S4, E5 | Nothing Less than a Father's Best

> Monday, 24th October 2039 <

“Do you want me to open up the shop for you on my way?” Elaine inquires, throwing the straps to her purse over her shoulder as she approaches the front door, making a brief trip to a nearby table in order to retrieve her keys. “No, I’ll probably be down there by the time you drop Galen off” Andrew reassures, smiling as he lowers his face into hers for a kiss, his hand gently resting on her lower back, “just come home and be your pretty little self for as long as you want.”

Flattered, the woman pats her husband’s chest gently as he steps by, opening the front door for her to walk through, Galen’s feet carrying him through the opening before either can be afforded the chance. Going about their morning routine, Elaine unlocks the door from afar so her son can climb into the vehicle, his excitement to start the school day only matched his mother’s amusement at his haste to begin class.

Remaining in the doorway with his hand waving goodbye, Andrew watches the car quietly drive off and leave his home as a peaceful fortress of silence, only the home’s entrance slamming shut as it leaves the father’s hand bringing noise upon the settled floors. Taking a moment for himself, the man lets the hush linger as it prompts a smile to come over his face, the inner-workings seldom ever spent in such solitude within only his presence.

Not wanting to waste his time embracing the sound more foreign to him these days than ever before, Andrew journeys over to the couch and begins pushing it back, closer toward the wall dividing the kitchen from the living room as the floor becomes somewhat hollow. Satisfied with just a few feet of space newly created, the man takes to the centre of the room and inspects the floor that seems completely unchanged, investigating the manner in which it resides with both hands on his hips.

Nodding to himself, the man takes his moment of pleasure before setting eyes of intent beyond the lids that stay open, his brows furrowing as he ventures through the living room and into the kitchen, eventually spilling out onto the patio that he descends the steps to. Surrounded by a hush on either side, Andrew’s feet collide with the grass of the backyard he’d recently done what he expects to be its final manicure of the year, turning toward the side of the home that he ventures toward.

Wearing a pair of pyjama pants, the father lets out a deep sigh and drops to his knees at the edge of the terrace, letting his long-sleeve covered elbows follow suit as the rest of his body embraces the ground. Keeping his thoughts to himself, Andrew embraces his love of nature and fresh dirt that’s seen in his plant shop by ducking his head beneath the wooden structure, digging his hands and the tips of his sock-covered feet into the ground as he crawls forward.

Like long bars of light, the new morning sun above falls out of favour with the father’s eyes as he enters the dark crevasse, the natural glow being rendered nothing more than the prolonged strips of illumination that he uses to navigate his way beneath the home. Letting out a long sigh with each extension he’s forced to make, Andrew sets his eyes upon the hole in the home’s concrete edge, a glass pane covering the entry just beneath the above terrace’s kitchen entrance.

Reaching his destination, the man’s palm presses against the transparent pane and gradually slides it open, freeing himself a modest gap that he first slides his head and arms through. Reaching up for a handlebar just above the viewing port, Andrew slides his way free from beneath the terrace and lets his legs drop into the space, hanging from the bars for a moment as he steadies his posture and allows himself to drop another two feet into the darkness.

Colliding with the ground to the tune of an echo, Andrew takes a pause before standing upright, reaching his hand through the air wildly in search of the string that he eventually locates and gently yanks at. Springing to life beneath the glow of a single, overhead bulb, the wooden-walled room with one a singular window hidden away from the sun’s might presents the new arrival with a rather modest life, very few decorations or accessories welcoming him to the hidden room.

Atop a small, blue rug, a grey loveseat sits in the centre of a space half the size of the living room above, a ladder attached to a structural pillar just off to its side leading upward to the same ceiling that covers the quarter’s entire length. In one corner, a standing freezer and a minifridge are tucked away and out of sight whilst a shelf of books is propped against the wall directly opposite them, hosting only a handful of novels- all hardcover and leaning into each other.

