I hated the morning greetings, but most of all I hated myself for not being good enough to hack Ohmni so it would shut the fuck up.

It was the same every morning for the last two weeks. Instead of waking up and working on the biochemical protocol that I had almost cracked, I took it like a Basic. I let Ohmni dose me with dopamine so my vitals were at optimal levels to have fun, be good. Every morning I reminded myself it was for her, for us, for the Big Day.

I flicked my wrist and tapped my forefinger to my thumb in the pattern it had taken me three days to learn. This allowed me to interrupt Ohmni delivering any biochemicals or hormones to my system.

I grabbed my lucky surfboard from the wall. Hidden behind it were holographic trophies from the last six Field Day championships I had won. If the trophies had been displayed in the living room they’d be the topic of every conversation. So instead, I hid them in my bedroom with a program that uncloaked them whenever my parents came inside. This way was better. The living room was for us, not for competition.

On the board, I got on all fours, breathing in for four and out for eight, just like she had taught me. I arched my back and then contracted it. I did round after round, each time holding my breath for longer. That morning I held my breath for twenty seconds.

My entire body was calm and aroused at the same time: the perfect biochemical combination to mask what she and I had planned.

A flash of our first kiss sent waves of shivers through my body.

It was two weeks earlier at school after the Remembrance Day Ceremony. My Aquatics neighborhood was assigned seats next to her Spiritual neighborhood. The hurricanes and floods smashing and wiping away cities and people usually made my stomach feel like a boulder had deposited itself there, resolute and unwilling to move, but that day the images hadn’t shaken me up in the way they usually had. Instead, it was the first time I realized that there were adults in the Before Times that looked like me and the other kids. I looked around the classroom, at all the other students in a trance. While watching scenes of people who looked like us but grown up, we sat separately with our neighborhoods. I felt myself becoming frantic.

“Teacher, why don’t we mix our neighborhoods outside of school? Were people separated in the Before Times? Was that a threat? Did people really have no fun? I thought it was nature that destroyed everything… not mixing.”

These were my genuine questions, and I also knew that by asking, I was directly attacking Sand Hill’s way of life. Usually, Teacher would have responded to my questions with a purple grouch emoji, triggering a deduction of my points, which would be followed by groans from my neighborhood because it meant we would probably lose the daily prize, again. But Teacher just stared at me, and for a second her humanoid eyes flickered ones and zeros in chroma key green. I checked to see if anyone else saw, but of course the Basics did not. I wanted to ask again, to see if I could get inside her head, to find a new path to hacking Ohmni.

“UluWatu Kaimana, pack your things and go home. Attend class virtually for the rest of the day,” Teacher said in the most mechanical tone I’d ever heard from a Thrall. I packed up my things and walked out of the classroom. I was happy to go home since Ohmni was prohibited in school, thanks to Watcher Mary who hated tech. At least at home I could practice my hacking.

As I walked towards the exit, dragging my body along the bubble gum pink brick walls of the hall, I was shoved inside the bathroom. It was her. Bodhi. The founder's daughter. She was out  of breath, and had a huge grin.

“Hey, I think your question was brilliant.”

“You do?” I noticed a light patch of skin surrounding her right eye. Instead of having Ohmni fix it or even wearing a hairstyle that covered it up, she kept her head shaved.

“You never noticed that when everyone is annoyed by you in class, I’m not?”

She pulled me into a bathroom stall and closed the door behind us. She whispered in my ear, her lips touching my earlobes as she spoke. “I think the neighborhoods should be mixed! We’d have even more fun. We’d be even better people.”

And then Bodhi looked directly at me. My tummy dipped, my legs wobbled, and I put my hand on the stall to steady myself. She kept her face close to mine and continued.

“I bet there are others who’d agree with us,” she paused. “What about Little Dragon or Alani?” I tried to snap myself out of whatever spell she had on me.

“Stop! They don’t need you or me to get their points docked.”

She kissed me. I kissed her back. It was as if I were locked into her. My face, my head felt hot and light, and the heat traveled down my neck. Bodhi’s body was like a magnet. I had to jerk away abruptly to break the connection. I wiped my lips and smoothed down my shorts.

