Her father continued into the living area, sunbeams filtered through the slatted shutters. Reaching for his earbuds off a waist-high charging dock near the front door, Fischerd pushed them into his ear canals with a steady hand while his wife stressed in a quieter tone, “It’s important... We don't want them in our subs.”

Her parents fluxuated the volume of their voices often. No one else’s parents spoke out loud because audible speech was socially unacceptable. Viewed as low class to really make any noise at all, commonplace forms of communication favored were direct head movements with glowing retinal engagement to control holographic exchanges. Citizens interacted mainly through their personal devices. Labor hours were added for excessive auditory offenses, but her parents seemed wholly apathetic to their debts.


Graycev sat up in bed as she scratched the inside of her nose.