S4, E7 | Heavy Hand Behold the Heart

> Tuesday, 29th November 2039 <

“Where are you? Are you alright?” Elaine inquires, scooping chunks of cantaloupe and honeydew out of a plastic tin and onto a plate, which she carries from the kitchen countertop and onto the table that her son sits at, anxiously awaiting his breakfast. “Yeah, I’m fine” Andrew replies in a tired tone of voice, shaking his head as he rests it against the side of a couch, one hand covering his face whilst he presses his phone to the side of his head with the other.

“It’s like I said. I just felt exhausted and didn’t want to fall asleep while I was on the road in case I had to manually take over at some point. I just decided to crash at the store” he adds on, groaning as he sits upright and places his feet on the floor. “Alright. Well, do you want me to swing by and drop off a fresh pair of clothes? I can’t imagine you found a way to shower over there” Elaine queries, only to receive the same response she’d gotten earlier.

“I think I’m just going to leave the shop closed for today. I’ll call it a personal day and leave it at that” Andrew responds, swiping at the knees of his denim jeans as he pats the dry dirt that covers them. “Don’t you want to save those for when we head down south to check out homes?” Elaine queries back, opening the top to her waffle maker before scooping out the wonderfully pressed breakfast item and placing it beside her son’s assortment of fruit.

“I own the store, dear. I can close it whenever I want” Andrew reassures, wiping the exhaustion from his eyes as he climbs off his seat and makes it to his feet, throwing his arms out slowly as he frees his muscles of the tension that had built up within them throughout the night. “That’s true. And it won’t matter for much longer since you’re selling it. I guess that makes sense” Elaine mutters to herself, shrugging her shoulders as she steps away from the kitchen.

“Of course it does. That’s the whole...” her husband replies, pausing as he lifts his face toward the ceiling, following the footsteps overhead as they trail from one side of the upper level to the next, “...reason why I made that decision.” Without much to add, Elaine rounds the bannister and begins ascending to the home’s second level, her footsteps growing more distant from the man on the other end of the call.

“I’ll be home in about an hour, alright?” Andrew inquires, leaving off the call with as reassuring of a departure as he can muster, the conclusion being one that his wife is satisfied with. “I’ll see you soon” Elaine remarks, bringing the call to an end that leaves her husband comfortable enough to toss the phone onto his loveseat and approach the other end of the secret confines.

With a glum face, Andrew snatches a can of beer out of the mini fridge and returns to the centre of the room, dropping himself onto the couch as he cracks open the metal canister, sipping from within as he lets out a loud groan, having soundproofed the room enough to speak openly without fear of discovery from above.

Beating him like a band member to a drum, Andrew’s headache settles in before he takes a second sip of his liquor and sours at the bitter taste he takes from it, suddenly feeling the disgust in himself at opening a can this early in the day. Scraping his tongue with the bottom of his front teeth, the man spits into a bucket just a few feet away and settles the can onto the floor as the footsteps above traipse from the bottom of the stairs and back to the kitchen.

Hearing his breaths force themselves through his nostrils as if he were congested, Andrew sits with a sour face before reaching beneath himself, reclaiming the phone he’d laid himself back upon and opening it to the last tab. Pressing play, the father watches his disowned offspring’s face well up with tears, the camera cutting to the host of the program whilst the girl’s father serves as the viewer, taking the place of the camera that had studied the pair like an unrelenting stalker.

“Is this an act for the camera, or do you genuinely regret what you did?” Daphne inquires, looking at the girl that sits before her with a reserved expression, trying not to display anything unfairly judgemental in one direction or the other. “I’m surrounded by the reminder of what I did. These are the consequences of my actions” Sophie assures, wiping the tears that reside within the cusp of her eyelids and she stares into the distance.

“I deserve them. I deserve to be behind these walls even if I don’t want to spend the rest of my life here” she restates, shrugging her shoulders as she tries her best to muster a smile, “my father disowned me. I haven’t seen my sister since that night. The only person I have to blame is...”

Kept from finishing her thought, Sophie’s face freezes upon the screen of her father’s phone as his thumb presses against the pause button, preventing the video from continuing on before he turns off the device and lets the screen rest against his chest. Remaining quiet, Andrew stares with disapproval at the ceiling as he grows further irritated with himself, kept from any glimpse of the morning light outside beyond the lone window that the patio above mostly blocks from daylight of any kind.

