by Mark Tufo
She had not seen herself in a mirror since going into the hospital, and she was surprised to see the deviant eyes staring back at her through the reflective glass. Their color was so pretty and yet so ugly at the same time. Virginia lost herself for a moment, unable to turn away from the image.
"Are you okay?" Nadine finally asked.
Virginia fought to keep her composure. "I'm fine."
"Good. It's time to make the Conrads' breakfasts." Nadine went back up the stairs, and Virginia followed quickly behind her.
Virginia looked up the staircase that led to the Conrads' bedroom. "What about the upstairs?"
"I do all of the upstairs cleaning. Mr. And Mrs. Conrad are very particular about who they allow around their personal business." Nadine gave Virginia a strange smile and then led her back across the foyer.
They returned to the shining kitchen, and Nadine pulled the hand-held computer from the dumb waiter. She tapped in a couple of commands, and then set it back in the transport box.
"Can you use a computer?" Nadine asked.
"I'm sure I can figure it out."
Nadine pulled two frying pans down and set them on the stove. "Mr. Conrad wants a cup of black coffee," she began. "Mrs. Conrad wants two waffles, three eggs scrambled in bacon grease, bacon, of course, and hash browns."
"That's a lot of food," Virginia said.
"I wouldn't offer any opinions about it in front of Mrs. Conrad if I were you. She's very touchy about her eating habits."
"She must weigh a ton," Virginia said.
"I wouldn't use that language around here either," Nadine whispered into Virginia's ear as she walked off toward the storeroom. She disappeared for a moment, returning with eggs, potatoes, and an onion in her apron. She set them on the island, then disappeared again for the batter mix and bacon.
"Could you get the coffee brewing?" she asked, setting down the rest of the food. "The grounds are in the fridge."
Virginia retrieved a can of coffee grounds from the refrigerator and found the coffee maker. "I could sure use a cup of coffee," Virginia said, taking in the amazing bittersweet fragrance of the dark grounds.
"No food unless you're on break, and no using the kitchen cups or plates for yourself. I'll show you which ones are yours when we go back downstairs," Nadine said as she took the potatoes and onion to Virginia and handed her a knife. "Peel and chop these up after you get the coffee started. We'll see how well you can make hash browns."
Virginia got to work as Nadine went to the stove and turned on one of the burners. She lined up several strips of bacon in the pan, and soon the sizzling, sweet smell of salted pork filled the room. Nadine put the bacon on a plate to drain, and then she immediately got started on the scrambled eggs. Virginia cringed as Nadine kept the bacon grease hot and dropped the beaten eggs into it. The grease crackled as the eggs cooked, spitting and hissing with the heat. The eggs slowly soaked up the grease, transforming their whites to the colors of caramel and burned toast by the time they were done.
Virginia heated up the other pan and poured a small amount of oil into it. She waited a moment for the oil to heat, then dropped a generous serving of potatoes and onions into the pan. She covered it with a metal lid, and then she returned to the coffee pot and poured Mr. Conrad's coffee.
Nadine loaded the first course onto the dumb waiter and sent the lift upstairs, ringing a tiny bell. As the bell rang, Virginia froze to hear the screeching bark of a small breed dog.
"What was that?" Virginia asked.
"Mrs. Conrad has a pet dog. Nippy little thing," Nadine said, not fazed in the least bit about the pet.
"Where did she get a dog?"
Nadine shrugged. "I'm guessing that Corporates have some sort of black market that only they buy and sell through," she said, keeping her volume low. She pulled a large bowl from a cupboard and got started on the waffle batter. "It's not like anyone is going to tell any of them what they can and can't do."
Virginia stirred the hash browns, found salt and pepper in the spice rack, and gave the dish a light powdering of both. The sweet smell of onions and potatoes joined the lingering aroma of fried bacon and eggs, and Virginia grabbed her stomach as it began to growl.
