by Kelli Kimble
“Yes, um, Elliot,” I said. “I would like you to meet Willow.”
“Hi,” she finally said.
“I’m sorry,” said Elliot, withdrawing his hand. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you ladies. You go on to your friend business. I’ll just go back to the apartment, okay, Fiona?”
“Okay,” I said.
Willow nodded, and he left.
“So, do I need to scrape you off the floor?” I asked.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she said.
“I mean, you just melted at the mere sight of Elliot.” I tried not to giggle.
“Oh. Well, I was actually fascinated. I mean, he very closely resembles my father. When he was younger, I mean.”
I didn’t buy it, but I allowed that she probably didn’t want to tell me how she felt. “So, you want to show me the library now?”
We walked together to the library. It was filled with loud, metal boxes that were extremely warm. I touched one and felt it vibrating under my hand. “What is this thing?”
“It’s just a series of data servers. Supposedly, they store a huge amount of information from before the winter. The ‘collective knowledge of the internet’ is what they called it when we learned about it in school. It will all be accessible on your tablet.”
At the far end of the room, there was a semi-opaque window. Willow pushed a button next to it, and one side of it slid open. An older man with thick glasses looked out at her. “Hi, my friend here would like a tablet, please,” she told him.
He glanced at me and then shifted his gaze back to Willow. “Name, please.”
“Willow.”
He pursed his lips. “Not you; I know who you are. What’s her name?” He pointed at me.
“Fiona.”
“She isn’t on the roster.”
“How do you know? You didn’t even look,” said Willow.
“I don’t need to look. I know the whole thing backwards and forwards. There is nobody with that name on the roster.”
“Okay. Then, how do I get her on the roster?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never encountered someone who was not on the roster before. A better question is, why isn’t she on the roster?” He eyed me again. Uncomfortable, I slid closer to the wall so that I could be out of his line of sight.
Willow bit her lip. After a pause, she said, “She’s friends with Leo.”
“Who’s Leo?” he demanded.
“President Leo?”
He paused. “I don’t care who she’s friends with. She isn’t on the roster. And you should show that man some respect. Did he tell you to call him that?” He didn’t wait for an answer. He slid the window closed with a snap.
She moved to press the button again, but I caught her hand.
“There’s no need to push it, Willow. He’s just doing his job. We’ll figure out how to get me on the roster, and it’ll be fine.”
“I don’t understand. He’s never been anything short of friendly and helpful. Why would he be so stubborn?”
I turned her towards the door. “Maybe the next time I see Leo—President Leo—I can ask him about it. Okay? It’s fine.”
“Okay.”
She allowed me to steer her towards the door. Out in the hallway, she shook herself out of her thoughtful state. “Maybe I’ll just let you borrow mine for a few days. Until you can get on the roster, that is.”
“You can do without it?” I asked hesitantly.
“Oh, sure. I don’t use it nearly as much since I finished with school. Let’s go get it now.”
◆◆◆
Willow showed me some basic things to do with the tablet, and I tried my best to follow along. I was pretty sure she didn’t notice I couldn’t read. I was excited to try it out, and I quickly made my excuses so that I could return to the apartment and share it with Elliot.
But when I got back to the apartment, I could hear raised voices from behind the closed door. I paused and tried to hear who was talking.
“You can’t stay in here with her. That isn’t how things are done inside.”
“Fine. Then, get me a room with a door that locks.”
“You might have ruined the whole thing just for a lock?”
“I don’t feel safe. You let Ray do this to me, remember?”
There was a brief pause. “I’ll get you a safe room. But on a different floor. You have to distance yourself from her.”
“I doubt she’ll be comfortable with that. I’m not comfortable with that. I need to be able to keep an eye on her. You know, I’m tasked with her safety.”
“It’s up to me to keep her safe now. That’s the whole point of me partnering with her.”
I put my hand on the doorknob and was about to barge in. I didn’t need anyone to keep me safe. But, the door swung open, and Leo was standing there. His cheeks and neck were flushed, but he softened his expression as soon as he saw me. “Fiona. I just stopped by to ask you to a late lunch. But, Elliot says you already ate.”
I tried to get a peek of Elliot in the room, but Leo filled the doorway. “Yes, I did,” I said.
“Oh, you found a tablet. I asked my assistant to get you on the roster, but I thought I’d take you myself to collect it.”
“This isn’t mine,” I said, lifting the tablet for him to see. “It belongs to my friend, Willow.”
He tipped his head slightly. “And did she show you how to use it?”
I nodded. “She showed me a few things, yes.”
“But, she assumed too much, I would think.”
I felt my cheeks heat. “Yes.”
He touched my cheek in a strangely tender manner, and then cleared his throat. “Well, I’ll see to that, of course. I’m going to bring a tutor round for you tomorrow morning. How would that be?”
“A tutor?”
