Fairfax

by Jared Ravens

  Felix could hear the bell for the early morning class from his window, a deep clang that reverberated off the walls of the ally. He could see the teenagers standing below him, regretting the sound. They had a habit, a tradition they engaged in during their last moments of freedom. Felix returned to the window several time as he readied himself to watch it.

  The boys and girls sorted themselves on their separate sides of the fence to walk into their respective sides of the school. As they did this, several of the body struck up a beat by slamming their hands and sticks on drums made of old pots. As they did this, the girls would delay going into the building to listen to a little more. As the beat kept going they other boys would peel out of the line to start an improvised dance. Felix had seen this dance delveloped over the months and was impressed with their progress. The distraction was working well; numerous girls were standing by the fence to watch rather than go into their classes.

  As the teachers called them several more girls and boys peeled off to go inside. The remaining dancers and drummers took this as a challenge and banged hard and danced even more furiously, throwing themselves onto the ground.

  Their efforts extended their freedom but did not prevent it from disappearing. Soon, only two girls remained. Then one girl. A single drummer and dancer entertained her. The dancer moved closer, throwing himself into the fence. Felix paused in his dressing, squinting to see if they touched. They seemed to meet. They both briefly paused.

  Then a teacher called. She waved and ducked into the tiny school. The drumming tailed off and the boy dropped the pot to the ground, finally defeated. Only the boy remained on the fence.

  Then she seemed to wave goodbye and duck away into the shack. The drummer stooped, finally defeated. Only the boy remained on the fence.

  Try again, Felix thought. You’ll get her.

  Someday.

  He bounced down the stairs, racing down the stairs that connected the apartments together. On level four he ran through the living room of an elderly couple that barely heard him go through. On level three four women in a union waved at him from their kitchen. In level two, the dirtiest of them all, an ancient man that had lived there forever seemed stuck in the kitchen on his balcony. Felix wanted to help him but he had no time. He bounded over the boxes the old man kept on the stairs and jumped into the the street.

  Around him three wheeled vehicles competed with pedestrians and animals for space on the slender roads. He hopped onto one of the vehicles, pushing its back fender down towards the ground with his weight. It was quite a while before the driver noticed him. He cursed at Felix as he hopped off, running towards the temple and up its steps.

  The ceremony had already started by the time he reached it, but it was not as far enough along as Felix had hoped. The men, crowded onto the ground floor among the pillars, humming the chorus to an unintelligible hymn. Though it was impossible to understand the words, the low voices mixed beautifully, vibrating on the marble floors and rising up into the hole that formed a rounded balcony above them, where women in white and yellow tunics stood. They echoed a line back down to the men and the they repeated their chorus.

  The whirlwind of sound was enthralling, making them forget the oppressive heat and overly crowded quarters they were cocooned into. This crowd was not used to these types of conditions, but no one was complaining. Everyone wanted to be here. Some had even begged Theo Mainrift for the opportunity to sweat among the armpits of these people. Even Felix wanted to be here. But for his own reasons.

  Tiring of the echoing cacophony of sound, Felix moved back from the group and leaned against a white stone pillar. He felt a poke to his side and turned.

  "Pudgy, you're late," Dani said. He dodged as Felix tries to punch his chest, his brown curly hair falling over his eyes as he avoided the hit.

  "Pudgy, I got here in plenty of time," Felix said, finally landing a blow on Dani's shoulder.

  From his back Felix felt a push and turned to see the back of the crowd extending towards him. The noise was louder and the people seemed more intoxicated. The beauty of the blending voices is turned into a pure, electric energy. Felix and Dani found a place further back against the curve of the wall and shouted to each other.

  "Where's you family at?" Dani asked.

  "I don't know," Felix replied, and craned his neck to find them. He pushed himself to his toes and looked towards the front stage, peering over the dirty brown heads of all of the men. He was surrounded by a rainbow of colored tunics and painted faces, a joy to look at but not useful for identifying anyone.

  The sound changed suddenly, and a priestess appeared at the top of the round balcony. A bright yellow tunic was draped around her and her eyes were bright enough to appear golden. Whether caused by some cosmetic trick or as the result of some genetic magic Felix couldn’t tell. He knew that by her position as a priest at this level she most certainly was directly birthed from Celia, and thus specially gifted and supremely odd. Missing one's childhood and being born fully formed, and without a direct family destined most of them for a very unique life.

  "Yaaaa ayaaay yayyyaa!" she yelled, her arms open and her voice fully committed. She leaned forward over the railing, threatening to fall into the men below her. The men responded to her energy with a call of their own. The blended voices became a harmony again, blending of dynamic energies. The priestess took her next breath as the women around her backed away to give her space, and she let out another chorus. Felix was mesmerized by her.

  "Is she crazy?" Danhi asked during a brief break in the sound. Felix shook his head. The leaders of the ceremonies at the temples he was forced to attend were not this exciting. Mostly the read from the Official History or something from The Versus of this or that manager. All of it was very dry. This woman was threatening to jump out of her skin. She opened her eyes and Felix swore he could see the pupils glow directly at him.

  "Dolo recolto shaveet! Dolo recoloto shaveet!"

