Redlands- Intro Number 1

Epilogue
The only type of cups we had were porcelain. Most residents in our sect preferred plastic to these, but I never was invited over to their homes to see exactly what type of cups they used. Nonetheless my mom would come home from her job and immediately pour some water into one of the cups and quietly drink it on the old red armchair defining the sitting room. Studying my times tables alongside her, I’d peer over to see what she was reading. She typically was rereading one of her old romance books, opening the cracked spine just one more time so she could escape it all. Not that my dad was a lug, but he just wasn’t romantic in the slightest. Most nights as a third-year student were defined by these moments, albeit sometimes I’d study other things or she would open an occasional newspaper. But one night I do remember fairly well, despite the rest all blurring together.
My mother was sitting there on the armchair, silently looking over my shoulder to see how fast I was going over my book (the title I haven’t the faintest idea). Her shoes, as always, were haphazardly thrown on the sitting room’s ornate carpet near the coffee table I was perched on, to her left. Carefully she slid the book’s tassel down her current page and placed it on the armchair as she leaned forward.
“Makyra, what teacher is making you read that?”
I remember looking up at her and folding my page over but not what I said as a response. I bet it was along the lines of ‘The English teacher’ or ‘The classroom 1 teacher’ because I’ve never been quite good at names.
My mother slid down beside me on her forelegs to get comfortable, pushing her shoes over with her hand.
“You don’t have to stop. Why haven’t you been reading out loud?”
I was twiddling my thumbs, resting my arms on my legs as I looked up at my mom.
“I didn’t want to disturb you. I know you take a break after work.”
She looked at me tenderly and laid her soft hand on my shoulder.
“How about you read to me? I don’t need the break today.”
I nodded enthusiastically, turning back to the book and starting from the first line, despite being halfway done with the page. Wouldn’t want my mom to be lost, I’m sure. The image of a hunter nocking his arrow is faint in my memory, although the words evade me. But I do remember my mom above me, smiling and nodding her head as I smoothly read the words that described his courage to hunt for his family.
“Does this remind you of papa?”
I chuckled. She said that about the leading males in her romance novels, too. She always said he was so brave for picking his career. She called him her knight, as his naturally stocky build paired with his chiseled face, blonde hair, and blue eyes did stand out in contrast to the black hair and softer features that most other residents, including me and my mother, had. In fact, all but one of her books were medieval in nature. She would always say, ‘We really have advanced with modern medicine. Just imagine, Makyra, if we only relied on herbal treatments. I’m sure some of them are helpful but imagine if we didn’t have painkillers for headaches!’.
I continued reading for a little while until my mom stood up and moved to go over to the kitchen. As I dog-eared my page she jerked her head to look at me.
“No, no,” she said as bent over close to me, “Use a bookmark. You should treat your belongings well so that they’ll last longer.” She shuffled over the polished wood floors with soft patters, going up the stairs to her bedroom in small hops. In a similar fashion, she came back down a few seconds later with a thin business card. Silently it was handed to me and I slid it into the crack of the chapter book (which, if you didn’t know, was bigger than most of the books other kids my age was reading). She skipped back over to the kitchen and opened up some cabinets.
“Ok, mommy. I’ll make sure to do that from now on.”
***
For my mom’s birthday, my father saved up to buy my mom some new work shoes. He was never a very emotional man from what I’d seen of him; no matter how romantic my mom claimed he was when they met I never truly saw any of that as a child. But I could tell he was anxious to see the look on her face when she opened a carefully wrapped present for her birthday. He always had a decent memory from what I remember, yet his excitement led him to tell me on three separate occasions that he’d gotten her shoes from the store that his sister used to work at. ‘I’ve been saving for so long that I didn’t even miss the family discount,’ he’d said standing at my bedroom door.
I never quite knew what to say; naturally I didn’t have a job as a fifth grader and he’d been so excited about the shoes that he just bought them without even thinking to tell me first. I had some extra scratch paper that I could use to make a card, but I kept hesitating. He never bought a gift without me giving some suggestions, so why did he go and buy that by himself?
I thought it over for a few minutes before going back to my homework quietly. Adults normally are too busy to think about things like that, I thought.
But the next evening, after my mom had gone to bed directly after dinner, my dad softly tapped on my door before entering.
“Mak? Have you made the card yet?”
I’d been sitting at my desk, staring absentmindedly at the blank card when he asked. I could only timidly look up at my father. “No.”
He looked over and it before dropping down onto my bed.
“Don’t worry, Makyra. Your mom loves your drawings every year, she brings them to work with her every year so the older ladies can see them. Don’t you think that she loves it no matter what it costs?”
I nodded my head, picking up a pair of scissors and cutting out a chain of people, keeping my head down so that my father couldn’t see my continuous scowl. He got up, wavering for a bit before rubbing my head (to my distaste) and going to the half closed door.
