“What do you mean?” I motioned.
Jim continued. “I heard from others that the authorities here were getting nervous about you and what you might do next. In Thomson you were a distant threat to them and they didn’t care, but here in Vinder you are a clear threat to their way of life.”
“I don’t understand why I would be a threat,” I signalled. “Being able to speak would benefit everyone.”
“There are powerful people in society who have many benefits from preying on our inability to speak,” Jim indicated. “Your appearance will change everything and some don’t want that kind of change. Entire corporations and legacies have been built over decades because of our inability to speak. Certain people have become extremely wealthy since we stopped being able to speak. If you were successful in speaking all these giants of society would slowly start collapsing, jobs would be lost and the rich owners would lose their power and wealth. These people will do anything to stop that from happening.”
Now I had to not only deal with Dr Liverfield, the Magistrate and the Council, but other forces whose very power could be changed by my existence.
“We are here because we need your help,” Susie indicated again.
“Where is Lara?” Jim signed and I realized we had avoided the answer before, but couldn’t anymore.
“She was injured, but is recovering now,” Susie gestured. “We had to meet you first without wasting any more time.”
Susie’s quick lie had the right affect.
“I still don’t know how I can help you,” Jim motioned. “I am a simple bookstore owner. I have very little power here in the city.”
“I need to make a speech on the monitors here at Vinder,” I highlighted.
“I don’t understand,” Jim indicated in confusion.
“I mean I need to do the speech and have it broadcast on the Vinder news for everyone to see,” I highlighted.
Jim leaned inwards. “Okay what else?”
“The speech would show the citizens of Vinder and the towns that I am alive, I can speak and expose Dr Liverfield and the process,” I motioned. “It is the only thing left I can do now to prove to the world of my existence.”
Jim’s eyes widened. “It is a crazy idea which might actually work come to think of it. I like it.”
“We came to you to ask if you know of anyone who can help us take the video and get it broadcast out,” Susie gestured. “The last time I was here I remember you mentioning you knew a lot of the supporters of the Resistance.”
Jim stood quiet for a bit. “I know someone who may be able to help you with the broadcast part. Please give me some time to check with her. Here is my number so you can contact me later.”
Susie took down his number and we left the bookstore.
“Do you think he can be trusted?” I signed.
“I don’t know, but time will tell us,” Susie indicated. “We also don’t have any other options. Let’s find a place to rest a bit. We both need it.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
The hotel room we were inside was extravagant; the rich carpet and elegant chandelier lights were quite luxurious. Surprisingly, this was my first hotel experience and of all places in Vinder and, although I had never been in a hotel before, I guessed this wasn’t the normal state of affairs. Susie had used some of the cash she had received from Dr Liverfield to get us both a room to share in a nearby hotel. I was again impressed at how Susie had managed to give a fake name and id to get the room.
“Where did you get the fake id from?” I indicated.
“Dr Liverfield made a set for me when I came over,” Susie highlighted. “I suspected she didn’t want other people tracking me when I went around Vinder. Obviously, she thought of everything for me, which is scary if you think about it.”
As I stood looking around the room Susie went to the window and looked out at the road below.
“Do you notice anything out of the unusual?” I signed.
“It looks okay, but it is hard to tell here in Vinder,” Susie motioned. “This place isn’t like Thomson where you rarely see people except in certain places like the main mall. In this place there are lots of different kinds of people walking about. Most of these people come from the surrounding towns and so what maybe unusual for us is pretty normal for Vinder.”
There was a knock on the door and we both jumped before Susie looked through the door pinhole. I stood to one side ready to use my voice if needed.
“It’s only the hotel robot bringing our food,” Susie gestured opening the door.
A red robot, slightly taller than the both of us, rolled into the room, dropped off a tray of food and drinks which we had ordered and left the room without a word.
I was famished and grabbed the food without even waiting for Susie to shut the door.
“This is why we needed to stay somewhere,” Susie smiled.
I grinned sheepishly as I swallowed some of the food clumsily. I had let Susie order the food, knowing she would know what was best for us, and it was really delicious.
“Do you think Jim will try to contact Lara?” I gestured.
“I doubt it,” Susie indicated as she took a bite off some food. “When Lara brought me to him they didn’t seem to have any means of communication other than meeting face-to-face. He was as surprised to see her with me. I suspect to be safe there isn’t any communication via phones between the Resistance and its supporters. I am sure all these businesses are being monitored by the Council throughout the city.”
