Page 3 of In a Perfect World

“Triana, there is nothing wrong with having small dreams,” she went on, and this really was a pointless conversation.“You still have a lot to be grateful for.”

I hated it when people said that.It was an unfair argument to make you feel guilty enough to shut you down.Just because I had questions and wanted to know more than what I’d been taught, that didn’t mean that I wasn’t grateful for all that I had.I realized how lucky I was that my parents did well for themselves and had been able to afford to send me to college.I realized how lucky I was to be able to afford my own home and have a good job at the age of twenty-five.Nevertheless, that didn’t mean that I wasn’t entitled to wish for more.

Just then, the door to the lobby opened, and an older couple walked in, looking like tired travelers.When I used to work the front desk during my college summers, guessing the guest was a game that we would often play, and my guess was that this couple had tried driving the entire way to their destination but failed.

“Hello,” I said, greeting them.“Welcome to Vista Comforts.”

“Oh, hello,” the woman rushed out.“We’ve been traveling for hours, and we just can’t do it anymore.Do you have any rooms available?We’ll take anything.”

My fingers went to work on the computer, and the couple looked tired enough that I looked for a downstairs room.When I found one, I said, “We have a great room on the first floor, so you won’t have to travel far.”

The woman gave me a grateful smile as her husband said, “Thank you.”

Ten minutes later, the couple was checked in and on their way to their room, and I was back to counting down the hours until my shift ended.

Chapter 2

Kairo~

I pulled the mask off my face, getting that first breath of fresh air in hours.I had a degree in biochemistry, and while it wasn’t often that I worked in the labs, today was an exception.I worked primarily in administrative research, and that included a lot of rubbing elbows for donations and research grants, which I didn’t mind now that life was so much simpler.

Twenty-five years ago, the American people had decided that segregation would be the answer to all our problems, and with the desire to see America back on top, it’d taken five years or so of hard work to make it the powerhouse that it was today.A lot of sacrifice had been made in the name of democracy, and even though China was now the greatest nation on the planet, America was still in the top five.

I was also lucky in that my father, Alvin Booker, was the Administrator for Sterling Acres, and having always been in that role since the beginning of the new movement, our family didn’t know anything else.My father’s profession had also allowed my mother, Anita, to be a stay-at-home mother, and she had raised three boys while my father had worked tirelessly to make this country a better place.

Now, my older brother, Dallas, was twenty-eight, and he worked as an attorney for my father’s administration, something that he’d wanted to do his entire life.Dallas was very passionate about the law, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he tried to follow in my father’s footsteps once his term was finished.

As for my other brother, Leyden, who was actually my twin, he was still in med school, having chosen neurosurgery as his specialty.He was probably going to be in med school for the rest of his life, but that was to be expected when you considered the discipline that he’d chosen.

At any rate, not for nothing, but we were a very successful family, and even my best friend, Winston Miller, had a life worth bragging about.He was a history teacher at the only private school in town, and education was a very valuable commodity these days.With every region striving to be the best, education was pushed on children from a rather young age.

Needless to say, my family and I had no complaints.We had ended up on the fortunate side of life, and I wasn’t ashamed to say that I enjoyed the perks of my father’s hard work, and why shouldn’t I?He’d done everything that he could to provide us with a good life, and I appreciated his sacrifices by always trying to be the best person possible.

We’d also been raised not to take the commitment of marriage lightly, which was why we were all still single.Whether right or wrong, our family was in a position of influence, and our behaviors and convictions were the examples set for our region.So, it wasn’t a good look to be getting divorced because we’d been impetuous or not committed.

My father’s position in life had also prepared us for the world as it was today.While we were fortunate enough to be surrounded by our own kind, we still had to work with other regions and communities to keep the new movement rolling steadily, and diplomacy went a long way to making things run smoothly.Growing up, I’d lost count of how many regional meetings that I’d witness between my father and the other Administrators, and though they met in person only once a quarter, they had regular conference calls all the time.