“What does Spiritual Jack say about his daughter disrespecting his law?”

“Are you all talk and no action?” She smirked.

“Okay, well, when have you ever said anything?”

“I’m saying something now. Let's do something, anything.” She leaned into me again, and instead of moving away, I kissed her.

“This is something. A Spiritual and an Aquatic together, right now.”

✷

I walked past Alani’s house quickly. She never trained in the mornings even though her family had a private wave pool in the backyard. I used to encourage her to train without the assistance of Ohmni, but I gave up because she always had excuses. Mom and Dad said it was because she had a crush on me but I think it was because she was intimidated like everyone else in Sand Hill who didn’t think their body alone was enough.

I flicked my third finger and thumb together. It was a protocol I programmed so I could easily access what the birds could see below. The first bird I linked with was the seagull that flew back and forth between the ocean and my street. Checking on the day’s waves, I flicked and snapped my fourth finger and thumb so I could access the pelicans on the beach. Not high enough. Today I wanted the ocean to give me the kind of waves that I saw in the Before Times. Last Field Day, I had won with a six footer. I needed to level up to make sure I kept winning, so I wanted to catch a seven footer. I whistled to Dolpho, my oceanbound pet that a Husbandrist designed for me after my first victory.

The schnauzer-dolphin hybrid swam up to me. I patted her nose and stroked her gray, rubbery skin. I discreetly accessed Dolpho’s Ohmni to increase the height of the waves. All that would be seen was me surfing on a beautiful sunny day. Seven foot waves weren’t easy but I loved the challenge. My hamstrings burned as I steadied my core to stay upright. Dolpho leaped, flipped, twisted and turned next to me. I copied her, adding my own tricks, and then she copied me. We went on this way until I couldn’t match her anymore. The first time I went too far, I fell off my board and blacked out. When I came to, Dolpho was sitting on the sand next to me. I hated to admit it but that part of the tech was pretty brilliant: knowing Dolpho would save me no matter what meant that I could keep trying more and more dangerous moves. And it meant I kept winning competitions because nobody could surf like I could.

While waiting for the next seven footer, I performed Bodhi’s Vinyasa competition flow on my board. Dolpho tried to follow along but ended up crashing. I laughed aloud with her underwater chitter chatter giggles. This was fun, and would be even more fun when Bodhi and I could be there together. Partner surf yoga.

After that first kiss, we met in the bathroom during every class. We couldn’t stop touching each other, kissing each other. We were playing a dangerous game. Even though the school had limited Ohmni surveillance, if we kept going to the bathroom someone was bound to notice.

“We won't get caught if we convince, like, two other people to also go to the bathroom.” Bodhi kept coming up with unreasonable solutions for how we could keep our relationship a secret. Every time I tried to explain why it wouldn't work, she’d shut me down with a smile. A smile that wasn’t really a smile, but a formation of her lips so she wouldn’t cry. And that’s how I ended up breaking the number one rule of being a hacker: tell no one. But I told her, not everything of course, just enough so she’d stop asking certain questions.

“So why don’t we use the hacking to help us find other people who think we should desegregate the neighborhoods?” This is why I really liked her, but I pushed back a little to make sure it wasn’t just the oxytocin her body had rushing through her after our third period hook-up.

“Bodhi, drop it, we can’t get anyone else involved.” I picked at my wrist nervously, considering what she was asking.

She stopped breathing and plastered that smile on her face, but this time managed to get a whisper out. “But I thought you agreed it wasn’t mixing that created the horror of the Before Times, it was nature.”

“Yeah, but Bodhi, can’t we just use my hacking so we can hang out more, like outside of school?

“What about Little Dragon from the Husbandrist neighborhood? I noticed she’s the only one that tries to see your point of view. Alani too! Hack them, and make them come to the bathroom.”

“Bodhi, I already told you no. And that’s not how it works.”

“Then tell me how. I love Sand Hill so much. It's almost perfect, we just shouldn't be divided.”

The school bell rang. We had to go but she wouldn’t move. She kept begging me silently.