“I’m glad you made that comment a few days ago at dinner or I wouldn’t have gone over to the shoe store just in time for the sales! I’m sure mom will love these. Good hint.”
Looking back at this I must have been too stubborn to turn around and ask him about whatever he was talking about. He left and I just stood still, holding the half-cut paper with my scissors opened. After a few seconds I said, “Huh,” then looked around in my drawer for glitter glue.
***
My mom used to love breakfast in a weird way. I guess it was partially because she could spend a little time with me as she made it, but I’ve been told that even before then she was always like this. And the thing was that she didn’t just adore western breakfast, she would make other types of breakfast, too. Sometimes she’d make congee, fried eggs, or some type of flavored bread. And to this day I don’t understand how she did it, most videos she watched didn’t have explicit recipes in them or even gave out the ingredients needed to make them. I guess she just winged it, but even so it was the best cooking I’ve ever had (even passing my grandmothers’).
One day I walked out of my room and sat at the kitchen table, holding a newer chapter book with one hand as I peeked over at the kitchen. She hadn’t made a really big spread-with eggs, banana, sausages, fried bread, and coffee-in a little while, and she normally did so once every two weeks. So every day I’d be sitting there, halfway anticipating her to be pouring grease out of the big pan and setting down browned sausage next to warm, seasoned eggs. Although I’d never admit it, I would wait eagerly every week for the one time she’d have the motivation to make so much. And waiting for a full month seemed like an abnormally long amount of time, especially for her.
My dad walked down from the main bedroom, his thick vest, typical light gray pants, and hunting boots indicating that he was ready to leave for work. Yet instead of just waving bye to mom, he stopped suddenly and walked behind her, saying something to her quietly. I wanted to listen in but I was only so sneaky, so I carefully put my book on the floor and got out of my chair, sticking close to the wall in the excess space behind the dining room table. I crouched low to the ground and pushed my stomach out, lessening the chances of my stomach growlingly loudly and letting them aware of where I was.
He put his arms around her waist and whispered (at least it was his version of a whisper, which was still quite boisterous). “I’m sorry you’ve had to give up your breakfasts. I’ll stop by after work and get some more coffee if you want.”
My mom continued to flip the eggs in the big pan with her wood spoon, tilting her hair to the side to get a long strand of thick hair out of her eyes. My dad reached up and pulled it behind her ear, my mom quickly turning her head to him, a smile on her face but not in her eyes.
“I love coffee, Groshyn. But we both know that Mak doesn’t need the extra energy for school.”
I rolled my eyes. Every student in Grade Nine needs a little more energy, and the coursework has gotten so repetitive. My dad stepped away and leaned on the counter with his left arm. He started shifting around a little, looking down even though he had my mom’s full attention.
“Coffee has gone done in price recently, we should consider it for ourselves and give Makyra some more eggs. Work has started to provide more food for us to encourage the graduating Secondary School kids to consider an Outside job. We should cut back on spending when we can get food for free there.”
My dad was moving toward the door bit by bit, obviously wanting to continue the conversation but knowing how important it was for him to be on time.
“I’ll spend less on nice hunting boots if it means you can make your breakfasts more often. It makes you both happy and keeps everyone productive.”
My mother shook her head, irritated, turning the oven’s knob off and knocking the scrambled egg off the spoon before putting it to the side.
Turning her full body at him, she put her hand on her hip and moved the pan off the burner with her other hand.
“Hurt feet don’t help anybody. And I don’t care how much cattle food they throw at you, I’m at least making something for you for breakfast. Okay?” Her tone had changed from serious to softened, and he stopped inching towards the door in response to it.
“You’re right…we’ll talk about this later, alright?” With that he opened the door and waited for her send-off wave. Then he turned and walked out, closing the door behind him quietly. My mom sighed and just stood in place, and I took that as my cue to make it seem that I was just now coming down from my bedroom. With my book in my hands, I slowly inched towards the steps right as she turned her back towards the cabinets.
“Makyra, get up! You have to give some of this bread to Eteri’s family!”
I silently hopped over a step then pounded on the last one, making my mom turn around quickly.
“Gods, Mak, you move so quietly sometimes. Either way,” she had a large plate out filled with the fried bread, which had more than two day’s worth of bread for all of us…as a meal itself. As she lined a small basket with a thin towel, she began placing some of the bread in it. “Take this to Eteri’s mom or whoever’s there when you go. Her mom should be off today, but again we work in different offices.”
She places the basket down on the kitchen counter, getting out a mug and a spoon.
“I want you to get over there in one of the transport pods, okay? It’ll let you override the system if you have your hands full.”
She used the spoon to scoop some egg into the mug, sticking the top on and opening it up a little so she could shove the spoon through it. I took the mug from her outstretched hand and picked up the basket, balancing it on one finger as I held my book.
