Gregory and Jasmine get into their vehicle that waits for them outside of the church. Jasmine gets in and pulls her device out and runs through a few swipes of her thumb and activates a program. Then she slides her device into a slot on the dashboard. “It will be five minutes before the GPS scan and zone launches. Don’t activate the automatic drive system until then.”
Gregory nods and starts to drive out of this zone and back towards their apartment. Five minutes pass and then the top of the windshield lights up with a lot of information. “Reconnecting please wait…” a digitized voice announces. “Location acquired, please speak destination.”
“Home, enable auto nav” Gregory replies.
“Command accepted, routing home,” the voice replies.
“So tell me why we had to go through all this?” Gregory asks.
“Well I told you that the zone we went to is not on the nav system for some reason, and I had to look at old records to find the location. It seems that,” she looks out into the city streets, and even though the outside seemed clean and pristine, she could feel the dirt, the sickness, the darkness of it all. “In the Good News file, at the end it mentioned that there are forces that will keep us from finding it, and to keep it secret.”
Gregory does not reply, he did not have anything else to say. He went along with all this because he wanted her to be happy again. She even told him they have to stop sleeping in the same bed, his mind was recalling that conversion from three night ago. His mind and his body want nothing of this but his heart wanted her, he knew that much. He has been doing things his way for years and he agreed that in his heart he was empty as well. He had read some of the file and was moved by it, but mostly confused because he longed for the way things were, simple. It seemed things were getting complicated, not deep, and he struggled with all these emotions.
“Why are you quiet?” Jasmine interrupts his thoughts.
“Oh, just thinking about all of that has happened and changed in our lives these last few months.”
“I understand if you don’t want to go on with it. You are free to walk away from it.”
He turns towards her and sees her eyes, they were so deep, he had not noticed how deep until this moment. His heart beat faster and he knew somewhere deep he loves her. He did not love her as before, before it was an afterthought. He thought he loved her then because it was easy to just go through the motions of the world, just ride the wave. Now she was asking him to go against that wave, to go where he never thought he would. This new kind of love demanded more of him. It raised his eyes from just looking at her body to looking deep into her eyes. It was not a feeling either, he had loving emotions before, more like lust, but this was different. It was as if he knew something not just felt it. His mind was pulling one way and his heart, no his soul, was pulling the other way.
“I won’t walk away from you.” He finally replies with a smile.
She smiles back at him, “thank you.”
“Destination reached.” The body-less voice announces.
Jasmines device slides out of the slot and she grabs it. They get out and are in front of the building. The doors close and the vehicle drives away to the parking garage.
Reaching their apartment, the sensors recognize them and the door slides open. “Welcome home Gregory and Jasmine,” the house greets them.
Both of them do not respond to it and walk in to the main living area. The apartment was like all the others with all the modern amenities, cameras and TV screens in every room, so you can watch and be watched. Clean sharp curves outlined the whole area as well as the furniture. The walls had nothing on them but the screens, some with different pictures or scenes. Some had different TV stations playing on them.
Jasmine reaches a panel on the side wall of the living room. She starts working on programming her device, then as she puts her device to the wall, a slot opens, and the device slides in. “Silent mode activated.” The camera probes fold and disappear into the ceilings. Most of the screens do the same. One wall at the end of the living room shifts slightly and then slides down revealing a window. The window was from floor to ceiling and overlooking the city lights as far as the eye can see. Everything was bright with displays shinning from the outside. She felt the invasion of the outside. She commands the screen next to her with a few fingers taps and the wall slides up and shuts the outside.
“That is better, this month everything out there, and even in here seems to be closing in on me. I feel heavy when I am here.”
“Come sit,” Gregory motions for her to sit next to him on the couch.
She moves and sits next to him and he then puts an arm around her. He places his forehead on hers and they sit in silence for a few moments.
“So I guess we are decided, you do want to go?” He asks her.
She moves slightly away from him and looks into his eyes. She sees the confusion and struggle that is going on in his soul, but she knew he loved her, especially now.
“Yes, this world cannot offer us anything; it only gave us lies and emptiness.”
“This world cannot offer me you, so I will go where you go.”
Jasmine smiles at him this simple and pure smile that for these last few weeks he could not help but to want to see it more and more.
“I love you..” he said it out loud, he has been saying it in his mind for those last few weeks as well. He could not stop himself from saying it when he looked at her at that moment.
Jasmine had not heard him say that to her after they talked about the Good News and she told him that they should not be in the same bed. Looking at him now she knew that he meant it. Not like before were he would say it as a casual thing, or just like something you would say to someone you were just physically intimate with.
After a few moments pause, “I love you too.”
They sat there for a few minutes looking at each while holding hands. They were content at that moment of togetherness and silence.
“Urgent call, silent mode override….beep.”