“Okay, how about this? Two weeks from now, Field Day, I hack Ohmni so we can sneak away and get two whole hours by ourselves. If I can do that, then maybe I can do this desegregation thing.”

Bodhi was thrilled at the idea. “That would be the longest amount of time we’ve had together, we could…” She caressed my face and kissed me. Her kisses were so convincing, her body was so welcoming. “We can do what we want.” Her eyes were mischievous and without saying it, I knew what she meant and I was all on board.

✷

My tongue licked away the saltwater that had dried on my face and lips. I was happy. Through the seagull, I could see our red pickup truck driving down the street towards our house, its loud reggae music blasting from the makeshift speaker system. My parents were the coolest.

Ohmni was clearly responding to the surge of happy nostalgia that rushed through me when I thought about what my parents and I did when we won the first of many family surf competitions. Although any family who won would have had enough points to get a full makeover from any of the other neighborhoods of Sand Hill, my parents chose to use their own hands. We made a day of it, made our pickup truck, made those big wonky speakers that sat lopsided threatening to tip over at any bump in the road. The back of our truck was filled with surfboards, fins, paddles, heaps of dirty and clean towels, and wood to make impromptu beach barbecues.

I saw Alani’s parents run out of their house as my parents pulled into our sandy driveway. I’d never seen them so ecstatic to greet my parents, ever. Whenever I listened in on their dinner conversations, the neighborliness seemed forced. The topic of our embarrassing house was always on the menu.

“It’s basically a shed,” Mr. Akoni said.

“But it's so cute, and they’re having fun.” Alani always had my back.

But Mom and Dad were laughing with these people. Dad was now sitting on the hood of the truck, his legs sandwiching Mom who leaned her back against him in animated conversation.  Alani exited her house and walked over to them. Once I tapped into her watch, I was able to hear everything. Alani was getting a new baby sister. Their third child was being delivered to the house that night. My mom squealed and hugged Alani, then her mom. And Dad gave a strong embrace to her father. Mom and Dad weren’t faking it, they actually seemed excited and even ended the conversation with the decree: Have More Children, Have More Fun, Be a Better Person. I ran faster.

✷

I’d forgotten about my promises to Bodhi to keep calm on our big day. The thought of the Akonis getting into my parents’ heads made my heart beat with the intensity of the ocean during a storm. I needed to hear them say we were just faking it or I’d explode.

I practically threw my board as I approached the front door. I tried to suppress Ohmni’s repeated warnings but she overrode my prompts, and I was beginning to get a piercing headache from multitasking. I couldn’t open the lock because my hands were wet, cold, and shaking. When I finally got it, Ohmni’s extra doses of dopamine made me lose all control of my legs as I collapsed through the door.

From the floor, with eyelids fighting to stay open, I saw my parents sitting at our wooden table. We had made it together when I was seven, after collecting pieces of driftwood from the estuary at the Husbandrist border. We had done it with no Ohmni help, but standing with them at that very table now, was a Thrall.

It was a beta version, before the updates had made them look human like the teachers at school or the one that Alani’s family desperately wanted so they could move away from us. What was it doing here? I was still on the floor, mind racing. What had Alani’s parents done to Mom and Dad?

The robot looked at me, its smile making a creaking noise as if it needed oil in its joints. It turned and walked towards me and in its robot hands, a plate of food.

“Your favorite sous vide, UluWatu!”

The robot glided towards me, before crouching to present the plate of yolky mess. I scrambled to my feet, and noticed that the table settings were all wrong. Mom and Dad were sitting on the opposite side than they usually did, and not even next to each other.

I looked at them, hoping they’d say something to make it all better: we’re sorry honey.

Maybe I wanted Dad to push the Thrall out the house and say, “We made a terrible mistake.” But instead he didn’t, and she didn’t. Just silence. Mom started fidgeting with her dreadlocks–– the one that was threatening to fall out if she didn’t just cut it. It broke off in her hand and she muttered an inaudible joke, as the stringy matted hair fell to the floor. The robot immediately engaged its cleaning tool and vacuumed it up. And that was it. I yelled.