“We might go to Herdol’s house afterwards, is that okay?”
My mom nodded, patting my messy hair that I didn’t even care to bother with this morning. “As long as you two move in a group you’ll be fine. I think more people have been heading to work on Saturdas now…so the city security might be moved closer to where the doughtier citizens protest.”
I hummed in fake agreement, knowing well that the sheer number of new members in the city’s security department was getting ridiculously high, or at least a school friend had said that to me with confidence. And it made sense seeing as there was a gray suit standing near every other transport depot.
“I’ll make sure to stay out of trouble. Anything for the bread, right?” I said half jokingly, although I knew my mom would actually be highly displeased with me if I didn’t get it to the neighbor (to put it lightly).
My mom went over to the kitchen table with a small plate of egg and fried bread, nodding her head in agreement.
“I never see you frying things in the kitchen. I think once you start you’ll appreciate them more when I make them.”
I put the mug down on the stand next to the main door, opening the door easily.
“I appreciate them every time it gives me an excuse to run to Eteri’s house!”
With that I placed the mug and book in my burlap bag and walked out, letting the door lock itself as heading left. My mom was a little more irritable lately, so I knew it was wise to just silently shut the door behind me without saying a goodbye.
Growing up there was a decent amount of technology implemented on my street. The government paid us a small sum to replace our old windows with solar ones and buses were replaced with railing that carries self-transport pods. Although our houses were relatively new (as the settlement’s housing was created less than 40 years ago-slightly before my grandparents moved here). Despite how new our houses are, the architecture is apparently rather old, the terrace house design supposedly taken from Euros, a far western civilization. The streets were pristine, though, having been leveled for trolleys before the installing the two-person and one-person pods.
My old trolley card would probably always stay in my mom’s diary because my old ID photo from a year ago shows me grimacing at the camera and made me appear a little cross-eyed. I took it out of my side bag prematurely, carrying it with one hand and the basket in the other. Alongside the tracks every block was a large black container and overhead rail, a touch-screen interface attached to the three sides not connected to the overhead rail system. Early in the morning the boxes would be surrounded by suited people in line to swipe their ID across the screen with their ID’s designated number-it was structured so that people going to the same workplace would ride together and only if they arrived on time. On weekends you could use an individual transport all you wanted, but naturally you were supposed to stick to your card’s 1, 2, or 3.
The sky was nice out today, the pale blue not hidden by any clouds like it’d been for the past week. It was one of those days where the air is brisk and the only warmth you feel is from the direct sunlight on your skin. I almost regretted not bringing a jacket, yet the basket I was holding to my chest was warm and helped drag me where I was headed.
“Halt, child,” a steely voice looms, making me turn around to see the source. Overhead I saw a man with a gray hat and black vest looking over my basket, maintaining a space a foot away from me. The lines under his eyes wrinkled as he squinted, outstretching his hand. “Your identification, miss.”
I blinked in response, peeking down at the card sweating inside of my right palm. Feeling his eyes on me, I pushed it towards him, making him cough down a surprised grunt. He took it and held it up to the sunlight, quickly turning it around and handing it back to me.
“I’m going to check your basket and bag for anything suspicious. If not I’ll let you continue on your way.” A second passed with no response from me. “Okay?” he asked, dryly. Then a quick nod.
I looked down at my brown felt shoes as I outstretched the basket to him, counting the stitches in the fabric circling around the center. I’d counted the stitches on them too many times to count; without even thinking about it I could have listed the amount of stitches on each of the shoes in my house. When I didn’t have anything else to do I counted, and when I had something to do I counted the seconds until it was over. If I had been counting the seconds until the statesman was done questioning me then the stress of the situation would have time to materialize and pour a bucket of sweat on me.
“Miss, you can be on your way now.” He gave my items back to me, after having placed the bread back in its place and messily putting the towel back. I nodded then pivoted away, but not until he could say, “If I were you I’d avoid stopping near the Roma district. Maintenance has been working on a malfunction in the transport pods and it could get backed up.”
I looked over my shoulder and softly said a thanks before heading straight to the transport pod on the nearest rounded corner. I pressed my ID against the round number 2 scanner for a half-second, then stepped a little back, holding the basket with both hands. After the large screen displaying my photo above my name-Makyra Elia Dardels, Age-13, and Date of Birth-3/26/850- appeared, the green dot above the card scanner lit up. I looked straight ahead into the ID scanner below, letting the facial recognition software to do its job. The screen showed a loading sign for a little bit, deciding which size of transport pod I should need considering I’m carrying something. Some robot-like beeping commenced and I looked up to see a single adult pod crawling out of the large box and along the hanging rail. After whooshing over to the side closest to me, I stood for another face recognition service and hopped in.
