I wish Mom had taken me. Heck, Dad woulda been a good substitute. But naw. They sent Templeton.

“Truly, Miss, your statement is profoundly unfair.”

“Then don’t read it.”

Next.

Maye glanced at the half inch piece of paper clutched between Templeton’s thumb and forefinger. She rolled her eyes and returned to her journal. She didn’t care who could see what she wrote. She had few secrets and her disgust for Templeton was evident.

These places stink. Farts. BO. Bad breath. Somebody shoulda gave the man nextta me a mint. Ewe!!!

“Miss, your behavior will not facilitate an expedient progression to the assignment”.

Maye wrote, without flinching or acknowledging what she heard. She wrote Templeton’s exact words. Then added:

This ain’t not assignment. He’ll no, it’s hell.

She could feel the weight of Templeton’s mind next to her, urging, almost pleading in silence for her to correct he’ll to hell. She did not.

The automated glass door way parted and a boy walked in trailed by his own version of Templeton, but this one chattered like it was the boy’s best friend from school who decided to join him in the greatest day of his life. They both surveyed the room, found the sign marked tickets, grabbed one and took a seat at the far end. The Templeton asking questions and the boy responding then asking his own. Excitement exuding from both of them as another Templeton glared at them, while its own 16th year attaché pondered over what looked like the riding guide. The boy and his Templeton laughed and Maye heard the boy call the Templeton, Mallick.

Maye had two points she widely and angrily shriveled into her notebook. They had already completed the guide. Today was riding day where you proved you knew rules to execute the ride. Why was that boy studying. And then she wrote:

It is profoundly stupid to name it.

Next.

She snapped her head to see a girl passing by the window of the observation deck. The name frustrated Maye the first time the Templeton told her that’s what the area was called. You only observed people walking pass on their way to the test and coming back after the test. When girl first walked past the observation window she bounced pass. That’s what Maye wrote:

Some happier the happy villain with springy curls just bounced to the test zone.

Now the girl was walking pass the observation deck on her way to the confirmation area. Every springy curl gone. Her face distorted. Her eyes wide. Her mouth too. Tears streaking her cheeks and her Templeton, astonishing Maye with a matching head of the girl’s curls, wrapping an arm around the girl’s shoulders as it walked with her.

Maye pulled her notebook close to her face knowing Templeton would see all she wrote.

Happy and bouncy girl with her Pammy by her side looks like she failed. If this is the only thing I can do without a Templteton with then why do I need it here for my test. Folly.

It was the closest Maye could get to profanity without a warning.

Some time ago their society became a mix of technological advances and eliminations. Powered transportation systems hurt the environment. They were destroyed. But people still needed to travel over great terrains to shop, work and go to schools. Bio engineers seized the idea of using animals. Ambulatory animals for short distances and aerial animals for longer ones. They genetically combined birds with lizards and built geo codes for service only to anyone riding the creature’s back. The transport could sustain the air quality up to 30000 feet above ground and was equipped with enclosed cages for one or more riders with controls to direct its movement.

By the time a resident reached their 16th year, they were allowed to travel without their Templeton if they desired, but they had to master riding the vehicle known only as dragons.

Maye wanted to master riding dragons because she needed a life where she could exist without her Templeton.

She scribbled furiously about the time it was taking. Then she wrote:

Freedom exists in being able to move without the mechanical babysitter by my side. I…can…do…this. I am ready.

“Miss, your readiness is largely an evidence of your skill in riding and not the demonstration of written communique to your journal”, said the Templton. It continued, “But regardless of the outcome I will provide eevdienciary elements of covescence.”

Maye wrote: What the heck does covescnce mean?

Then she drew a line through it before the Templeton could answer.

Next.

Another girl stood. Her shoulders high, her back straight. She wrote something into her journal and her Templton caressed her face and said, “Iman is with you.”

They walked toward the observation window: all around the room, 16 year olds scribbled in journals and a Templeton next to them responded verbally. Assuring words of success filled the room but they also gave a promise of not being without the named servant next to the teen.

Maye longed for an independence she knew existed. A day when she would not need a Templeton to express for her, to look into her mother’s eyes for her, to wrap arms around her father’s waist for her. And most importantly she did not want to be shunned. Such a day only came to those who had mastered dragon riding.

Next .

The paper in her Templeton’s hand flashed green.