Daughter 4254

Chapter 4

I walked with my brother to school the next morning. He was a full year older than me, but stayed behind to reapply to the Guardian program. His entire life’s ambition had been to run an Auto Eye. As soon as he was old enough to ask questions, he’d been asking how they worked, who was watching, what they did with the recorded images. Even without brain scans, it was clear that he was as Neuroadvanced as I was Neurodeficient. He was the perfect son. When he wasn’t researching his obsession, he was haggling me. He not only knew all of the rules of the community, he followed them to the letter. It was highly annoying. He regularly took pains to point out several of my misdeeds that would have gone unnoticed. As a result, we never really connected, not even when we were small. He was so analytical, so cold and calculating. I was sure he was someone else’s cast off child. My parents must have taken pity on him and agreed to raise him. There was no possible way we could have any of the same genetic material.

 The only relief I got from his torment at home was when we had different assignments, which was rare, or when he was completing Sensory Therapy. He and my father both had a large metallic cylinder in their rooms. I never saw my father use his, but my brother stepped into his each day to receive whatever input he needed. It was a right of the Neuroadvanced to have an ordered and satisfied nervous system. Nevermind what he did to my nervous system. There was no relief for that.

 When he applied for the Guardian program last year, we were all breathing a silent sigh of relief. He would finally have his path before him and we could send him on his merry way to spy on the rest of the population to his heart’s content. But when his letter of acceptance turned out to be a letter of condolences, we thought we would lose him completely. There have been cases of people wandering to the Field of Yesterday to sacrifice themselves for the betterment of their community and we were certain this was a possibility for him. As he read the letter out loud, my parents and I watched his face and held our breath.

 “... proficiency was not demonstrated in the following areas...” he read out loud like a robot until he got to this section and then he stopped, read on in silence, and finally looked up at us with a blank face. “It says I can try again.”

 “Is that allowed? I’ve never heard of that before!” My mother was as astonished as Father and I were.

“Yes, it says that because of my exemplary record of citizenship, they will allow me one more year at Basic School to focus on my weak areas and I will be allowed to retest and reapply next Spring’s End.”

That was so typical. Perfect Brother4253 always got what he wanted. Still, it was nice that he didn’t get it right away. He would have to stay behind for another year and prove himself. Except that meant I had another year of living with him. As we walked to school the morning after our mother’s Final Rest, I decided to tell him my plan.

“I’m going to apply to the Secondary School.” I don’t know what sort of response I hoped I would get. A hearty handshake? A slap on the back and a ‘Good for you!’ ? Instead he turned to me with an expression of disgust.

 “Why would you waste the community’s time like that?”

 “Excuse me?”

 “You heard me. Why would you even think of doing that. You’re not of that station and you certainly don’t have the citizenship record or intelligence to pass the tests.”

 He was wearing his protective ear wear today even though there were no immediately perceptible noises to bother his exceptional hearing. I was convinced he did this to make sure everyone knew he was Neuroadvanced.

 “My citizenship record has nothing to do with it,” I spoke loudly and directed it at his ear on purpose.

 “Oh no?”