Second Life: A Second Chance

Observer (I)

"Ah," I say, before reclining on my soft blue leather chair. What another nice day it is to be inside. I sit relaxed on this chair, reminiscing and feeling nostalgic of my youth. What a great time it all was, when enjoying outdoor life was all there was to it. I straighten my hair and stare down at the brown desk drawer in front of me. A few moments are all I have before the next class begins. Thank Ai'nala I am able to relax for a few moments and not rush to finish grading every single stupid recorded response made by the students. Even as I relax, I cannot help but continue staring at the drawer and think to myself, should I open it today? I have not opened it in a while and today seems about the right time to do so. Perhaps it would not hurt if I did. I quickly reach the inside pockets of my slacks and feel around for it, grabbing the metal key with my left hand before pulling it out of the pocket, reaching for the third desk drawer. With one motion, I penetrate the lock with the key and twist clockwise. The lock suspending the drawer opens and pushes outward. Several physical paper documents reveal themselves to me, appearing neatly stacked amongst each other with the Pict Book on top facing me. I grab the Pict Book with one swoop and stare at the image of my ex and I hugging many years ago on the cover. How I miss those days. I remember the fun and happiness I once shared with him, and how his mere presence brought a smile to my face. Unfortunately, I only have this front image of him to remember him by. The other images that I took of my old life never fully uploaded to the rest of the book. Only a few strips of my memories were uploaded and not even complete ones at that.

Looking at the image of us, I can still picture my ex's face without me, well sort of. He was never truly a fan of Pict captures like I was. I knew keeping a memory in an image was the way to go. Even if he hated that concept, you cannot deny the perfect capture of his dashing and beautiful self I took back then. However, I must admit, it is kind of sad that I cannot recall his very name even after looking at this image repeatedly time and time again. Time flies by when you are living a spared yet miserable life. The past is the past but I cannot seem to shake off the nostalgia I carry toward my old life.

He and I met when we were very young. Prior to meeting him, I had spent a good amount of my time as a run away, having left the housing units with my best friend Edgar to live in the outskirts of The City. We both had long desired to venture out of The City and did so to feel free, feeling free as the youth we were destined to be. During my time in The City, I had never once considered my old home with my Fathe as my true home, but given the time that has now passed, I desire nothing more than to go back and relive the old times spent in The City.

I recall quelling the strong urge to liberate myself from societal pressure through my escape from The City's inner male housing zone. Thinking back to it, The City was never really harmful to me. Actually, The City was very kind to me, kind in which I was not truly harmed during my youth within it, where my soul was at least free of forced obedience, unlike the way this town requires (forces on) of me. Once a semi-public "special" experimental administrative zone outside of most government administration, The City intended to be seen as how beneficial "re-mixing" the Genders would be on all of female-male society. This kind of humane societal zone building that the Nation erected would prove to be one of the most important projects to ever be initiated in our society, before the protests erupted of course. Back in my youth in academia, before I ran away, I learned how much value The City carried in comparison to the rest of the country. The City generated so much revenue, it was ranked first out of every municipality and region in the Republic. The City even beat Paradias by five hundred billion! It was, in my opinion, the best place and time period, to have ever lived in. The City only, if not truly, the most beautiful and technologically modern place on Earth. It had everything, from farm work to elevated machinery, some that was even accessible to Males! I took The City for granted, not knowing there was a lot worse to come than the protests but looking back at it, nothing could have changed the direction of its tragic downfall.