“Just someone who will help you begin your education. Inside, people your age have already finished even the highest levels of schooling. So, I’m not going to embarrass you by plunking you in a class of toddlers. Instead, you’ll have a private teacher. Elliot can sit in, too, if he likes.” He opened the door far enough for me to see Elliot. “What do you say, Elliot?”
Before Elliot could answer, I interrupted. “I have a dentist appointment tomorrow morning.”
Leo frowned slightly. “You’ve been busy today, haven’t you? Changed your hair, painted your nails, borrowed a tablet, and made a dentist appointment.” He caught my free hand in his and raised it to study the color of my nails. “You look lovely, of course. You have a raw beauty. But polish it up, and you’ll be breathtaking.”
“Thanks,” I said as I withdrew my hand.
He wasn’t deterred. “I’ll send the tutor by tomorrow afternoon, then. Can I walk you to the library to pick up your new tablet?”
I stole a look at Elliot. He was staring at the wall. “What about Elliot? He needs a tablet, too.”
“Oh, you’ll each get one. We can bring his back for him. Right, Elliot?”
“Sure,” he said. He didn’t look away from the wall.
Leo put his hand on my shoulder and slid it down to the small of my back as he guided me down the hallway and away from my apartment. I tried to get a glimpse of his face from the corner of my eye, but he was slightly behind me.
“What was that all about?” I asked.
“What?”
“Come on. I heard you arguing.”
“Right. I couldn’t expect you to pretend like you hadn’t eavesdropped.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose. And what is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing,” he said. “Ah, here’s the library.”
I stopped short of entering. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“You were listening. You know what it was about.”
“I’m giving you the opportunity to explain yourself,” I said.
He glanced around for others, and then stepped closer to me and lowered his voice. “Inside the mountain, you will find that the idea of
your choosing ceremony is not well-received. We believe in family units and partnership. People here wouldn’t accept that I am your partner if you are living with another man.”
“I haven’t said that I accept you as a partner,” I said. I stepped past him into the library.
He caught my arm. “It doesn’t matter that you haven’t decided. If you live with him, you won’t have a decision to make at all.”
“Are you giving me an ultimatum?”
“No. I’m simply pointing out the truth. If he lives with you, I can’t be your partner. People won’t like it. I can’t have people judging me for insignificant things. A future queen should be aware of such a thought process.”
“As it happens, I am aware of such a thought process,” I said. He knew what the people there would think better than I did, and I had to let him guide me. But, I didn’t have to like it. “I’m sure Elliot will be happy enough wherever you can find him a room. So long as he is safe from Ray, and anyone else who has some grief to work out.”
He glanced around again. “Don’t talk to me in that tone,” he said. “People can hear you.”
“Why? Are you afraid people won’t like that I can think for myself?”
He stilled, except for a tiny twitch above his right eye. I couldn’t stop staring at the spot as it jumped. I started to get the sensation I’d often had with Orion—that war between the fear of whatever pain was going to be delivered and the urge to just get it over with.
Then, he smiled. He put his hands on my shoulders and just grinned like an idiot. “I know you don’t see it yet,” he said. “But, we’re going to be great together. You’ll see.” He laughed and went to the window, then pressed the button. He asked the man with the glasses for a tablet, and the man handed him one. The man didn’t ask for my name. “Wait, I need another,” said Leo.
The man passed a second tablet through the window without saying a word. He raised his eyebrows above the heavy rim of his glasses, waiting. But, Leo only said, “Thank you, Malcolm,” and turned away.
I heard the window slide shut as we exited the library. Leo handed me the two new tablets. “You’ll learn so much from these. You’ll have access to the kind of knowledge your group could never have imagined.”
I accepted the tablets but didn’t respond. He seemed pleased with himself. I stifled the urge to smack him upside his smug face with the three tablets I now held, stacked together.
He looked at me then. His face fell. “What is it?”
“You think you’re better than me. That you’re superior.”
“I wouldn’t say that. We’re products of two entirely different situations.”
“But, you think your situation is better.”
He shrugged. “It’s only human nature that I think my situation is better. Just as you surely think your situation is better than mine.”
That was the problem. I didn’t think my situation was better. But, I couldn’t tell him that.
Someone stopped us to speak to Leo. I excused myself and kept walking before he could stop me. When I got back to the apartment, Elliot was gone. I closed the door and leaned against it, then slowly slid to the floor.
Chapter 12
Willow accompanied me to the dentist as she’d promised. It was more painful than I’d expected, and I was glad when it was over. But, my teeth did look whiter. We went to lunch together, and I noticed that, though others still weren’t speaking to me directly, a number of people actually made eye contact. The woman behind the counter even managed not to glare when she handed me my plate.
Willow had work to do and left me at the apartment to wait for the tutor to arrive. I sat with my tablet and tried to remember even one of the tricks Willow had shown me the day before, but I couldn’t get it to do anything.
There was a knock at the door. I answered it and found the tutor and Elliot standing in the hall.
“Hello, you must be Fiona,” she said. She extended her arm in greeting.