Nadine started a waffle, watching as Virginia went to pick a small crumb of egg from the cooling pan. She quickly passed Virginia, pretending to look for something. "Cameras," she breathed before grabbing a container of syrup from the cupboard and setting it beside the dumb waiter.
Virginia stopped herself, instead taking the pan to the sink and scrubbing it down. She set it aside to dry, and then checked on her hash browns again. "How do I know if the potatoes are seasoned properly if I can't taste them?" Virginia asked, feeling justified in her reasoning.
"You'll learn," Nadine said.
The transport box lowered back into the kitchen's end of the dumb waiter, and Nadine loaded the syrup and a healthy slab of butter.
The steam from the waffle iron soon diminished, and Nadine opened it. The waffle was a perfect golden brown, and Nadine smiled as she grabbed a fork. With a remarkably believable set of movements, she pretended to burn herself as she went to move the waffle to the plate. The waffle went into the air, and she feigned an impressive attempt at saving it before it fell to the floor. "There is one exception," Nadine said, calmly starting another waffle in the iron.
Nadine picked up the fallen waffle and tore it in half. "They both get a kick out of seeing us eat off the floor," she said, handing half of the waffle to Virginia and taking a bite from the other.
Virginia could tell that Nadine kept a clean kitchen, and she ate the waffle without a second thought. "Thank you."
She checked the hash browns as she finished her waffle, deciding that they looked done enough. She arranged them on a large plate and placed them in the transport box just as Nadine slid the second waffle onto another plate. With the rest of the breakfast order loaded, Nadine sent it up with another ring of the bell. Once more, there was a yippy bark in response to the bell.
Nadine finished her waffle then licked her fingers before rinsing them in the sink. "Now it's time to get this place cleaned up," she said, then grinned thoughtfully. "Mrs. Conrad likes to keep a spotless kitchen."
Chapter 102
GEORGE STORMED into the dark kitchen with both of his hands up in the air. Kurt had been screaming and crying in his bedroom for two hours, calling desperately for his mother, and George had exhausted every idea he could think of to calm the boy down. Muttering to himself, he sat down beside Shelley, who had spent so much time writing poetry earlier that she was now forced to finish her homework in the dark.
The Mart Education System turned out to be less horrific than Shelley had thought it would be, and despite her initial desire to give up, she seemed to be coming around. She was still reluctant to make any new friends, but she did find the decreased academic pace to be a refreshing mental break. She was scheduled to test for job allocation tomorrow, and she held hope that her many years of Corp education would set her above the other students. If she was going to be a part of the Mart Segregate, she was determined to be the highest-ranking Mart employee there was. Maybe she could even have another shot at a career that involved writing.
"Can you do something about Kurt?" George finally snapped, his left eyelid beginning to twitch.
Frustrated and probably even more tired than George, Shelley dropped her pen and went to console the boy. Kurt lay on his bed, crying out in heavy, anguished sobs, and he barely noticed when Shelley entered the room.
"Hey, you," she said, sitting down beside him.
"It's not fair! I need her here!" Kurt cried. "Mommy!" he screamed after working a moment to catch his breath. "Mommy! Please come back!"
Shelley wanted to cry with him, but he needed her strength right now more than her added mourning. "How about I tell you a story?"
"I don't want a story—I want my Mommy!"
Shelley tried to think quickly, heartbroken over Kurt's pitiful displ
ay. She hugged him as tightly as she could. He continued to scream and cry, but after only a moment, he closed his eyes, calmed down, and hugged her back. He took long, shaky breaths, whimpering here and there, reveling in Shelley's maternal embrace. She wasn't his mom, but she would have to do.
Shelley kept silent and still, afraid that any quick movement might set him off again.