Venturing further into the stuffy and somewhat warmer than desired area, Andrew turns on a nearby lamp as he approaches a vent built into the hardwood floor, wrapping his fingers around the grate that he uses to tug it out of the ground. Resting it to the side, the father reaches into the pocket and retrieves a cassette tape with ‘in light of the deceased’ scrawled in permanent marker on the white strip atop it.

Laying upon one knee, Andrew lets his tape-holding arm rest atop it as he stares across the room in surprise, the inquisition that he’d begun his journey amidst having failed to find a reasonable answer. At a loss for words, the man drops to a seat on the ground and presses his back to the wall, gently returning the cassette to the home that he’s chosen for it before returning the vent’s cover, unable to figure out how his daughter’s line of questions from prior to the weekend had come about.

= Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and his entity of Pacer1 from the start of Season 1 onwards =

> Tuesday, 25th October 2039 <

Seated upon the stairs to a higher level whilst purposefully leaning as close to one side as she can manage, Sophie watches the various women in the commons area ahead of her continue about their day whilst minding her own business. Exposing her arms through a sleeveless shirt that hides beneath the beige onesie she wraps the arms of around her waist, the inmate lets her eyes fall to the ground before feeling a gentle tap against her left side.

“You want a cigarette?” a brunette woman with her hair tied into a ponytail inquires, extending a smoke that Sophie appreciatively waves off, shaking her head in refusal as the woman rounds the bannister. “Your roommate keeping her nose clean?” the generous inmate questions, lifting a dart to her own lips before striking a match, lighting the end as the younger prisoner she interrogates nods in approval.

“I haven’t been hearing anything bad from anyone. She hasn’t been telling me anything bad about any of you” Sophie replies, shrugging her shoulders as she remains stationed upon the third-lowest stair, “if any of that isn’t true, just let me know, Denise.”

“I’m just making sure we’ve got our one problem settled. That’s all” Denise responds, stepping to the opposite side of the staircase with an arm draped over the railing, leaving the seat beside her fellow inmate unoccupied. “Why are you still here then?” Sophie wonders aloud, a slight squint in her eyes carried to the other woman, “is there something you need?”

“Your papers said you had another- what- eight years before your earliest shot at parole, right?” Denise questions back, taking a hit from the stick of tobacco whilst looking out at the crowd of similarly-drab prison suits, “that’s a long time to spend without people watching your back, little girl.”

“It’s just as long as the time that I’ve already gone without having people watch my back” Sophie replies, continuing to press her side against the cold, metal bars of the steep staircase, “I’ve already told you... I’d prefer to keep my nose out of your business.” Blowing smoke into the air as she takes the younger woman’s comments into thought, Denise continues to stare out at the incarcerated gathering whilst pulling at her dart.

“Your cellmate ran her mouth and it put you in the centre of attention. You got the new girl to keep her nose clean too, but you’ve already seen what happens when you’ve got an expectation from us” the inmate retorts, shaking her head disapprovingly at those who occupy various seats at a variety of tables ahead of her.

“You’re a target of no one now, but it doesn’t take much for things to go wrong. Instead of being in no one’s eyesight, you can quickly become everyone’s target” Denise explains, looking back at the girl that now stares out at the populace ahead of her. Thinking quietly to herself, Sophie inspects the communal hall where the rest of the prisoners socialise in their various groups, taking the sight in just as she spends most days doing so.

“Let’s say you keep your nose clean and make parole in eight years, right? What do you think will happen when the others find out you’re getting released?” Denise inquires, allowing the continued remarks that she makes to settle within the mind of the girl beside her, “most of us don’t mind you, but I’m sure there are a handful of girls in this place that’ll feel a bit jealous of you being able to get out of here when they don’t get to be... Especially with how light your sentence was for the shit that you did compared to theirs.”

Wearing the same unchanged expression that she normally adorns, Sophie lets her head pull off to face the woman beside her, seeing the wrinkles along the cheek of the girl that continues to drag on her dart as if today were just like any other. “The last seven years have been pretty boring, right? Every day feels like it’s a week long, right?” Denise inquires, continuing to speak without looking toward her fellow inmate, “don’t you just get tired of sitting in your cell and reading every day?”

