Chapter 45

There are a couple three four things a parent does not want to hear issue from their teenager's lips..."Mom, I missed my period ... and I seem to have missed one pill," while displaying the pill dispenser with one little pill still in the very center of the month...

..."I don't have anything to wear," when mom knows there isn't room for anything more in said teen's closet...

..."Mom, I can't find your car." ... Mom didn't know it was gone.

..."Mom, this is Jimmy ... he followed me home. Can I keep him?" ... Jimmy is wearing grungy dirty jeans, engineer boots, a wallet with a chain and sports a black eye. He is looking at the family silver.

..."I don't remember." ... said while looking at the police officer who brought her home.

..."I'm bored,"...

Vee said, "I'm bored," and thought about what she could do about it. She had enjoyed her time with Chuck Austin ... and she wondered about the results of the test she took at Ferris. I could use the watch and just show up was one conclusion.

I could call was another. Do I care? was a question she often asked herself. "I'm bored."

Summer was racing away and she was bored.

Fall was on it's way and she was bored.

Excitement ... boring.

Study ... boring.

"Powers that Be?"

"Yes, child?"

"I'm bored."

"You're a teen ... boredom is a natural condition."

"Can I come visit?"

"Hello, Vee. Give up the watch. We have decided you don't need it. You're bored. Maybe life without it would help," said the Six.

"Maybe you need to help us," said Seven.

"Help you? What can I do?" I'm fifteen."

"Your ancestors have changed the world but not enough. They've only added ten years to the time of man ... instead of the end of the world as you know it in 2200 the antics of your progenitors have stretched the doomsday to 2210."

"2210?" exclaimed Vee. "That's only 145 years. What happens?"

"WE may be the Powers but it is not for us to know."

"Hmmm," Vee hummed, "I won't see the end ... but my grandchildren would. That's not good." She thought a moment, "Grandchildren? This is NOT the time or age of female participant to be considering grandchildren."

Seven said, "I don't see why not. Fifteen was a perfectly acceptable age until a couple of hundred years ago."

"True," said Vee, "But folks didn't live that long and propagating the species was more important. It's not now."

"And whose fault is that?"

"Pharmaceuticals. Drugs keep us alive past our USE by DATE. Lab experiments in the fridge ... so to speak. The world needs a good plague."

"One is coming up," said the Powers.

"But that takes everybody," complained Vee.

"Everything..." said Six.

Seven said, "It has been theorized that it took about five thousand years after the meteor wiped a clean slate for life to start again. We've been looking for new life forms for two hundred centuries and they haven't shown up yet."

"Maybe we did a better job," suggested Vee.