by Eliza Taye
He wondered if there was a discount program for Undecided transporter riders like there were for student riders, but he doubted it. From what he’d seen, society really hated the Undecided. They wouldn’t help them by offering a discount to ride the transporters.
With a sigh, Garrett realized he’d only be able to take the transporter half the distance and then walk the rest of the way. Boarding the transporter, he paid his way and then found a seat to sit down for the first time that long day.
Opal left Trenton Hall satisfied at how well her day had gone. After the lengthy lecture on academy rules and policies, they’d taken a four-hour walking tour of the campus and then were taken to the office to meet with a guidance counselor, sign up for their classes, and pay for them. She’d been able to sign up for every class she’d wanted and at times that fit perfectly into her schedule.
The excitement of starting her classes tomorrow on First Moon made her heart thump with anticipation. Her first class of the day would be Introduction to Law at 8 in the morning—the perfect start to her day. After that, she had Public Speaking at 9:30 am, and Introduction to Psychology at 11am. The end of her classes would be at 1pm with Government 101. The entire day of classes would be complete all before her afternoon downturn. Except for the 1pm class, it was a morning bird’s dream class schedule. Although she’d have preferred to start classes at 6am, that wasn’t an option.
Ringing interrupted her thoughts as she reached into her pocket to pull out her interwave. It was a call from Mrs. Shaffer.
Eyes growing wide, Opal hurried to answer it. “Hello? Mrs. Shaffer?”
“Hello, Opal, dear. So, I wanted to let you know, I’ve been asking around and I think I may have located where your friend is residing.”
“Really?”
“Yes, there was a kid who came to the shelter this afternoon saying he ran into this new guy who was asking for directions to the exit of the Undecided sector this morning. The little boy’s name is Alvin. He’s a scruffy little youth. His father isn’t all right in the head, so he wanders the streets most of the time and comes in here every now and then when he’s really hungry. He said he saw your friend several streets down from here and could take me there if I wanted to go, but as you know, I can’t afford to leave the kids alone. If you can get here before he leaves, I’m sure he’ll show you where he saw your friend.”
Opal started running in the direction of the nearest transport station. “Mrs. Shaffer, keep him there as long as you can, I’m on my way.”
Chapter 24
With stumbling feet, Garrett finally arrived at the rundown apartment complex that was his new home. Dragging his weary feet up the stairs, he entered his unit and collapsed on the floor. All he wanted to do was collapse into a dreamless sleep, but his growling stomach reminded him that April promised to take him grocery shopping after he was done with work. His pride wouldn’t allow him to meet her smelling the way he did, but he felt as if he had no energy to shower. Still, he knew he’d find a way because he couldn’t go much longer without a morsel of food.
At long last, his weariness won over and he fell asleep on the floor. However, it only lasted a few minutes before a loud bang interrupted his sleep. He jolted onto his elbows; eyes bloodshot as his right-side neighbors began shouting at each other. Based on the choice of words, it was an angry couple yelling at one another.
Frustrated and groggy, Garrett pushed himself to his feet and trudged the few feet to the bathroom. Stripping off his clothes and leaving them on the floor, Garrett twisted the knob on the tiny shower. He pushed the showerhead toward the wall since he had no curtain and didn’t want water flooding his apartment while he waited for the water to warm.
After several minutes of running the water and testing it for warmth, Garrett realized the water wasn’t going to get any warmer. Shuddering, he climbed into the shower and allowed the cold water to hit him. It was a brutal shock to his entire body and made his muscles clench uncomfortably. Grabbing the soap he’d brought from home and the washcloth April had given him, he quickly washed up and rinsed off, shutting off the freezing cold water. He dried off and found some clean clothes to wear. Afterward, he felt like a new person, although not as refreshed as he had been after taking the nice steaming hot showers at his parent’s house.
His parents.
He wondered how his parents were doing. Were they thinking about him? Were they worried? He was half surprised they hadn’t come to find him yet, especially his mother. She would have wanted to know how he was doing for sure.