“I’ve survived” Sophie responds, not wasting a beat in order to offer the woman beside her a reply worthy of re-earning the line of her sight, the cigarette’s orange glow dying out as it’s pulled from her lips, replaced with an exhale that clouds the stingy air between them. “I don’t want to cause anyone here trouble. Even if it’s a small amount, I’d like to think that’s earned a little bit of respect” the girl continues, adamant in her declaration beyond doubt, “no matter what, though... It’s helped me survive for seven years.”

Letting her teeth shine through her lips, Denise nods to herself and returns her eyes toward the inmates that sprawl out amongst the commons floor, taking the girl’s comments into consideration. “Can it help you survive for eight more, though?” she wonders aloud, lifting an eyebrow that she carries back toward the girl beside her, not needing an answer to the question that she walks away on, returning to the compound’s larger interior whilst Sophie watches on, letting the inquiry settle upon her brain like an amoeba.

|

> Wednesday, 26th October 2039 <

“Why won’t you tell me how it’s been going between the two of you?” Derby inquires, sitting on the floor at the end of her bed whilst doing a crossword puzzle on her phone, “you’ve been staying over here since last week! How can you not give me just a clue about how it’s been going?”

Shaking her head with an amused grin carried over her visage, Liv plays a crossword of her own whilst laying atop her friend’s recently-made bed, her face directed toward the side of the bed that her pal sits ahead of. “Because nothing’s been going on” the girl concedes, shaking her head in refusal as she continues to present her teeth, addressing the room’s main occupant whilst typing in the answer to one row, “I haven’t gone on a second date with him.”

“Why not?” Derby inquires, suddenly letting the phone fall from her palm and come to a rest upon her carpeted floor, allowing her to spring up and turn her body to face her friend. “Because he and I just don’t mesh very well” Liv responds, finishing her answer before turning off the phone and sitting upright on the bed, allowing her friend to climb up and share the space with her.

“He was a gentleman and as nice as you can ask for, but I don’t think either of us are the kind of people ready to be in a relationship” Liv responds, having come to a conclusion that leaves her remaining on her lonesome. “How did he take it?” Derby wonders aloud, begging the question that her friend knew would be around the corner sooner or later, but doesn’t take pleasure in answering.

“Well, I had to explain that it wasn’t his fault at first if that gives you any clue” Liv responds, clearly remorseful for the news that she’d had to break, “he wasn’t happy. I’d like to think he understood by the time I left, though.” Apologetic, Derby takes note of her friend’s glum demeanour before patting her on the knee, feeling regretful for having spent so much time asking about what never had much point to being asked in the first place.

“Now I feel like an ass for constantly bringing it up” Derby remarks, frowning as she looks toward the side of her room, quickly being freed of her guilt by the reassurance that her friend returns to her. “You were just interested. I don’t blame you” Liv responds, smiling as she wraps an arm around her slightly less disheartened friend, pressing their sides together as they both laugh.

Letting their amusement carry the mood of the room forward, the girls remain within each other’s presence as they stare into the distance of the room, surrounded on all sides by glowing lights dipping into different colours of the rainbow at random intervals. Without uttering a word, Derby allows the silence to persist before narrowing her eyes, intrigued by one circumstance yet to be explained.

“So, why have you been staying here for so long?” she wonders aloud, looking at the girl sitting beside her on the bed whilst the soul questioned keeps her eyes at a distance. Lowering her bottom lip just slightly, Liv searches through her head in search of a worthy reply as if she were searching for a pair of car keys in a cluttered coat closet. Eventually bowing her head, the home’s visitor shakes her head with as much of a grin as she can put on, not knowing how to answer.