“Where to?” A cartoony voice asked from the speaker above, echoing a bit in the pod with each overexaggerated syllable. A map on the wall highlighted each of the three commercial districts, a few of which led underground and towards the seaside where some of my relatives lived. Living districts were grayed out for the most part, and I eyed my destination before voicing out “Movaris District.” I sat down on the pod’s elevated seat and placed the basket in my lap, the intercom responding with a gleeful, “Alright, get ready for your trip!” as the pod began to whir into action.
The pod slowly began to embark on its path as the voice died out, being replaced with TV ads geared toward people of my age group. There were knobs on the pod’s side to my left that would change it to age appropriate radios or could utilize the proto-windows to display a show or game. I’d always been the type of girl to just look out the window as the carriage flitted past the small fences and older kids walking to the rec center. Light poured into the pod and warmed me up as I scanned over the fences, hoping to catch one of my neighbor’s ferrets.
I didn’t.
After a few more minutes of the radio explaining my upcoming school week to me, I was already getting bored of seeing rows of similar flats piled against each other. People were out today but it seemed extremely slow for a weekend, especially considering how there seemed to be twice as many guards out. But what did I know, I usually didn’t leave the house that early. And weirdly enough the patrol had been exchanging typical gray suits for more casual looks.
I picked the mug full of egg out of the basket and slid the spoon out, unscrewing it and scooping some of it onto the spoon. It had chilled down considerably since my mom handed it to me, yet it still made me feel warm and cozy as I swallowed most of the egg. As I choked down some of the last bits of egg I looked over and saw the district sign ‘Movaris’ swing past, its dark green mimicking the light greens of the apartment walls. Green had always been a welcoming color to me, and the Movaris District always embraced me with its older architecture and multicolored buildings.
The whirring of the pod slowed and I stopped in a deposit nook on the street side, merely a moment ahead of my friend’s block. I tossed the mug back into my bag and got up, holding onto the center pole for a brief second and the voice jittered “Arriving at your destination!” The doors opened instantaneously, and I hopped out, slinging my bag over my right shoulder. An older couple was sitting on the third story balcony, silently sipping on tea together. Aside from them and a woman hanging a towel off her balcony’s railing, it was silent. I padded over the smooth gray bricks of the sidewalk and opened the door with a brown 204 etched into it.
A door blocked the stairs to the apartments, and I took a moment to sit down on the padded bench alongside it. Taking my phone out of my bag, I flipped it over and typed ‘I’m here, let me in’ to Eteri, readying my card. A few seconds later I received ‘Done’ and I stepped over, sliding my ID into the sensor. With a beep I unlatched the door and slowly started trekking up the concrete steps until I reached level 3, room 301. I used the knocker to knock on the door and after the first tap the door immediately swung open, my friend’s face smiling behind it.
“Mak, come in,” she said excitedly, her downturned eyes looking like raindrops as she smiled. The room behind her opened to show a sitting room directly to the right with a kitchen behind it, her mother looking up from her tablet at the kitchen island. Eteri sat passed by the sitting room on the opposite side of the room and led me to her mom, who seemed happy to see me.
“Makyra, make you sure you let your mother know that she really doesn’t have to do this for us.”
I shook my head as she placed the bread in the middle of the island, moving her bowl of fragrant porridge for the soft bread that my mom had placed in the basket.
“If you make any of those stuffed breakfast cakes again then I’m sure you two will be even,” I halfway teased, knowing fully well I’d be in bliss if I even got a taste of her berry filled pancakes ever again.
Eteri hummed in agreement. “Yeah, one of these days I’d like to have some of those again.”
Her mother eyed her then turned back to me. “I’ll see what I can do. Tell her I’ll see her Fridea for the cooking show.”
I gave her a lousy ‘okay’ and followed behind Eteri and she bounded up the steps, taking her bowl of porridge with her. The second door to the left was her open bedroom, complete with a bookcase full of DIY journals, beauty magazines, and astrology books. The walls were white except for an accent wall with a myriad of colors, from dark teals to sunny yellows. The cabinets were a mis-match of old and new-her white vanity seemed to be older, but her chestnut colored desk was modern and sleek, with mini baskets for her to put any makeup or school supplies. Her room always had a few magazines or books laying around, only avoiding the tiny nook under her desk where she’d flung her textbooks and school papers before delicately placing her multi-use pad on her desk.
“You already ate, right?” she asked, removing a spoon once filled with cinnamon delight from her mouth.
I sat down on the ottoman at the end of her bed, watching as she pushed aside some fuzzy slippers and tossed them near her bedside end table. “Yeah, I had some of my mom’s eggs this morning. Wasn’t really feeling the bread today for some reason,” I watched her glance over to the large mirror behind me near the door. “We still going to Herdol’s?”
She nodded, quickly swallowing her food before responding. “Of course, we just have to wait until his parents leave.” She grabbed a few strands of her hair, “And I think both of us still need to figure out what we’re doing with our hair?”
