Suspicious Minds

I am ready for school before anyone else in the house got up. When Nia’s little sister wakes up she eyes me suspiciously.

“Okay, who are you and what have you done with Nia?” She asks accusingly.

All I need is for Nia’s little sister to be on to me. Little sister’s are a pain the way it is but if she thinks something is up she’s going to be in my business all the time. It’s going to be so annoying.

“What are you talking about you little squirt?” I shoot back in an annoying voice. I had no idea if Nia ever called her sister a little squirt before but I decided to take a chance.

“Nia has never gotten up early for school a day in her life and she has never been on time for anything in her life either. Mom even jokes she was late to her own birth” She explained still using the accusing voice.

“Relax, I had a bad dream and it woke me up. I thought since I was awake I would be ready on time for once. You know there’s a first time for everything. Why am I explaining myself to you anyway? ” I answer in an annoying voice.

“Okay, but I’m keeping my eye on you.” She says, relaxing just a bit.

“Whatever” I respond.

Lidia and I walk to school together. “You were so right about Bobby.” Lidia started, “I heard a rumor that he is going crazy. Before it was like he was all cool and he could take you or leave you but now he has to have you.”

“Told ya” I said smugly. So that actually worked? Who knew?

I feel a lot more comfortable in Nia’s skin this second time around. I’m more used to how different her body feels than mine does and her classes at school are a breeze. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed but this stuff does seem a lot easier than what I was used to but I guess if it’s all coming out of my own head it would be.

“You better give him an answer. The dance is tomorrow night you know.” Lidia reminds me as if I didn’t know what day it was, which I didn’t.

“What about you? Who are you going to the dance with?” I ask wanting to get the attention off of myself. Lidia paused for several moments and it got really awkward really fast. Lidia finally spoke.

“Tom didn’t ask me to the dance.” Her voice was shaky and I thought for a moment that she was going to break down and cry but she held it together.

“I’m so sorry.” I say and give her a hug to comfort her which feels amazing by the way. “Tell me everything that happened?” I insist.

“There’s nothing to tell, he doesn’t like me anymore.” I could tell that Lidia is crushed. I have no idea who Tom is but I already don’t like him.

“If you aren’t going to the dance with anyone, then I’m not going with anyone either.” I proclaim. This was actually great news because I had a perfectly good reason now to turn Bobby’s invitation down.

“No. I can’t let you do that. You go to the dance with Bobby and have fun.” Lidia protests.

“Lidia, you’re my best friend. You’ve been my best friend since the third grade. When you hurt, I hurt. You are more important than some boy. Even if he is the hottest boy in school.” I say trying to make her feel better. I had to admit talking like a girl sounds so weird. The fact that I was getting used to it sounds even weirder.

Lidia finally smiled. “Well, when you put it that way.”

“That’s better.” I say reassuringly, “Now let’s get to school.”

We got to school and I didn’t mind so much people staring at me. I was a lot less self conscious about it. It seemed like everyone liked Nia and I was beginning to wonder if I was casting her in a bad light. I mean I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong but I

have never been popular so I never really paid all that much attention to things that popular kids had to pay attention to. It really was a different world and I was starting to wonder if I was getting some of the expectations wrong. At break I saw Bobby.

“Bobby!” I yell across the hall. Bobby comes over when he hears me call his name.

“Hey there pretty girl.” Bobby says trying to sound smooth.

“I can’t go to the dance with you.” I say flatly.

“Why not?” He asks. I could see I let the wind out of his sails.

“It’s Lidia. Tom didn’t ask her to the dance and she’s really upset about it.” I explain.

“Just because Tom’s being a jerk doesn’t mean he has to ruin our evening.” Bobby offered.

“She’s my best friend. She needs me.” I say in that voice that girl’s always use when they want to get their way.

“Well, when you put it that way.” Bobby relented and gave me a smile.

“Will you walk me home?” I offer as I grab Bobby’s hand. I was really starting to get into the part. I feel a jolt of electricity immediately and let go. It catches me off guard. I wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction.

Bobby laughs, “You know that’s not allowed Nia but thanks for the offer anyway.” Not allowed? You mean you can’t walk your favorite girl home in future? What’s up with that? I was glad that Bobby was okay with Nia not going to the dance with him. I didn’t want to go to the dance with Bobby but just in case this isn’t really a dream I also don’t want to ruin Nia’s life whenever she gets back to it.

Something has been bugging me ever since I got here. I can’t help but wonder where all the technology has gone. I thought I saw a library down a side street so I decide to go there after school on my way home. Maybe I can find something at the library that can shed some light on what happened. Lidia asks me if I want to come over and I tell her I’m going to the library. She gives me this strange look and then tells me she’ll see me tomorrow.

Once I get to the library. I ask the Librarian where the books about history are. She directs me to a section of the library and I start to check out what’s available. Of course the books are mostly about stuff that hasn’t happened yet so I’m not sure what I’m

looking for. I was hoping that something would just pop out at me but nothing did. So I asked the Librarian for a book on the most important event of the 21st century. She starts thinking and after a few minutes she comes back with a book titled “The Ultimate

Machine”. It’s about this woman who helps design this artificial intelligence that ends up controlling everybody’s life. It’s not like an evil computer takes over the world kind of thing, It’s more like a mass organizer of the human race. Anyway there is a picture of her on the back cover and she looks kind of familiar like I should know her.