Or maybe he was wrong. Maybe both of them had been so ashamed of what he’d done that they never wanted to see him again.
Garrett glanced at his interwave on the floor sticking out of his pants pocket and he considered calling them. Was he even allowed to make calls to the Decided sector?
Sighing, Garrett checked his hair in the cracked mirror inside the small bathroom before grabbing his interwave and leaving the apartment to find his way to Darrington Library. Stepping onto the pathway, he looked up and down the street. The slightly lighter daylight allowed him to see better, but that didn’t help him orient himself. To find his way back home, he’d simply backtracked from where the kid had told him to go that morning. Otherwise, he still didn’t know his way around the Undecided sector.
Although his legs ached, he reasoned that it’d be better to walk back to the entrance of the sector and then find his way to Darrington Library from there. If he stopped to ask for directions again or appeared to be lost, he’d oust himself as the idiot who chose to become an Undecided. He didn’t need that criticism from people again today.
The walk was long. Both his stomach and legs protested, but finally, Garrett found himself standing in front of the Darrington Library, the street as deserted as always. He walked to the door and let himself inside.
“April, it’s Garrett.”
“Hi, Garrett.” April appeared from the back of the library, carrying a stack of books. “Can you find somewhere to sit? I have to re-catalog some of these books before we can go.”
“Sure, no problem.” With relief, Garrett found a comfortable chair to sit in at the back of the room.
April returned with more books and added them to the ever-increasing pile on the table. “How was your first day of work?”
Wincing, Garrett responded, “It wasn’t too bad.”
April took the time to stop what she was doing, put her hands on her hips, and quirked an eyebrow at him. “Oh yeah?”
“Okay…to be honest…I hurt in places I didn’t even think I could hurt in.”
“That’s what I thought.” April returned to her work. “It isn’t easy. I wish I could tell you it gets easier, but it really doesn’t.”
Garrett rubbed his leg as he responded, “Well, that’s not what I wanted to hear, but I appreciate you being honest.”
April didn’t say anything, so he added, “Actually, I have a lot more admiration for you, April.”
Those words garnered her attention. She looked up at him, her caramel eyes quizzical. “Oh really? How so?”
“You work here in the library by yourself from opening to closing. You carry all the books and keep this big place clean all by yourself. Yet, you are always nice with a chipper attitude.”
April huffed, tapping a pencil against her lip as she replied, “I don’t know about chipper, but I do try to have a good attitude.”
“Why? Everything sucks over here. Nothing is nice and no one gives you a break. We don’t even make enough money to use the transporter every day and whoever assigns us our jobs clearly doesn’t consider the distance we have to travel when assigning multiple jobs in a day. I think I’ve walked more today than in my entire life combined.”
April’s first thought was to say to him well, that’s why no one would choose to become an Undecided, but she reconsidered when she registered the level of exhaustion on Garrett’s face. Both eyes were bloodshot as if he hadn’t slept in days and his shoulders slump
ed over with weariness. If this was the way he looked after just one day’s worth of work, how would he survive the next week, let alone the rest of his life with the Undecided?
“It isn’t easy, Garrett. I try to be bright for others because compared to most, I don’t have it as bad. I’m fortunate enough to have a job I don’t have to walk far to within the Undecided sector. Yes, I may work from 8am to 8pm every day without a day off, but I am paid a fair wage for it.”
Garrett wanted to ask her how much she was paid for working at the library, but he knew it would be considered rude, so he kept his mouth shut.
“Go ahead and take a nap. This could take some time and I can’t close the library any earlier than 6pm. So, you’ll be able to get at least one hour of uninterrupted sleep.”
Garrett wanted to ask how she’d guessed his sleep was being interrupted, but his head lolled to the side and he succumbed to sleep before his mouth could even formulate the words to ask.
“Mrs. Shaffer! I’m here,” announced Opal breathlessly as she entered the front door of the shelter.
“OPAL!” shouted Annie and Minnie in unison as they tackled her, embracing her in a bone-crushing hug.