“Get out!” I pushed the robot, but I couldn't make it budge. Despite how flimsy and light the metallic structure appeared to be, despite it being only a beta version, it was strong and wouldn’t yield. Irate, I flicked my fingers out of habit, but with no specific direction of what I wanted Ohmni to do, or how it should be disrupted. I felt like I was short circuiting. I gave up and sat at the head of the table where I could face Mom and Dad.

“Your sous vide looks like soup,” I said to Mom.

“It isn't programmed to use our Watcher harvest, it can only print food.” Was she actually defending it?

“So… what did Alani’s parents tell you that made you get a Thrall? Is it their hand-me-down? How did this even get here? Did the Akonis…?” I don't know how long my questions went on because my mouth was just pouring them out like vomit.

“ENOUGH!” My father banged his hand on the table. It was loud and hard and it shook me.

Dad got up and sat next to me, taking a deep breath. Mom looked back at the Thrall and then to Dad and I.

“My sweet anemone,” he said, “the Founders created a new law. Nobody is to have below one hundred points at any time and we are all required to make our best efforts to win another child… there can be no more one-child households.”

“Another child?”

“Now today is Field Day. We need you to do what you do and win. There will be another update tonight and anyone without adequate points will be sent to the Vault for re-education.”

The Vault? What’s the point of hacking if I couldn't see this coming?

“But why do we need a Thrall? I can win all the competitions. And I won't get in trouble at school, I promise. We can maintain one hundred points. We don’t need the Thrall.”

Now it was Mom’s turn. She got up from her place and started playing in my locs, something I hated but had tolerated in the past. Today was different. I slapped her hand away. I didn’t care that her lips trembled and her eyes watered up.

Dad held my hand and eased me up, turning me around to the stove. Then he tossed the plates into the garbage like they were frisbees. Some of the yolky eggs slid down the side of the can. The Thrall went to clean the mess but Mom got up quickly to block it and do it herself.

“Let’s do it together,” Dad said, motioning to the eggs on the counter, “like when you first came to us. Our little five-year-old future champion... we’ll make the sous vide together.”

“No! This isn’t like old times. This isn’t normal.” I could feel the pulse in my temples. I felt a bubble forcing its way up and out of me, a bubble that meant an explosion was coming.

I lunged at the Thrall. Mom and Dad grabbed me, and held me tight in a restraining hug. Just like when I was five. But I wasn’t five anymore, I was fifteen and I was strong. As I shoved them away, the Thrall swiftly cupped my head with one of its hands and my face with the other.

The headache that followed was like nothing I felt before. There were no Ohmni neurotransmitters to calm me, just pain and then darkness.

I panicked and tried to run but my legs couldn’t move. I tried to flick my fingers but I couldn’t feel anything, not my hand, legs, nothing. All I could hear was my heartbeat thudding through my inner ear.

A deep voice, soft and powerful, spoke only to me.

And then it came. A series of images and sounds of the Before Times, but unlike anything we had been shown on Remembrance Day. This was real. I was in a city being washed away by surging floods. Children being swept away from their parents. Dogs drowning. Then I was somewhere else: dusty, broken, disheveled. A loud whistling started from above. I looked up and large fireballs––I remembered they were called bombs––were raining down, and all of a sudden people were around me, their skin burning. Then, I was under water, suffocating, watching upside-down, dead fish float past me. I couldn't hold my breath any longer and I inhaled gulps of water so acidic my throat burned. Then it was all over.

I was sobbing, sweating, surrounded by Mom, Dad, and the Thrall, hugging and cradling me like a babe suffering from some unimaginable, unknowable pain. And then I felt a warm, slow feeling of calm flow through me. Dopamine, serotonin, and a pinch of adrenaline so I could move again.

I looked up at them, scared. They were too. I wouldn’t let them put us in that place.

“I’m going to win.”

✷

Alani expected me to stop at her gates for our morning walk to school, but instead I ran past her, and kept running.

I didn’t usually sweat but it was pouring down my face. I flicked my fingers to override Ohmni’s attempt to plug my sweat glands. I wanted to taste it and the sting of the salt in my eyes helped me calm down. Anything that brought me closer to the sea, to the ocean, to my surfing, focused me.