We both looked into the mirror to our sides and took a good look at our hair. For bedhead it wasn’t horrible, but I knew I’d have to reconsider leaving the house so quickly ever again. A few portions of hair on my left side was almost ridiculously laid across my head like tentacles just laying against the top of my head. Eteri didn’t seem perturbed by her hair-it seemed a little bit frizzy but at least she didn’t leave the house with it.
“How long has my hair looked like this?” I asked, almost incredulously.
Eteri smiled into her bowl of oatmeal, looking up as I sat the pieces down properly.
“You walked in like that...but it was probably just the wind, you know?”
I nodded, opening up my bag to search for my brush and walking over to her mirror.
“Do you know what time his parents are gonna leave? He hasn’t texted me since yesterday.”
She swallowed loudly, putting her nearly finished bowl down and picking up a phone she had laying next to her.
“He said they’ll probably leave in like 20 minutes. Double text him if you have to-I think he just forgets about his messages sometimes.”
“With that giant phone?” I joked, looking over my shoulder and making eye contact as she inched her spoon towards her mouth. She blew out air from her nose, trying to contain her laugh.
“He could have them pop up on his glasses and he’d still probably forget about them. We all have quirks, don’t you think?”
She’d always had such an optimistic point of view, I don’t see how she held herself back from just making fun of my semi-cowlick relentlessly. But I guess our differences keep us friends now don’t they?
Eteri went on to slowly eat her food and then motioned for me to follow her down the hall into the bathroom. She ran some product through her dark chocolate ringlets and nudged at the blow dryer just in case I wanted it. I never really would dress up at all on a normal day, but with her I always would just for something to do. She asked for opinions on her outfit- from the girl who’s never worn anything but jeans and t shirts- and would pull her hair up and down, questioning the weather and how it would suit her look.
Eteri was a naturally pretty girl, she honestly didn’t need any help from me. She wore a lot of long, flowy cardigans and dresses. Her makeup was never thick at all-if you weren’t looking for it you probably wouldn’t see it. When we walked through certain neighborhoods it was obvious that she wasn’t wearing the most expensive or recent clothes. Yet something about her was just effortlessly put together and admirable-especially when her optimistic personality shines through. I once heard her mom say that she loved her round face because it reminded her of the sun, and I’d have to disagree. It’s the things she says that makes her so warm.
“Should I wear a sweatshirt today?” She asked me, throwing her reject outfits back into her vanity. Some dark blue jeans, brown floral flats, and an oversized dark green long-sleeved shirt were the clothes she ultimately picked, though she was obviously having second thoughts.
Before I could answer her a dull buzzing started vibrating against her wood end table, making us whirl our heads around to look at her phone. Immediately she stepped over to answer the call, picking up her purse from her bed and laying it in the crook of her neck.
“Hey-yeah we’re coming now,” she looked over to me, “We’re going the short way, yeah?”
I nodded, looking at her questioningly as I picked up her spare red hoodie, to which she just silently shook her head. Her feet tiptoed over, as she shrugged up socks with the hand that wasn’t holding up the phone.
“Oh. Uh,” she stopped and looked blankly at me. “I don’t know. Guess we’ll see, I guess. Either way, bye.”
She hit the red off button and sat on her bed, slipping her other sock on and putting her phone into her round mini purse.
“What was he asking about?” I finally asked, standing in the doorway.
“He said something about, like, the guards or something. He asked if there were more out. But we don’t really know that, do we?”
I hummed a dull response as she pulled on her white sweatshirt and mini purse over her shoulders.
“Let’s go!” she cheered, hooking her arm through mine and skipping down the hall.
In a few seconds we bounded down the steps, our purses wrestling each other’s the entire time and rubbing at our sides annoyingly. We looked over toward her mother, she hand wavering around her almost 3 year old brother that standing on the couch unnecessarily next to her.
Her stern voice echoed boomed through the room although she was only half paying attention to us. “You have your ID, Eteri?”
Eteri materialized her ID from her purse, waving goodbye directly to her mom and her brother’s backside as she pulled me out with her. Again we found ourselves in the stairwell muggy stairwell, only light subtly by a copper tinted square hanging unceremoniously from the ceiling. Without much thought we walked down the steps next to each other, taking the moment detach ourselves and shuffle our purses around so they’d stop attacking the other.
“Did you tell your mom that we weren’t staying?”
I’d forgotten the encounter momentarily, but knowing myself I said, “Yeah, she didn’t care at all.”
She exhaled sharply, shaking off her irritation with a head nod (not minding how her hair tickled my cheek as she did so).
“I wish. It took enough convincing for my parents to let me over there. My mom’s is kind of just…” she trailed off as we got to bottom of the staircase, opening the door for us. Again we sped past the lobby and out into the street.
With the added heat of the jackets the immediate thought naturally was that it was hot. At feeling this Eteri stopped only a foot away from the door, cocking her head to the side in confusion.
