Evelyn stepped out of her bungalow home, carefully rolling her bicycle down the sidewalk. She had all her things she needed for work: her notebook, pencils, and pens were in her backpack, and she was wearing her lab coat. She hopped on her bicycle, and navigated the narrow streets that led from her abode to the greenhouse. By this point, she was already starting to memorize the path, so she was stopping less and less often to double-check she was going the right way.

When she arrived at the greenhouse, she locked her bicycle to the bike rack and entered the outer doors to the greenhouse. After some scanners approved her worker ID, the inner doors opened for her, and she came into the Data Room.

A few of her co-workers were already there in the data room reading on their phones their task list for the day, but most had not arrived yet.

After she swiped her ID card on a scanner on the wall of the room to clock in for the day, a personalized task list popped up on her phone. The task list’s summary line was “Work with Caroline, on blocks 3A to 11E. Help others if you have finished your personal tasks.”

Examples of specific tasks were “Add 2.7 mol calcium solution to tomato plants,” and “XY”

She noticed there were two men but only one other woman, so she approached her. “Are you Caroline?” she asked, hoping to make a good first impression. “Hi, yea, I am. I’ve seen you before, you’re the one who’s usually in the tomatoes section, right?.”

“Yea, I am.”

Ermmm-hurmm, Caroline cleared her throat, “Do you know where we get the seeds from?”

“Oh, no- I hadn’t even read that far into today’s task list– Huhh. Maybe it’s in the supplies closet?” Evelyn suggested.

“Yea but I’ve never seen seeds or containers of seeds in there.”

“Well, we should probably check.”

They left the data room, walked along the walls of the greenhouse farm room, until they reached the supplies room. The supplies room appeared more as a closet than a proper room. The room was 5 feet by 7 feet and was filled to the brim with tall, overstuffed shelves; miscellaneous tools such as spare temperature probes, flasks of plant nutrient solution, scissors, and strings were piled up so densely you couldn’t see the bottoms of the shelves.

There wasn’t enough space to put the tools on the ground, so Evelyn had no choice but to shuffle around items on each shelf, while Caroline just watched. After a couple minutes, Evelyn hadn’t found any seeds. Why did I think they would be here? In what world do seeds go with mechanical junk? she thought to herself and sighed.

Caroline hold the door open for her and they stood in the greenhouse room. Caroline’s eyes focused on a male co-worker far out in the field of crops, and after recognizing who he was, she suddenly had an idea. She turned her face back to Evelyn and said, “Oh! Let’s ask Michael? He’s one of the only ones who was here before we all got trained.”

“What? Oh, right, Michael…” Evelyn said, pretending to know that name. It seemed like these people all knew each other because they were from the same neighborhood, while her, she had just moved into the neighborhood and didn’t know anybody.

Evelyn followed Caroline’s steps as they walked across the field to Michael. “Hey! Michael! Do you know where the seeds are? You must’ve planted before.”

“Uhmm, yea. I do. They’re in the fridge.”

“The one in the lounge room?” Caroline asked.

“No, no, the one in the special room. Over there, he motioned with his head towards one of the walls of the greenhouse room, and, sure enough, there was a small door, although it was partially camouflaged.

“Oh, that? That’s a room?” she pointed over at the broad area on the wall where Michael had nodded his head to.

“Yes. I mean, I don’t blame you for not noticing it- the door’s the same texture as the wall. They do that on purpose, because their seeds are so valuable.”

“Ohhh, weird, huh. Thank you, Michael.” Caroline responded, then turned her gaze to Evelyn, and the two walked to the camouflaged door.

Caroline took out her worker ID card and touched it on the small, hidden, flat touchpad right next to the door’s handle. The door made a click sound, and she opened it.

Inside was a boring old plain room with nothing besides a fridge. When she opened the fridge, there must’ve been at least fifty glass jars of nothing but seeds. After rummaging around for a bit, she found two jars labeled “tomato seeds” and “carrot seeds” and took them out from the fridge.