When I reached the Husbandrist neighborhood, I saw Little Dragon and her seven siblings riding to school on their Dragonflies. Although we were both fifteen, her small stature, compared to her siblings, made her the runt of the family. She had to watch them win all their championships, while she never could.

Not noticing my demeanor, the Darwins cheered me on, then flew past me. But Little Dragon looked back, the wind tousling her jet black, straight hair, and flashed a concerned look in my direction.

“Good luck today!” she yelled at me.

I ran faster, wanting to pass them.

I was running an eight-minute mile and Ohmni was right. I couldn’t keep it up. I tried to stop but I tripped like a puppet whose connective strings were cut. I was forced to walk the rest of the way to school. Bodhi had told me to behave, to act normal. UluWatu tripping over a crossbred chicken in the road was not normal. UluWatu walking through the fashion neighborhood with defeat etched in her body was not normal. I held my breath just like Bodhi had taught me. Inhale for four, hold for six, exhale for eight.

Sand Hill High loomed large, the Gehry-esque building greeted the students with oversized holograms of Sand Hills’ co-founders. Spiritual Jack and Watcher Mary, polar opposites. He was shirtless, wearing flowy, orange pants, and floated mid-air in the lotus pose. Watcher Mary wore a white, high-cut leotard with leg warmers and stiff hairsprayed bangs that looked like a crown on her forehead.  The holograms spoke together:

“Welcome to Sand Hill High! Have fun, be good, and may the happiest person win Field Day.”

On the other side of the building, the driverless cars and buses entered. Bodhi’s arrived just as I crossed the threshold into the school. She smiled and waved at the students behind me, but we both knew that smile was for me. Everyone loved Bodhi, whether she won her Field Days or not. And the Basics loved being greeted by her, the founder’s daughter. Seeing her made my cheeks burn.

The pink pastels of our classroom dissolved to reveal our Field Day stadium. The walls receded into the ground, and it took ten seconds for the entire stadium to be printed and augmented with the virtual attendees. The bleachers were divided into the five neighborhoods of Sand Hill. A translucent, gold-framed dome flew over the stadium’s walls to hover just above us. From inside of it, the Founders waved. I wished that I could appreciate the kaleidoscopic textures and colors of all the neighborhoods, but today was overshadowed by everything else. I tried to focus on the fact that in fifteen minutes, Bodhi and I would trade places with our holographic doubles and sneak off to the custodial closet. We’d be alone for two whole hours.

Teacher ceremoniously led us to our assigned sections in the stadium, joining the other grades. Our parents and younger siblings were all there virtually, but it felt real.

The Founders lowered their dome to ground level. Spiritual Jack was lean from his last ten-day fast of water and breath, which he achieved by Ohmni optimizing all of his levels. Watcher Mary, who was also rail thin, had a superiority complex about the fact that she and the other Watchers never used tech to achieve this.

They spoke in unison, “Welcome to Field Day, Sand Hill. Have fun, be happy, and win!” The crowd cheered. Spiritual Jack commenced the Before Times memoriam.

Above us were scenes of nature’s violent attacks on humans and cities, and towns swallowed by floods. People suffocating from gray dust, houses falling in large cracks in the earth.

After what I had seen that morning, I happily let Ohmni administer whatever it took not to feel the pain of the Before Times. I finally felt grateful to be in Sand Hill, at this time of the Earth when we had learned to conquer her cruelty. The sounds of fire, destruction, and screams of terror gave way to silence. And then the Watchers began to pray. “There will be a time when the sun and the air will return as they are meant to be.”

The Watchers held their hands up as if receiving a message. Alani and the rest of our neighborhood, including the virtual attendees, started snickering at them. But suddenly, Alani’s attention was no longer on them, and her laughing became hysterical. The Watchers began to convulse, and something knocked me off my feet. Hard. Really hard. I looked around and the entire stadium was cackling just like Alani. I tried to get up and something I couldn’t see pushed me down. I searched for Bodhi across the auditorium. She was catatonic, eyes open, body unmoving. I looked down and water was creeping across the floor, lapping at my feet.