Forcing his lips to press against each other with all of his might, the man sits with his thoughts for a moment before fighting against his better judgement, playing the video he’d sentenced to nearly a minute of silence after rewinding it five seconds. “...the only person I have to blame is myself... no one else” Sophie finishes, seeing no alternative to any conclusion but that one, “I’d like to believe that when I’ll have served a justified punishment once I get out, but I’ll never be able to bring those people back.”

Placing the palm of her pen-wielding right hand atop the one of her left as it sits upon the note-filled legal pad in her lap, Daphne squints toward the inmate in refusal to take it easy on the subject of her interview. “Why should anyone believe you?” the interviewer inquires, restricting her personal feelings toward the girl in favour of addressing a common concern, “plenty of criminals have lied to get what they want, and your story about the day you were abducted were filled with holes. Why should the public believe you now?”

“Because I’m going to get out eventually” Sophie answers without haste, refusing to skip a beat in replying to the criticism. “Hopefully it will be in eight years when I’m up for parole. At worst, it’ll be thirty three years from now. But one way or another... I’ll be released from here eventually” she doubles down, making herself clear beyond doubt, “I’ve done nothing but keep out of other people’s business here. I’ve been as much of a model inmate as you can ask for. So being released in eight years isn’t far-fetched.”

“Is that supposed to comfort people who believe that you’re a danger to society?” Daphne inquires, interrupting the girl’s answer with a follow-up question, one that’s answered as hastily as the one she’d brought up prior. “No. What is supposed to comfort people is that they have the choice of whether to believe me or not. They’ll have to make their minds up sooner or later, because me getting out of here is inevitable” Sophie answers, nodding to the interviewer directly opposite herself as the camera pans closer.

“Just be glad that I’m capable of seeing the error in my ways and that I want to change. There are plenty of people in my position who don’t” she follows up, putting an uncertain expression upon her father’s face once her words reach the audience they were meant to. “I have caused incredible tragedy and I am trying to make up for that every single day. I’m aware of that and I am trying with all of my heart to be better” Sophie concludes, confident in her remarks as the camera’s lens draws even closer, “I owe it to those people and their families to not be the same girl that I was all those years ago.”

= 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 =

> Wednesday, 30th November 2039 <

“I’ll have that shipped out to you within the next two weeks, thank you very much” Andrew responds, waving his wrist through the air to end the call as the employee entrance opens behind him. “Jesus, you startled me!” he proclaims, pressing the palm of his hand against his chest as he leans into the store’s counter, a smile carried on his face whilst his wife apologises.

“I meant to call you but the line was busy” Elaine responds in a soft and remorseful tone, being dissuaded from doing so by the understanding husband. “It’s fine! It’s fine!” Andrew responds, resting his hand against his wife’s side as she approaches, reassuring her of the humour that he takes from the interaction, “I’m just glad you didn’t come through the front.”

“I figured you’d have kept it locked, so I didn’t bother trying” the woman explains, following her husband into the nearby office as he carries the pad in hand, venturing toward the bulletin board propped above one of the desks. “Well it was locked, so that was a smart move” Andrew replies, tacking the sheet he tears from the notepad just beside a similar order, the addresses reading identical destinations, “did you just come by to say ‘hello’, or is there something you need?”

“I was just on my way to the grocery store. I wanted to make stuffed peppers for dinner, but the peppers we have in the fridge went bad” Elaine responds, standing in the doorway with her bag on one shoulder, “is there anything you need while I’m there?”

Shaking his head, Andrew looks into the distance deep within thought, looking for something worth mentioning only to come up empty handed. “As long as you’re making dinner tonight, I’ll eat whatever you put on the table” he replies, watching a smile come over the woman’s face as she nods, taking a glance around the cosy quarters the man uses as an office before following up.

“Is there anything you need me to do while I’m here?” Elaine inquires, the glance that she takes around the confines being met with the same absence as her husband finds responsibilities to come by. “I think I’m all set here. I’m just taking calls from other nurseries and waiting on a delivery guy to drop by in about an hour. I think I might close up shop early today and let the other orders go to voicemail” Andrew concludes, setting forth a plan that his wife finds little fault in.

