Page 75 of In a Perfect World

Chapter 38

Kairo~

My palms were sweaty, and if I wanted to be completely honest with myself, I felt like I was about to throw up everywhere.One month later, and it was finally happening.

Finally.

When my father had told me that Triana had entered the drawing, hope had hit me like a two-by-four, almost dropping me to my knees.However, reality had quickly set in once I realized that she hadn’t mentioned it to me at all.If it hadn’t been for my father breaking all kinds of confidentiality agreements, I never would have known that she had submitted an application until the winners had been announced.

Lying to my brothers had also been another ordeal that I hoped never to go through again.When me and my father had told them that I had entered the lottery, they’d been floored.They never would have guessed that I’d ever want to live anywhere else, and once upon a time, they’d be right about that.Triana had changed everything, and I owed Winston for selling his support of me to my brothers.Besides my parents, he was the only person who knew why I was doing what I was doing, so when my brothers had started their grumblings about me losing my mind, Winston had stepped in to count off all the positive reasons of why I’d want to move to Blooming Heights.

Of course, once all the lies had been out of the way, Winston had taken me aside to tell me how much he was going to miss me, and he had even threatened to cross his way into Blooming Heights to kick my ass if I didn’t make sure to keep in touch.

Truth be told, now that the opportunity had become a reality, I never imagined how hard it’d be to tell my family goodbye.We’d always been close, and it was a different sense of mentality when you knew that you were no longer going to be able to drive down the street to go visit them.However, that just proved Triana’s claims of being trapped.No matter how large the region was, we were still trapped to exist in a limited world, and it really did suck if you wanted something more for yourself.

At any rate, with all the goodbyes said and all the promises made, I had just landed in Blooming Heights, and having known nothing else in my life, watching the kaleidoscope of people bustling around the airport freely was a bit of a shock.Sure, the internet and news were always showing what life was like outside the RNA, but to see it in person still felt incredibly strange.

Nevertheless, the awkward transition period wasn’t enough to make me regret the decision to come here.If it meant being with Triana, I could get through anything.Of course, not being from the same region, I had no idea when she’d gotten here or where she was, but that wasn’t going to stop me from doing whatever I needed to do in order to find her.

I also wasn’t alone.In addition to me ‘winning’ the lottery, Christopher Harmen had been chosen as the second winner, and he’d been chosen because he was seventy-three, and my father believed that it’d be a good-feel story to allow this man to return to a time when everyone had been given a choice about what to accept and what not to accept.Plus, when the new movement had been introduced, his children had chosen to live in Blooming Heights, and all the man had wanted to do was hug his grandchildren before he died.At least, that’s what he’d written in the essay portion of the application.

“My son said that he’d be waiting for me when I got here,” he said as we made our way down the hallway and out of our arrival gate.“I hope he brought the family.”

“If not, then that will give you guys time to catch up before being surrounded by all that family activity that can be exhausting if you’re not prepared,” I said, hoping that his son was here.The idea of this man being disappointed was a sad one.

“True,” he chuckled.“So true.”

When we finally made it to the baggage claim, I could tell that he was feeling nervous, and that help to distract me from my own nervousness.However, as we stood around the luggage carousel, a younger version of him walked right up to us, and I couldn’t help but smile when Christopher’s son wrapped his father up in a big hug, happy to finally be reunited after all these years.In this moment, I saw the lottery as something much more than I had originally viewed it as.

Turning my way, tears in the older man’s eyes, he said, “Good luck, Mr.Booker.I hope it’s everything that you hope it’ll be.”

“Good luck, Mr.Harmen,” I echoed.“I’m sure you’re going to be very happy here.”

“I already am,” he grinned before his son grabbed his father’s luggage, then went on their way.

Once they were gone, I went back to looking for my bags, and once I got both of them, I started making my way to the front of the airport to grab a taxi or send for a We-Ride.

Now, after the names had been drawn, we’d been given one month to get all our affairs in order before having to leave for Blooming Heights, which hadn’t been very long when you considered all that’d needed to be done.