“Just an argument with my dad that I don’t really want to get into right now” Liv explains, trying her best to disregard the question in a way that doesn’t leave one of her only acquaintances feeling like she’d asked the wrong line of questions again. “I’d rather not be around there while it’s boiling down, so I’ve been staying here for a little bit” she furthers, wearing an approachable visage as if trying to offer a disincentive to prevent Derby from asking anything further.

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> Thursday, 27th October 2039 <

“Welcome!” Andrew proclaims at the sound of the bell in the front of his shop, stepping out from the back of the store before finding surprise in who he watches enter the storefront. “Thank you! I feel very welcomed!” Elaine responds, approaching the front counter as her bag falls from the top of her shoulder, being gently placed atop the register as she ventures around it.

“What are you doing here?” her husband wonders aloud, pausing as their faces press together for a kiss before continuing his inquisition, “I thought you had a yoga class you go to on Wednesday mornings?” Her eyelids squinting, Elaine leans back in her lover’s arms with a polite grin, humoured by the question that’s been raised to her.

“It’s Thursday, honey” his wife replies, looking at the man as his mouth goes somewhat wide before shaking her head at a loss for context, “did you still think it’s Wednesday?” With both palms pressing against the sides of the woman’s shoulders, Andrew hangs his head with a grin and begins laughing quietly, provoking a much more noticeable amusement from the chuckle that his lover takes on.

“I’m losing my goddamn mind, aren’t I?” the father questions back, holding his wife tighter as her body’s weight shifts back, her head tilting as far away as it can as she breaks into a fit of laughter that bounces off each wall like an echo in a wind tunnel. “That was not your finest moment, honey” Elaine quips, still fighting through her giggle to compose herself, “I’m just dropping by to see how you’d feel about a family dinner tomorrow night?”

“I’d be all up for it, of course!” Andrew responds, not missing a beat in voicing his approval for the idea that he’s uncertain of the need to ask for, “why wouldn’t I be?” Pressing her lips together as she gently sways her head, Elaine sucks on her tongue to the faint sound of a dull hiss, staring away as she takes the question.

“It’s not that you would have a problem with it, but Liv might” she confesses, watching a look of surprise take shape on her husband’s face, “she’s been staying at Derby’s house for almost a week. I don’t want to get into whatever it was between you two that made her want to stay over for so long, but I was hoping that- whatever the problem was... It’d be solvable before tomorrow night?”

“I see, so this is you asking me to ‘bury the hatchet’ for lack of a better term before tomorrow night?” Andrew inquires, seeing a hopeful-yet-doubtful face take shape before his eyes. “I don’t want to get involved in whatever it is, so I’m going to try not to overstep any boundaries” Elaine restates, remaining within the gentle caressing of her husband’s grasp, “but I really don’t want anyone of us at odds when we’ve only got so long left with each other.”

Letting his eyes fall, Andrew thinks quietly to himself before feeling his wife’s hasty attempt at reassurance take shape in the hands that she rests on either side of his face. “Shit, I didn’t mean to make you feel-” Elaine attempts to apologise, only for her efforts to be thwarted as her husband’s smile meets her eyes, his hands relocating from her sides to the backs of each hand she places against his visage, coupling them together in his own palms as he nullifies her concern.

“No, no... It’s fine. You’re right, our differences aren’t much to settle” Andrew assures, watching his wife’s relief roll in like tides upon a sandy beach as the sun begins to set, “I’ll pick her up from school early tomorrow, take her out to a light lunch, and we’ll put this to bed.”

“You’re sure?” Elaine inquires, making sure she hadn’t overstepped any unstated lines in this approach, being granted the freedom of knowing that she hadn’t in her husband’s lean forward, his lips pressing against her own. “We have less than a year before our little girl is off to college and we head south. You’re right...” Andrew promises, freeing one hand from his wife’s before taking the knuckle of his index finger and resting it below her chin, “we’ve got no time to waste when it comes to family anymore.”

|

> Friday, 28th October 2039 <

“You didn’t need to pull me out of school for this conversation” Liv remarks, stepping through the plant shop’s employee entrance as her father follows closely behind, locking his car as he enters the building. “I would’ve rather had it at home, but you’ve decided to take a vacation from it” Andrew responds, freeing his arms from the coat that he hangs on a hook just beside his daughter’s own.

