BECCA WAS CONFUSED BY Sord’s frozen expression. “What gives?” she asked Robbie. “Sord apparently doesn’t know what happened to his forehead.”

Sord glanced at Robbie, hoping he’d say nothing, and barely shook his head. Becca caught the movement from the corner of her eye.

“Okay, young delinquents. What aren’t you boys telling me?” she demanded, eyebrows raised.

Noticing Robbie’s mum expression, Sord thought he’d relieve his friend of the burden.

“Mom,” he started, “I wasn’t too aware of things when it happened. Like, I don’t have a clear memory.”

Becca’s eyebrows had not moved, and she was giving Sord that motherly look of disbelief.

“You see,” he continued, “Matt was there with the first search party.”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “I told him to go out and search for you two. That was not his fault.”

Sord’s Prosperity teachings were pressing heavily against his mind. ‘Be smart about how you speak, but fear not the message. Face the harsh wind of retribution or consequence when it may present itself. Best to deal with reality and truth than a rationalized lie or half-truth.’

“But this,” he pointed to his forehead, “apparently was.”

Sitting at the edge of Sord’s bed, Becca immediately bolted up straight to the floor. “Did he pick you up and drop you or something?”

“No!” Robbie burst out. “He whacked him really hard on the forehead. Like this, with his backhand and knuckles.”

Robbie clenched his fist and thwacked his mattress, causing the bed frame to rattle.

Becca stood rigidly, staring at the table between the beds.

“That big, little fuckup,” she whispered inaudibly. “That big, little fuckup hit my barely alive son!”

“Were you awake or unconscious when this happened?” she prodded Sord.

Volunteering again, Robbie said, “Mrs. B, he was out of it, honestly. He couldn’t even speak. I think his eyes were closed or rolling around. I just saw Matt’s big old fist in the air, then it cracked down on his head.”

She was still in shock. “Are you sure? You sure this wasn’t there already?”

“I swear. His face was smooth as a baby’s butt, excepting the big paw swipe on that side. The huge knot didn’t come from a paw, for sure. If it was a racnine’s claw, Sord wouldn’t have a face right now. I saw the dude hit him, and he was angry as hell. Uh, I mean ‘heck.’ The other rescue guy from their moto was trailing right behind him, and he yelled at Matt to halt. After that, Matt stood up and let the guy begin assessing Sord’s wounds, at least the ones Matt didn’t create.”

Robbie stopped. He knew the last comment would make her even angrier. He started wondering whether he’d ever be allowed back in Sord’s apartment after telling this story. But it was true.

“You know, I was pretty out of it too,” he backpedaled, “so I might have overdone the memory a bit. But I know the rescue guy was mad as hell at him, and I was afraid those two might get in a fight when we were both down on the ground and in no shape to break it up. Then other folks started buzzing around me, and I couldn’t see anything after that.”

Becca’s knees were shaking, and she plopped hard onto Sord’s bed.

“Ow!” he complained, the movement jostling his arm.

“Sorry, Dearie. Sorry. I need you two to be quiet for a minute.”

She closed her eyes and started breathing as deeply as possible, trying to remember whatever she could recall in the moment from the Stoic’s Checklist. She tried to access something, some mantra that might help her calm down.

Matt was damaged goods. She knew that. But she wasn’t perfect, either. Her mom’s history was far from perfect. She felt lucky to be accepted into Prosperity’s society, in fact, since her mom was so closely aligned with the evildoer who set fire to globe with his terrible genetic aberration. Abhorrence.

Was she not seeing something about him? After all, Becca had been in Prosperity much longer than Matt, giving her more time to adapt to its rules. She came as a youngster. He arrived as an adult after years of brutality and strife, and he still had significant personal devils to contend with. But who didn’t?

“Mrs. B, should I let you two talk?”

Eyes still closed, she raised her hand up, a signal to remain quiet until she was ready.

Robbie sat back on his bed, glancing at Sord. They both shrugged their shoulders.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

For the two boys, relationships with girls were intentionally short-term. They had no expectations to stay with any girlfriend for more than a few months, much less years. A single disagreement might prompt a disengagement and flight to fairer pastures. However, they understood adult relationships often held sway for much longer periods, even when they appeared to be irreparably damaged and detrimental for one or both parties.

Becca’s mind was churning at this news. “There’s more going on here; more than either of them know,” she considered. “I cannot make excuses for bad actions. I will not lower my sense of self to do this. Many things are forgivable, but a few are not. Becca, don’t ever fool yourself by rationalizing any behavior from you or someone else. See it for what it is. Assess the likelihood of this trouble continuing. You know, girl, you started rationalizing about Matt months ago. Months ago! Not a positive path for you. Life will often deal out shit. People can be shit. Don’t let them shit on you. Get away, despite your fears of consequences. Be supremely confident in your ability to survive through it and emerge in a better place.”

Robbie had picked up his bed controls and was playing with the module, trying to understand how the motor and gearing mechanisms worked.

Sord wasn’t sure what to do. He knew things weren’t great between Matt and his mother, but he hadn’t paid much attention to her relationship issues. He had his own problems every day at school, and they were all-consuming. “Besides,” he thought, “adults should be smart enough to take care of themselves. They’ve had a lot more time at it than us.”