Then the laughing stopped. The Watchers stopped and whatever was holding me down released me. I stood up, muscles trembling, heart racing, and I searched for Bodhi again. Her eyes were still open, but then she blinked and Alani hugged me as if nothing had just happened.

“It looks like we’re going to go last!” She pointed to the scoreboard, as it cycled through the neighborhoods’ names. I knew Alani was excited because going last gave her a better chance to win, but I needed us to go first and Bodhi’s neighborhood second so that the two of us could sneak away. I pushed aside everything else and focused. As the names of the neighborhoods tumbled in the air like a lottery ball container, I started the haptic override. Two finger snaps, a fist, a palm on the right hand, and on the left, pulsing finger air taps. I felt my body lock into Spiritual Jack’s pathway. The sensation was a rush as my mind connected with Ohmni. As quickly as I was in, I was out, and on the board was the order I mapped out: Aquatics, Spirituals, Husbandrists, Watchers, and Fashion. Now I could sit back and watch my neighborhood compete.

“Alani Akoni of the Aquatics neighborhood!” Spiritual Jack and Watcher Mary announced in unison.

Alani chose a white water rapid surf module and did pretty well. I cheered her on with the rest of the neighborhood, going through the motions to make sure everything seemed normal. I could not let myself forget that today was crucial. I couldn’t lose points. I couldn't get sent to the Vault. I couldn’t miss this opportunity with Bodhi.

When it was finally my turn, I walked towards the center of the auditorium. My legs and arms trembled, I was shivering uncontrollably. I jumped a couple of times to shake it out. This created an eruption of applause as the audience perceived my nerves as performative. But I wasn't in control of my body. Whatever had been happening in this auditorium was still happening. Shaking again, the audience roared even louder. I searched for my parents and they gave me a thumbs up. The Ulu they were used to had no bells and whistles except for when she was in the water on her board. Across the mini ocean I saw Spiritual Jack clapping and Bodhi looking proud that I was doing more than just behaving.

I put my bare feet in the cool water.

I cut off Ohmni. I never used her protocols to perform and I wouldn’t do it now even with my body shivering out of control. In an attempt to lower my heart rate naturally, I jumped up a couple more times, twisting my upper body left and right, flinging my arms in the Tai Chi practice Bodhi had taught me. I paddled out and sat on my board, raised my right arm, and the scoreboard shot off surfboard emojis. The audience cheered. They loved the suspense.

I breathed in for four, held my breath for six, breathed out for eight as the board rocked dangerously on top of the rising waves. After the third one, I stood up on my board. I twisted and turned, rotated and flipped. Keeping my eyes on Bodhi, I was able to focus on my quads and my core tightening.

But something knocked me off and I landed on my tailbone. I heard the crowd’s gasp as I was pulled underwater. I swam ferociously but the riptide pulled me back.

Out of nowhere, Dolpho appeared and grabbed me. How did he get here? His fins wrapped around me like arms. It wasn’t Dolpho; the animal in front of me was a pink thing that looked like him but with none of the dog attributes. It was a fully formed pink dolphin that chittered at me before morphing into a person. The water obfuscated my vision. I couldn’t quite make out the face but I knew it was a grown up and brown like me. They were bald, with cheekbones that looked like they were formed by an ever-present smile. My chest tightened, desperate for air.

Why was I in the Vault? A sloppy landing wouldn’t have docked that many points. I had done my routine perfectly. I made the audience cheer and gasp. I entertained.

Around us the water stilled, like the center of a whirlpool. The figure leaned in and whispered to me, “You are the beginning of the end, together we shall mend.”

Our cocoon faded, the waves calmed, and I swam up desperate for air. I had no idea how long I had been underwater, but I was met with applause and cheers.

“UluWatu wins!”

I ran back to my section. They swarmed around me whooping and cheering. Before they had a chance to trap me in a group hug, I created a digital replica of myself. It was programmed to respond in the way I had been doing in the weeks leading up to this day. As I ducked down and scooted away between my teammates’ legs, I heard my haptic double.

“Thank you,” it shrugged them off.