  Her thin body vibrated against the banister. The women were at a fever pitch, their bodies swaying excitedly as the men below them jumped with in elation. Felix couldn’t stand still any longer. He pushed his way through the crowd to get closer to the stage below the balcony. Dani pushed against the wall of men covered in sweat, trying to follow him. The priestess screamed again and there was a deafening roar, a noise so loud that Felix had to cover his ears. He looked up towards the small stage on the ground floor and saw two men and a young woman walk through the red curtains. The three youths were dressed in suits and a dress that highlighted their small, youthful frames. They walked to the edge of the stage, their overwhelmed expressions reflecting the force of adulation rolling over them. The girl was nearly in tears of happiness, her round face blushing with joy. The three of them grasped hands and and took a bow, lacking anything else to do while the deafening sound carries on.

  Through the twisted bodies in front of him Felix saw a tall, lanky man with a weathered face appear through the curtain. His own outfit was rather drab and grey compared to the bright colors around him and in contrast to to his wife in dark red. But he was the man of the hour. This was his daughter in front of him, and these are his two new sons-in-laws. This union was Theo Mainrift's master stroke, a culmination of years of negotiation with two other families to tie them all together. Theo and his daughter, Ashi, were protected by their close ties to Curson. The two boys were Davya, a shipping heir, and Earnest, the son of a mining titan. Respectively, they were represented by Spaulding and Kilkea, the manager of travel.

  Above them on the balcony the priestess in yellow vibrated and smiled broadly. The women gather around the railing in a circle and nodded their pleasure. It was the union of the three of them but this was Theo's day. He heard all the cheering for him, and everyone meant it for him; This was his family, united in the ties of business. His wife, Delia, scanned the audience with her green eyes and locked her gaze on Felix. The look discomforted him enough that he pulled back, putting a few of the sweating men in
between him and her eyes. The noise faded away. Felix moved away from the crowd and fell against the wall again. He panted from the heat as he caught a smile from Dani.

  “Enough for you?” Dani asked, wiping the sweat from his thick hair.

  “Oh, man,” Felix said. Shaking his white, long sleeved shirt. Sweat dripped off the end of it. “Too much, too much.”

  Large fans were drug in by round, thick chested men and heaved up and down to push the humidity out of the hall. Felix was pulling at his shirt to let the cool air up to his face when his eye caught someone else’s in the balcony. Her face was nearly cut from view by the railing and the ceiling of the far end of the balcony, but in the small space he saw a pair of eyes so distinctly yellow that he thought they must be from some animal. His first thought was that it was the priestess but he could still hear her mumbling from another part of the balcony. He wondered if the girl was staring at him in anger, so intense was the stare, but she moved a bit and he saw her smile. It was a delicate half grin, with lips of a naturally light color. From what he could tell, there was not touch of makeup on her visage, an oddity at an event where even some of the men wore thick layers of celebratory paint on their faces.

  “Is it the one in the pint?” Dani said, leaning down to see what he was looking at.

  Felix looked at him and then back at the balcony. The face was gone.

  “She wasn’t wearing pink,” Felix replied.

  Dani poked him in the side.

  “Quite working so hard,” he said.

  “Its not work. I know what work is, I get paid for that.”

  “Its always work. A lot of work, pudge. These girls are just just trouble, all of them.”

  “Not true,” Felix replied, walking towards the stage. As people scattered to the edges of the room to get air the organizers were setting up tables in a series of half circles rotating out from the stage. “They all come with prizes attached, and that’s the work. There’s good opportunities everywhere here.”

  “Like his opportunity?” Dani asked, pointing to the stage. Felix looked at Davya, the small boy with a delicate face that still hinted at puberty. “You think it’s true?”

  Felix shook his head, pretending not to be bothered. “That’s just talk.”

  The common saying was that a wife only needed one husband and that the second was only extra. In situations where a union involved two, one of them might have to make a sacrifice. In this case, though Kilea was the daughter of Genese and Celia, she was considered the weaker of the three managers and the least useful. Thus, medical assistance might have been negotiated to keep the very young man from having desires for his wife.

  "They wouldn't do that to their son," Felix said.

  "They would for the right amount," Dani replied. "They've done it before."

  "Do you know anyone that's had it?"

  "No but..."

  "All talk," Felix says, and cut him off. "All talk."

  The curtain was opened and a large, imposing statue of Goetz was revealed. Carved in white and black stone, it represented an artistic interpretation of Goetz. It had tentacles rising in the air and a distorted face gaping down on the newlyweds. Felix found himself drawn to it. What would it look like to meet this one, the one no person is ever supposed to meet? He wondered if Goetz had ever seen this unflattering portrait of him, and what it thought if it.

  The half circles of table were nearly complete. Chair and table clothes were brought out and everyone scrambled their assigned seat. The bride and grooms of the hour were set at the center of the outer ring with the most important people to their sides. Status diminished as the chairs branched out and proceeded to other tables. Felix found his family through the chaos halfway down the second set of tables. He looked around, seeing the servants further away on the next set of tables and those unreachable at table above him. He glanced again at Goetz, directly above the threesome. Goetz seemed to be holding a metal rod in one of his tenticles and his multiple eyes threaten to pound the betrothed with it. For once, he thought, it might not be the best idea to be front and center at that table.

