Friday August 11th, 2056 - II

The front door opens. A blond ponytail is scooped up by the wind entering the building. Her eyes behind her glasses widen and sparkle with joy.

"Welcome back, Andrew!" Helen exclaims. "It hasn't been that long, has it? And Mei too, you were here not too long ago either."

She let's them inside and they hang up their jackets on the clothing rack. The recreational area is silent.

[They aren't here.]

"Mike and the other boys are out for today, so you probably won't meet them, sorry." Helen explains. She signals them to follow her, and they head to her office.

Helen makes tea for both of them and they sit down opposite of her.

"Do we want to talk first, or visit her?" Helen asks them.

"We can talk first, you probably want to ask a lot, am I right?" Mei responds.

"Well, you are right indeed." Helen says. "First off all, how are you doing, Andrew?"

"Good enough, I think. Melissa kicked me out shortly after I moved in, but I met Mei in her place." Andrew responds calmly.

"Kicked you out?"

"She only wanted to tell me a story, on August 6th, and sent me to the dorm rooms of Clifftell College two days later."

[Clifftell High.]

"I see… and that's where you met each other I assume?" Helen replies.

"Yeah, he's my roommate now." Mei says cheerfully.

"Good, good. I hope you're doing well too, Mei."

[She didn't even ask me about the story. Does she just assume everything is fine? No, I don't think so. She isn't like that. But, I don't want to tell her if she doesn't ask. That'll seem like just… I don't know, shifting the pressure on her or something. She must have not asked with a reason, maybe she already knew.]

After talking for about twenty minutes, Helen stands up.

"Well, shall we visit Julie?" Helen asks rhetorically.

Mei nods and she and Andrew both get up.

[Julie… this is the first time hearing her friend's name. In France, people are often named Julie, well, at least the people we met.]

They leave her office and enter through a staff only door, where they end up in a place with a lot of offices and machines. "You've never seen this, have you?" Helen asks.

"I don't think so." Andrew replies. At the end of the hallway is a massive metal door, already open. The three of them pass through it and head left after walking past the wake up room. Andrew looks inside through the glass door.

[This is where we first met. Helen left through this door.]

Andrew follows Helen and Mei, passing through a room filled with lights, buttons and levers.

[This is where all those people were standing and clapping. It feels nostalgic, though it was only a few weeks ago.]

After passing through a few more hallways and taking left and right turns, Helen comes to a standstill in front of a metal sheet, dropped down to just above the floor behind a glass wall. Helen leans against a large button, and the metal sheets get pulled up. Mei waits patiently with her hands holding each other behind her back. Andrew changes his gaze from Helen to Mei to the lit up room. The metal sheets are now completely lifted up.

[So that is what I have been inside, for thirty-seven years.]

The entire room looks cold, even though there is no frost to be seen. The front of the capsule is made from glass, while the sides are made of a dark metal. An incredible amount of wires and pipes are attached to the back and side of the capsule, and continue within it, to the body of Julie. Pipes and cables attached to her chest, stomach, legs, arms, neck and scalp monitor everything, from brainwaves to salt and sugar levels of cells. Her naked, frozen and blue tinted body is held up by metal bars with rings around her arms, legs and waist, while she is standing on a white platform. The capsule is filled with a transparent, gel-like substance.

Andrew gazes at the capsule, and at Julie.

[She looks dead. Or rather, almost dead. Her body is still in shape and hasn't deteriorated at all. It looks more as if she were just sleeping, but the blue tint and lack of movement make it look like… death itself.]

"It's just such a weird feeling…" Mei starts. Andrew moves his eyes to her. "That I won't be able to meet her ever again." Mei is smiling, letting out no signs of pain or sorrow.

"Isn't the whole point of this that… she can meet friends again in the future?" Andrew asks, moving his eyes to Helen midway through his sentence.

"The point is only to let them wake up in the future." Mei replies. Helen remains silent, and just faintly smiles. "You were just lucky, Andrew, to be able to meet the people you love."