I crawled away, grateful for the time to have a moment to process. While my double meditatively watched the rest of the games, I scrambled under the Husbandrist section. The newly printed bleachers smelled a bit like vinegar. It was always like that for the first hour. Under paws, hooves, and shoes shaped like paws and hooves, I heard the Husbandrist section roar their applause for the Spiritual Neighborhood. The augmented bleachers shook around me as the virtual attendees stood, stomped, and clapped for their founder’s team.

“Bodhi Karma of the Spiritual Neighborhood!”

In the very back of the stadium, in the shadows that hid the doors to the utility and supply closets, I crouched in front of ours, the one that stored all our gym mats and equipment. I looked at my watch, the second hand ticking in slow motion. I flicked my fingers, wishing there was something I could do to shorten Bodhi’s event. I worked through a couple options but realized I couldn’t do that to her. So I waited. The auditorium’s sounds blurred, replaced by a slight high-pitched ring. It was an insistent, throbbing sound. I looked around but there was no apparent origin. My neck struggled to keep my head steady. I tried to focus on Bodhi’s event but my head kept nodding, shooting fear through the body I seemed to be losing control of.

“Ulu!”

The ringing stopped, my head snapped up. Bodhi was there, smiling eagerly, face glistening with sweat. Then I heard the applause. I pulled her into the closet but she stopped me.

“Wait, double me!”

I had almost forgotten. I flicked my wrist and fingers until her double emerged from her body like a ghost. It walked back to the Spiritual section and I pulled Bodhi inside, but again she stopped me, pointing to her section.

“We need to make sure, Ulu.”

I flashed her an I-couldn’t-care-less-about-the-double look, we had more serious things to figure out. But the shadows were the shadows and instead she leaned over and nibbled at my ear as she watched her double take a seat in the safest place: a chair between her virtually attending mother and the empty seat assigned to Spiritual Jack.

As soon as her double sat, she pulled me into the closet and began kissing me. But when I switched on the light, she pulled back not expecting to see concern on my face.

“What did you do, are we caught?”

“Me? I didn’t do anything.” Half truth. “I got knocked over and then everyone started laughing in hysterics, except me and you. You were just—”

“What are you talking about Ulu?” I tried to show her what I saw, bending over, holding my stomach.

“Everyone was like this except you and me.”

Bodhi touched my cheek. “Did you hit your head when you fell?”

“Something knocked me over, Bodhi. And it pulled me under too. I almost drowned.”

“You wouldn't have drowned, it was only a second.”

“I was under for at least five minutes, and I saw a figure, a grown up, but…”

“Were you messing with Ohmni? Did you take it too far?” Little tears started to slide out of the corners of Bodhi’s eyes, slipping down her cheeks. “You promised to keep calm, Ulu!”

“Something took over my body, Bodhi. It wasn’t me.”

“Come on, Ulu. It was you, you’re always doing this.”

No, no, this wasn’t how this was supposed to go at all. The situation was slipping out of my control and I could see Bodhi winding up every time I tried to explain myself.

“I promise… I didn’t. We were supposed to… I was supposed to…” I couldn’t get out what I wanted to say. “I was going to ask you to be my girlfriend,” burst out of my mouth in the most unromantic way.

“You said we’d do this and then we’d figure out how to desegregate the town, but instead you just want to destroy everything.” She was shaking with rage. Not annoyance, not irritation, but real anger like I’d never seen before, mounting so fast that Ohmni couldn’t stop it.

“Bodhi, did you hear me? I want you to be my girlfriend, we can still do what you want.”

Desperately, I moved my fingers, hoping for anything to happen. Bodhi grabbed my hands.

“Are you serious right now?” She flung my hands back down and stormed out, leaving me alone in the broom closet.

I reached for the handle to follow Bodhi out, but the figure from under the water was there, standing in front of the door.

They wrapped their arms around me and I could feel flesh and bones moving under their skin. The figure cradled my head. I was terrified as it began to shape shift. I could hear bones cracking and the mush of organs moving. A branch sprouted from its ears and right before its mouth became bark, the figure spoke to me.

“I am Nzambi and I am real, you and I shall make a deal.”

I stepped back from the fully formed tree and looked down at my twitching fingers.