the mention of her most detested name her patience was melted,

“It´s Mervie! Not Minerva! Got it, you brainless mongrel? Consider yourself lucky I can´t crack your head open!” she flinched at the hysterical edge to her voice. “You explode too easily, Mervie, not everyone wants to kill you” Father had joked once. I´d better forget him, she thought.  She exhaled shakily and turned to face Elli, still standing on the sidewalk, his eyes only half open “Why exactly do you call me Minerva, you little man?” she asked, the sarcasm obvious. Elli´s face remained thoughtful, yet unreachable as if he was far away lost in his sordid brain.

 “No reason. I thought you looked like a Roman goddess” he turned on his heel and walked away leaving Mervie with a handful of insults, useless on the tip of her tongue.