"Lilly, don't go outside."
Lilly turned to look at her mother, Cattleya, who was sewing darts into the fabric she had cut. Her mother often had one job or another that took up much of her time and energy. Lilly had grown accustomed to Cattleya's lack of attention. Instead, she would spend hours with the other children from their building, playing in the front yard.
With Cattleya's attention lost to her work again, Lilly slowly tiptoed her way out of the open door and bolted down the stairwell. Her mother would later, very angrily, drag her back to their apartment.
"Lilly, you can't go out without telling me or Maria!"
Maria was Cattleya's distant cousin and often stayed with them to help look after Lilly and clean the apartment. At first, Maria allowed Lilly to play freely with the other children, but once Cattleya caught on, she put a stop to it. Lilly and Maria then passed the days and afternoons without Cattleya in idle entertainment on the new television.
When her new friends from school, who lived in the building across the street, invited her over to play, Lilly was ecstatic. But Maria couldn't let her go, and Cattleya outright refused.
"I am not sending you to a sleepover!"
Cattleya was furious. She went on a rant about not knowing the parents of Lilly's friends and whether they were good parents who looked out for their children. She said the world was inhospitable to children without guardians.
Lilly was used to Cattleya's denials. Unable to throw a fit at her mother, she found an outlet for her emotions in the game systems Cattleya bought to keep her entertained.
But teenagers are just as curious about the world as toddlers, and sometimes, without alerting her mother, Lilly would sneak off with a group of friends.
"Lilly, you are not old enough to stay out after dark!"
Lilly and her friends decided to spend the last day of their last summer in high school at the mall for as long as they could. It was a fun, freeing experience—the night air and walking home with her friends. Needless to say, Cattleya was not satisfied, and Lilly spent the next two years grounded.
Lilly would later attend the local college and university, attaining her degrees in ICT. She had been recruited out of university and worked comfortably from home.
"Why don't you go out and have fun with your friends?"
Cattleya stood in the doorway of Lilly's room, her grey hairs more pronounced in a neat line running the right side of her head.
"I am having fun with my friends. That's Konrad from Poland, Joshua from Switzerland, Amara from Thailand, and Jasmine from Canada."
"I mean, go to a party with real people."
"They are real people. Besides, we're already in a party; look, I'm dancing."
"Will you ever leave your room?"
"Not in the foreseeable future."
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