Kurt had acted out in class several times since their mother's passing, refusing to do his work, and even picking fights with other classmates. George didn't know how to discipline him, given what they had all endured throughout the past few weeks, and he feared that the boy was at the beginning stage of a behavior problem he might not be able to fix. Virginia's death had left a painful void, and he knew that Shelley and Kurt both felt that same emptiness. He didn't know how to fill the void for any of them, and so he convinced himself that going to work and paying for Kurt's expensive education might compensate for at least some of the boy's loss. With Kurt's recent behavior, however, George had to wonder if he was working as hard as he was, only to be wasting his money on educating the wrong child.
It was too late to change his decision now, as reintegration into the Corp Education System for Shelley would be an expensive and lengthy process, despite the fact that she had only just begun to attend the Mart school. He needed to regain control of his family before the legacy he and Virginia had worked so hard for was crushed for good. But how could he convince a seven-year-old to look to the future when he couldn't even help him move past all he was suffering through right now?
There was a knock at the door, and George slowly got up to see who would be rude enough to come by unannounced after dusk. He looked through the peephole, surprised to see William nervously waiting on the other side. Suspicious of William's intentions, George called to him through the door. "What do you want?"
"We need to talk," he said, turning back to make sure Judith hadn't come out behind him.
"What about?"
William impatiently shifted from one foot to the next, and then looked straight to the peephole. "It's about Virginia. I think she might not be dead."
George swung open the door and quickly joined William in the hallway, quietly closing the door behind him. He charged toward William, backing him into the wall across the way. "What the hell are you trying to pull?"
"Do you think I'd lie to you about something like this?" William asked, squirming away from the wall in an attempt to put some distance between the two of them.
George had his face right up to William's, and his breath irritated William's nose as he spoke: "I don't know what to think anymore! But if either of my kids hears you, so help me, I'll make sure you hurt as much as they do over it!"
"She came by on Friday, about an hour before you got home," William insisted.
"Why didn't you say anything before?" George growled.
William looked hesitant. With a deep breath, he looked George straight in the eyes, his face terrified and sincere. "She wasn't human anymore," he said, and then quickly added with a flinch, "Please don't hit me!"
George backed away from William, his thoughts falling into a jumbled mass. Feeling dizzy and weak, he backed to the wall on his side of the hallway and leaned against it to keep from falling over.
Judith came out and stormed over to William. "What are you two talking about?"
"Nothing!" William quickly said.
"You told him, didn't you?" Her voice went deep and angry. She turned to George. "It wasn't her! People don't just turn into deviants!"
With Judith's angry prompting, William went back into their apartment and the door slammed shut.
George fought to remain on his feet, his legs transformed to gelatin, his knees threatening to buckle. He made his way back into his apartment, bracing himself against the door as he closed it. Searching for the strength, he made his way to Kurt's bedroom to ensure that neither he nor Shelley had heard William's claims.
Kurt slept in Shelley's quiet arms.
She looked up as George came to the door. "Dad, what's wrong?"
"I have an errand I have to run after work tomorrow. Can you pick up Kurt and hold the fort until I get home?" he asked, his voice a hushed whisper.
Shelley shrugged, looking tired. "Is tomorrow macaroni night?"
He patted her on the shoulder. "Can you do me this favor?"
She nodded. "Yeah. No problem."
"I really appreciate it," he said. He felt his pocket and the stolen information, and a strange sense of relief came over him when he felt that the paper was right where he had left it.
Shelley sat up, her eyes blinking away the sleep forcing its way on her. "Go ahead and turn out the bathroom light. I think I'm stuck right here for the time being."
George nodded, and then switched off the dim light.
He moved through the darkness, feeling his way into his bedroom, and then stopped beside the box where Virginia's ashes supposedly lay. He felt the ring that still rested on his left finger, and he fell to his knees. Closing his eyes despite the darkness, he silently began to pray.