“You said it was cold out?”
I blinked, wondering if I was supposed to answer the question that she obviously had an answer to.
She continued standing there blankly before slowing curling her arms in towards her armpits and pulling up the edge of her sweatshirt.
“Keep it on, I think it’s the wind that got me earlier.”
“What wind, Mak?” Her bellybutton was exposed to the elements, and she outstretched her arms, making a shrugging motion. “I haven’t felt any wind-“
Almost as if someone was playing a practical joke on her, a giant gust of almost ass-knocking-downly air came, it’s sharp, creepy breath breathing right onto her bellybutton, stopping her immediately. She flangled a bit, grabbing her shirt and sweatshirt down with one hand and pushing her other arm through her sleeve. Both of our mouths formed a large ‘O’ shape as she sidestepped in an attempt to not lose to her footing merely from the shock of it coming so suddenly.
A beat passed, with the pair of us just maintaining dumbfounded expressions. Before I could land in a ‘I told you so’ she closed her mouth and gloomily said, “I guess I’ll keep it on, then.”
In any slightly altered situation I would have just laughed then and there but I decided to give her some dignity as we walked along the sidewalk towards another transport pod.
“At least nobody had to see that, Etta.” I offered, motioning around to the empty streets. Some part of me expected the empty streets to soothe her in some way, but it just reminded us of how off-putting it was to walk around on near-empty streets on the weekends when people our age were usually milling about.
We walked silently for a little bit, and I even looked up at the porches to see if anyone was perched outside to deplete their morning coffee or lay some clothes like I’d seen earlier. Other than a few chair sets and rotary clothes airers, the porches and windows were devoid of human activity. Windowsills maintained their stillness as we walked past; after ten seconds of scanning the windows the most activity I saw was a light turning on. Like usual the bars were littered with black birds that chittered occasionally as we passed underneath.
“So far no guards, really…I really wonder what’s keeping everyone in. I want to say it’s the bad weather but that usually doesn’t stop the rec center or the libraries from being open, right?”
I hummed in agreement, interrupting my silence as my head spun towards her as my brain poked at a memory.
“What?” she spit out, taken aback at my aggressive movements.
“A guard asked me for my ID earlier for security reasons…honestly it’s happened one or two times before with my parents but…I’ve never had to speak to any of the gray suits face to face like that.”
Eteri searched the gray brick sidewalk in front of us as if searching for the right thing to say. “I always heard from the kids at school that the gray suits in our district always go undercover…so maybe there just seems to be more because they’re easier to pick out.” Her voice was faint as if a decibel higher would have them ricocheting off the orange and yellow plastered walls and directly into the eardrum of one of the suits.
We saw the black transport pod shimmer into our view like an oasis, and we both let out a breath we didn’t realize we were holding in. Eteri’s ID came back into view as her hand reeled it out of her forest green bag, pinching it with her index finger and thumb and handing it over to me.
“I got a new photo,” she mumbled, vexation laying over her. “It’s somehow worse than the last one.”
I plucked it from her fingers and pinched either side of it as I pushed it towards my face.
“Oh my God, Etta!” Her faux indignance appeared in my peripherals. “Are you somehow related to Herdol?”
She spit out, then immediately started laughing quietly as if laughing harder would be offensive.
“But seriously, I look like I could be my mom in this photo. She’s what, one shade darker than him?”
“Is that a bad thing? You have the same eyes and mouth as her.”
“And? Maybe you forgot that I’m a race darker than her,” she poked her cheek, right underneath the round curve defining her cheeks.
I opened my eyes wide. “Really? I never would have guessed.”
I handed the ID back to her as we approached the transport pod, standing in place as I let her walk forward. She pressed it against the number 3 screen, stepping back to where I was standing for the face scanner. Her name-Eteri Finch Rotimi, Age-12, and Date of Birth 12/12/850-appearing before the scan. A uneasily smooth voice prompted ‘Would you wish to bring this passenger with you?’ and she hit the green button. After some tiny beeping noises and the slow chug of the two person pod to our side, we got in.
A scarily cheerful female voice asked, “Where to?” I coughed, trying to hide the fact that I was laughing at the preset she’d likely chosen as a 10 year old and never got around to changing. Without as much as looking at the map on the side of the pod or acknowledging me she answered, “Tsipra District” and sat down on the front end. Her wood colored eyes met mine and she shook her head as if to acknowledge that she was indeed a high schooler with a Hagamanchi Goo Goo character updating her every day with her schedule. She only had to wait one more month before she turned 13 and more free voices would be available. Although knowing her that doesn’t mean she would change them.
The two seats were across from each other in the pod, letting us both look to our sides and observe what’s around us or ignore it for involved conversation. With nobody to gawk at we decided on conversation, allowing the pod to shoot above to the higher cables and through the central district that connected the 13 residency districts together.