I shook it and nodded. “Yes, and you are?”
“You may call me Annie. I’m very pleased to meet you. President Leo asked me to pay you and Elliot a visit. I’ve reserved a classroom, if you’d like to collect your tablet. We’ll wait here.”
“All right,” I said. I grabbed both of our tablets and went back to the hall.
“Wonderful. If you’ll just follow me?”
I handed Elliot his tablet, and we trailed along behind her. I studied her from behind. She wore a long, black garment that was rather like a robe, and she was carrying a square, leather bag over her shoulder. Her hair was thick and dark with threads of gray running through it. It was parted down the middle and hung straight to her shoulders. Occasionally, I could see gray strands which refused to conform to the severe shape standing up and shining under the lights as we moved beneath them.
She opened a door, and the lights flickered on. There was a table with a few chairs in the center of a small room. A small, square object sat in the middle of the table, but other than that, there was little else to see.
“Have a seat,” she said as she shut the door. “We’ll first assess your learning styles. I am an audio teacher primarily, but sometimes, visual. So, we may find that you’ll do better with someone else. Okay?”
“Okay,” said Elliot. “Just tell us how to start.”
She withdrew some objects from her bag and explained that most people learned with a primary learning style, either auditory, visual, or tactile.
“There are a select few people who are lucky enough to be able to learn in all three ways very well. I would suspect that, up until now, you have been forced to learn in a very tactile way. Am I right?”
Elliot and I exchanged a glance. “I suppose so,” Elliot answered.
I shrugged.
She placed some items with strange markings on the table.
“You understand that we don’t know how to read, right?” I said. My cheeks felt hot.
“President Leo explained your situation very carefully,” she said. “The test won’t involve reading.”
She clipped a small device to the square on the table. Then, she handed each of us another small device. “All you have to do is hold the device like so in your palm,” she said as she demonstrated how to hold her own device. “The lights will be turned off. Don’t be alarmed. Please understand that none of this is real. You will not be physically harmed in any way. Okay?”
She didn’t give us time to respond. The lights went out, and the room was dark. But then, the square in the center of the table began to glow. It grew and pulsed, and then, there was an image above the table. Initially, it was a bird. It flew around the room several times, and then perched on a branch. It sang a song.
I watched, fascinated, as it continued to sing. The room slowly changed into a forest. Other creatures were darting in and around the foliage. The air felt warm and moist around me. A black, furry animal jumped onto the table and moved towards Elliot, clearly stalking some prey. I could hear its sharp claws ticking on the tabletop surface as it slunk past me. It let out a godawful roar and charged right at Elliot.
Elliot sprang from his seat. “What the hell?!” he shouted.
But, the creature had actually jumped at something directly behind Elliot. It was now busily tearing it apart.
“You may return to your seat, Elliot,” said Annie. “And I’ll remind you that you won’t be harmed.”
Elliot scowled but sat back in his seat. We watched as a variety of events unfolded around us. There were countless opportunities to flinch, cover our ears, or close our eyes. I couldn’t wait for it to be over.
Finally, the images faded, and Annie turned the lights on.
“That was certainly interesting,” she said. “I’ve never had students react the way you two do. Perhaps because this somewhat resembles real life to you.”
I chewed my lip, rather than respond. Elliot glared at her, but she was tapping on her tablet.
“All right. Well. The results in
dicate that you are both very strong auditory learners.” She clapped her hands, wove her fingers together, and clenched until her knuckles turned white. “We’re in this together, then.”
“When do we start?” I asked.
“There’s no time like the present,” she said, with a raised brow.
Chastened, I lowered my eyes to the table.
“We’ll begin with the alphabet. I understand you don’t know it?”
“What’s the alphabet?” said Elliot.
She inhaled sharply and held her breath for a moment. “I do believe I have my work cut out for me,” she said.
◆◆◆
We spent the entire afternoon with Annie. Midway through, there was no mistaking that she’d been saddled with this job against her better judgment. She was condescending and rude and didn’t miss an opportunity to point out our ignorance. Also, she never allowed us time to use the restroom or eat, though she excused herself several times to visit the facilities herself.
Since we were auditory learners, she insisted on teaching us a nursery rhyme to learn the names of the letters in the alphabet. At the end of class, she loaded up our tablets with homework exercises, which would be due the following day. She demonstrated how to use the tablet to do them, and then sent us on our way. “I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning,” she said, giving us a wide, fake smile. “Don’t be late!” The last was barked more than spoken.
I scuttled from the room as quickly as possible. I hoped to run into Leo so that I could complain about her demeanor. Surely, he could find someone who was actually willing to teach us.
But, Elliot interrupted my thoughts on the subject. “If I’m not mistaken,” he said as we practically ran down the hallway, “Leo is testing us.”
“Testing us?”
“He wants to see if we’ll give up. If we have enough resolve to see this through. He wants to marry you, and you haven’t agreed. Why else would he intentionally inflict that woman on us?”