Sadder than sad

"Britta, come here please, I need to check your band." Britta sat up from her desk, she walked down the hall to the main room of their dwelling. Her keeper was sitting at her chair, a tube was connecting her to the wall. Her keeper was doing her weekly emotions test. This makes sure you are feeling all the right things, and nothing out of the ordinary. There was a loud beep that emerged from the wall where the tube was in. "Aww, I'm finally done!" She detached the tube from her right arm and placed it on a side table. "Now the fun part! Let's see what emotions I've had in the past week!" Britta's keeper sat up, a smile on her face. Britta knew her keeper would most likely get happy and maybe tried.

"Come here Britta, let's look." A screen appeared in front of them. A man's face was shown on it. One of the doctors at the HeL (human emotions lab) was there.

"Hello, keeper 13230! We have some good news, you almost have all happy emotions. There is just a bit of anger in there, but with a teenager, that's normal." The doctor on the screen announced. An even bigger smile grew on Britta's keeper.

"Thank you for your service," her keeper replied.

"Thank you for cooperating, and Britta, your test will be in about 10 minutes ok?"

Britta nodded since that was all she was allowed to do. She forced a smile on her face and waved goodbye to the doctor.

"Sometimes I wish teens could talk, but it is for the best. I mean who wants talkative teens waking you up in the middle of the night. Talking to others her age?" Her keeper nodded totally agreeing with whatever the doctor said. Britta did not get it. She wished every day that she could talk and be able to really communicate with her keeper. She missed putting words together the create sentences and phrases. She missed being able to laugh with others her age, instead of being alone in the room. Sometimes in her bed, she would mouth words she remembered how to pronounce so she would not forget them.

The doctor gave her a smile. "Things will get better, next year you will be able to talk again and get a job." Britta nodded again before the screen disappeared.

"Let me see what you're feeling right now." Her keeper said reaching for the wrist. Britta stepped back and put her arms behind her back. "Britta, someday you will realize how silly this is. Just show me how you are feeling so I know how to help you!" She grabbed Britta's arm and took her hand. "Your feeling sad?" She asked looking at the word on Britta's band. She nodded and dropped the fake smile. "Well, how about you do your schoolwork when I was a kid that always helped me." Britta nodded because that was all she could do. She walked back to her room and sat at her desk.

The schoolwork did not help her mood, and she began to feel something different in her. It was not sad, it was worse. She stopped doing her history about how the world was like before the revolution. She laid on her bed. Not able to do anything else. Britta had felt many emotions in her years alive. But she only cried once.

She was 5, her keeper had taken away her stuffed bunny. It had been her only friend, she had brought it wherever they went. Britta had slept with it and even went to the bathroom with it. With Lily, her bunny. But her keeper insisted she was too old for the stupid bunny. She took it and threw it into the giveaway box. Britta had never been so sad in her life. She cried real tears and stayed in her room all day.

Britta was crying for the second time in her life, she had forgotten what it felt like. Crying was one of the most uncommon emotions for anyone to have. But Britta could not hold in her emotion. All of the hate for the algorithm, for the country, even for her keeper came running out of her 2 eyes. She buried her face in the plain white covers of her bed. She stayed like that, thinking of all the bad things. Until she fell asleep.

"Britta! You are sleeping! This is not your nap time it's time for your test!" Her keeper grabbed her and sat her up. Britta felt exhausted, she felt mad, and that new emotion she had felt when crying. An overwhelming sadness.

She sat in the chair, her keeper attached the tube to the right arm. "Ok, Britta just breathe and try not to have your mind race. Maybe play one of those songs you listen to in your room ok?" She nodded and played one of the boring bad songs her keeper had given her in her head. There was a prick from her right arm as the emotion detector began to detect. The small needle went into her arm and found the central nerve of the right arm. Using advanced technology it detects the atoms inside the nerve and the protons and neutrons inside that. The rest Britta had forgotten about when they had learned it in science.

After 20 minutes of sitting in the same position the loud beep that means it is done beeped. "Good job Britta now let's see what you've been feeling." She detached the tube from Britta's arm and she stood up.

As before the screen appeared in front of them. The same doctor appeared on it. His face looked worried and confused.

"Britta, I don't know how this happened but the detector says you are depressed." A frown came on her keeper's face along with her face. What does that word mean?

"What does depressed mean exactly?" Her keeper asked slowly.

"In the old days before the emotion detectors were around kids and teens sometimes got depressed. It means you are really sad and somethings lose interest in the things around you. It also makes your emotions go a little cazy. Before the test, it was becoming more and more popular." She froze, Britta had a disease? That word was basically no-existent no one had diseases anymore.

"My teen has a disease? How can you fix this doctor?" Britta's keeper asked.

"We can try to fix her, but you usually just have to wait until it's over with. We can give her some medicine to help with the pain."

"The pain, she will be in pain and you can't stop it?"

"It is not physical pain, it's emotional."

Britta's keeper was silent, just as Britta had been for the past 5 years.