She expelled a breath, hissing loudly through her teeth. “Okay, I’m calmer. Thanks, my young men. Sord, I will take care of this issue with Matt.”

“Aw, Mom,” he moaned, worried about the consequences, like encountering more of Matt’s intimidations in their small living quarters. “Look, I’m a lot more hurt than some bump on my head. And maybe he was just mad because I made you worry about me. Please don’t give him a hard time because of something I didn’t see. Even Robbie may not have seen all of what really happened.”

“Like I said,” Becca assured him, “I’ll handle Matt. So here’s what I want you two boys to do for me. Please don’t mention this to anyone else, not unless I ask you to. Robbie, your mother is coming to pick you up in a half hour. Get your little butt ready to be very, very nice to her, and expect more motherly fawning over you along with the appropriate level of pissed-off disciplinary measures.”

Robbie rolled his eyes. “Yes, ma’am.”

“For you, Sord, I have a little discipline as well. Don’t assume you’re going to stay here forty-eight more hours and do nothing but stare at the wall.”

She pulled his tablet from her purse. “I brought you this. Until I speak with your teacher about homework assignments, I want you to read more of your ancestor’s diary.”

“Diary!” Robbie smirked. “You have to read somebody’s diary?”

“Oh, crap,” Sord sighed in disgust.

She smiled. “Yeah, not crap. You need to read at least a few more chapters. Then I’ll come in, quiz you a bit about it, ask you what you’ve learned about how others think outside that skull of yours, and give you the assignments from your teacher.”

“Seriously? I mean, I’ll have to hold the tablet with only one hand?”

“Use text to voice if you tire from holding it. But don’t get lazy and fall asleep. I want you to learn something. This is no different than reading a textbook.”

“Sure,” he shrugged. “It’s terminally more boring than any textbook I’ve ever read. I don’t know why we can’t just get chipped like people used to do, and not have to work so hard at this stupid learning.”

“You do remember what all that tech wrought us as a species? You do remember how we had no ethical base from which to manage it?” she questioned, feigning sympathy. “Life is indeed tough. Motos. Racnines. Cute girls visiting you. Friend at your side who saved your life. Mom who wants your little mind to grow and envision living as others experienced it.”

“Patronizing,” he mumbled, his head shaking in disgust. Her speech was made even worse by having Robbie within earshot.

“I’m off to work now. You know what our norms say: ‘Don’t allow one second of self-pity.’ That goes for both of you and even me, the woman without sleep the last thirty six hours. There you go, and I just slapped that norm.”

She grabbed Sord’s left hand, the one that so tightly held onto Daisy’s hand minutes before, and lifted it up to her cheek, feeling her son’s warmth for a brief moment.

“Back in a bit. Goodbye my delinquent, but alive, young men.”

***

Robbie’s mother arrived shortly after Becca departed, and Sord was bored now that his buddy was gone. Videos were not permitted in the hospital, so no vidscreens were even present in the room.

Sord thought about asking an attendant if he could get Prosperity Net on his pad, if for no other reason than to see whether he and Robbie had made the news stories. But he suspected his mother told the hospital staff to prevent him from gaining access to any content beyond his tablet. And the only file on his tablet that he hadn’t read a dozen times already was his ancestor’s diary.

“Cripes,” he pondered, “this is the real punishment. Daisy and her friends are back at school. My face looks like a moto ran over it, and it kind of did. My body hurts all over, and they won’t let me have anything fun to eat except their crappy food and water. I mean, why can’t we live the way teenagers always lived, like a century ago? I was born in a shit time. Why are we so restricted from having fun?”

He glanced at his tablet on the table, not wanting to make the effort.

“Too much for a teenager to bear, all the emphasis on rules, norms, controls and human behavior. It’s this whole concept of ensuring humans don’t repeat the mistakes of the past. Like, if they fail to teach us decency and proper treatment of each other, we’ll inevitably create one last and final Great Debacle. I don’t know why they established this set of restrictive behaviors or belief systems. Sometimes, I feel like breaking out and joining a nascent settlement outside Prosperity, one that allows more freedoms.”

His lips pursed. “Okay, maybe not that far. I know it sucks for the few million left on this continent who are scraping to survive, much less those we’re aware of elsewhere. Sure, life is a pisser for all of them, and Prosperity thinks it has the most righteous norms and standards of behavior to extend humanity successfully into the future. I know all that. I just don’t like it. Maybe I will in the future, but right now, I want the freedom to do as I please despite all the teaching I get that it’s normal to feel this way at my age. Hell, I’ve felt this way ever since I can remember, so it’s not just an age thing. Maybe I’m not meant to be a citizen of Prosperity.”

Matt’s image crossed his mind. “But what if every other godforsaken outside settlement excels at producing creatures like Matt? Unrestrained. Immature. An eruption of emotion and confusion. Anger. No moral compass. No mental compass. Crap, this thought gets me nowhere. I guess it’s back to Greg’s dreary and utterly irrelevant stories from long ago.”

He snatched the tablet from the table and began reading