[Where is this going… I don't like her tone.]

"Julie is scheduled to wake up in the twenty-four-hundreds." Helen tells them.

"Why so late?" Andrew asks, while turning his eyes to Julie's sleeping body.

"Well, first of all because of the wake-up schedule and healing time, but also…"

"Because she wanted to wake up in the 2400s." Mei interrupts Helen. "She told me once, three years before the accident. I still remember her explaining everything with excitement in her eyes. Her lovely voice. Her positive outlook… on the… future…" Tears well up in Mei's eyes, and she slowly straddles towards Andrew. She wraps her arms around his waist, and he returns her embrace by putting her arm around her shoulder. Helen looks at them and briefly smiles, before pressing the button to let the metal sheets fall down. With them slowly covering her body, Andrew gives one final look at Julie.

[I hope you will do fine, in 350 years. Don't forget her, don't forget anyone… and don't let them forget you, like they did with me…]

Andrew and Mei return to their dorm room, both of them emotionally and physically worn out. Mei grabs a bag of chips and a can of cola and head to the bed.

[That reminds me…]

"Hey." Andrew calls out.

"What is it?" Mei responds. The sound is muffled by the shirt she is pulling over her head.

[Already done with actual clothing?]

"We should go to the grocery store tomorrow. I'll teach you how to make pasta."

"I already got pasta." Mei replies, now pulling down her pants. She jumps onto the bed in her bra and underwear, both white, and pulls the covers over herself.

"Actual pasta, I mean. Not all this ready-made stuff." Andrew sighs. "A hobby is good for your mind. A hobby different from lazing around all day."

"I'd say I'm quite the professional." She replies.

Andrew looks at her, displeased. He rests next to her under the covers, and turns on the tv.

[Well, if she really doesn't want to…]

"It's just a lot healthier, you know? Same with all the sodas." Andrew continues.

"But water is booooring." She complains, as she wraps herself around Andrew.

"Zero shame…" He responds quietly.

"What?"

"It's nothing." Both of them blankly look at the television screen for a few minutes.

"But…" Mei starts. "If it's healthier and tastier… it would be nice if you showed me."

Andrew briefly smiles at her final decision.

"The scale hasn't been too happy with me lately…" She sighs. "I won't tell you what it said."

[I never asked… but I can feel it. I'd say between 65 and 70 kilos, she's quite short so it wouldn't be much higher than that.]

Andrew chuckles for a moment.

[She's way closer than May was, but… she doesn't feel as close. You're an odd one, Mei. I never expected people like you to exist, honestly. Ah, what am I talking to myself about. Just let her be, Andrew.]

After about two hours after arriving at the dorm room, with the sun already setting, Andrew's phone goes off. The default ringtone of the phone fills the room.

[Who would be calling me?]

"Who would even call you?" Mei asks.

"No idea."

Andrew opens his phone and looks at the lock screen.

[Helen?]

He accepts and moves the phone to her ear. Mei leans in close to his face, gliding her smooth body against his arm and chest.

"Hey, Andrew. Long time no see… or, hear." Helen says from the other side of the call.

"Uhm… hi. What are you calling for?" He replies.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you something today." She replies. "May actually visited here on the August Sixth."

[Wait, what? May… visited?]

"What do you mean? What did she say? And why didn't you tell me earlier? You could've called me earlier, or on the day of." Andrew blurts out haphazardly.

"One question at a time please…" Helen responds. "First of all, I just forgot to call you back then or tell you today. Sorry. Second of all, she told me she was May Kerone, I hope I got that right, didn't write down her name."

[That's her. That's May. The May.]

"What did she ask?" Andrew replies.

"Calm down, I was just getting there." Helen says.

[No, you hurry up. I need to know. This is important. This could be a clue…]

"She asked…"

Mei leans in even closer to hear what Helen is saying.

