by Teresa Grabs
“This here’s an aspen, and that one over there is pine, and the large one down yonder with the pretty orange and red leaves is a very confused maple,” the old man said as he pointed to each different kind of tree. “Best get goin’ if we’re gonna eat.”
“What? Eat?”
The old man laughed as he took a new trail that led through the trees. Echo followed and took in all the new wonders her dream world created. There were strange new creatures all around her that demanded her full attention, but the once bright sun was now starting to sink lower in the sky. She rushed to catch up as the old man disappeared over the edge of another hill.
“Wait,” she called.
Splashing liquid and laughter piqued her curiosity. She jogged to the top of the hill and looked down. Excitement filled her soul and imagination as the new dream world proved just how unique and different it was. At the bottom of the hill, the old man stood and waved for Echo to join him. Free flowing water weaved its way around the hill and between trees. She had never seen free-flowing water before that didn’t come from the sky or a fountain. Echo giggled, ran down the hill, and splashed in the thigh-high water.
“Gonna scare the fish, if you keep that up, miss.”
“My name is Echo,” she said. “And what do you mean I’m going to scare the fish?”
The old man laughed again and dipped the tip of the pole he was holding into the water. He wasn’t holding a pole earlier, but Echo stopped asking questions or thinking too hard about her dream world after she said was thirsty and the old stone well appeared out of nowhere.
“Got one!” The old man pulled at his taut line. “Come an’ give me a hand, will ya?”
Echo watched as the man pulled the line closer to him bringing something to the surface of the water. The water now only came up to her ankles, so this made very little sense.
“Don’t ask,” she told herself aloud.
“Well, grab it!” he shouted.
“Hold it still.”
She grabbed whatever was at the other end of his line and pulled it out of the water. Echo screamed and flung the water monster toward the man and ran for the safety of the trees. The old man laughed and grabbed the trout before it could flop back into the water.
“Never seen a fish before?” he asked.
“Fish?” Echo asked, peeking out from behind a small aspen. “That’s not a fish.”
“Sure, it is.”
“I ate fish patty tonight and its square. That…that’s alive. Isn’t it?”
“Not for long.” The old man laughed. “Watch and learn how to prepare a fish for supper.”
Echo was oddly curious about how he was going to turn that elongated monster into a square patty and slowly joined him at the water’s edge. She watched with fascination as he pulled a knife out of his pants pocket, placed the fish on a rock, and cut its head off. Echo screamed, but the old man ignored her.
“If ya goin’ do it,” he said, “do it quick. Don’t prolong any death if ya can help it. Don’t matter if they be friend or enemy. If ya gonna do it, have some mercy.”
Echo nodded. She watched as the man slid his knife down the belly of the fish and removed its insides. It was quite a disgusting event to see, yet somehow seemed very natural. As if this is what they were supposed to be doing rather than eating synthetic fish patties that could sit on the shelf in the kitchen for years. Birds sang overhead, and small animals scurried around them under the trees. They did not seem afraid or disturbed by the old man’s actions. Everything just seemed to accept that this was the way life was supposed to be. It was Echo that was out of place in her own dream world.
“Now, this here’s a personal choice,” the man said, pointing the knife as he spoke. “Ya can leave their scales on or off, don’t matter. Just know ya can’t eat ‘em. Got it?”
Echo nodded. “Can’t eat the scales.”
“Which way ya want?”
Echo had no idea what a scale was, so she simply shrugged.
The old man grinned and chuckled lightly. “Right, let’s go cook it.”
The old man led Echo further into the trees away from the water.
“You have the house down yonder an’ I have my camp over here,” he said.
Echo blinked in disbelief. In a small clearing sat a large tent, campfire, chairs, fishing poles, and an animal that she had never seen before tied to a tree. She was fascinated by the animal and crept over toward it.
The old man looked at Echo and chuckled. “That’s Betsy, my horse.”
She reached out but quickly pulled her hand back and held it behind her back.
The old man laughed. “Go on, she ain’t goin’ hurt ya’”
Echo stretched her hand out again and slowly walked up to the horse. It twitched under her gentle touch and made her laugh. The horse’s mane was soft and reminded her of Charlie’s fur. Betsy snorted and shook her head. Echo stepped back but then laughed even harder. The old man was busy making a skewer for the fish, but he chuckled as Echo discovered the new world around her.
“Let me show ya’ how to cook fish,” he said.
Echo joined him by the fire and watched as he weaved a stick through the tail fin and out the fish’s mouth, then leaned it over the fire. They sat on rocks by the fire and talked as the fish cooked. She told him of the test that day and her fears of failing it, while he told her a little of his life over the hill. In no time the cooked fish was ready to eat.
“Well, go on,” he said, handing her a plate with half the fish on it.
She poked it with her finger. It certainly did not look, smell, or feel like the fish patty she had earlier that night. The old man watched with immense curiosity and exaggerated peeling off the skin with his fingers. He picked a piece of meat off the bone, and popped it in his mouth, then licked his fingers and grinned.