“Hi, Annie, Minnie, do you know where Mrs. Shaffer is?”
“I’m right here, Opal. Alvin’s with me too.” Mrs. Shaffer gently pulled Alvin from around the corner.
The little boy was nibbling on a sandwich going slow to make it last. When he saw Opal, he suddenly hurried up, gulping down the sandwich with a few short bites.
“Hi Alvin, my name is Opal.” Opal leaned over, hands on her knees to get eye-level with the boy, a warm smile on her face.
“Yeah, so what do you want?”
“Alvin,” chastised Mrs. Shaffer.
He glanced up at her with an incredulous gaze. “What? People are always super nice to you when they want something back.”
Mrs. Shaffer laughed. “So, is that why you think I’m so nice to you?”
“Yeah, you want me to keep coming back here to eat so you aren’t stuck with all these little mindless kids all day,” he responded.
“Alvin! That’s not a nice way to talk about the other children.”
“Well, it is true, isn’t it?” Alvin shifted his gaze from Mrs. Shaffer back to Opal. “So, what is it you want from Alvin?”
Opal had to resist laughing at this kid’s scruffiness. He looked like a child but acted closer to an old geezer. “Well, I do want something from you, Alvin. I heard from Mrs. Shaffer that you know where the new Undecided young man lives.”
Alvin’s face brightened as he realized Opal was probably from the Decided sector. If she was looking for the guy from that morning, he must have meant a lot to her. Getting her to pay him for information would be a walk in the park.
With a smug smile, he replied, “Yeah, I saw him this morning. I’m on my way back to that part of town. I can show you if you’d like.”
“That would be wonderful.” Opal held out her hand for him to take.
Alvin eyed her hand with disgust. “What do you think I am? Some little kid? I don’t need to hold your hand.”
Opal’s eyebrows rose in surprise as Alvin brushed past her and out the front door.
“Well, are you coming or not?” he shouted.
Opal looked to Mrs. Shaffer, then at Alvin impatiently tapping his foot, then back to Mrs. Shaffer with a puzzled gaze.
Mrs. Shaffer laughed again. “He’s quite a character that little one. Acts like he’s ten times his age.”
“Come on, I’m not going to wait forever,” pressed Alvin, scowling in her direction.
“I’ll see you later, Mrs. Shaffer. I’ll drop back by after finding my friend.” Opal hurried off to join Alvin.
Alvin led her down the block and then halted, spinning around to face her. “I’ll show you where your friend is staying, but it’ll cost ya.”
Opal narrowed her eyes slightly at the little boy. “How much?”
Alvin smirked and swatted his hand in the air. “Ah, not much, just a low fee of ten trecins.”
“Ten trecins?” Opal narrowed her eyes further. “How do I know that you’re going to show me where my friend actually lives and not con me?”
Alvin’s mouth dropped and his eyes grew wide. “What? How dare you think I would scam you! I’m not a con artist. I’m just a guy who’s had a tough break. Look, I’ll help you out, you help me out, what do you say?”
Opal couldn’t believe she was getting conned out of her money by a little kid. But looking down at his scruffy face, hand outstretched for payment, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. Ten trecins would far from break her. She’d saved up hundreds of trecins over the years and had been frugal about how she spent them.
“Fine, I’ll give you five trecins now and the other five when you show me where my friend is, deal?”
Alvin’s smirk disappeared, but then after a few moments, it spread into a wide grin. “I can see you’re a smart woman. I can respect that. Fine, five now and five when we reach your destination.”
Opal plucked a five trecin coin out of her pocket and placed it into the boy’s small hand.
“All right, here we go then.”
Alvin took Opal through several winding streets, passing all sorts of sketchy neighborhoods until finally, he stopped in front of a building so dilapidated, Opal wondered how it still stood.
“What is this place?” she asked.
“We call it Carvington Mansion, but it’s mainly a joke. I don’t know what the official name of the place is.”