  Numerous men in armor appeared at a large side door, leaning back as they used their body weight to pull against a ropes. After they yanked several times a cage appeared at the door which could only barely fit through. Inside a beast with six legs and a green exoskeleton squealed from several mouths at its center. It tested every point of the cage as the crowd squeezed with delight.

  “From the edge of the world!” Felix’s mother, Carmen, said, taken back. “Are we safe?”

  “If the brought it here they know how to handle it by now,” his father, Daniel replied, not sounding too confident.

  It took a tremendous amount of labor to bring something like this across the desert. The men and women at the lowest table pushed over each other to have a chance at it. Rushing around the table to the cage, one by one they took turns with lances to stab it. The thing made vicious, angry noises as it lashed helplessly at the bars of the cage. Finally it fell limp, and the joyous crowd rose to its feet again.

  The cage was dissembled so the beast could be cut up and served and the servants quickly took mops to the floor to absorb the dark blood.

  "Not bad," his Carmen said. "Not bad at all." She was sitting back down beside him, putting her napkin on her lap. Felix couldn’t tell if she was commenting on the fight, the union, the ceremony, or the mounds of food coming towards them. It was possible she might be referring to their placement but he knew that mattered least of all to her.

  "It could be better," Felix replied.

  "I'd like to see you try and sing like that lady," Taniel commented. "That was amazing!"

  Felix nodded and looked back towards the center of the table. Just to the right of the three newlyweds was a girl with long black hair and olive skin. Felix watched as she reached over Danya to talk to her sister Ashia. Their eyes met and she paused for a moment to let a thin smile appear on her lips. Felix winked at her and looked away.

  “Have you met Theo before?” Taniel asked.

  “Not well enough,” Felix replied, feeling annoyed at the question.

  “Now is your chance.”

  “Oh, give it up,” Carmen said. “That man’s nothing but trouble.”

  “He doesn’t have to be best friends with him,” Taniel replied, setting his fork down. “Just talk to him for a minute. That’s why you wanted to come here.”

  Felix clinched his hand together, resisting the urge to kick his father.

  “I what I need to do,” Felix said.

  “Do you want me to go up there?” Taniel asked.

  “No! I’m not going to ambush him at his daughter’s union.”

  “You have to take a chance.”

  “I know what I’m doing,” Felix said through gritted teeth. The last thing he wanted was for his father to annoy Theo with petty conversation.

  “I can introduce you,” Taniel insisted.

  “Taniel!” Carmen said, dropping her fork. “Leave it.”

  Felix was grateful for his mother’s intervention. His father thought he had gotten them here with his connections but Felix knew it had taken a push by someone else to get them to the table. Taniel was a mid level justice minister. He was a commoner who kept the wheels moving. He didn’t make the wheels. Generation after generation of his family had been appointed by Robertson to become bureaucrats that helped in the management of courts and justice. But Robertson was barely a connection; they often spoke to one of his assistants rather than to the titan himself. And while Theo wanted to keep the justice ministers close, he didn’t want them as friends.

  Being tied to Robertson felt like the lowest rung on a ladder. It wasn’t impressive to anyone. And it wasn’t what Felix wanted. There was an obvious gap to get to the place he wanted and he couldn’t lean on his father to get it for him.

  Felix watched quietly as the the hordes of servants carried more plates of food out to the tables. The noise in the room was distractin
g and it was difficult to carry on a conversation with his family. He looked around the room at the mass of intoxicated humanity gorging on the rewards of Theo’s triumph. He looked up to the main table to see where McKenna was when he noticed someone across the room.

  The woman was against the wall, still, clasping her hand in each other and staring directly at him. She moved pulled herself back from the wall and began to walk counterclockwise around the room, her green dress shimmering around her thick hips.

  Come.

  The words appeared in his head as if written out, and he followed them. He walked around the back into kitchen behind the stage. The music faded. He walked past the workers preparing meals as he looked for her.

  Down.

  He descended the stairs to a storage area, a musty smell rising to him. Metal cages around him held multitudes of cups and dishes. An old paintings laid against the wall. At the other side of the storage area, behind another metal cage, he saw the light skinned woman looking at him from the other side of a cage.

  He walked towards her. She smiled brightly at him It was look he couldn’t read; her face appeared happy and inviting but eyes glowered at him as if an animal was staring him down. His heart beat as he approached, not understanding this thing he was approaching. He stopped at the cage, not wanting to put his fingers through any space. Her eyes didn’t leave him; her light green dress bunched at her thighs as she moved closer towards him. Her cheeks were were more striking in this light, her eyes cut a little deeper.

  “Did you lock yourself in there?” Felix asked.

  “I didn’t want you to hurt me,” she said.

  “Why would you think that?”

  She looked him over and nodded to the a wooden box. He took a seat.

  “What brings you to a party like this?” She asked him. Now that he was this close he could see several light scars beneath her glowing skin. He wanted to say something clever but he felt only honesty would do with someone like this.

  “Connections,” he replied.