“I guess that means you’ll be free to help make dinner tonight?” Elaine inquires with a grin, turning around to exit the office. “I’m always free to help make dinner... that’s why I always help make dinner” Andrew jokes, following the woman into the front of the store as she steps beyond the front counter, laughing at the joke before taking a glance around the shop.

“It’s crazy to think you’ve already had your last flower season here” the woman remarks, finding the store to be littered with the plants that the man continues to provide for, keeping healthy and sprouting throughout the winter beneath the warmth of overhead lights. Tucking his hands into his back pockets, Andrew slowly follows the woman further into their store, taking a look around the green-covered shop before letting his eyes fall on some nearby trees built into a small plot beside his store, their branches barren of anything other than air.

“Well, I certainly have, but I suppose that doesn’t necessarily mean that the shop has” he corrects, watching his wife spin around with a curious look in her eyes, not understanding what the man means in his claim. “Well, of course not. I doubt whoever you sell this place to will tear the building down. Especially after you renovated it with the terrace extension” Elaine replies, finding her husband’s face to hold a continued expression of contention.

“I was thinking about that, and... I’m not so sure that I want to just sell everything we have here and move south” Andrew confesses, shrugging his shoulders as he approaches his wife, “maybe we can sell the house. But I can probably find someone to run the store while we live down south.”

“I don’t understand, I thought you wanted to just cut bait and head south now that we could?” Elaine inquires, feeling like she’s misunderstood her husband somewhere along the line. “I did. I have nothing keeping me here and there’s nothing stopping us from taking Galen and moving south while Liv goes off to college” Andrew responds, continuing to let the tops of his hands reside within the slots of his pants, “but there’s just this feeling that I have that cutting all the ties we have here is just...”

“...Wrong?” Elaine inquires, finishing the man’s thought to the reaction of a warm smile, his head nodding silently to assure her accuracy. “I’ve started to feel the same way” the woman confesses, looking to the ground out of a misplaced sense of shame, her stomach wanting to growl in response to the discomfort that takes shape within it, “it just feels like we’re abandoning something that has been good to us for the most part.”

Tilting his head to the side, Andrew curls his lip as he looks away, finding some doubt in the woman’s stance before she doubles down on it. “I know you don’t like thinking about everything that happened with Sophie, but you were a good father to her” Elaine remarks, defying the man’s well-known desire of addressing the woman in question in favour of lending credence to her point, “and despite everything that happened, she was a good kid until everything went south.”

“Honey, I really don’t-” Andrew softly responds, trying to dissuade the woman from continuing to speak about his oldest, disowned child, only to find failure in his attempt as she carries on. “Honey, I watched the interview they did with her on Sunday. I’m sorry, I know you like pretending that she never existed, but I couldn’t help it” Elaine confesses, surprising her husband in a way that leaves him speechless and seemingly motionless.

“You should’ve heard her. That was the girl that I knew before everything went wrong. That’s the girl you raised” she continues, looking the man in the eyes as he remains silent, refusing to interrupt her the longer that she talks. “I don’t know why she went into a spell where she was someone else entirely, but that girl in the interview was your daughter” Elaine speaks to the point of a whisper, unable to put any further strength in her voice as she utters it near the verge of tears.

Becoming more reflective, Andrew’s own eyes begin falling to the floor as his face takes on the visage of sorrow, his wife’s pain in just seeing the pair as fractured as they are bringing him to the point of crying. “I don’t mean to upset you, but-” Elaine comments, trying to offer her husband reassurance that she fails to offer in full, the man’s interruption prompting her into a moment of silence.

“I’ve watched it over and over” Andrew whispers, watching one of his tears squeeze out and fall to the ground, his wife’s eyes widening with surprise as the moment becomes too difficult for her not to find emotion over. Hanging his head, the man shakes it from one side to the other before trying to wipe away the tear, looking back up through whatever ounce of courage he can as the agony of the past many years brings itself to the surface.

“That’s my little girl” he whimpers, taking one step forward before letting his head fall into the woman’s neck as she wraps her arms around him, pulling his larger frame into an embrace that he matches with ease. Holding her tight, Andrew breaks down within her arms as his wife soothes him, Elaine’s lips pecking him on the side of the face as he openly weeps.

|

“You have your licence on you, right?” Andrew inquires through the phone, speaking to his daughter as she ventures through the school’s hallway. “Yeah, it’s in my bag. Why?” Liv responds, putting the combination into her locker as she sets a stack of books down. “Because your mother and I are making a quick trip and we need you to pick up your brother from school when it’s out” the girl’s father replies, catching her by surprise at the suddenness of this apparent journey, “what you do after that is up to you.”

