by Dane Bagley
For the first time, Aspiria was completely alone in the room. She had been stuck in her cell for the past week, and was feeling very caged-in. She was only allowed to leave for showering and bathroom privileges. She had been given alternative clothing to wear, and she wore it, but it was very strange. Today, they had brought her back her own clothing and it was clean. She was glad to have her own clothing back on. Over the past week, her escorts had become more comfortable with her leaving for her bathroom breaks. They still carried weapons, but did not point them directly at her.
She had watched them closely and could tell by body language that there were at least seven different people that had been in her room. One of them was clearly in charge of her room. This person was in here most of the time. This person had put several needles in her—sometimes putting in, and sometimes taking out. Aspiria felt that although she spent the most time with this particular person, this person was very distant with her. Others, like the person who had first fed her, were very kind and interested in her. One person never looked at her and seemed to be the leader of the group. Everyone seemed to follow this person’s command, except the person with whom she spent the most time. That person seemed to have a certain command over the person in charge. Those two seemed fond of each other.
They always guarded over her night and day, as it were. But now she was alone. It was both comforting and disconcerting. Now she could hear sounds, and she felt a change in the air. Something was going on, and she sat up straight and listened intensely. For several minutes it was quiet again; then she heard a voice for the first time. It was a very strange voice—a woman’s voice. The language was foreign. It was very nasal and it grated on her. However, she was thrilled to hear a voice. She had heard nothing but the hum of machines and her own voice for the past week. Now another voice could be heard. This was a man’s voice. They were getting closer. She listened carefully, but could not make out anything familiar, neither in word, tone, nor inflection.
Two people entered the room; a woman and a man. The woman looked over at her briefly, seemingly to just check and make sure that she was in her cell. The man did not look over. It took a few minutes watching these unsuited people, without helmets, to tell if she recognized them. It was the woman who was always there. Aspiria felt some relief. She suspected that she had been examined by this person before she had come to. It was a relief that it was a woman. The man was the man in charge. The woman proceeded to inject him, and took out rather than put in. The man did not particularly like it, but they clearly were fond of each other. The woman generally seemed cold, except when he was around.
Aspiria was staring at them. Perhaps this was rude, but she had nothing else to look at. She also needed to figure out what was going on. She needed to find a way to communicate with them. She missed her family terribly. She was feeling a little sick, though that seemed to be getting better with what she suspected to be medicine that she had been injected with. She was cooped up, and had never been cooped up in her life. Aspiria walked miles every day and could not stand to be sitting or lying all day long. She felt physically, mentally, and emotionally uncomfortable. As she stared at the two people in the room, the man looked up at her. She was used to being looked at by these people, but not by him. She smiled slightly and unconsciously at him. He was young, blond, blue-eyed, and very handsome. The man did not look away, but he kept staring at her. It seemed as though he was talking with the woman and with her; as he gestured she could tell that he was taking an interest in her—seemingly for the first time.
The woman seemed to be preoccupied, but carried on the conversation politely, though disinterestedly. When the woman finished with him the man got up and walked over to Aspiria. Aspiria felt a little nervous. For the first time she could see eyes, up close. Those eyes were looking at her as though there was something unusual about her. The man spoke again, but this time he seemed to be speaking to Aspiria, not to the other woman. The words and the sound were strange. It was not a pleasant sound, but she was thrilled to hear these people speak. Where could they be from? she thought. The man gestured to himself as he spoke, and smiled at her.
Aspiria spoke back to him. She told him that she was Aspiria, and pointed to herself. The man screwed up his eyes, but kept smiling. In the background Aspiria could see that another man had entered the lab and had gone over to the woman. He too was getting an injection. Aspiria wanted to watch and see which person it was by the body language, but the man in front of her didn’t seem to want to lose her attention. They continued to try and interact with each other but their languages were alien to each other. She felt frustrated, but at the same time, he was so pleasant and brought himself to laugh so easily that Aspiria, too, allowed her frustration to turn to laughter.
The other man getting an injection left the room, and a third man entered. This time, Aspiria’s attention was turned. This man had very dark skin. She had never seen, or heard of a man with such dark skin. The man in charge turned to see what was so interesting going on behind him. He turned back towards her and looked at her questioningly. Aspiria, looked back at the man in front of her, and reached up to her face. She waved her hand over her face, and then over her arms. That was the only exposed skin of the dark-colored man. Then she pointed at the man. The man in front of her, looked at her quizzically for a moment, and then showed a smile of understanding. He turned to the other man and spoke to him. The dark-skinned man looked up and smiled. Then they both laughed. Even the woman joined in the laughter for a moment.
When the dark-skinned man was done with his injection, he too walked up to Aspiria’s cell. Aspiria walked up to the bars at the edge of her cell. She wanted to look at this man as closely as she could. The dark-skinned man looked at the blond man, and then walked up closer. Aspiria reached her hand out through the cage very slowly. The dark-skinned man walked up closer, and Aspiria touched his arm. She gently caressed it, and then reached towards his cheek. She caressed them as well. The dark skin man smiled and spoke in the strange tongue of her captors. Aspiria smiled deeply.
Other men also came in and got their injections. One was her friend that liked to give her food. He waved at her, when he came in. The next one was his companion. He had darker skin too, but not as dark as the other man. The last one to come in wore facial hair, and was clearly older than everyone else. She laughed briefly when she saw the man with facial hair but put her hand over her mouth and stopped herself. A man wearing facial hair, at least where she was from, was unheard of. She had never seen that before. The blond man signaled for the hairy man to come over, when he was done. He brought the hairy man up close to the cell, and signaled for Aspiria to touch this facial hair. The idea was revolting to her, and she withdrew herself slightly and shook her head. Everyone in the room laughed boisterously, while the hairy man turned a little red. She worried that she had offended him. But he laughed and smiled at her. He put his own hand up to his facial hair and rubbed it and then shrugged. Aspiria smiled, but did not want to come up closer to the bars.
She felt much better now that she could see their faces. She was glad for the interaction with them. But she also felt a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Who are they, and where are they from? she kept thinking. I knew that they were strange, but they must be from very far away. They couldn’t be from the city. But,…she didn’t think that anywhere except the city had electricity. These people seemed to know a lot about electricity and medicine. More than anything she had seen before. Where else could they be from? These thoughts and feelings began to weigh heavily on her mind. The only hope was that they seemed less afraid of her now. They were out of their suits and helmets. They had let her touch one of them. They smiled and seemed kind. But she was still in this little cell. She wanted to go for a walk. She wanted to be with her family. She wanted to feel the sunshine on her skin and the breeze in her hair.
How
can I communicate with them? she thought. Suddenly, an idea came to her.
Chapter 23