Plans Of Utopia

Maria increased the volume of the TV to drown out her mother's chatter with her elder sisters, Rosa and Emilia. The three women huddled together on the sofa, filing and polishing their nails.

"Hey! What's wrong with you? Turn down that noise!" Mrs Anise frowned at Maria, her youngest but practical and very-different-in-a-weird-way daughter.

Maria rolled her eyes and exhaled. "Mother, I need to listen to the news and your voices are louder than the reporter's."

"Oh, she's looooves to act all serious like daddy," Emilia chipped in before either of them could go on. "TV news is boring and full of unhappy, terrible tales of stuff happening around the world!" She raised her hand towards her mouth and blew air on her freshly painted nails. Maria turned and smirked at her.

"News is important and not boring. I'm very sure you don't even know that we are on the brink of a third world war, eh?"

"Whaaat?" Rosa gasped, glanced at her Mrs Anise and back at Maria in shock. Being the oldest, the family was making plans for her wedding to her high school sweetheart in the following year. Anything that would disrupt her plans of utopia would upset her gravely and Mrs Anise would not allow it.

Rosa and Emilia were her favourites and she occasionally wondered how Maria came to be. Even her father, a very practical man, was not this pessimistic.

"Hush, Maria! Are you the doomsday messenger now?" Mrs Anise reprimanded her.

"No, wait. Is that true?" Rosa asked again. Maria rolled her eyes and turned down the TV volume a little. It was time to bring them all out of their delusions, she thought.

"No, mother. I'm just stating facts. It's all over the news, Rosa. Everyone knows Russia and Ukraine are at each other's throat and in no time other countries will join in. That's how a world war starts…"

"But my wedding! Mother?" Rosa glanced at her mother with teary eyes. Mrs Anise closed her eyes and rubbed her temple with finely manicured fingers.

"But how can they? We are still dealing with covid." Emilia said thoughtfully.

"Well, as long as all the soldiers are fully vaxed and use home testing labs to frequently check their covid status, that should not interrupt the war."

Mrs Anise gritted her teeth. "Shut up and stop talking about a war. I would have none of this nonsense. Off to your room…"

"But mother, the news just started…"

"Now, Maria! Don't test my patience!"

Maria insolently dropped the remote on the floor and stomped off in anger to her room, leaving the ladies to their nail varnishing.

^{(Slightly inspired by Mrs Bennett's world in Pride and Prejudice.)}

I hope you enjoyed reading my piece. This freewrite is inspired by the prompt "home testing lab". Join the @freewriters community to receive daily prompts, hosted by @mariannewest. You are invited to participate.

^{Photo by Elemental5 Digital from Pexels, edited with canva}

^{Previously posted on my blog}