Stepping into the store’s public area, Liv approaches the building’s centre column and gently runs her knuckle down the length of a leaf that stretches beyond the plant that wraps around the concrete post, hugging it tight and stretching into the walkway. “Do you like it?” Andrew inquires, crossing his arms as he leans against the counter, taking notice of his daughter’s intrigue with the plantlife that frequently catches his patron’s eyes.

“This is the ‘Tree of Life’, right?” Liv wonders aloud, pointing toward the stretching expanse of vines and greenery that squeeze upon the concrete block like a snake wrapping around the tiny body of its prey. “It is. It’s the one part of the building that I actively let nature reclaim” Andrew responds, pointing toward the ground that the central column starts out of, “there’s ten foot-deep hole that I dug around the column when I first bought the place, made a custom pot and filled with soil.”

“So this thing is an actual plant?” Liv inquires, looking toward the base of the structure that shields her father and herself from the chill of the air just beyond their storefront, inspecting it all the way to the ceiling. “It’s as much of a real plant as a part of nature as you can get in a building like this” Andrew responds, tapping the countertop as he quietly wanders around it, approaching the centre column with appreciative eyes and a wide grin whilst his hands rest in his pockets.

“Why?” Liv inquires, holding appreciation for its simplicity and its natural beauty, but curious as to her father’s inspiration, “why go through all the trouble if it’ll just be a decoration piece?” Laughing, Andrew frees one hand from his pocket and gently runs his finger down the length of the plant’s smooth leaves and vines, grazing the active life with the warmth from his limb.

“Because it’s not really a decoration piece in the way that it’s a symbolic piece that I had less room to install at the house than I did here” he confesses, reaching toward the ground to pick up a spray bottle he begins gently pulling the lever of. “When I left the place where I grew up and moved down here, I felt like I had finally found a home where I could put my roots down. I felt like this reflected that well” the man continues, giving a peek into his youth in a manner that he seldom does.

“Over time, it’s represented a lot to me. Everything is in check and alright as long as this plant- whatever you want to call its jumbled-together, Frankenstein-like state- is alive” Andrew further confesses, shrugging his shoulders as he continues to water the length of the flora, his daughter’s feet stepping back to free him the space to do so.

“You have to remember that I didn’t have much when I first came down here. This was supposed to be symbolic for me, and for Sophie, and for the life that I wanted to live here” the man concludes, flipping a switch to activate the artificial warming light above, providing the indoor plant with the closest thing it receives to natural sunlight aside from the warmth that spills through the windows when the space-bound star is at an angle in the midwestern sky.

“I’ve never heard you talk about your childhood before” Liv confesses, hanging her head in a way that her father doesn’t take much concern over, not wanting to confuse it for something that it’s not. “That’s because there’s very little that’s pleasant to talk about” Andrew responds, continuing to spray at the plant in the centre of the room as he speaks, repeatedly circling the column whilst he does, “that’s why I took surprise in your interest about my parents last week.”

Remaining silent, Liv keeps her distance from the central display of flora relishing in the warm glow overhead as her father comes to a sudden stop, turning to face her with the spray bottle still in hand. Wearing a straight face and concealing any expression that could be considered humorous, Andrew lowers the bottle back toward the ground and looks his daughter in the eyes, not wanting to present his claims in any way that could be considered ingenuine.

“I killed them... both of them” he confesses, surprising the girl in a way that prompts her eyelids to widen, shocked beyond what she could’ve expected in the wake of the man’s admission. “There’s a reason why I’m not in prison right now and it’s not because I’ve never been caught for it. It’s because the police knew I had no other choice... Self-defence” Andrew continues, slightly relaxing the girl as much as she can manage to be in the wake of such a remark.