“Let’s hope it stays that way,” I signed. “I also don’t know how long Claire can keep Lara hidden.”
Susie pulled out her phone. “I got a message from Jim. He wants us to meet him at the nearby park tonight at 8pm. He says he will bring with him the person who can help us.”
“I hope this isn’t some kind of trap,” I indicated.
“If it is, your abilities should be able to get us out of it right,” Susie smiled confidently.
I didn’t say much and instead decided to rest a while.
It was 8pm and we had been sitting on a bench near the location for nearly an hour. Susie had insisted we arrive early to check out the area, which I agreed was the best option since we didn’t know Jim good enough to trust him either. Prior to sitting on the bench we had actually walked the perimeter of the small park and found nothing unusual.
At this hour the park was well-lit and had a lot of people just sitting on benches or walking about while a platoon of robots hovered around clearing the garbage from the day. Most of the people seemed to be either young couples taking an evening stroll or working adults probably de-stressing in the park after their work and I didn’t notice anyone out of place.
Like what Susie had said earlier at the hotel it was quite difficult to identify any suspicious people walking around as the kinds of people here in the city were so vast and different.
“Here they come,” Susie motioned.
Jim wearing a coat and cap approached the meeting point, which was a fountain that had no water flowing at this hour, and besides him was a younger woman probably in her thirties and she was wearing a grey dress. As they stood there Jim kept looking around nervously while the woman was occupied with her phone.
“It seems clear,” I signed glancing around again. “Be ready for anything.”
Susie and I walked up to them and shook hands with Jim who introduced the woman as Amelia and Susie and I exchanged looks briefly.
“Amelia here works at Vinder Times, which is the largest media news outlet in the city, and she is in the division that manages the daily broadcast itself,” Jim gestured. “I have told her about your plans to do a speech.”
“Is it possible to put a speech on the broadcast?” I motioned.
Amelia turned to me. “First of all let me say it is very awesome to meet you, Marinette. Hearing about someone on the news is completely different from meeting them face-to-face. I didn’t know what to expect today, but you look so much better in pers
on than what, we, the news media, have portrayed.”
Of course I looked much better; I wasn’t the desperate loner out to destroy the world that the Council made me out to be.
I smiled. “Thank you. So, can you help us?”
Amelia continued. “Every day at a certain time there is a switchover we do when we play old content just prior to the start of the evening news. The division I work for handles the older content. Our job is to insert content to keep people tuned in to our broadcast. So, it is possible for me to insert your speech in there.”
“What do you need from us?” Susie indicated.
“Just the speech in a video format,” Amelia highlighted. “Here is some information on our requirements.”
Amelia passed a document to Susie and I was impressed she had prepared and brought the documents with her.
“What will happen to you?” I signed.
Amelia smiled. “Don’t worry about me. I was going to leave this job at the end of this month anyway. This speech of yours is far more important than any job. It will change everything for everyone. Your ability will give so many people hope.”
I felt bad for using Amelia in this way. “We don’t even know you, but thank you for risking everything for us.”
“Sometimes we need to look at the greater good,” Amelia gestured.
I still had my doubts of the greater good and the sacrifices so many people have made for it.
“We will contact you once the speech is ready,” Susie motioned.
We left the two of them in the park and started walking back taking a longer way back to the hotel.
As we walked Susie gently grabbed my hand, wrote a message on her phone and showed it to me. The message said “we are being followed!”
THIRTY-NINE
I started walking faster, Susie followed in step as we turned left and walked into a large crowd of people coming at us. My hope was that we could lose whoever was following us in this crowd as it was the only chance we had at this time of night.
“Let’s split up,” I signed.
As we entered the crowd of young adults Susie and I went different ways through the crowd. I glanced back briefly over my shoulder and noticed two men wearing sports running outfits looking for us and they appeared to have stopped right before the moving crowd. The crowd was larger than I had initially thought and it took some time to weave through them.
Once we left the crowd Susie and I started running down the road, turned into an alley and raced down it until we realized the mistake we had made; the alley was a dead-end and it was too risky to retrace our footsteps because we didn’t know how far behind the men were.
There were two doors facing each other at the end of the alley and Susie looked at me expecting me to break it open I guess.
I turned to the door, but nothing came out of me; not a word and I didn’t feel anything at all. I stared at the door again in confusion.
“Marinette, what’s going on?” Susie motioned looking back towards the entrance of the alley.
Susie didn’t wait for my answer before kicking the door and, after a few times it opened, we rushed inside and Susie shut the door.