“I mean, if it’s really important- sure. I’ll have Derby drive me home and-” Liv begins to reply, only to hear her father’s muffled voice interject itself from the other end of the line. “What are you having me do?” Derby inquires, leaning into her friend at the mention of her name, only to find herself woefully unsure of what the rest of the comment was.

“No, Liv. I left the car in the parking lot in that one place that I parked to pick you up that one day last year” Andrew replies as his daughter waves Derby off, gesturing for her not to interrupt the call, “my debit card is in the glove compartment with a note that has my passcode on it. Pick up your brother from school and order pizza or something. Do whatever you want.”

“Can I take him to Las Vegas?” Liv jokes, crouching toward the ground to retrieve a separate stack of books from the bottom of her locker. “Of course not, but whatever you can do in the state- go ahead. I don’t care how much it costs, I just need you in charge of running the house tonight, alright?”

“Works for me” the girl he entrusts this responsibility to replies, reciprocating their departing greeting before hanging up the phone. “What was that about?” Derby wonders aloud, holding a textbook and a spiral binder against her chest as she leans against the locker beside her friend’s own, seeing a look of confusion fall upon the girl’s face.

“My dad left me the car and wants me to go pick up Galen from school after class” Liv responds, slamming her locker’s door shut to end the phone call in the same gesture, shrugging as she begins venturing toward her next class. “It sounds like the family will be out of the house tonight... Does that mean I should swing by?” Derby inquires, watching the smile sprout across her friend’s face as it turns toward her.

|

Flipping the page of her softcover book, Sophie spends the final hour of true daylight reading in her cell, passing a glance toward the hallway beyond her open door every time a beige jumpsuit or a light blue guard’s uniform traipses past. “Which book are you reading this time?” Darnell inquires, making a stop during his patrol to poke his head into the girl’s cell, her eyes drifting just above the novel to find the guard’s face, her eyes falling upon the cover of the book she hadn’t even bothered to check.

“‘God is not great, how religion poisons everything’ by Christopher Hitchens” Sophie replies, shrugging as she returns the pages to her direct line of sight, “I hadn’t bothered to check. I’ve just been going down the length of the shelf in the library.” Amused, Darnell nods toward the girl before stepping forward, preparing to continue on before hearing her voice call back out to him.

“Can I ask you a question?” Sophie inquires, watching the man’s back find its way to the corridor as he directs his full front toward the cell, offering the girl every ounce of his attention. “I just want you to be honest. Don’t sugarcoat it with me, alright?” she restates, watching his nod assure her of nothing less than just that, “I know good credit gets me closer to meeting my minimum requirement for parole, but what are the odds that I’ll actually get approved for it when I’m eligible?”

Puckering his lips, the man looks to the empty bunk beneath the young woman and considers the question as properly as he can, not wanting to offer her the wrong advice. “Well, you’ll have to go through the same process as everybody else. It’ll be just that... a process” Darnell replies, shaking his head as the pucker in his lips deepens, “people will argue whether or not you’ve serviced the prison enough to be a model inmate, but no one will argue that you’ve been any less than a good inmate.”

Hanging her head, Sophie appears disappointed in a way that the guard can’t quite make out a reason for. “Is something wrong, Ms. Amari?” Darnell questions aloud, a forgiving tone of voice offered to the girl that appears to reserve more reluctance to buy into what he’s saying than what she initially lets on.

“One of the people that I’m in here for killing was an officer” Sophie mumbles aloud, continuing to stare at the bottom of her book’s page out of shame that the guard takes quick notice of, “that will complicate things, won’t it?” Leaning his head to the side, Darnell takes the woman’s concern into consideration before shaking his head in refusal.

“Most of us were warned that you were amongst the people we should take extra precaution with when you were brought here” the man confesses, resting his dominant arm against the doorway to the cell. “Some of the guards here aren’t fond of you out of principle, but I’m not sure there’s anyone here who hates you. You’ve been amongst the best inmates we have, and you make our jobs easier” Darnell concludes, again shaking his head in refusal, “if we can look past that, so can the parole board.”

