After Jolene finished resetting Elaine’s shoulder, the discussion of whether or not to take Elaine along resumed.

“You really should stay back and rest,” Jolene said. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll go with Mr. Asher.”

“You’re hurt too, you know,” Elaine fired back defiantly. “I mean, that stun gun plus the pepper spray can’t have been good for you.”

“I guarantee I’m less hurt than you right now. You probably aren’t even a decent shot with your shoulder like that,” Jolene responded, unconvinced by Elaine’s point.

“Oh yeah, what’s your average at the range?” Elaine spat back.

“My average doesn’t matter any more than yours right now against moving, armed targets. The fact is you’re injured and would probably slow us down.”

Brad broke in, “Look, just hold down the fort here. Keep the door locked, try to get some rest, and we’ll be back soon. Hopefully our meeting won’t take long.”

Elaine opened her mouth to say something, but then stopped herself. “Okay, fine, just be careful.”

“Am I ever not?” Brad asked, with a grin?

“I’m serious, I’m not going to be able to bail you out of this one if you really want me to stay here.” Elaine folded her arms.

“You do realize I’m an adult and am capable of handling myself out in the real world, right Elaine? I’ll be fine.”

—

After Elaine finally relented, Brad and Jolene were able to set off for the place Sonia detailed for their meeting. The two walked in silence for what seemed like an eternity, neither sure of what to talk about, having never met one another before this afternoon. The knowledge that Jolene had attacked Elaine earlier probably made things awkward as well.

Jolene looked Brad over. How was it that Elaine and Brad had met before? They seemed to be a strange pair of friends, Elaine being so loud and outspoken while Brad seemed to be a bit more reserved. Eventually Jolene decided to ask some questions.

“So…where are you from, exactly, Mr. Asher?”

Brad seemed surprised at the question, or at least at the way he was addressed, because he quickly replied, “Just Brad is fine. Anyway, my family is on one of the lunar colonies, Serenitatis. Named for Mare Serenitatis, or the Sea of Serenity.”

“Oh, so your family is rich, then?” Jolene winced. Probably should have worded that more tactfully. He might get defensive.

“Well, I guess you could say that. It’s not like we had a butler or anything. Just a summer home in the Sea of Tranquility.” Quickly spotting Jolene’s glare of disbelief. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. No, my dad works for a security firm on Serenitatis, big contract, all the cameras and alarms and such are his domain, and my mom’s a doctor. So I’d be lying if I said we were destitute or anything like that.”

“And you’re a private detective on some backwater colony out here in the boonies.”

“Yeah, you could say that things haven’t exactly panned out the way my parents would have wanted,” Brad said wistfully.

“What do you mean?” Jolene pushed.

“Mom wanted me to get into med school and become a doctor just like her. Hell, of the four of us, I’m the only one who hasn’t ended up in medicine or Dad’s security firm.”

“What happened, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“I was always kinda the dumb one in our family. I mean, security didn’t really interest me so that was never in the cards. Yes I see the irony. But I mean I tried. I went to a decent university. I majored in public health and minored in sociology. I wasn’t a terrible student, and I did fine on all my exams, but I just never ended up getting accepted into a medical program I was happy with. Before I knew it I was just working nights as a shopping center security agent.”

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“Why didn’t you keep applying to different medical programs?” Jolene asked, her interest piqued.

“The truth is…” Brad paused, trying to consider his words. “I was only really going into medicine because I didn’t think I had any other options. That somehow my life wouldn’t be seen as successful if I wasn’t in some prestigious profession like my parents. I didn’t bother taking any career aptitude tests because I wasn’t sure I’d find something that would be a better fit because of what I already knew growing up.”

Jolene grimaced. “That hardly seems fair.”

Brad stopped and turned toward Jolene. “What do you mean?”

“It’s just…I didn’t have many of the same opportunities that you did. It sounds like you squandered a lot of the opportunities you did have.”