“Alright, here we go,” she exclaimed. “Let’s get the starter plugs now,”

They then went back over to the supplies room, grabbed the starter plugs and the other tools they needed, and went to Block 3A in the greenhouse.

For each hole in the tray, they scooped out a tiny bit of dirt into the hole, took out two tomato seeds from the jar, and buried them in the dirt. The task was simple but there were a ridiculous amount of holes– it took them a long hour to finish planting all of them.

“Wow, that was a lot of work… three-hundred crops…” Evelyn exclaimed, exasperated and looking at the bed of plant seedlings they had just created.

“Psshhht…. this your first back-breaking job?” she said, a slight smirk on her lips.

“Ermmm, I guess so. I mean, I worked as a food store clerk, putting up boxes, but not for very long.”

“Ehh, well I can’t blame you. I worked in a cement mill for a solid few years, so I may be the exception around here, actually.”

“Why did you quit?”

“Quit? No, girl, they fired me. Haven’t you heard of the massive layoffs two years ago in half the factories in this part of town?”

“Oh. I didn’t know that,” she said with an awkward smile to ease off her embarrassment.

“No, don’t worry about it. The news did a horrible job covering it– they’d rather talk about the latest TV shows or the president’s latest gaffes than this type of stuff.”

“Oh- so do you prefer this job to your one at the cement factory?”

“Actually, I haven’t thought about that too much. I guess I did like my job at the cement mill because I like really working out, getting the endorphins flowing, and also because I made some friends while I was there. Here, though, I don’t know many people, so, it’s whatever. I guess I’m getting to know you, if that counts.”

“Yea, I’m glad we can get to know each other.” she said, smiling.

Then she checked her phone for the time, and her smile quickly morphed into an anxious frown. “It’s 10:50, and the planting seeds part was only 1/4th of the page. We should probably get back to it.”

“Oh, okay- but we should talk, like after work ends.”

“Yea, for sure, Caroline,” Evelyn said.

The rest of the day for Evelyn and Caroline was a boring-but-hectic slop of making sure every plant had been given its proper nutrients, light, and that the plants had been growing as fast as expected. It was similar to any other day, except for the odd minute-long conversation between the two whenever they felt like they could afford to spend a bit of time getting to know each other.

The sky eventually became yet another warm amber, and they yet again returned to the data room and deposited their plant-log notebooks and miscellaneous tools. This time, [ Add something here ].

“Yea, I am kinda bored- I don’t really know what to do with my free time.”

“So you’re telling me you do nothing in your free time? Just stare at walls?”

“Uhmm” – Evelyn nervously laughed – “well sometimes I actually stare at walls after I smoke some weed.”

“Oh well the weed thing, that’s you-do-you. But you never hang out with people?”

“No, I haven’t even met my neighbors. Just have a vague sense of what some of them look like.”

“Dang, you confuse me. You’ve been in Cedar Heights for what, four weeks now, and you haven’t met your neighbors? Come on, you have to.”

“It’s just- how do I start? Knock on their doors? There never seemed like a good time to introduce myself to them.”

“You know you can literally just knock on people’s doors, ask them how they’re doing, have a good chat. It’s not considered especially rude here, you just should be friendly of course.”

“Huh- I guess I never tried knocking on doors here, but I know for sure that that wouldn’t work where I grew up. People get suspicious of their neighbors real quick in East Hampton.”

“Oh! I didn’t know that. You know what would be a good way to get you used to the people here? I could introduce you to my family.”

“You mean- right now?”

“Uh-huh, yes. I mean, we already take the same bus. It’s as simple as, you getting off at the same bus stop as me instead of your usual bus stop.”

“Oh- yea, I guess that’d be nice. Thanks!”

[Question Do they need to talk between now and when the bus arrive? Or can they just go back on their phones or wait in silence?]

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

A few minutes passed, and the bus arrived. Caroline, Evelyn, and a couple other co-workers got on the bus.