“Gotta watch for bones,” he said. “Don’t wanna eat those.”
Echo followed his example and stuck the meat in her mouth and immediately spit it out. The man roared and fell off his log. His laughter transformed into her alarm as the camp slowly dissolved around her. When she opened her eyes, she saw why the fish tasted horrible. Pillows were for sleeping, not for eating. She wasted no time and recorded the dream in her journal. Time raced by, and Charlie pawed at the door. He wanted to go to the kitchen for his morning meal.
“Okay, okay,” she said as she slid her journal back into its home in her nightstand drawer.
“Young lady!” Margaret yelled from the kitchen. “Get your butt moving!”
The dream tried to tell her something. Something more than it’s a bad idea to go to bed without eating the evening meal. She was sure of it. She dressed quickly and did not have time to fix her hair by the time the voice over the intercom announced the busses had arrived. Without saying goodbye or even good morning to her mother or Johnny, Echo ran out the door. She caught the elevator just in time to arrive at the busses before they pulled away. She felt different that morning, but she didn’t know why. Something had changed. She looked out the window on the ride to school just as she did every morning, but this time even Bakerton seemed different. As the bus passed the park and the fenced tree, she wondered if trees killed, or if that was all a lie. Could her dream world be that different from reality? She couldn’t wait to talk to her friends and see what they thought.
Five
Life at Bakerton High School had returned to normal overnight. They removed the sign announcing the Citizen Fitness Examination and the platform on the sports field. As the buses arrived and dropped off the students, they filed into the school in normal silence. The halls were silent, her science, language instruction, and history classes all returned to their normal silent state as well. Nothing seemed to have changed, yet somehow everything seemed different. The silence that she once welcomed was now deafening. For tenth-year students, the afternoon meal was the only physical change in their routine. As they would soon be full citizens, they could talk amongst themselves. When Echo joine
d her friends, they were already deep in conversation about the exam.
“Those questions were too easy,” Jodi said through a mouthful of fruit mush. “I didn’t even need to study as hard as I did.”
“I know,” Ansel agreed.
Echo looked at them as she picked at her protein loaf and sighed. “You must have taken a different examination than me! I didn’t even finish all of the questions on being a citizen.”
“I wouldn’t worry,” Megan said, tossing Echo an extra sugar snack. “Meredith told me, that she knew a girl, who knew a boy, who didn’t answer half of his questions and he still passed. He’s working in infrastructure repair, I think.”
Echo, Jodi, and Ansel stared at Megan in disbelief.
“Yeah, I think I’d fit right in with a bunch of smelly men running around in the sewers looking for leaks or clogs in the lines,” Echo said.
Jodi spat his drink across the table and hit Ansel in the face. Echo pictured herself in their bright yellow plastic uniforms and laughed.
“They look at other things too, you know,” Jodi said. “It’s not all about the written examination.”
“Yeah, like the interview,” Ansel added. “My agent and I sat there joking around for the whole hour after he read in my file about the time I caught the science lab on fire.”
Everyone laughed. “That was funny,” Jodi said. “Never seen Principal Sharpe look so furious or run so fast up the stairs before that day.”
“Or sweat that much,” Echo added. “Although anything beats the view at the assembly.” She shivered remembering how his backside looked.
They laughed hysterically, and Echo forgot about telling them about her dream. She accepted this moment though and cherished it. It wasn’t very often that they were able to talk, laugh, and just be friends at school. Once they were full citizens though, if you performed all your assigned duties, you were free to socialize unless someone complained. Her father once said that a man in his office would complain if someone sneezed too loudly. A good citizen is mindful of their impact on others, her mother would say.
“Agent Dobson never cracked a smile,” Echo said, sending the table’s bliss crashing back to reality. “She just wrote down a bunch of stuff, even when all I said was yes, then told me I was done.”
“Oh,” the others said in unison.
The bell rang and prevented any further consolation. The group returned to their positions as student-citizens for their afternoon classes. Echo sighed heavily and threw her uneaten food away, placed the tray in its proper slot, and returned to class. The rest of the day passed as usual as teachers instructed their students who sat in perfect silence. She didn’t know what she expected life to be like after the examination, but the stress and focus on it all year just to have life return to as it had been for the last ten years was depressing. The only things she looked forward to during the next twelve weeks while she waited for the results were the tenth-year student’s social gathering at the Bakerton Center for Social Engagement and the many field trips they would be taking for career exploration.
◆◆◆
The Bakerton Center for Social Engagement was a large facility across the street from the State Building and park. It was used for special events and social gatherings. That night, two thousand tenth-year students filled the center. Echo met Ansel, Jodi, and Megan outside the center at half-past seven. Her friends had showered and put on fresh school uniforms for the occasion. They tried their best to hide their insecurities. Ansel often worried that his curly brown hair would fall and make him look sloppy. Megan was self-conscious about her teeth and sat for hours in front of her mirror and practiced speaking in a way that hid them. Jodi had, in his mind, been born with a double whammy. He had thin blond hair and bad eyesight, so he wore wire-rimmed round glasses and always worried that his hair was falling out. One-time Echo caught him standing in front of the mirror and cry as another hair fell into the sink. Echo tried to not worry about her appearance outside of school. She wore the same uniform she had worn to school that day and had not looked in the mirror since she arrived at home. She never understood why someone would be so obsessed with their appearance as to want to look in a mirror unless it was necessary.
