A Measure of Serenity by Bryan Prosek

Author:Bryan Prosek [Prosek, Bryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CamCat Publishing

18

Shawn

I have to carry my dinner tray in my left hand. Any use of my right hand causes pain to shoot through my shoulder, which still aches from the kick of the gun earlier today. I look around the cafeteria for a place to sit. My eyes catch Shawn sitting by himself in the back corner. He motions for me to come, so I do.

“Have a seat,” Shawn says.

I set my tray on the table across from him and sit down. I pick up a piece of fried chicken and take a bite.

“How do you like the chicken?” he says.

I shrug, then wince. I had forgotten about my sore shoulder. “It is not like my grandma’s.”

Shawn nods and smiles. “Hey, I want to apologize for the way I acted in Ma’s room. You know, when I first saw you looking like . . .” He stops for a moment. “You know, looking like . . .”

I interrupt him. “Like her. Your Serenity.”

He nods. “I’m sorry. It’s just that . . . well . . . I never got to say goodbye. She was here one minute and gone the next. And then seeing you looking exactly like her . . . well . . .”

I interrupt him again. “It is okay. Apology accepted. I understand. She must have meant a lot to you.”

“I guess you could say that.” Shawn uses his fork to stir the food that is left on his plate, a few lima beans.

I want to apologize too, for being jealous of their Serenity. But Shawn does not even know that.

I take another bite of chicken and a drink of water. “You lost someone really close to you,” I say. “You have a right to be upset.”

“That’s no excuse. Everybody down here has lost somebody close, including you. That’s a big reason that we all are here. Why we all are doing this. But what really bothers me is not knowing what happened. I mean, I know the Feds killed her, but she never would have become detached from the team on her own. I don’t know why she did that. And I should have been there. It was supposed to be me.”

I set down my chicken. Maybe if I change the subject, it will get his mind off of it. “Do you have any family?” The question comes out before I really think about it. I immediately wish that I had not asked, after what happened with Isaiah. After he had to explain his loss to me.

“I lost my parents when I was five. Not due to the government, though. My grandmother raised me and my two older brothers. She passed a couple years ago. Natural causes.”

“Your brothers, are they around?”

“My oldest brother was killed in the latest war, fighting for the Feds. The other one was one of the original Resistance members, but the Feds took him out. We didn’t have the underground system back then. That’s when I joined the Resistance. When they killed him. So, to answer your original question, no, I don’t have any living family.

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