“Did you join any of the after-school clubs?” I offered, knowing that neither of us wanted to think about the upcoming tests in Demeca.
Her posture slouched and a sigh puffed through her lips. “No…I don’t even think any of them really suit me. The fashion class does stuff after school sometimes, but I don’t know. I’m not into making clothes, just wearing them.”
“Don’t they need models?”
“Eh,” she sat up again, “They don’t have to go to the club meetings, anyways. Herdol told me there’s auditions next week for guys and girls. Do you think he was hinting at him going?”
Coincidentally as we entered the central district a giant billboard of a shirtless red-headed male model passed us. Eteri gasped and pointed, laughter flavoring her voice as she yelled, “Look it’s him!”
The pod echoed with our laughter as we to picture Herdol with any semblance of six pack abs. As the pod moved further away we’d noted that he was standing next to a shorter blonde model with high heels.
“No,” I stopped, “He’s definitely too short for that to be him.”
We chuckled some more, the pod passing through a row of electronic billboards on one side as the railing diverted to different paths according to what was advertised. We were oblivious to the cosmetic ads with gaudy-looking females and how the complex system would switch us over to the makeup department in seconds if we so desired. Earlier Eteri had turned down the radio that connected the advertisements to each of the adjacent pods, knowing we weren’t paying them any real attention. Underneath this overhead shopping center was the central park we normally went through, filled with flowers and topiaries fit for a king.
After calming down a bit Eteri wiped her eyes, let go of her stomach, and looked up at the signs. The smile left her face, a look of confusion replacing it.
“Why are we in the shopping district?”
I rested my arm on my leg, slouching down to avoid looking at the tacky billboards. “Not that many people are out today. Maybe this is really the fastest route but we never get to it because of traffic.”
We both looked down the side railings, seeing that were only a few patrons on everyone heading to the different sections. It was far from empty, but seeing as this area was normally filled to the brim it felt odd. The book section was entirely empty, a roadblock preventing anyone from considering that path. We sat there just watching the boards flitter by, amazed at how fast we were going by the stores unbothered. Except for a momentary stop because of Eteri hesitating at seeing a cute jacket on one of the models, we shot through until going under and underpass and reaching the sunlit skies of the Tsipra District.
Yellow and white dominated the district, with clean white sidewalks and yellow daisies or marigolds in the front yard of each columned house. The design of the houses had extravagant details in the columns with blues or yellows circling the tops and underneath the dormers on the top floor. White borders circled the door and the edges of the house, outlining the thin homes with blue and yellow shutters. A few of them had decorations in the front yard, the tackiest one being a waving lawn gnome, but for the most part they were plain.
I squinted until my eyes looked like dark cuts, not used to the change in lighting. Eteri rested her arms on the pod’s side, pressing her forehead against the glass.
“I’ve never been through the commercial district so quickly before.”
“Me either.”
I opened my bag, searching in case my sunglasses were stowed there at some point. By some miracle my frameless sunglasses were under my mug unbroken, and I slipped them on as the pod zipped down the street and toward his house.
A bump rocked both of us back, and I reflexively held onto the center pole to steady myself. Eteri attempted to steady herself by putting her hand back, yet it knocked her back the opposite direction, her head knocking directly onto the glass.
“Ow!” she hollered, smothering her forehead with both of her hands.
“Are you okay?” I asked, perturbed at her reaction. She wasn’t a crybaby at all, so the reaction had to have been warranted.
“Yeah, I’m just,” she gritted her teeth together, rubbing her forehead as the pod began to slow down and turn to let us off. “I just didn’t expect that.”
We turned into an endpoint and the door opened, but not before the cheery, “See ya later, hehe!” I sucked my lips in in an effort to conceal my laugh, but it was no use. Even though the pain had likely resided, she continued to rub her head as she made a beeline to the blue house only three houses down from where we’d be deposited. It really wasn’t a good day for her.
I sped up to walk beside her, rubbing her shoulder in an effort to say sorry. She nodded as if to accept it and opened up the mini gate in front of his house, holding it open for me. Together we walked up to the door and knocked obnoxiously, making absolute sure he heard us.
In mere seconds the redhead jerked it open, glaring at the both of us.
“My sister’s home.”
At the same time we both went, “Oops,” pushing our hands down.
He opened the door wide for us and smiled, leaning on it and shoving both hands into his hoodie pocket. “I don’t care if she woke up, she’s not supposed to be here anyways.”
I kicked off my shoes as Eteri carefully bent down and slid hers off, following the figure with the wild bedhead and lightning socks up the steps. I ignored the gallery of family photos against the wall in favor of watching both Herdol and Eteri’s hair bouncing around as they hopped up the hard wood steps in seconds. They didn’t wait for me as I followed at an easy pace behind them, not feeling a need to race to his room. The cold banister balanced me as I quickly pivoted at the top of the steps, witnessing the pair shooting across the hall like stars. Herdol naturally won-as he has every time they’ve done this-and he pushed open his door with one hand while she pouted.