[ Some more dialogue between Caroline and Evelyn]

The bus came to a stop outside the border of a large area of single-story houses. “This is my stop,” Caroline told Evelyn, and they both got off the bus. On the sidewalk, Evelyn squinted her eyes at the expanse of houses in front of her. “Wow, that’s a lot of houses,” she said, “not like where I live where it’s mainly just a couple tall apartment complexes and then some convenience stores.”

Caroline smiled, “Yea, but I kinda like that. Gives me room to breathe.”

“Oh I wasn’t saying this setup’s bad. I actually would’ve preferred to have moved into this type of neighborhood, instead of the tall apartment building I’m in right now. It must be easier to make friends with your neighbors when you can just hang out with them outdoors.”

“Yea,” Caroline said. “Anyways, let’s keep walking so you can meet my family. You good with kids by the way?” Caroline asked, as she started walking, with Evelyn following her.

“Wow you have kids! That’s awesome, raising the next generation. And yea, I’m good with them. My nephew sees me as cool [Lmao I need to make a better example of how Evelyn is good with kids]. How old are yours?”

“So Sofía is eight and Daniel is nine, turning ten next month,” Caroline informed her.

“Hmm, must be keeping you busy a lot, I guess.”

“Well yea they are, but my husband takes care of them more than me. You’ll see when you meet him,” Caroline responded.

“Oh,” Evelyn said. They were still walking, but Evelyn slowed down her pace when she noticed a very dilapidated house across the street. “Hey, does anyone live in that house? Looks very eery to me”

“What? Oh you mean the one over there with its roof all torn apart? Yea, I don’t exactly know the people there, but the other neighbors were telling me there was some serious property damage– don’t know what caused it– and so the family there had to move. No one’s brave enough to try to fix-” she gestured her hands in a wave motion-”all of that, so no one’s moved in a couple years.”

“Ah. Also sorry for asking so many questions. I’m just really curious about things here, because it’s so different from where I grew up” Evelyn apologized.

“No, no, that’s okay. I like explaining all of this” Caroline reassured her, a small friendly smile on her face.

They resumed walking, then turned right onto Camelot Street. A few houses later, Caroline stepped off the main sidewalk, and walked across the scratchy grass to her house front door. “This is it,” she said to Evelyn and then knocked on the door.

A minute or so later, a bearded man wearing an oversized red crewneck opened the door. “Evelyn, this is my husband, Marco,” Caroline informed. Evelyn’s gaze shifted from Caroline to Marco, as Marco said, “Hi Evelyn! So good to meet you.”

Caroline and Evelyn stepped inside onto the frayed, straw rug.

[ add my thing from my Notes app]

[ Marco sat down at the table ]

Evelyn sat down with her plate at one end of the long wooden table in the back area of the kitchen. She waited for Caroline to finish putting food onto her own plate. When Caroline sat down and smiled for a brief second, before realizing something– she squeezed her eyes and her smile lines deepened as she said out loud to herself: “ughh, I forgot to get the kids here for dinner. Did the kids eat already, Marco?”

“No, they haven’t. They had some snacks a couple hours ago, so they’ve been playing games all day.” Marco informed his wife. After examining her discontented expression, he tried to assuage her frustration: “Hold on, I’ll go get them. You guys, just relax.”

Marco got up from his chair and scrambled over to the hallway. “Daniel! Sofía! Stop playing games, we have to eat dinner!” he yelled with all of his chest. With that, any and all sounds in the house stopped, and the adults could hear the faint sounds of footsteps on the wooden floor, followed by the creaking of a door opening. Soon enough, Daniel emerged from the corner of the hallway, walking with a slight jump to his steps, and his arms swinging loosely at his sides. After he had reached his father, Sofía emerged from the other side of the hallway and fast-walked to catch up to Daniel.

“Couldn’t find me, psshttt,” Sofía bragged to Daniel.

