Chapter 35
Triana~
Three months later, and I couldn’t believe that we were actually doing this. Tomasco, Sonia, and I had been applying for jobs in Hillrom, and Tomasco and Sonia had actually gotten hired rather quickly.
With all of Sonia’s customer service experience, she’d been able to find something right away, and since she had owned her home outright, it turned out that Hillrom had a significantly lower cost of living than what we’d been suffering here, so not only had she found a job and had sold her house with no hassle, she had also managed to find a nice three-bedroom house to buy in Hillrom, which had left her with a good amount tucked away from the sale of her house here.
As for Tomasco, his MBA had made him a prime candidate for hire, and once he had updated his employment profiles, the offers had come pouring in, and as they should have.
My brother was smart, driven, and had the work experience that employers would kill for.
Fortunately, he’d had enough offers that it’d taken him over a month to choose the right fit for him, and once he had accepted an offer from Arbor Incorporated, the next day, his house had been put on the market and had just sold last week.
Now, while my brother refused to speak about our parents, I didn’t need any details to know that my parents had to be crushed over Tomasco’s decision to leave.
Not only did they no longer have any administrative help at all, but my father losing his son was significantly more traumatic than him losing his daughter.
Tomasco had been his life’s legacy, the man in the family who was supposed to have kept our family’s traditions alive.
However, now that my brother had broken away from that path, I knew that my parents were hurt, angry, and blaming me for it all.
Luckily, Sonia’s family hadn’t given her much shit, but she’d been raised to have her own mind and live her life freely.
Plus, her parents knew her well enough to know that holding her down wouldn’t do anyone any favors.
Sonia didn’t live for anyone else but herself, and I had always admired that about her.
She didn’t let people guilt her into becoming their victim, and that was something that I vowed to work on in the future.
The only hiccup had come from Veronica, a hiccup that none of us had ever seen coming.
When Tomasco had announced that he was looking to move to Hillrom with me and Sonia, the woman had flipped her lid, and all that casual-taking-it-slow-we’re-all-good vibe had been a lie.
Veronica had been hoping to wrangle a marriage proposal out of Tomasco, divulging a five-year plan that my brother hadn’t had any idea about.
So, yeah...their breakup hadn’t been a cordial one, and Tomasco had sworn off dating for the next few months.
As for me, I still hadn’t found a job, but not for lack of trying.
I’d lost count of how many jobs that I had applied for, and the auto-rejections were weighing on me.
Even with my degree and experience, there just weren’t that many clerical jobs available, and though I was trying my hardest not to get discouraged, at this point, I was about to begin applying for any job that was hiring.
Luckily, my brother and Sonia were more than willing to carry me until I found something, so the second that Tomasco had sold his house, I had put mine on the market as well.
So, right now, I wasn’t exactly packing as I was throwing away all the junk that I didn’t need and boxing up all the stuff that I wanted to donate. Even if we hadn’t been moving clear across the region, everyone could benefit from a little spring cleaning.
Just then, my phone chimed with an incoming text, and when I pulled it out of my pocket, I saw that it was Sonia.
Sonia: Turn on RHBS
Now, while there were a million cable channels and streaming services available for our television entertainment, every region had its own news channel, and all it aired was news or community pieces that pertained specifically to its respective region.
RHBS stood for Rancher Hills Broadcasting Station, and it was a free channel for all its citizens.
Worried that Sonia’s order had something to do with me, I quickly raced over to the couch, grabbed the remote control, then turned on the television to the RHBS channel.
Once the channel came on, there was a very pretty news anchor on the screen, and behind her, there was an image of the Rancher Hills regional flag with the word ‘Lottery’ stamped across it.
With my heart beating a bit too rapidly in my chest, I turned up the volume to hear what the anchor had to say.
The joint announcement was made this morning, and it’s been reported that the applications will be made available by the end of the month.
This is certainly big news, and while there are many stipulations upon which you can apply for the citizenship lottery, I suspect that there will still be a lot of applicants with this amazing and unprecedented news.
Again, here is the joint announcement from our leaders about the new citizenship lottery, and we will do our best to keep you updated as we receive more details from Benicio Cortez’s office.
Just then, the news station cut to a clip showing Benicio Cortez sitting at a u-shaped table with all the other region administrators; Phillip Williams from Ivory Meadows, Alfred Voltaire from Rich Gardens, Kodah Muna from Spirit Lands, Alvin Booker from Sterling Acres, Akio Tanaka from Flower Realms, Zach Richman from Morning Peaks, and Caleb Majors from Blooming Heights.
However, it was Caleb Majors that spoke while the others just looked on.
It has always been the job of an Administrator to look out for its citizens first, and that includes a continuous evaluation of what works and what doesn’t work in the name of progress.
Change is inevitable, but change can also be at its most beneficial when done correctly, and the Administrators of the RNA believe that we have done that over the years.
That being said, we’d like to announce a joint venture between the regions that we believe will help with the growth and success of the RNA as a whole.
We are introducing a citizenship lottery that will give viable candidates an opportunity to become residents of Blooming Heights, and with that opportunity, this will give both Blooming Heights and its new citizens an opportunity to learn from one another.
Now, while there are many details to consider with this new venture, the quick explanation is that every citizen within the RNA will be able to apply to enter the lottery upon their eighteenth birthday.
Out of the qualified entries, only two names from each region will be selected from a random drawing, giving Blooming Heights possibly twelve new citizens a year.
However, to kick off our new endeavor fairly, there will be a one-time-only lottery at the end of the month where any citizen of any region can apply to enter, regardless of their age.
We encourage everyone who is looking to expand their horizons beyond their own region to apply, and all applicants will be taken into consideration through a voting process made up of the current governing panel.
Speaking for all of us sitting here today, we’d like to thank you for your trust in us, and we will continue to put our citizens first, ensuring that the RNA will continue to thrive in a positive step forward.
With that goal in mind, we have also named this annual opportunity The Morrison Lottery, and we hope that Tucker and Charolette Morrison will, one day, accept our apologies.
Thank you.
I hit the mute button, hardly believing what I’d just heard.
Two lucky people were going to be able to go live in Blooming Heights, freely, legally, and happily, and wasn’t that a motherfucker.
If I had just waited three months, then I could have applied for the first lottery, taking my chances the legal way.
God, I was such an idiot.
Of course, none of that would have helped me with my parents, but still. If I had just waited, then I never would have known what it felt like to sit in a Mexican jail cell, and Benicio Cortez wouldn’t have my phone number, something that I still wasn’t comfortable with.
Granted, Tomasco, Sonia, and I also wouldn’t be carving out new lives for ourselves in Hillrom, which I could admit that I was anxiously excited about.
Yeah, it felt a bit scary to be doing what we were doing, but since we weren’t doing it alone, that helped a lot.
I was going to be with the two people who loved me the most, and that helped to not dread the unknown so much.
Just then, my phone chimed again, but this time, it wasn’t Sonia or Tomasco.
Unknown Number: Meet me @ the tree @ 8pm. It’s important.
My stomach immediately tightened, wondering why Kairo was insisting on seeing me. With his father involved, it could be anything, and that wasn’t a comforting feeling. I didn’t like feeling like I was at the mercy of anyone, but I was.
Right now, I was, and it sucked.
It sucked so badly.