Life Designed (Life Plan Series Book 1), Eliza Taye [great novels .TXT] 📗

librarian. I wanted to spend my entire life working with books. That was the one thing I knew for sure. The others I considered and added to my Plan. I wanted to live in a nice two-story house with a wrap-around porch and a big library on the inside. I would get married at 26 and eventually have three children—one boy and two girls. I wanted a husband who loved me and our three kids more than anything. I wanted to never retire and always work with the books I loved. I even considered adding that one day I’d write a book, but I remember omitting that from my Plan, thinking I’d rather take care of other’s words.” At the end, April let her words drift off to silence, hanging her head.

“And now none of that will ever come true for you,” murmured Garrett.

April nodded; her head still hung low.

Garrett noticed a teardrop fall onto the honey-colored skin of her hands. “April.”

April sniffed twice, then raised her head, a smile pasted on her lips. As she wiped away the tears seeping over the rims of her eyes, she admitted, “No, it won’t happen. At least, it won’t happen in the way I planned. However, I still get to take care of books. I may not be a true librarian, but I am a caretaker of the stories I love.”

“But the rest of it…the house with the big library, the kids…” Garrett didn’t want to add the rest.

“Well, that’s just the thing, Garrett. People in the Undecided sector still have lives. They get married, they have kids, they work jobs. We just have a lot more uncertainty in our lives. To be honest, I’m one of the lucky ones. Most of us don’t get to work in a job similar to what we would have planned. I happened to be in the right place at the right time and was offered the chance to work here. Even though I don’t see many patrons, I get to spend my days surrounded by the wonderful aroma of books and millions of words at my fingertips. Getting married and having kids was never the main part of my Plan. I used it as filler to ensure my Plan had enough material to be approved. So really…in a sense…I’m still getting everything I’ve wanted.”

“Except for the house,” muttered Garrett.

April nodded solemnly. “Yes, except for the house.”

Both remained silent, sitting across from each other for several long seconds.

Eventually, April broke the silence. “Why are you here, Garrett? You still have one day left to write your Life Plan before Submission Day.”

“I don’t know why I’m here, April. I just knew I didn’t want to go to academy, and before I realized it, I was taking a transporter to the end of the line and walking here.” Garrett glanced at her shyly, a little worried about what her reaction would be at his next words. “You’re the only person I know who isn’t pushing me towards writing a Life Plan and acting like you’re frustrated with me for not writing one.”

“Well, that’s probably because I didn’t know you were procrastinating about writing one.” April gave him a small smile and he knew she was joking. “Still, Garrett. If I had a do-over and my Life Plan in my hands, I’d be rushing to City Hall right now to submit it.”

Garrett nodded slowly, understanding her sentiment.

“With all the books I’ve read, I can’t give you an answer to why our Life Plan system works the way it does. But what I can tell you is that it does give everyone a clean slate. Everyone has one chance to plan their life. It doesn’t matter whether you are born into the world of the Decided or the Undecided, each newborn baby has a chance to live a life of their own design. For that reason alone, I think the system is fair.”

Garrett pondered her words. He could see her point of view where every newborn baby had a chance. If the system wasn’t fair, then every child born to an Undecided would be doomed to the same fate as their parents were. However, that didn’t account for people like April who had a terrible misfortune befall them. Why should they be placed in the Undecided simply due to the failure to submit a Life Plan they’d already written but lost?

Standing, April reached her hand down to Garrett. “Come on, I’ll help you with your Life Plan.”

Garrett stared up at her in incredulity. “But we aren’t allowed to have help with our Life Plans.”

April shook her head, a small smile forming. “No, we aren’t allowed to let someone else write one for us. The rules say nothing about helping someone come up with an occupation or decide when they want major life events to occur. Those things I can help you with.”

After hours spent with April teasing out ideas for his Life Plan, then returning home to the barrage of angry shouts from his parents for skipping the last day of academy, Garrett holed himself in his room and sat at his desk. Placing his interwave on silence, he spread the papers holding the lines and lines of potential plans he and April had proposed. Now all he had to do was coalesce them into an official plan.

Appraising their work, he realized there had to be at least a hundred ideas written on the pages before him. He took out a clean sheet of paper and stared at it. This was it. He would finally write his Life Plan and know how his life would play out.

With a confident inhalation, he pressed his pen to the paper and began writing.

Chapter 17

Submission Day. It had finally arrived.

Opal awoke and stretched. She couldn’t believe the day was here. She’d officially submit her Life Plan today. Sweeping both feet