A Place Called Normal
an excerpt

She looked up sharply when Geoff slowed the car and made a turn at a large wooden sign proudly boasting, “Savannah Plains!”
“Wait a minute,” Davy said as all three siblings sat up uneasily. “Dad, this is a suburb.”
They passed one house—or was it two? Abby couldn’t tell; they all looked the same. She stared around, watching one uniform, humdrum house after the next pass.
“Yes, Davy,” Geoff said, keeping the car at the speed limit, “I’m aware of that.”
“We’re not... we’re not living in a suburb, are we?” Ella craned anxiously to get a better look at the square lawns. Geoff slowed the car to pass a group of kids on skateboards.
“We are,” Geoff confirmed. Neither he nor Patty was able to hide any amusement when all three of their children burst out with exclamations of dismay. “What’s so wrong with a suburb, kids?”
“It’s a suburb, Dad,” Davy groaned, dramatically throwing himself back against the seat. “Robots live in suburbs.”
“I thought robots lived in spaceships,” Geoff pointed out logically.
Davy merely put a hand over his eyes and sagged back, as though completely exhausted by the prospect of spending the rest of his teenage years explaining the obvious to his parents. “That’s what the government wants you to believe, Dad, so that you’ll move to suburbs and be assimilated just like the rest of the robot society.”
When Geoff pulled the SUV into one of the driveways, none of his children moved. “We’re here,” Geoff announced. “Home sweet home.”
“Home is not a suburb, Dad,” Ella told him. “Home is in Dallas.”
“Well, this is just one of those times you’ll have to be grateful that you’re young and therefore flexible, and able to adapt more easily.” Geoffrey Holloway turned his winning smile on his kids, leaning around in the seat to get a look at all three of them. As he had expected, they stared at him, still horrorstruck at the thought of living in a suburb. “You’ll get used to Normal, kids. I promise you.”
“It’s a suburb,” Abby stressed, speaking slowly just so that she could make sure her parents understood. “Some would call that the literal definition of hell.”