Somewhat reassured, the inmate’s eyes lower before her head begins nodding, coming to terms with the advice that she receives. “Why do you ask?” Darnell inquires, watching the woman’s sight set upon him at the raising of his question, her spirits seemingly remaining low despite his reassuring words.

Letting a puff of air leave through her nose, Sophie sends a folded piece of paper into the page that she wishes to leave off on and sets her book to the side, not wanting to think about reading as long as this conversation is being had. “I know that my sentence was forty years. I know that I did the crime and deserve to do the time, but I also like I’ve changed from the person that I was when I earned my place here” she confesses, a sentiment the guard can appreciate, “I just worry that I’ll be kept in here longer than I feel that I need to be.”

Frowning, Darnell watches the girl keep her lips parted as if she were intending to continue speaking, unable to hear the words that she purposefully refrains from saying at first. “I know that sounds selfish. All of what I’m saying sounds selfish” Sophie admits, a sentiment that the guard can’t necessarily disagree with despite his best hopes for the inmate, “but I’m just worried that no one will ever get the chance to see the work that I’ve done to try and be a better person than that.”

Pulling his head back, Darnell watches the girl’s hands press into her thin mattress after gently placing the book off to her side, attempting to drag her body further down the mattress so she can lay flat on her back. “I’m not usually supposed to tell inmates things about how the public sees them, so you better not say anything about this to anyone” the guard warns, laying out the line to be followed in order for his sharing of trust to be justified.

“They’re inquiring about another interview with you. They’re trying to work with the prison to set up something that works with everyone’s schedule” Darnell explains, surprising the girl who readjusts her posture so she can sit upright once more. “There’s been public support for you. It’s been mixed, but there’s a sizeable group of people who have praised the way that you’ve conducted yourself” the man furthers, “members of the staff here have also been asked questions about you by the media.”

“What does that mean? They’re not calling for me to be freed or anything, right?” Sophie questions aloud, seeing a shrug come off the shoulders of the guard. “There are a few people like that, but there are a few people in every category” Darnell responds, unable to offer much more of concrete value than what he already has, “I assure you, though... Some people see how much you’ve-”

Hearing his name called for through the radio, Darnell snaps the talkie off his hip and responds to the guard calling for him, doing so whilst Sophie watches on. “There’s someone here to see Ms. Amari. Can you bring her out of her cell and to the commons area when you get the chance?” the officer on the other end of the line inquires, prompting the man who answers him to look toward the girl with a shrug.

“Sure thing, I’m just around her cell. It shouldn’t take long” Darnell responds, waiting for a reply from the man on the other end of the line. “She’s a low-risk inmate, so you’ve got me clearance to pass her by a quick check so we can get this show on the road here” the man on the other end of the radio remarks, catching the inmate’s ear and bringing a smile to her face as the guard points to the mouthpiece.

“Understood, sir” Darnell responds, returning the talkie to his hip with a finger pointed toward it, presenting the girl with all the evidence that he needs to back up his point, “you see what I’m saying? People can see that you’ve changed.” Granted a renewed lease on her hope, Sophie climbs down from the top bunk and returns to the ground, letting the guard slap cuffs around her wrists and escort her through the process.

From one corridor and into the next with little effort and receiving no resistance or difficulty from the rest of the staff, Sophie follows Darnell through the halls and toward the commons area, emerging from beyond the security measures before finding her face to be filled with shock and awe, a loss for words that she can’t bring herself to break at first.

Standing out of her seat, Elaine conceals her smile as best as she can as she climbs up from the table, tears forming in her eyes as the woman she’d come to see stands in complete surprise. With her bottom lip quivering, Sophie remains unable to step forward whilst Darnell stands off to the side, freeing the girl’s hands from the cuffs and keeping to himself as he walks toward the corner, keeping himself from the interaction.

Following his wife’s suit, Andrew slowly rises from beyond the table with even greater emotion than what his wife presents, his hands trembling and breaths difficult to come by. “Sophie” the man whispers, muttering just enough strength to gather his breathing together as the girl across from him tries her best in a failing effort to hold her emotions back. “D...” Sophie whimpers, overwhelmed with the tears that streak down her face as she lets out a deep breath, “...dad.”

== Generation Alpha ==