We didn’t hear any footsteps and waited inside the dimly lit room for at least ten minutes before I turned to Susie again.
“Sorry, but I don’t know what happened just now,” I signed.
How come I wasn’t able to say a word? I tried to speak, but nothing came out and it was as if something was stuck in my throat blocking all the sound. Did I lose my ability to talk? This was the worst possible time for it to happen. I needed it back to make my speech and expose Dr Liverfield’s plans.
Susie stared at me for a while. “All I know is that we cannot risk going back to the hotel. The people who were following us may be on the lookout there. They either followed us or Jim and Amelia and either way it is too dangerous to be out in the open now.”
The place we were standing in smelled bad and when Susie switched on a light we realized it was a small foyer with an attached hallway to what used to be an apartment building. The walls of the hallway were worn off and the floor had blotches of white paint all over it.
“I guess this is going to be our shelter for tonight,” Susie motioned.
Susie switched off the light, walked down the hallway and tried the first door on the right, it opened and we both shuffled inside. The room was a bit dirty, but had an old sofa and three mattresses strewn along the floor.
“Looks like no one has been using this place for a while,” I signed in disgust.
Fortunately, the air wasn’t too bad in here and it didn’t smell as bad as in the foyer.
I went over to the sofa, cleared the dust and sat on it while Susie paced around making me nervous.
“Are you going to be okay?” Susie signed.
I knew she was worried for me, but I didn’t feel like talking about it.
“I need some rest, that’s all,” I signalled and closed my eyes.
I was back in the grass field again, but this time I was surrounded by small single floor houses of different shapes, sizes and colours. The first house’s front door opened, Oliver walked out carrying a book, and I smiled because it was the old Oliver who could see properly. I tried to walk towards him, but realized my feet were stuck in the mud, and then I noticed I was sinking into the mud and it wasn’t mud, but some kind of liquid. I tried shouting to Oliver using my voice, but nothing came out of my voice and Oliver was too busy with his book to notice my life-threatening situation. The second house’s front door opened and Claire came skipping out and in her hand she held some kind of cloth. It appeared she had been weaving a costume for herself. I tried yelling at her, but nothing came out again. I tried again waving my hands frantically and using my voice to the both of them, but nothing came out. They were both preoccupied with their things and didn’t notice me only twenty meters away. By this time half my body was submerged in the liquid and I couldn’t move my arms any longer. Again, I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing and then the liquid began to seep into my ears, nose and mouth. I felt someone shaking me, woke up and Susie was staring at me with an anxious look.
“Oh my gosh Marinette! I have been trying to wake you up for the last five minutes,” Susie indicated.
I was glad it had only been a nightmare, but I hated how helpless and drained I felt from the whole episode.
“Sorry, it was only a bad dream,” I highlighted
Susie nodded. “It must have been because it was like you were in a trance or something. Are you okay?”
“I am fine,” I signed. “I need some more rest.”
It was the best lie I could say to avoid talking to Susie on what was going on with me, which I, myself, wasn’t even sure about.
“If you need anything I am right here,” Susie gestured, got up, walked away and I was thankful she gave me the space to deal with whatever I was going through.
Ever since I discovered I could make sounds, a part of me had always wished I could go back in time and undo everything that had happened. Then, I would be able to return to my old life with Felix, go back to school and enjoy Mrs Wills’ class, but I knew it was impossible as so much had happened. Every decision I had taken had led me to this very moment and I knew I was here for a purpose.
Now, being unable to speak, I felt like a part of me had shut down and I wasn’t complete anymore; it was like being here, but not really being present. Speaking and using my voice had become my normal and somehow I had lost it. I hoped it wasn’t because I had used my ability in the wrong way to hurt people.
I fell asleep and this time didn’t have any weird dreams and was woken up by Susie again.
“You really did need some rest,” Susie smiled. “It is morning already and you look much better now.”
I felt much better, refreshed and was thankful Susie had been here with me.
Susie continued. “We need to find a place to do the speech and I need to buy some equipment for the video.”
How was I going to tell Susie that I had lost the ability to speak? I don’t know how she would take such news because everything she had sacrificed for seemed to have vanished into thin air.
“Let’s get going,” I signed.
The moment I entered the equipment store, Susie went straight to the robot to make a purchase as I browsed around looking at the different devices available. There were even robot video cameras that could be purchased and would simply follow you around based on some kind of link between you and the camera.
Emerging Above the Silence Page 17