Bliss

one

I switched on the light and stood up to wait at the door after I submitted my test. After about two minutes of waiting, I concluded that either nobody was paying attention to the lights, or they were analyzing my test results. All of the questions were just asking pointless questions like, "Does pollution make you feel angry?" It made me wonder whether these people were actually scientists or just bored people with a lot of money and white lab coats. Finally, the light in the small room turned green and Mrs. Karen opened the door, but this time with more people behind her.

Mrs. Karen was crying tears of joy, her smile spreading from ear to ear and her hands interlocking fingers like she was about the pray. She wrapped her small, frail arms around me and said, "You're what we've been searching for!"

"So what should we name her?" One man said when Mrs. Karen stopped hugging me. She went over to another tall lady in the back and started hugging each other. "We can't just run around calling her Number Two-Four-Eight."

The scientists giggled and then went silent in thought until a man in the back said, "How about Bliss?"

+ + + + +

A nice man named Felix lead me through the town through what he called the "Interpersonal Section." I remembered that word from the test I took when I first woke up. Everybody was talking to everybody and all of the buildings were hospitals, children's doctor's offices, psychiatrists, therapists, and anything along the lines of that. Being a therapist interested me a bit, but in my short hours of living I have discovered that I would probably be much to blunt to be one of those.

When I walked through the Interpersonal Section, I felt very welcomed and cheery. Everything was bright, intriguing, and had lots of perfectly placed features like white and red flowers in black baskets hanging off the tentacle-looking parts of the tops of the light posts. The whole section was inviting, and everybody greeted you with a smile and a handshake or sometimes a hug. When we left that section, the air immediately changed. 

"Can we go back?" I asked. 

Felix chuckled. "I know exactly how you feel. The first time I walked through Interpersonal I didn't want to leave. It makes me jealous every time I walk through there." I gazed at him as we walked and he continued talking. He had very bright blue eyes and a smirk that was never absent when I looked at him. "I mean, how cool would it be to live in a place where everybody knows exactly how to read you and alters their behavior to your emotions?"

"I agree." I said, then sighed. "But when you think about it, you would be reading them and altering your behavior also. I feel like even though everybody seems happy, that may not be the truth."

Felix's brows creased. "Hmph." He said. "I didn't even think about that."

"So, where are we going?" I asked, gazing around. The ground was cobblestone and beautiful, winding in a big circle in the middle of all of the towns. I could see all of the gates to each section, all of which had two guards in their boxes - not cardboard boxes, more like ticket-booth boxes but more sophisticated and no doubt had weapons concealed in them.

"Well, right now we're in Central. It's for your ceremony." He replied, like it was no big deal. "Were you not wondering why you were wearing that dress?"

I looked down. It was pretty, long and black, with sparkles that were placed very densely at the hem of the dress fading to the waist where there was a belt of sparkles. Mrs. Karen and her friend - whose name, I discovered, was Jacqueline - apparently made the dress for me a year ago. They did my hair before I left, using heat to make long, brown curls, and put some type of brown powder on my eyelids. They also gave me lip gloss. (I knew what that was.) "What about my shoes?" I asked. Although I looked very formal, I was barefoot.

"Oh, of course!" Felix said. He turned around and walked over to the stage that was round and had no back  or edges and stairs circling the hem and picked up some glossy-looking black heels. He got down on one knee and looked back up at me. "May I?"

I said yes, of course, and got a couple of , awwws from some females in the crowd. The truth was, Felix was obviously at least twenty years older than me and was probably married with kids based on his appearance and mannerisms. After he put on the other shoe, he stood back up and I was suddenly eye-to-eye with him. 

"Consider me your father when I say this, Bliss," He said. "but you look beautiful. Welcome to the world." He smiled, crinkles forming at the edges of his eyes. He didn't try to hug me, which I thought was an act of respect for my personal space, but I hugged him anyway to make him feel better.

"Thanks, Dad." I teased. "When do I go on? And how does it work?"

People were starting to fill into central all around the stage, chit-chatting until finally it became a low roar. "Right now." He said. He held out his hand and I held it as he helped me up the stairs - there were about fifteen of them - and he turned around and looked at me when we were on stage. The people around us started cheering but I tried just to look at Felix. He really did feel like a dad to me, because he made me feel safe even in front of the whole world. "All you have to do is stand here and look fabulous." He told me. "It won't be scary. Okay?"

I nodded. I wasn't scared, though. He smiled. "Good luck, Bliss." I tried not to cringe at the name as I thanked him and he left me. I went to the center of the stage and looked around. There were people packed up to the gates, shoulder-to-shoulder in every spot there was. The people in front of me were obviously the Naturalistic Section, because all of the girls had flower crowns and one red-headed girl was even holding a rabbit. The roaring of the crowd was loud from every section, and I didn't really know what to do. I smiled and waved to every section until it calmed down and a short, asian woman was standing next to me.

"Hello, Emendatae!" She yelled into the microphone, stretching out both arms as if she were going to hug the whole world. Everybody roared and then she put the microphone back up to her lips and talked again, silencing the whole town. "As all of you know, you are here because The Lab is trying to create the most perfect human being based off of the ability to posses a high and completely equal scoring of all eight intelligences that we have separated you all into. Well, we have accomplished that. And here she is. The name she was given by The Lab is Bliss, but here she will have the ability to give herself an identity that she wants to be known as when she's walking around town, because we all know not all of us like the names we are given."

Thank God.

She handed the microphone off to me and I grabbed it, moving forward as the crowd went crazy, especially the Kinesthetic Section. I smiled and waved as I thought. "Wow." I said. "I've only been alive for a couple of hours and now I'm in front of the whole town." Everybody laughed at my stupid joke, and I felt accomplished. "Well, I guess I have to name myself, then." Everybody waited silently, staring at me with big, eager eyes. I glanced back at the asian woman for approval, and she smiled and nodded. I looked back to the crowd and took a deep breath.

"Blakely."