I sit down and start reading. It’s actually kind of interesting. Back in the 21st Century, people became dependent on technological devices to make their life easier. Eventually robotics and AI took over the day to day tasks of building things that people needed and freed everybody to do whatever they wanted. When people had too much free time and they didn’t have to worry about surviving they started living a life of hedonism. Birth rates dropped and once all the old people died, the population dipped down into a couple hundred million people. The AI that was organizing humanity started running simulations on possible solutions before humanity became extinct. After running millions of simulations to try and solve the problem, it decided that humanity was better off without technology. All the simulations demonstrated that the simple life was the best life. So it put into place a program to return humanity to a simple life. It took several generations for this to take effect but the plan proved to be successful. The book didn’t say what happened to the AI. For all anybody knows the AI could still be running things.

The story sounded like a sci-fi tv movie to me. I asked the librarian if the story in the book was true and she claimed that it was. I also asked her if she liked living the simple life. She said she enjoyed her life but that she didn’t have anything to compare it to.

When I got home, Nia’s little sister was waiting for me. She didn’t say anything but just stared at me like she was waiting for me to make a wrong move. “Don’t you have anything better to do than stare at me?” I said annoyingly.

“Where did you go after school?” She asks.

“None of your business.” I shoot back.

“I followed you to the library.” She stats as if what I did was a crime.

“So .....” I respond.

“Nia has NEVER gone to the library. What were you doing there?” She demands.

“I don’t answer to you” I say.

“I bet you were there with that boy you like, sneaking around.” She guesses.

“You can think whatever you want” I say again.

“Nia and Bobby sitting in a tree ...” She starts taunting.

“You are so annoying ...” I say leaving before she could continue.

Nia’s little sister followed me into our room. I was so glad I didn’t have to share a room with my sister in my real life. She continued harassing me and I finally broke down. “Okay, I was sneaking around with Bobby, are you happy now?” I asked frustrated.

She ran out of the room and as she left I heard her scream “Mooooooooooooooooom!!!!!!!!!” I suppose she is going to try and get me into trouble with Nia’s parents.

We all ate dinner together again. This was kind of strange for me because not only did I not have my father around, we never actually ate any meals together. It was kind of nice though. Nia’s parents encouraged both her and her annoying little sister to talk about their day. They actually cared about what their children were doing. Tonight’s dinner was meatloaf and it tasted amazing. Nia’s mother was an excellent cook and I enjoyed every bit of it. My own mother hardly ever cooked at all and I could sure get use to this part of my dream.

“So Katy said you’ve been sneaking around with that boy” Nia’s father states in an even voice. I could tell he wasn’t happy but he didn’t yell. Katy was the name of Nia’s annoying little sister.

“Katy’s been bothering me all day. I just said that to get her off my back. She’s so annoying. I went to the library to do some research on a school assignment.” I proclaim.

“Nia, your little sister looks up to you. You need to set a good example for her.” Nia’s father stats, ” and lying just to get rid of someone is not setting a good example.”

“I know” I confess,” I’m sorry. I’ll promise to set a better example.”

“That’s my girl” Nia’s father says, “So tell me about this school assignment.”

“There’s not much to tell. I’m suppose to write a two page essay about a historical event. I haven’t decided which event I’m going to write about though. There all boring.” I respond.

“History isn’t boring, If we don’t learn from the mistakes of history, we will end up repeating them.” Nia’s father stats,“If you can’t decide I can help you sort it out.”

“Thanks dad, you know how I have trouble making up my mind.” I respond. I was taking a lot of liberty with Nia’s personality but so far nobody has said I am acting too weird so I think I’m doing a decent job. All in all I think Nia has a pretty good life.

Katy’s bed time was before Nia’s so she went to bed first. When I went to bed she was still up.

“You may have mom and dad fooled but you’re not fooling me.” She states.

“What are you talking about?” I ask, this time in a concerned voice rather than an annoying one.

“I know you’re not Nia. I don’t know what you’ve done with her but I know you’re not her.” She says.

“Why do you think I’m not Nia?” I ask.

“Because you’re acting weird and you never play with me anymore.” she says and then starts to cry. I put my arms around her to comfort her.

“When people grow up they change. I’m sorry you feel like I’ve left you out. I’ll always be your big sister and I’ll always love you.” I piled on the tenderness. I was hoping to distract her from her complaint. “I will try to not to leave you out so much, okay?”

She nodded her head and this seemed to satisfy her.

“Now we should get to sleep, okay?” I reassure.

“Okay” Katy responds. I tucked her in bed and then I feel asleep ............

I woke up to my mother shaking me. “Come on kiddo” She says, “You’re going to be late for school.”

“Mom I’m not a kid!” I scream.

“Let’s go” She orders.

“Okay, okay, I’m getting up.” I say in a half sleepy voice.