Chapter 103
JOB ALLOCATION TESTING had been a breeze, and Shelley was sure that she would be given the option of any Mart job she wanted. Still, she had to wonder why her life had to take such a dramatic turn. She had been a good kid, so why her? It just didn't seem fair that her life should change so drastically, so quickly. She felt tired and overwhelmed, and she feared she might never get used to all of the exhausting changes she had no choice but to incorporate into her new weekly routine.
Kurt waited for Shelley in the garage, just outside the hall to his building, about a yard from the usual security associate. He turned and just happened to see Shelley approaching. He smiled, hurrying to her side.
"How was school?" Shelley asked, quickly leading Kurt to their shuttle track. She looked around, hoping no one she knew was in the vicinity to see her.
Kurt shrugged, his mood suddenly going sullen and quiet.
"What happened?" she asked, already knowing that Kurt was in some type of trouble.
Kurt dug into his backpack, and then handed a small slip of paper to Shelley. "My teacher says you need to sign this."
Shelley read the notice, which requested parental permission to reprimand Kurt by any necessary means for refusing to do his class work. The class associate added that she had tried taking away privileges, putting him in the corner, and even explaining to him the consequences of failing out of a Corp class, but he still refused to look at his work. The class associate also noted that Kurt had become disrespectful and violent, and she would begin paperwork for suspension if the notice wasn't signed and returned immediately.
"You know what this means, don't you?" Shelley asked Kurt.
"What?" Kurt asked.
"Your class associate wants permission to spank you in class because she doesn't know what else to do with you. Do you want to get forced out of the Corp Segregate, too?"
He shrugged.
She handed the slip back to him. "Dad has to sign this."
He returned the slip to his bag. "I'm not letting some stupid class associate spank me."
"You'll stop misbehaving, and then you won't have to worry about getting spanked!" Shelley said, taking Kurt by the hand to hurry him along. "Dad gives you the Corp life and you just piss it away! What is your problem? Why can't you behave?"
"You're not my mom!" Kurt broke free from Shelley's grip, and then darted off into the crowd.
"Kurt!" Shelley ran after him, but she lost his trail quickly amid the sea of other people. She stood near the center of the shuttle garage, unsure where she should go from there. "Kurt!" she yelled again.
The crowd of students and parents surrounding her became one giant blur. She could no longer see any individual faces, only a wall of moving bodies standing between her and Kurt. "Kurt!" she tried again.
She spotted Charlotte and ran over to her. "Charlotte, have you seen my brother?" she asked, nearly too panicked to utte
r the words.
Charlotte looked around. "I haven't seen him. Are you okay?"
"He ran off!" Shelley cried, still searching in all directions. "He got mad at me, and then he was gone!"
Charlotte looked at her watch. "I've got a little time. We can cover more of the garage if we split up. Meet me at the bench in front of the Line 120 shuttle track in twenty minutes?"
Shelley nodded, and then the two went off in opposite directions.
Shelley went from one end of the garage to the other, seeing no sign of Kurt anywhere. She grew not only increasingly fearful for his safety, but she was also extremely angry with him for putting her through such unnecessary panic. It would take every bit of restraint within her to keep from spanking him herself when she finally did find him. Why did he have to make life even harder, when things were tough enough as it was? Why couldn't he just return to the sweet, well-mannered boy he was before all of this?
Shelley flagged down a security associate, giving him Kurt's description and begging for his assistance. He imputed an alert in a local database, informing all security associates in the vicinity that there was a missing little boy. The associate waited for a response, but no reports came back.
Shelley made another sweep of the garage, even backtracking as far as Kurt's classroom to look for him there. He seemed to have disappeared. She went back through the garage, searching through the crowds, crying and cursing. She made her way to the Line 120 shuttle track, hanging her head in defeat, praying that Charlotte had better luck. When she saw Charlotte waiting for her, with Kurt still nowhere in sight, she felt a heavy knot return to her throat.
Charlotte put a hand on Shelley's shoulder. "I'm sorry."
Shelley shook her head, giving herself permission to cry.
"You've done everything you can," Charlotte said.