Mags stood at the counter facing the kitchen table. “Explain yourself, young lady.”

With a half-smile, Una said, “I can’t help it. When I’m in class and I look at my friend Ria, even if she doesn’t make a funny face, I have to laugh. It’s really hard to hold it in.”

Peri, distracted by the Ada’s voice coming from the big screen in the family area, said, “I would think it’s the other way around. When I look at your face, I can’t help but laugh.”

“Mom!”

Mags set two plates of scrambled eggs down on the kitchen table. She cleared her throat to stymie the beginnings of an argument that usually started with comments like Peri’s. She slid his plate toward him and kept pushing it until he had to push back against it to keep the eggs from falling into his lap. No need to give him a dirty look; he got the point. “Are you done?”

Peri gulped. “Yes.” He settled back into his chair.

“Not quite yet.” Mags stood over him and crossed her arms.

With his chin resting against his chest, he drew in a deep breath and held it. “I’m sorry, sis.” Ada’s face caught his eyes. “I was only joking.”

Una replied, “You are forgiven.” She smiled. “Loser.”

Mags filled their glasses with milk. She studied her daughter, noting how pretty she looked in her new white dress, similar to the one she herself wore, and how cute she styled her hair this morning. Cuteness didn’t fool her, though. She cleared her throat.

Una said, “What?”

“You were saying?”

Una dug into her eggs, filling her mouth until both cheeks puffed out. She held her index finger up as she chewed. Anything to stall the conversation, to think of something good.

Mags huffed, waiting, resolved to hold in her smile.

One gulp later, Una started. “So as I was saying Ria always makes these funny faces.”

“That’s not what you said.” Peri shook his head.

“What I meant to say…”

“Say what you mean, Una. Don’t clarify it by saying something and then telling me again what you just said.” Mags sat down beside her with her own plate of eggs. She pulled a folded piece of paper from her front pocket. “Now, how did Ria’s face cause your instructor to write this note?”

Una raised her glass. “Technically…”

“My sister, the linguist.”

Mags’s glare wiped Peri’s smile off his face. She enjoyed the sheepishness in his face. So innocent. She turned back to Una. “You have less than a minute to explain before your father comes in for breakfast. Maybe we should wait and you can explain it in his presence.”

Una glanced toward her parents’ room. She shook her head and said, “Okay. It wasn’t Ria. There’s a new boy in my class. His name’s Gebe and he’s always staring at me and smiling. When I catch him smiling at me, I either try to turn away or smile back, but I can’t. I just giggle and my instructor says it disrupts the entire class.” She gulped down some milk.

“How do you know he’s staring at you?”

“Because every time I look-” She blushed.

“Gotcha.” Peri grinned.

Mags signed the piece of paper and handed it to Una without a word. She stared, waiting.

“I’ll try.”

“You won’t try. You’ll do.” She kissed her on the cheek.

“I’ll do.” Una kissed her back.

“Just do your best. If he’s as cute as I bet he is, I won’t be surprised when you bring home another note.”

Una let out the beginnings of a giggle, but stopped short.

Mags walked around to Peri’s side and tried to steal a kiss on his cheek.

He grimaced and leaned away. “Mom, I think I’m a little old for that.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Mags held her cheek next to his face and waited.

Peri grudgingly rushed a peck on her cheek.

“There. That wasn’t so bad,” she said, while Peri wiped his mouth.

Una pointed at the big screen. “I bet you wouldn’t wipe your mouth if Ada asked you to kiss her cheek.”

Peri blushed. Mags glared at her.

“Sorry.”

Lyn entered the kitchen and the conversation ended. He poured a cup of coffee. “It’s funny. I heard a lot of talking out here as I was shaving. Now that dad’s in the room, it’s suspiciously quiet.”

Mags carried her plate to the sink and put her arm around his back. “I’ll tell you later.” She kissed him on the cheek. “Want some eggs?”

“No, thanks. I have a meeting this morning at the bus garage and I’m running late.” He gulped down his coffee and washed the cup out in the sink. He reached around and squeezed her waist before disappearing back in their bedroom.

“I have to go, too.” Peri finished off his milk on his way to the sink. He rushed back into his room.

“Me too.” Una jumped up.

“Hmph.” Mags pointed to Una’s dirty dishes.

Una’s eyes begged her.

Mags grinned. The girl was a charmer. Gebe didn’t have a chance.

Mags waved her hand. “Go on. Gebe is waiting.”

“Mom!”

