Hey hey,

I thought we could all use a nice long excerpt this week so here is the full first scene of part 24!

Hope you enjoy 🙂

Sigrid

PS: Don’t forget to check out our National Coming Out Day page on the community! What’s your story?

“This day feels like it’s been going on forever,” Louise said, staring out of the car window. Outside, the lights of the houses of San Francisco’s outskirts finally came into view.

El chuckled tiredly. “It’s been a long day alright.”

They had been on the road for about 30 minutes. They’d been silent most of the time. It was as if being in a car together had that effect on them.

“I feel like I’ve been here for a year,” Louise admitted, eager to break the silence.

El didn’t reply. She took a right turn onto a dark street. There were some lights on inside the houses but the street was only visible because of the bright moon. Louise was surprised to see the bluish light of a terminal screen behind one of the windows.

“Hey, is that a terminal? I thought people didn’t have terminals at home here?” she asked, her eyes darting from one window to the next.

“They do,” El replied, pointing at the houses. “But only one per household and they’re built into a wall or a desk.”

“Nothing mobile or portable?”

“Only for work. Like the scanners you saw the first responders use.”

“But why?! Why limit access to the network so much?” Louise asked, shaking her head.

“So people only use it when they need to.”

“Because you don’t want them to get addicted?” Louise asked, trying her best to understand.

El shook her head. “Not just that. It’s much more fundamental than that. The people who started this republic believed technology was used to enslave us. It destroyed democracies. It took away our freedom.”

Louise knew these points of view from the many files she had read about the Fireblue rebels. In her opinion, these had been the ramblings of crazy people to justify their attacks on the rest of the world.

Not anymore, though. It was harder now that she was sitting next to El, driving through a peaceful street, the moon bright and the stars actually visible in the sky. No screens, no drones, no pods buzzing by.

El took one hand off the wheel and put it on the armrest between them. Louise looked down at it, tempted to entwine her fingers with El’s.

“I take it you disagree?” El said.

Louise was surprised by how eager El seemed to have this conversation. It certainly burst her happy bubble of denial. It was hard not to think about her own life back home now.

“I just don’t know what to think,” she admitted honestly. “I have never considered technology to be a bad thing.”

“It’s not,” El immediately answered. “It’s the way you’re using it. Or the way your leaders use it, to be more precise.”

Louise tried to take in a deep breath. Her chest was tight with anxiety.

“You stopped thinking for yourselves,” El continued. “You let that screen decide about what you’re thinking and what you think about it. But that screen is controlled by these global leaders who just want to…” She stopped.

“Sorry, I’m ranting,” she said.

Louise nodded. The muscles in her neck twitched with tension, a sure sign a migraine attack would follow soon.

She put her hand over El’s. “I’m getting another headache,” she said quietly.

“Okay, sorry,” El replied, entwining her fingers with Louise’s.

“No, no,” Louise hurried to say. “No need to be. It just has been a really long day and I can’t do this right now.”

El squeezed her hand.

Louise stared at the faux leather of her seat, thinking. She pursed her lips.

“Maybe one more question, though,” she said.

El ran her thumb over Louise’s hand. It felt wonderful. “Yeah?”

“How do people read books?” Louise asked.

El slowed down the car, taking a turn without using her signal.

“Electronic paper.”

“So you do have some wireless devices,” Louise said, sticking her finger in the air.

“I guess we do,” El giggled. “Does that make you feel better?”

Louise grinned, leaning back. “It does.”

They sat in silence again after that, their fingers interwoven. Louise recognized some of the streets and knew they were getting closer to the presidential residence. For the second time this long day, she wished their drive would never end.

She closed her eyes, willing time to slow down. It seemed to work for a while. There was nothing but the sound of the tires on the road and the feeling of El’s warm skin on hers.

Then, all of a sudden, all of that went away.

“Hey, wake up. We’re almost home,” El whispered.

Louise’s eyes snapped open. El was wearing her cap again. She had parked the car on the corner of the street of the presidential residence. Louise could see the guard station in the distance.

“Shit, I fell asleep?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

“Yeah. No worries, you didn’t snore,” El joked.

Louise blushed anyway. She stretched her arms out in front of her.

“I’m guessing you need to go see Hobbs now?” El asked.

Louise rubbed the back of her neck. “Yeah,” she answered reluctantly. She wished she didn’t have to. She wanted to stay with El. Was there a way to stay with El tonight? Maybe she could sneak up to her room?

El put both of her hands on the wheel. “Alright, it’s about time this crazy day came to an end.”

Louise nodded. “Hobbs and my own bed it is then,” she thought.

Okay, that’s it for now. See you back here on Saturday for the second scene…There’s a short teaser about it at the end of part 23 😉