"Has he read my letter yet?" May's voice echoes throughout Andrew's head as Helen repeats what she said.

[Her letter…]

"I answered: 'No, not in the time he was here.' She didn't follow it up with anything, she just left the courtyard again. Oh, she asked that through the intercom at the door. Luckily I was the one responding to her, no one else would've known her."

Andrew is silent as Helen falls silent. Mei looks at his face. His face full of thoughts. She moves slightly away from him.

["Andrew?" Helen says.

[Read… her letter. I haven't yet, but… this means I should.]

"Thank you, Helen. I'll talk to you later."

"Andrew." Helen says, on a resolute tone. "Only read it if you're ready, promise?"

"Promise." Andrew replies, and he hangs up shortly after, placing the phone on the bed. He sighs and leans onto his pillow.

"What's with the letter?" Mei carefully asks. Andrew gets up and walks towards his backpack he carried throughout the day. He pulls out the three coloured cards.

"My family wrote the blue one." He replies, while getting back under the covers. "The red letter is from my past friends, Keil, Sarah and Lin, and the purple one… is from May, my girlfriend."

Andrew opens the blue card and shows Mei the picture of him and his family. She quickly skims through the words, and without hesitation takes the red letter from Andrew's hand. After reading through it, she tries to steal the purple one, but Andrew jerks it out of her reach quickly.

"I haven't read this one myself, yet." Andrew says.

"You should, soon. It's no good waiting with reading a letter."

"I'll do it tomorrow." He decides. Mei looks at him, worried, disappointed, questioning. Questioning his decision. She gives the two other cards back to Andrew and leans back on her pillow again. Andrew places the three cards on the cabinet next to the bed, before returning his eyes to the tv.

"Hey." He says.

"What is it?" Mei replies. Both of them are still focused on the screen.

"Is there someone in you're family named Ben?"

"Not that I know of." Mei answers.

"Connor?"

"Nope."

"Michael?"

[Better list all my other younger family members too.]

"Never heard of a Michael before."

"Heather? Jolyne? Christian?"

"Nuh-uh."

[That's all I know who could be related to her. Maybe our families just go way back, but I can't possibly check that]

."Then we're probably not related." Andrew states.

"Good. I was kinda hoping it was a coincidence anyway." Mei says.

[Same here. It would've been too much if we were also related.]

Mei leans to Andrew and rests her head on his shoulder again. They continue to watch series after series, season after season, until the sun is already settled below the horizon.

Andrew and Mei are both having dinner, a dinner consisting of ready-made salads and sandwiches. The television is turned off, Mei is browsing social media, and Andrew is looking at the purple letter. Staring at it.

[Melissa said it. Helen said it. Mei said it… even May herself, went to Helen to say it. They say that I should read it now. Is that really necessary? Couldn't I just… rip it apart? No, Andrew, why would you? That's stupid… you've waited for so long with this.]

Mei turns off her phone and sighs loudly.

"There's nothing to dooo…" She moans.

"We could go to sleep, it's already ten." Andrew responds.

"Already ten he says. I don't want to sleep yet, I like staying up past midnight."

"Why?"

"Like, y'know…" Mei replies. She falls silent afterwards, and looks at Andrew. He is still looking at the purple card, flipping and turning it constantly.

"Do you really want to read it?" Mei asks.

"I don't know anymore, though, I feel like I should." Andrew replies.

"I think you should read it too, but… don't let it lead you. Whatever it says, don't follow it."

Andrew turns his eyes away from the card and onto Mei's face.

"I mean, only if it's something you disagree with, of course!" She hastily adds.

[Disagree with… what would May tell me that I would disagree with?]

Mei quietly sighs and smiles.

"We should just read tomorrow, okay?" She says. "Let's go to sleep now, going to bed early for once might do me good."

Andrew nods, and places the card on the bedside table, on top of the others. They both shower after another before turning off the lights and going to sleep, after this long, packed day.