“What’s so interesting over there?” Ansel asked, following Echo’s stare to across the street.
“It’s a dream I had the other day,” Echo said. “In it, the trees didn’t kill you instantly, and the grass was soft and smelled fresh instead of giving you blisters.”
Jodi laughed. “Imagine that! Non-killer trees!”
His laughter spread and soon the group was laughing. Everyone except Echo. She still wondered if her dreams were true. If they were, it meant everyone in Bakerton was lied to. But why would they do that? Why would they not want people to touch the grass or trees? It didn’t make any sense, but judging from her friend’s reaction, it would be best not to tell them anything about the rest of the dream. She stood there and watched them laugh. She couldn’t help but wonder if this was the way it was going to be from now on. Her keeping secrets from everyone. Maybe that is the way it was supposed to be. Maybe that’s why her mother hid her emotions. The thought of becoming her mother made Echo cringe. She refused to become like her mother, but it would mean having to find a balance. She had time for that though. That night was just for her and her friends.
“Yeah, imagine that,” Echo said, grinning. “It was a nightmare.”
Ansel put his arm around Megan. “Sounds like it.”
Jodi put his arm around Echo, and the four friends walked into the Center that looked like someone had set a protein loaf in a blender and forgot to put the lid on before they turned it on. Most of the students stayed with their schools and formed the outer circle of a grotesque whirlpool that churned slowly until you reached the middle of the dance floor. There, hundreds of uniformed tenth-years bounced and twisted to horrible music and created a swirl of gray, white, bright green, and blues that reminded Echo of the time Charlie ate a protein bar and vomited all over her gray floor. The group slowly slid their way along the wall to the refreshment stand and trash receptacles where few students had gathered.
“I will be so glad when school is finally over,” Ansel said as he returned with an armload of drinks and snack items for everyone.
“Same here,” Jodi said. He took a drink and chocolate bar.
“I don’t know,” Megan said softly, “I’d miss seeing you guys every day.”
“Me too,” Echo said, snatching a drink and bag of dried potato flakes. “I know we don’t get to talk much anymore, but once we’re citizen’s we will. Won’t we?”
Everyone sat on the floor behind the trash receptacles and contemplated her last question. They will still see each other, right? Jodi was the first to break the silence with a belching rendition of the Bakerton Motto that sent everyone into a fit of laughter. After that, no one brought up the future beyond two months from then. No one wanted to think about the inevitable moment when each of them had gone on their separate ways. Right here, right now, was all they wanted to focus on. Good friends, bad music, and hours to spend idly poking fun at everyone else in the room. By the end of the night, the four had made a pact to spend the last two months of school doing everything they could together. Let the future stay in the future where it belonged. That thought appealed to Echo who wrapped it around her heart and clung on to the last days with her friends.
◆◆◆
The first of the month brought new adventures for tenth-year students. For the remaining two months of their time as students, they reported to school, attended workshops, field trips, and shadowed people on their jobs to gain a deeper understanding of what they may be assigned when they graduate. Principal Sharpe decided group placement and was based only on academic record. Unfortunately, this meant that the four friends would spend very little time together.
Echo’s first field trip was to the fabric distribution center. There she watched workers place large rolls of fabric on a
holder, then stretch it down a long metal table and folded it back on itself when it reached the end of the table. They continued this process until the fabric measured fifty yards. Once it reached the desired length, they cut and rolled the fabric. Men carried it to a distribution truck that would deliver it to uniform construction and distribution centers throughout the city.
“This is what you would be doing here, ten hours a day, five days a week,” the foreman told Echo’s group of thirty students after their full tour of the facility.
She cringed at the thought of performing this type of work day in and day out for the rest of her life and wished she was at the medical facility with Ansel or the scientific research center with Jodi. Even visiting the food replication center with Megan would have been better than there. For three hours the group worked on a line of their own together. It was hot, boring, and after the first fold of the fabric, exceptionally heavy. She had never been happier than when the foreman announced their bus was waiting outside to take them back to their school. Before they could leave though, they needed to identify their level of interest in performing that task. No one dared answer it honestly with a zero, so most of the group marked a three. Echo noticed three girls scored a five.
“Why’d you do that?” Echo whispered to one of the girls who wrote they were very interested as they walked back to the bus.
“My mom said they don’t give you what you want to do most,” she whispered.
Echo nodded and smiled. She remembered that on other field trips. When they returned to school, the last two hours of the day were free to use as they pleased. Echo and her friends met in the school library at their usual table. The others were much more excited about their experience than Echo was, but she tried to keep her hopes up that she would not get the fabric distribution center.
“You should have seen it,” Ansel said. “There were so many microscopes and machines in the laboratories! I was in heaven.”