The Choices We Live With

Limits

"Limits were taken out of our vocabulary long ago." One would suppose Ceres's father told her that as a child to encourage her, to push her not to settle for the cards life dealt her. Everywhere she looked that sentiment held true. From the history books she read of life before, where the word limits was still a conceivable part of the nation's, no the world's, vocabulary; this was the era of the United States, so the books claimed, but it was doomed to fail as the continent-spanning nation split into many countries. She had heard of all this and more from her father, how they lived in a nation known as the Confederation of the Northern Lakes, and of how they forgot that cursed word long ago. Limits like the laws of physics began to blur as the Northern Country, as it was commonly shorthanded to, experimented in the possibility of teleportation. Success in this new field allowed the North to rise as the new superpower; however, they couldn't maintain their country on technology alone, and with resources running thin and populations running high, a solution was desperately needed.
Flicker football was a popular sport in the Northern Country; Flicker, a school yard variation of football, became so much more when teleportation came into the mix. The new game took to the country like wildfire to a dry prairie. This test of skill, athletics, and technology intrigued the leaders of the Northern Country who were still searching for their solution. Flicker proved to be what they were looking for, a way to distribute resources to different counties based on worth and merit, on technology and innovation, and on skill and speed. This began the cutthroat era, the era Ceres found herself reading history and literature and above all else, playing flicker.
With a natural drive for success and athleticism, she fabricated a fascination with the game and its innermost workings. The rush she felt transporting herself from one end of the field to the other and back again raised her to the power level she read about in ancient texts like Beowulf. The triumph of winning rose her to even greater heights, and the stab of loss was always thrown onto someone else's shoulders. With her image as a keystone player carefully crafted by her coach, she was sent at age twenty two into the world of professional flicker. She settled down into her routine and quickly found her life perfected by a loving husband, a businessman by the name of Solomon Demir.
Limits? Not for her; for her county, her husband, she'd do anything.

"Now we just have to wrap it up with a six mile run," the trainer said to Ceres as she held her knees to catch her breath. He looked down at her before adding, "do we have to do seven instead?"
She held up her hand palm facing out and after several more heavy breaths replied, "no, no, I'm good now, start the clock Roy" before she stood up straight and began her run. Roy hastily grabbed his stopwatch and started it before sitting down on a park bench to wait for her first lap, and after 9 minutes she passed the bench.
"Nine minute mile Demir, bit slow. Speed it up!" he yelled to her as she disappeared around a corner yet again. Finally, by the end of the sixth mile she had settled comfortably into a 7 minute mile. "Made up for it in the end. Make sure you stretch out before going home." he sat and made notes about the session while she stretched. When he was finished, he looked up from his clipboard, "you were using the symbiotic braces on your knees last season for speed, right?" he asked.
"Yeah, I didn't want to push the modifications too much on my first season," she replied.
"You thinking about getting the new leg prosthetics out on the market? They say they're more compatible with the neural network than the previous model with a quicker recovery time," he inquired.
"My physician is coming over today, so I'll see what he says, but that's what I planned to do," she responded while she reached downward to touch her toes.
"Well you may think you have time, but you have to start training on those new legs as soon as possible."
"Yeah, I know." She finished her stretches and said goodbye to Roy before she began the walk back to her house. On the way, her cell phone rang; she looked down to see that it was a call coming from her flicker coach and promptly answered it.
"Hello Coach," Ceres answered.
"Demir, your trainer told me that you were looking at trading your braces for prosthetics," she replied.
"Yeah, I just have to check with my physician before I make the appointment," Ceres confirmed.
"I just talked with the county executive. She made the recommendation for you to get the prosthetics," she pushed.
Ceres paused before she responded, "I'll make the appointment." She hung up the phone and dialled in a number.
"Eve County Prosthetics, Curie speaking," a voice on the other line said.
"Hello Curie, this is Mrs. Ceres Demir. I would like to make a high priority order for the newest model of above the knee sports design prosthetics in a size 12 thigh. I believe they're the C8s," she requested.
"Hello Mrs. Demir, we are honored by your patronage. The newest model is indeed the C8, and we have that size in stock. When would you like to schedule your precheck and installation?"
"Schedule the installation for tomorrow at 6pm. I have a physician's appointment today; I'll have him send the records over."
"Okay, all set, thank you Mrs. Demir."
She ended the call, slid her cell phone into her back pocket, and continued to walk towards her home.