“Sophie’s mom was in rehab at the time and my parents were incredibly untrustworthy people. So I quietly made them the beneficiaries of a life insurance claim in the event that something happened to me” the father carries on, watched more intently and with less shock by the girl, who continues to hear him out.

“Morgan was in rehab, so I didn’t want to burden her with that. I didn’t want to leave Sophie without a father and money. So the only option I had were my parents” Andrew continues to explain, lowering himself to the ground to ensure his daughter is more comforted by the high ground she now receives the benefit of. “They took me into the woods on what they called a ‘hunting trip’ and tried to shoot me for the money” he concludes, shaking his head with a sorrowful frown, “I got them both before they could get me.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Liv suddenly inquires, watching the man look up to her as she voices the question, his eyes falling as he shakes his head in disappointment. “Because I know someone must’ve brought my parents to your attention and you deserve to know what happened to them” Andrew answers, not needing to offer much more than that to serve his point, “they were terrible people. The police knew what happened, told me to take Sophie and get out of town while they called it a murder-suicide.”

“What does someone else telling me about that have to do with any of this?” Liv inquires, watching her father calmly rest his back against one of the shelving units his display plants sit atop. “Because this was something I never expected to have to tell anyone. But, now it doesn’t seem like I have much of a choice” Andrew explains, shaking his head as he bends one knee toward himself, resting his wrist over the top of it.

“But since something brought this to your attention, I want to know why” he continues, motivated by getting to the bottom of whatever explanation it may be, “there’s not much more of a choice that I have but to explain what happened if there’s something forcing me to come clean about it. And ever since what happened with your sister, I felt like it was best if you knew that what your father did was not the same thing.”

“What does it matter how I found out?” Liv questions back, emotionally challenging the importance of anything that clouds their conversation, sticking over it like fog clouding a small town. “Because if there’s something out there that’s trying to paint me out like I’m some soulless murderer like your...” Andrew replies, extending his hand toward the shop’s front door before pausing, choosing not to finish his sentence before finishing his point, “...I want to know why.”

Met with a lot of information to take in, Liv looks toward the shop’s windows and the night that falls over their quiet little town, looking for solace without being able to find much of a source for it. Extending an olive branch of trust to his eldest-recognised, Andrew looks toward the girl as her head falls, eyes taking toward the ground as her face sours, bringing to the surface the guts she struggles to prevent from spilling.

“Coleen’s friends at school. Leila and Elva” Liv confesses, surprising her father in a way that brings him confusion, “they say that Coleen’s dad wouldn’t have done what he did. They’re suggesting that you had something to do with what happened to them.” With his expression unchanged, Andrew’s eyes fall toward the ground as his face reserves an unpleasant scowl, his relaxed posture remaining intact despite a tension finding its way through the muscles of his arms.

“It’s not true, right?” Liv wonders aloud, prompting her father to look up at her, having missed her question the first time around, “you didn’t have anything to do with it, right?” As if bewildered, Andrew shakes his head in refusal as he climbs off the ground, “no, honey! Of course not!” he replies with absolute confidence, taking his daughter’s sides into his hands as he looks her in the eyes, making his statement clear beyond doubt, “what happened to those people is a tragedy, but I had nothing to do with it.”

Nodding with as much acceptance as she can present, Liv lets her eyes drift to the side before her face is taken into her father’s hands, redirecting her sights toward his own as he doubles down on his statement. “Your father is not a monster. He is not a murderer, and he is not what anyone could try to convince you that he is” Andrew vows, pausing for a moment before wrapping his arms around his child and pulling her into a hug, “I’m a devoted father... Nothing more, nothing less.”

Reciprocating the gesture, Liv locks her arms around her father’s waist and tilts her head into his chest, resting it upon his person in both grief and comfort whilst her father stares blankly across the store. Pressing his chin against the top of his child’s head, Andrew lets his eyes bobble from one side of the shop to the other, struggling to register the implications of what his child tells him before opting to put it all to bed for the time being, his eyes closing as he takes in the warmth of their embrace and the tranquillity brought along with it.

== Generation Alpha ==