“Carvington Mansion?” Opal wondered, taking out another five trecin coin. With horror, she asked, “Why is it called that?”
The little boy opened his palm to receive the coin, “Oh, that’s because there was a rumor some guy was murdered there. Carved up into a million little pieces and buried all over the backyard. I think the mansion part of the name comes from the size of it, but I’m not sure.”
Opal swallowed hard. She had a difficult time imagining Garrett living in such a place. Compared to the dormitory she’d just moved into, this place was an abomination. Whereas her place was beautiful, immaculate, and clean, this place was hideous, decrepit, and filthy.
“Well, see ya.” Alvin started trudging off, hands in his pockets.
“Wait,” called Opal.
“Aww, what now?” complained Alvin. “If you want anything else, it’s gonna cost you an additional charge.”
“How do I know this is where my friend lives? This place is big. I’m sure it has many units. Which unit does he live in?”
Alvin threw up his hands. “How should I know? Look, you wanted to know where your friend lives, and I showed you. You didn’t ask for his exact unit number.”
“If I had, you still would have said you knew and brought me here just to get my money.”
Alvin started smirking, kicking at a stone at his feet. “Aww, you know me pretty well already.”
“Alvin, seriously, I need to know where to find him.”
“And seriously I don’t know which unit it is.” Alvin began to walk away, then spun on his heels and returned to Opal. “Look, most people around here return from work anywhere between 7pm and 9pm. You can wait outside for your friend there. If he doesn’t show up by then, you can start asking people inside if they know which unit he’s in. Otherwise…” Alvin shrugged and walked away.
Opal sighed in frustration. Even though she’d visited the Undecided sector for years, she’d never ventured this far into the sector before. She knew she shouldn’t, but she couldn’t help feeling anxious about waiting alone outside the apartment complex for Garrett to arrive.
“Garrett,” April shook him gently on the shoulder. “It’s time to wake up.”
Garrett stirred but didn’t open his eyes. “Can you give me just a few more minutes, Mom?”
April chuckled at him calling her mom and shook him a little harder. “Sorry, Garrett, but you have to get up now. If you don’t, the stores will be
closed before we get there.”
Groggy and still half asleep, Garrett opened his eyes to see April smiling softly at him. With a start, he awoke and with embarrassment realized he’d just called April mom. “Oh, April, I’m sorry.”
April laughed. “Don’t worry about it, Garrett. I can say it’s the first time anyone has ever called me mom before, but it’s okay.”
Feeling mortified, Garrett tried in vain to shake off the humiliation before asking, “So how far is the grocery store from here?”
“Fortunately, not too far. They close at 9pm, so we’d better hurry.”
“Hurry? I thought you were closing the library at 6pm.” Garrett sat up and rubbed his eyes then rose to his feet and stretched.
“I had planned to, but you were sleeping so well that I didn’t want to wake you. Based on how much you were snoring, I knew you needed your rest.”
Garrett froze. He’d been snoring? In front of April! Just when he thought he couldn’t get any more mortified.
April watched his expression and then burst into a fit of laughter. “I’m just kidding, Garrett. Although, you did have that heavy breathing of deep sleep.”
Garrett grabbed his chest. “Ah, April! Don’t scare me like that.”
“It was worth it to see the look on your face.” April began closing everything up as she spoke, leading Garrett outside the building. “It was too priceless and I couldn’t resist.”
While April locked the outer door of the library, Garrett countered, “Well, it may have been funny to you, but to me it was horrifying.”
“Ha, ha…okay, I’m sorry.” April still couldn’t contain her smile.
Garrett watched her mirthful face and couldn’t help chuckling a bit himself as they began walking down the pathway. The more time he spent with April, the more he liked her. She wasn’t like any girl he’d ever known. She had a difficult life, but she didn’t let that tear her down. She insisted on being a shining light in the darkness for others and went out of her way to help someone she barely knew. He wondered if she was starting to feel the same way about him. Why else would she bring him supplies yesterday and attend the Declaration Ceremony?