“Hey, no fair! You’re hiding too well!” Daniel complained.

“Kids, I know games are really fun but we have to eat dinner now.”

“Aww, okay,” Daniel responded.

Then, the kids followed their dad and walked into the kitchen. Daniel and Sofía walked to the counter where the tall stack of plates was, but couldn’t reach it. reached for a plate. Marco said “Here, kiddos,” and handed each of them a plate. Then, the kids went over to the table with all the dishes, and grabbed some quesadillas and refried pinto beans.

[ The Marco Caroline Evelyn and the 2 kids have a conversation over dinner ]

[ Dinner ends, and Marco announces that he’s going to check in on mom]

“I’m gonna check on suegra, okay?” he let Caroline know.

“Okay,” she said.

Marco left the kitchen and walked across the hallway over to the living room.

[

Option 1: I can focus on Marco treating Caroline’s mom in the living room. This would be a scene without Evelyn in it

Option 2: I can focus on Evelyn in the kitchen.

I’m taking Option 2.]

[Sometime after dinner ends, Marco or Caroline puts the 2 kids to sleep.

Then, after the kids are asleep, Caroline suggests watching a quick 30-minute episode of a trashy reality TV show to Evelyn, just to have some fun. ]

[BEFORE EVELYN ASKS THIS QUESTION, Evelyn and Caroline were having a happy conversation, and Caroline was smiling.]

Evelyn washed her plate in the sink. “How’s your mom?” she asked Caroline.

“Not great. Actually, really bad.” Caroline sighed, her face suddenly drained of emotion. Her cheeks sank, staring at the cracks in the floor.

“I’m so sorry, didn’t mean to ruin the conversation.”

Caroline stayed in the depths of her mind for an uncomfortable period of silence, but eventually her eyes flickered as she returned closer to reality.

“Eh, no, it’s alright. It’s just really hard, because she’s not the same, strong woman I used to know. Seeing her not able to do the things she used to love to do… is painful for me.”

“Yea, I’m really sorry you’re going through all that, sounds heartbreaking”, Evelyn consoled.

“Thanks. You’re our guest, do you want to do something fun really quick before you go? Maybe watch some TV?”

“Oh yea, I’d so be down for that,” Evelyn responded.

Caroline rose her eyes off the floor and looked at Evelyn. “Okay, we can go watch right now– there’s a TV in the living room.”

“Sounds good,” Evelyn said, and then followed Caroline out of the kitchen and into the living room.

They sat down on the old, ripped-up couch in the center of the room, and Caroline reached for the remote. “Here you go,” she said as she handed it to Evelyn.

“What do you want to watch?” Evelyn asked.

Caroline shrugged. “Uhhh, I don’t really know. Just something ‘fun’, I guess.” she said apathetically.

Evelyn scrolled through the list of TV shows suggested for Caroline: a couple drama shows, a couple reality TV, and one or two mystery detective shows.

Eventually Evelyn settled on one option and clicked on it: “Hot Mess Mansion”.

“That’s a really good one,” Caroline said approvingly.

“You’ve seen it?”

“Yea, I just got to episode 17. Look at the TV, it says that,” she said, tired and defeated.

“Oh… oh yea, right. Okay, well I’m excited,” Evelyn said, trying to cheer up her friend.

Evelyn turned on episode 17, and they watched it in relative silence, save for the occasional question by Evelyn or chuckle by Caroline.

[ Describe a few CRAZY things that happen throughout the episode ]

When the “Next time, on Hot Mess Mansion” montage rolled, Evelyn grabbed the remote from the table and paused it, but Caroline protested, “What are you doing? This is the best part!” so Evelyn put the remote back down, and they watched it.

“Dang, now I’m really hooked. I wanna know what Sandra does to get back at David for throwing that party and trashing the entire mansion,” Evelyn said.

“Haha,” Caroline said, still lying far back and looking at the TV, instead of at Evelyn.

Evelyn stood up from the couch, making eye contact with Caroline, even though she didn’t return the gesture.