Brad stood in silence for a bit, causing Jolene to cup her hands over her mouth in embarrassment. Probably shouldn’t have said that.

“Y’know, you’re not wrong.”

“What?”

“I did squander my opportunities. I wasn’t exactly passionate about the idea of going into medicine and I wasted a lot of time in pursuit of something that I had no reason to believe would make me happy or leave me fulfilled. I had opportunities that I took for granted, sure.”

Jolene paused for a second. “I get the feeling there’s a ‘but’ coming.”

Brad nodded. “But by the same token, I think it’s important to highlight the kind of pressure that I was under. At least, the pressure I felt like I was under.”

“What do you mean?”

“My parents probably would have been fine if I’d decided to become a teacher or something else, but I was always too afraid to ask what they thought because I thought for sure they wouldn’t approve of anything they considered ‘less’ than what they had done for their careers. Whether they’re real or not, that kind of weighty expectation really does a number on people growing up.”

“You know, you still could go for something like that if you wanted to.”

“I know. But the thing is…I don’t think I want to anymore.”

“Why?”

Brad smiled. “I like being my own boss and being able to say no to work I don’t want to do. I know I don’t seem like it considering I’m friends with Elaine but I kinda hate being told what to do, and I have a bit of a problem with authority.” He chuckled. “I mean, I might hate the fact that my family sees me as the screw-up, but that doesn’t make it any less true. But there’s something truly magical about being your own boss.”

Jolene fell silent. She hadn’t been expecting such a frank response. In truth, she’d expected him to be more defensive, but he seemed totally fine with what she’d had to say, like he’d already said it to himself so long ago.

Still, one question did remain.

“So how did you and Elaine become friends?”

“Honestly, we were from the same colony growing up. Attended the same high school. Went to the same university. Had a few similar classes.”

“Ah, that would explain why you two seem as close as you are. When she dragged me to your office she didn’t explain why, just that it was the safest place she could think of. Is she the reason you moved here?”

“I mean, I guess. She’d heard that I wasn’t doing so well and said I should try to become a police officer out here. She said that it was full of opportunity. I personally didn’t want to do any more school, but I thought I could at least open up a detective agency thanks to my experience from my security gig.”

“She said there was a lot of opportunity here?”

“Yeah, I think she was just lonely. She got assigned here not knowing anyone beforehand, and…well…you’ve noticed she tends to come on a little strong.”

“How do you deal with it? I mean, you’re so different, yet nothing she does seems to bother you.”

“It’s a secret, but the truth is she just loves feeling needed. I’m not sure how healthy it is, and I couldn’t tell you where it came from, but she’s just not happy if she doesn’t get a chance to help people. It’s why she became a police officer in the first place. I just kind of let her do her thing because she clearly gets something from it. If we get out of this and you’re able to try building a positive friendship with her, try letting her do something nice for you.”

Jolene pondered this for a while. These two were clearly nuts. Is this some rich person thing that she was just too poor to understand?

She paused at this thought. No, that’s definitely not the case. True, people of all walks of life exist whose entire reason for being came down to serving others. Service towards others in general seemed to be something that most people found satisfaction in, but there were some people who, for some reason, felt it needed to be taken to an insane degree, that if they weren’t spending every waking moment they could in the service of others, they couldn’t find happiness or fulfillment. True, everyone likes to be needed, but for those who so dislike feeling unneeded that they lack the ability to just relax a bit, what is there to be done.

Jolene sighed. These people really were nuts.

“We’re almost there,” Brad said, causing Jolene to jolt back to reality. He indicated the building up ahead. An old net cafe? Like, one of those places where you could pay money to sit at a computer and access the local and extended networks of Earth and her surrounding colonies? “Sonia owns this place. She uses it as a front for her hacking and programming gigs. Just be polite and don’t touch anything and maybe we’ll get away without Sonia biting our heads off, yeah?”