Eteri looked back at me, waving her hand to get me to hurry up. A few quick steps later and I was at the open doorway, Herdol already leaning back on his black beanbag chair on the side of the room. Behind him was his work desk with overhead shelves haphazardly holding school certificates, two swimming medals, and some pieced together wood figures. His room was awfully plain, as his family held a rec room that held all of his woodworking or whatnot. There wasn’t anywhere to sit that was on the same level so we plopped down on the carpet (as the beanbag was on a first-come-first-sit basis).
Eteri sat with her legs out, wiggling the toes underneath her socks as she used pointed them towards Herdol. “I let you have the beanbag this time and you better remember that.”
“Mmhmm, sure,” he deadpanned, then look between the both of us with a softened expression. “You guys ate, right?”
As we mmhmm’ed he sat up further and crossed his legs, eyes widening underneath his squared off glasses. “Did you guys see the grays?”
“Mak did, apparently,” Eteri offered, pulling her legs to her chest and looping her arms underneath.
They both looked at me, Herdol’s expression more excited than Eteri’s by a long shot. “Yeah, looked through my stuff and let me go. He wasn’t even trying to blend in with anyone, but I mean there wasn’t anyone around anyways.”
“It was really weird, today, Herdol. We went through the shopping district and it was barely busy at all, like only twelve other pods were on the main line with us or something.”
Herdol’s butt scooted forward until he was on the ground near us, leaning in to say something like his sister would pop in any second. “Me and my cousin have been talking a lot the past week. The gray suits have been out more and more, right?”
We nodded, Eteri taking the moment to scoot in a little closer.
“Well the ‘unruly people’ have been protesting for years now, usually in the residence districts. We think they moved to central park for today’s and the suits stopped going incognito to scare everyone. You only saw one, right?”
I nodded, not quite following what he was saying.
“There’s usually more in each district, right? Just not as obvious-“
“Because they’re under the radar. We get that, but how is this new information? It’s common sense that they’d take care of large groups of protestors,” Eteri interrupted, messing up his flow.
“Yeah but when they’ve done it before they just shut down the transport pods and said it was for maintenance reasons. You know, even when my mom’s team took off work for those couple days.” His attention was all on Eteri, mostly because she normally wasn’t this skeptical of their theories.
I couldn’t help but butt in.
“They shut off the path to central park today. Didn’t you hear us mention that earlier?”
He sighed, shaking his head. “You’re missing my point. They just shut down a section today, not the entire thing,” he slowed his talking now. “We think they put out grays and left the pods open as a trap. To catch the people that try to leave the city.”
Neither of us responded, just sat there starring at his flickering eyes. Finally, I spoke.
“Are you sure your cousin isn’t just playing with you? There’s no proof of any of this.”
“There’s no proof that it’s wrong, though,” Eteri interjected. “But…I still don’t see why they’d leave the city. Maybe they’re curious enough to want to see what’s south of the walls, but none of them have the experience to deal with the creatures past there. People train for full years to deal with that environment; I really doubt they’d survive.”
Herdol sat back from us, using his arms as he spoke. “I didn’t say they were smart. But there’s still a little chance it’s happening.”
We just let him have this moment, no matter how much of a strawman argument it was. Herdol was a very curious person by nature-we originally met because he wanted to investigate the loud noise coming from across the dorm hall when me and Eteri were testing out her portable speaker in our room. As a more cautious person I found it refreshing to be friends with someone who was louder and bolder, yet there were times we were just on completely different pages.
A knock on the door made the three of us jump, having been too engrossed in the conversation. Looking over we saw his eldest sister-the 18 year old- wearing a long T shirt with ugly sequins on it and drawstring shorts. Her straight hair fell over her shoulders, thankfully covering some of the ugly bejeweled cat, and stopped immediately under the round paws. Although the siblings had the facial features of twins – angular, wide eyes, button noses, and heart shaped faces – they had opposite facial expressions, Herdol’s brows furrowed while his sister smiled unnecessarily.
“I wonder how mom’s gonna figure out someone brought in two guests without asking first.”
“She won’t.”
“She won’t?” she said, incredulously. “What’ll stop her?”
Herdol shut his eyes, obviously trying to calm himself down a bit.
“Wait a few minutes and maybe 20 dollars will materialize out of thin air on your desk.”
She smiled, holding the door handle. “That sounds about right. Have fun, ladies.” With that she shut the door and went on her way, trotting down the hall with the defined sound of her bare feet smacking against the floor.
Herdol opened his eyes, trying to ignore what we all just saw.
“Anyways, did either of you do your physics homework? I thought it was easy.”
Yikes.