“Alright, well, this has been really fun. I’m gonna head back home now, though” Evelyn said.

“Yea that’s okay. Thanks for coming over” Caroline said, still catatonic and staring at the black turned-off TV.

Evelyn walked out the living room door into the hallway, but then turned around and asked “hey, how am I getting home? Are you– or Marco– driving me?”

“Umm yea, Marco can drive you, I think. Just go and ask him. He’s probably in his bedroom, which is near the front of the house where you came in.” she said, then slouched back even further.

“Okay, thanks. Well thanks for everything, see you on Monday at work.”

Caroline didn’t respond, but it was clear she wasn’t there mentally at the moment, so Evelyn just walked out of the living room, and then walked straight down the hallway back to the front entrance of the house. She knocked on one of the doors, and half a minute later Marco opened it.

“Hello, hi,” Marco said, in his nighttime outfit: a basic white tee and a set of athletic shorts.

“Oh– I think Caroline’s kinda out of it right now, but she told me you could drive me home?”

“Uhh, yea. I guess I can. Do you live close by?”

“I’m not exactly sure but it’s probably no more than a twenty minute drive.”

“Why don’t you check?” Marco said rather sharply.

[Note: one of Marco’s bad traits is that he can get kinda annoyed when people other than Caroline or Caroline’s mom or Caroline’s kids, ask him to do things. This is why Marco says “Why don’t you check?”, which implies that he is a bit irritated]

“Oh right, okay.” Evelyn pulled out her phone, opened the Maps app, and plugged in the address of her apartment building. “It says twenty-three minutes,” she informed Marco.

“Okay” Marco said.

“Okay like you will drive me?”

“Yes, sorry, I will drive you. Sorry, just had a long day and so I’m tired. Give me a couple minutes though, make sure the kids are still sleeping, then I’ll drive you.”

“Okay,” Evelyn said.

Marco promptly closed the door to his bedroom, and Evelyn walked to the foyer right next to the front door. Evelyn waited while Marco walked through the house, checking on different things. A few minutes later, Marco walked to the front door where Evelyn was.

“Okay, sorry to make you wait. You ready to go?” he said.

“Yes,” she said.

“Okay,” Marco said, and then opened the front door. Evelyn followed Marco into his car, which was an old gray-blue Toyota Corolla with an antenna standing on its roof.

After they had been driving on a main road for a couple minutes, Marco broke the silence.

“Sorry I wasn’t there for a long time. How was it for you? Did you like hanging out with Caroline?” Marco asked.

“Umm yea, it was great. I haven’t had any social interaction outside of work in a couple weeks, so I kinda needed it. But after dinner, Caroline seemed a little… not there”

“Yea, she can get a little out of it sometimes, especially when she’s reminded of her mom’s health– like with her mom falling down today.”

Evelyn thought Caroline seemed more than just “a little out of it” in the living room, but decided not to prod the issue further since she didn’t think it was any of her business.

[ Do Marco and Evelyn talk any more for the duration of the car ride to Evelyn’s apartment building ? ]

“Okay, when you see this MinuteMart with the neon orange sign on the right, that’s in the same general place where my apartment building is, so you can pull in to the right there,” Evelyn informed him.

“Okay,” Marco said.

He pulled into the parking lot behind the MinuteMart, which was next to a pair of two tall apartment buildings.

“This is it,” she said, and Marco parked the car on one of the spots.

The car made a click sound, and Evelyn said, “Okay. Thank you so much for driving!”

“Alright, bye Evelyn.” Marco said.

Evelyn then got out of the car and walked across the parking lot to her apartment building. She grabbed her apartment ID from her bag and tapped it on the black pad next to the old, rusty double doors. Vwwwwrrp!-- the doors unlocked and Evelyn entered the first floor.

She was dismayed to see that yellow tape was still crossed over the single elevator in the lobby.

She sighed and took the stairs up to her room on the 7th floor.