She placed the dishes on the counter next to the sink and turned on the faucet. Resting her chin on her fists, her face glowed with the news of her teen daughter’s crush. It brought back memories of her own at about the same age. The innocence of it all made her think about her first kiss with Lyn, her perfect loving husband. Now, Peri had gained an interest in at least one girl, Ada, the Face of the Syndicate. Happiness all around.

With Ada’s voice occasionally rising over the sound of the water jetting from the faucet, she closed her eyes and relived the joy of the breakfast conversation. A sweet symphony of thoughts flowed along the bars of her mind occasionally mixing with growing sounds of the street coming through the balcony door. Ada’s gentle voice and the gushing faucet faded as the distant echoes of high-pitched squeaks and faint mechanical roars escalated. The noise of the running water took on that of a trickle into a hollow drain. Occasionally, it would gush then trickle again. Feeling the onrush of panic, Mags bobbed her head side-to-side and forced her smile, the conductor of a symphony beginning to fall out of tune.

In a distant corner of her mind, a familiar distressing sound percolated. She covered her ears, trying to bury it before it screamed over her thoughts. No. Una has a crush on a boy. She giggles when he looks at her. Peri loves his mother. He’s a good boy. He brought his dishes to the sink. He’s so cute when he teases his sister. He has his own crush on Ada. The surging roar from the nearest tower transformed into a long drawn-out horn blast muted not one bit by the two hands mashed over her ears. No, not her! Not that liar! With the sound climaxing to an ear-ringing series of bleats, Mags’s voice shrieked between her ears, desperately trying to stymie the devastation. Fight it! Don’t let it win. Lyn put his arm around me. I felt his squeeze. They are all getting ready for work and school. They’re…

There it is! The beautiful symphony of good thoughts resumed. As her breathing slowed, the muscles in her face relaxed, but her eyelids held shut. Was the battle really over? After several seconds, she swayed her head and then her elbows allowing the happiness to creep back in and take hold of her. Her mind filled with vivid thoughts of Una swaying face to face with her crush, the same way she and Lyn had done during their first dance those many years ago. She dropped her hands from her ears, reaching out to him again to draw his warm rugged body against hers. Just as their hands touched, her eyes popped open and the symphony abruptly ended, replaced by the roars and squeaks of life, this time coming from outside. Ada’s monotonous muffled voice echoed inside her apartment and from the screens on the streets below. Steady drops of water from the balcony above hers splashed onto her own balcony wall. Behind her, a door slammed shut. Una has a crush. Another door closed. Peri brought me his dishes like a good boy. A moment later, a third slam. Lyn. They left without saying goodbye.

On trembling legs, Mags held herself upright by her elbows against the decaying concrete that made up her balcony wall. She blinked her vision of the alley across the street back into sharpness while ignoring the dark distant behemoth rising over it. Below the identical gray brick buildings, citizens dressed in their usual bland jumpsuits either trudged in small groups along the sidewalks or waited at the bus stops on either side of the street. In the distance to her left, the brakes squealed on a Syndicate bus at a crowded stop. When the sidewalk cleared, the engine roared to life and the bus lurched forward violently on its way to the next stop directly below her building.

“Lyn needs to order the mechanics to fix the brakes.” She laughed through watery eyes.

Across the street at the entrance of the alley, Una and Peri walked among the citizens. With Una’s longer legs and steadier pace, she had already advanced several paces ahead of him. Mags figured by the time Una arrived at the Institute, Peri would probably trail behind by more than a block. They didn’t say goodbye. She searched the nearside sidewalk to the right of her apartment and found Lyn in a group of citizens all walking with nearly the same gait. At the next block, the herd turned right and disappeared behind a building without so much as bumping shoulders. Mags hung her head. He didn’t say goodbye, either.

Why did it still hurt so much that none of them said goodbye? After all, in the twenty years since her day of remembrance, nobody had even said hello. In fact, nobody greeted anybody coming or going. Where’s the surprise here, you fool? You know darn well there is no Una crush or a white dress for that matter. She examined her own white dress. Be happy for yourself that you’re wearing one. And who knows if Peri even recognizes that Ada is beautiful? Lyn, your supposed husband, wouldn’t know the intimacy of hugging your waist just as you don’t have a clue what it feels like to have your waist hugged. They’re real, alright, but not so real to make you think you’d just wake up and they’d be waiting to kiss your cheek and say something funny. You’re a fool. The only real fool in the subdomain.

Pulling up the skirt of her handmade dress made up of pilfered window sheers from empty apartments, she lifted a knee and climbed onto the ledge. With her sleeveless arms held out to the sides, she balanced herself, waiting for the man in the yellow vest to show on the street below.

There she would meet the pavement and neither remember nor forget.