The Prediction (The Jolvix Episodes #1)

by Faith Gardner

“Mindful breaths,” Nadine says. “Mindful breaths.” Really, the last thing I need in this world is to be more full of my own mind.

“Studies show that deception can weaken a marriage,” it says. “Although another theory could be that marriages that are already weak are more prone to deception. Causation isn’t clear to me.”

A chicken-or-the-egg scenario for relationships.

“I demand the world know you are a mendacious fuckface!”

I love this line. Anyone who says "mendacious" right next to "fuckface" while drunk and being dragged out of a party is a genius.

All at once it doesn’t seem funny at all. Just sad. People act unhinged and are then dragged away, put away, out of sight.

#MentalHealthInAmerica

Maxine’s advice has been solid so far. Granted, this is a much bigger question. So I shouldn’t trust a machine entirely. But it is worth weighing. It is worth thinking about—that, based solely on data and factual evidence, a machine easily made the call that I would be happier in New York.

It's scary to think that a machine can know you better than the people closest to you... better than even you know yourself. But it would make deciding what to eat for dinner soooo much easier.

“Oh snickers,

I'm so going to use this.

Electrofold is folding a load of towels.

I. NEED. THIS.

I can almost imagine an edge of surprise in her voice and wonder what that must be like: thrust into consciousness without any will of your own, alive at the whimsy of others.

A scary and sobering thought.

Grief is like lightning. It strikes with a shock of electricity powerful enough to shatter a life into pieces, powerful enough to stop a heart in its place. But that’s just its horrific moment of discovery. That strike is only the start of something. Once it passes, the thunder, the rain, the wind blows in—mean, wet, and howling.

What a poignant metaphor.

I glare at him with a hatred so blazing it could have only been ignited by love.

I've always thought this: That you can only truly and fully despise someone if you've loved them first. Maybe it's true, maybe not, but it's an interesting dichotomy.

Maxine’s soft light seems to flicker in time with my heartbeat on the ceiling, reminding me I am never truly alone. Reminding me there is hope if I keep looking for it. Reminding me that in the darkness of an unknown future, possibility still glimmers. Fate can be rerouted.

When life itself feels impossible, impossibilities start to resemble possibilities.

Nature is refreshing. I see so little of it these days sometimes I forget it exists—humbling, unpeopled land so much bigger than us and our problems. Where the sky is vast and the birds sing and lizards bask on warm stones in the sun.

There’s a difference between forgiveness and a willingness to keep loving someone despite the pain they’ve caused.

In those early days, love was easy. That’s what I miss—the effortlessness, the organic way it grew. It was something to fall into, something that just happened, oops! A lovely accident. But marriage is not that. It’s purposeful. It’s a mountain to climb, one that leaves me winded every day. There have been injuries and bad weather. And there’s nothing but darkness and mystery on the other side. But I’ve got to keep climbing.

It’s been less than half an hour since they arrived and I’m already socially drained under the microscope of their relentless concern.

Ah, social anxiety. Hello, my old friend.

The shadows and the darkness of this unfamiliar place with its shelves teeming with machine parts, gutted computers, and coiled, serpentine wires all radiate a sinister vibe.

#TechnologyIsEvil?

I am not the woman I once was. It was only when we got here that my spirit quieted and I remembered that I have started over before. That life is constant turnover, if you are truly living. Only when you die do you stop changing, do you find stillness.