"The Leval-Shelay Devices", Part 1

(OK, let's get this thing started off with a bang. In English class last year, we had an assignment where we wrote a sci-fi story. Naturally, I procrastinated until the weekend before it was due, but here it is. Though it's a short story, it's too long for one post, so I'll break it up into sections.)


It was the dog days of early August in Turner Hills, and Devin Rayburn had just Zapped home from the pool. He was still dripping wet because he hadn’t had a chance to dry off and change out of his hydrodynamic SwimSkin. He would have preferred to stay at the pool with some of his few friends longer, but unfortunately, it was his week to sort the mail.

Devin was the younger of Julien and Thelma Rayburn’s two children. To afford to live in the affluent, picturesque village of Turner Hills, Devin’s parents had to work long hours. They cared deeply for their children’s well-being, but weren’t able to be home enough to prove it. To their children, they came off as unloving and paranoid. They only had time to worry about whether their kids stayed out of trouble and did their chores.

Devin could have stayed at the pool if not for his parents’ insistence that the mail be sorted as soon as it arrives, which is always at 3 pm. When Devin saw the time, he had to run to one of the Zap public transport stations and teleport home. If Devin’s family hadn’t been so torn apart, his sister, who was already at home, could have sorted the mail. However, she was never willing to help Devin, and he was never willing to help her.

Her name was Julienne. Named for her father Julien, she always tried to make Devin feel bad. She’d tell him that she got most of their parents’ limited attention and that he was an unwanted burden who was to blame for their family’s struggles. It goes without saying that Devin tried to avoid her at all costs. So between his parents’ paranoid requirement that the mail get looked at as soon as it beams in so really urgent items could be found and his sister’s hatred of him, he had to hurry home to get the mail.

As he ran in the door, Devin heard the clock strike three and the buzz of the mail beaming in. He saw the mail appear on the kitchen table as always, but something was different. There were four small white boxes among the mail on the table. Each had a label reading “Leval-Shelay Enterprises” and was addressed to a different member of the Rayburn household. After Devin sorted the mail, careful not to get it wet, and changed into regular clothes, he opened the box addressed to “Mr. Devin Rayburn.” In it was a small metallic device with a screen. On the back were the words “Leval-Shelay Enterprises” and a fancy LS logo. Devin pressed the on button and a message appeared on the screen that read, “Free to the people of Turner Hills.” He pressed the icon that read “proceed” (because most devices had touchscreens now) and the next screen read “Anything is possible.”

(part 2 tomorrow)