After spending a couple of hours in the electronics store, we continued our walk and eventually ended up at a Chinese restaurant that, according to Alvin, had the best crab puffs and pork-fried rice around. It had a small outdoor-dining area and we passed another hour and a half eating lunch and talking. They brought me up to speed on recent history, some of which was worth celebrating and some which … wasn’t.

The moon landing, the Voyager and Venera probes, other missions to Mars and Jupiter and Saturn, shuttle launches, the International Space Station -– triumphs of exploration that brought tears to my eyes …

The Korean War, the Vietnam War, airplane hijackings, years of fighting in the Middle East, the Iran-Contra scandal, the attack on the World Trade Center, the invasion of Iraq, on and on and on. Dear God …

“There’s been more bad than good,” I finally muttered as we stopped in a park to watch the sunset.

“Well,” Ogre said, “history has always been kind of cyclic. Good and bad seem to come in waves. We take steps forward, then we regress, but then we recover and progress a little more.” She slipped her hand into Alvin’s and their fingers intertwined. “We can be together and hardly anyone even makes a big deal about it. There’s been a resurgence in racism over the past few years, but at least being together is a lot less likely to get us killed these days. We couldn’t have even given each other a second glance before you went into the freezer.”

“Yes.” I managed to pull myself together and nod. “You’re right. Some things are definitely better than they were.” And many were worse.

“In a lot of ways, the world is more violent than it used to be. Or maybe we’re just more aware of it thanks to the internet. Instant communication all over the world, almost everyone carrying cameras in their pockets, and all that.” Alvin shrugged. “I guess you have to take the bad with the good.”

“Not gonna lie,” Ogre muttered, “things like the gap between the poor and the rich has only gotten wider over the years. Seems like the only thing our society gives a shit about is money. The less money you have, the less you matter. I know a guy who struggled his whole life just to make ends meet, then he lost his job and couldn’t land another one and ended up homeless for almost a year. Every organization he went to for help refused to even talk to him and he didn’t find one willing to help until after he’d lost everything.”

“You’re kidding.” I stared at her, forgetting all about the sunset and suddenly realizing the house I had before going into cryo was long gone. If a trust fund and assistance with buying a new house hadn’t been included in the contract, I might’ve found myself in that very same position.

“I wish. If you’re poor, so many people who have more think it’s your fault for being poor, like you just always squander your money. And if you lose your home, they jump to the conclusion that you’re a drug addict or mentally unstable and try to sweep you under the rug instead of offering to help.”

“It’s kind of a raw nerve for Ogre,” Alvin said. “She grew up dirt-poor. Probably still be in that situation if she hadn’t landed a job at the Institute. I was a little better off, but the prospects weren’t exactly stellar.”

So … that was the kind of world I’d awakened in. And to think I had enough money and help from the Institute to provide a safety net while so many others were barely getting by. And many others weren’t even that lucky.

While the other two watched the sun set, I pondered the situation and tried to think of ways to help. I’d need to learn a lot more about how the world worked before I could come up with anything solid, but if there was anything I could do about it, I felt like I should.

“What kind of country lets that happen to its own citizens?”

They turned back to me and shrugged.

“This one.” Ogre shook her head and let out a long sigh. “The people who are in the best position to do something about it won’t. They don’t want to give up their wealth. In fact, they have more money than they could ever spend and it’s never enough. They always want more and they take it from the rest of us, then they have the nerve to tell us to ‘just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.’”

“And there aren’t any bootstraps. At all. But that’s another way they make it out to be our fault, like we’re just not willing to put in the effort.”

“I could rant all night about this.” Ogre sighed again and took a quick look around. “Probably should head back to the Institute before we run into any muggers.”

“You’d just kick their asses.” Alvin laughed softly.

“Sure, but it’d be more trouble than it’s worth. Last thing I need is to give the cops even more excuses to shoot me in the fucking back than my skin color already gives them.”

“What?” I turned to gape at her and she shrugged.

“That’s a whole other rant.” She started walking and we caught up with her. “Maybe we can grab some burgers on the way back. Then we can show you how to use the computer in your room and show you a sample of the TV shows we were talking about while having dinner if you want. See if we can balance the negative with some positive. Then maybe tomorrow you can do some more exploring, learn where everything is so you can navigate it yourself when you’re ready.”

“I’d enjoy that.” I doubted I could get my mind completely off the troubling things I’d just learned, but there wasn’t much use in dwelling on it while I wasn’t in a position to do anything about it. I couldn’t help thinking that volunteering for this may have been a mistake, though.

I tried to shrug it off. There was no way to go back where I’d come from, so I had to just face whatever came next and learn to live with it. As someone at the Institute had said a few days ago …

Keep moving forward.