Entirely Too Soon

By Trab

Barry strapped on his Kevlar padding, adjusted his cup, and covered it all up with his oversized rainbow hued T-shirt. Camo board shorts, the new long type with the padded knees, made up the rest of his ensemble, if you didn’t count the Kevlar covered and soled boots.

Only minutes before, Barry had admired his physique after doing his bathroom thing, but time was short, as he’d slept a little bit too late this morning. Not sure if he was just tired, or delaying the inevitable, he moved downstairs to the kitchen.

“Hi, mom. Sorry about the time. I guess I’ll just eat some cereal.”

“Not on your life, young man. I’ve got scrambled eggs all ready for you, and you’d better not be hiding it in the flower pot again.”

“Aw, mom. You know I hate animal protein. Why can’t I just have cereal and soy milk?”

“Barry, I don’t want to say this again. Soy milk is genetically modified, and nobody can digest it properly. No matter how many ads the soy dairy association throws on Google, it isn’t going to change the facts. I’m sure it’s been spliced with pork, and that’s the worst of the animal meats.”

“Okay, okay. You win. Scrambled eggs it is…Geez”

Minutes later, Barry was ready, and so was his mom. Carefully deactivating the alarm system, they moved into the garage, and entered their carbon fiber reinforced car, the two-seater, of course. Once the doors to the car were closed, they remotely activated the house alarm again, and opened the garage door.

In no time at all, they were nearing their destination. Slowly, one at a time, the other little bubble cars entered the underground exchange depot. They pulled into their randomly assigned slot, and a metal door rolled closed behind them, cocooning them safely. Barry got out, and wished his mother a good day.

He entered the ‘airlock’ doorway, which swiftly closed behind him. As he disappeared from view, Barry’s mom had a chance to exit, as the main metal doorway rolled back up, releasing her back into the car-crowded passageway to the outside. Barry, in the meantime, had done his pirouette in front of the sensors, and been allowed to proceed through the second half of the ‘airlock’.

As he exited, armed monitors scrutinized his photo ID, and arbitrarily required several of his fingerprints on the sensory pad. The green light came on, and beeped cheerfully. He was thrilled to go through the final doorway, whereupon he read the cheery sign, “Welcome Grade Four students, to Serenity Heights School. We hope today will be the first of many more for you.”