CHAPTER 6
Alida lay in a bathtub overflowing with bubbles. The two Fairy Godmothers didn’t look a day over thirty, even though Ganya had said they were both nearing one hundred years old. Alida couldn’t clock a single pore in Fairy Godmother Zaneela’s flawless skin. Her hair was a volcano of gold and silver corkscrew curls bursting from a high ponytail. Fairy Godmother Jocasta flitted about in the background, her slick white hair in a long plait down her back. Prince Clement hadn’t made an appearance yet.
The apartment was blander and sparser than Alida had imagined a Citizen’s apartment to be. She’d pictured them stuffed with all the things they could afford to buy. And the apartment totally lacked a stink. She’d taken deep sniffs. She relied so much on the stench of things in everyday life: to tell whether grub was going to make her sick, if her neighbours had taken their waste buckets to the bio-recycler yet, if Graycie’s sores were getting infected, or when their threads needed washing. She’d had to sniff a sour smear of spilt Nutri-Shake on her sleeve to check her nose hadn’t carked it.
The bath was recessed into the floor of the mirror-lined bathroom. Alida reckoned three or four other characters could have slid in there with her and had a bubble fight. The Fairy Godmothers had left the room while she undressed and stepped down into the water. At first it tingled hot like a rash on her legs. Once her whole body was soaking she imagined it was like being a baby in the womb.
The only other time Alida ever got that drenched was during the two or three big downpours they had each rainy season. On those days everybody in the Demi-Settlements stood under bits of gutter or the slant of a roof and soaped up themselves, their threads, their cooking gear and bedding, and collected water in buckets, pots and jars. It was the closest thing they had to a festival in the Demi-Settlements, everyone outside at the same time, laughing and belting out tunes.
It was a day of firsts for Alida. First time in a bath, first time in plastic-land, first time in a car and first gig for Freel.
Alida ducked under the water. When she rose up through the cloud of bubbles Fairy Godmother Zaneela was by the bath with a bowl of grapes, her big eyelashes flapping like bat’s wings and her golden irises gleaming. She smiled with the shiniest, whitest, most slick teeth Alida had ever seen and held out the bowl, her hairless arms covered with jingling trinkets.
The grapes were juicy and sweet and full of a flavour unlike anything grown in the gardens and orchards of the Demi-Settlements. There was a slight resistance as Alida’s teeth broke through the skin. The grapes she’d eaten in the past were saggy old boobs compared to these round toddler cheeks. Alida’s stomach was a hard ball, and it was difficult to keep the passenger capsule in place in her mouth while she chewed, but she couldn’t say no to grub. Graycie would love these grapes.
‘You’re merely a child,’ the Fairy Godmother murmured.
‘I’m old enough,’ Alida said.
‘What happened to the female they used to send?’
Alida swallowed and a ball of mooshed-up grapes stuck in her throat. What would Zaneela say if she told her that female was her mother and she’d been eaten alive by tumours and finished off by a virus?
Zaneela didn’t give her a chance to answer. ‘Jocasta, Clement and I always wanted children.’ She handed Alida a bottle of shampoo.
Alida opened the bottle and took a sniff. It smelt of flowers and chemicals.
‘Have you had any children of your own?’
‘No.’ Alida worked the shampoo through her hair.
‘You Demis seem to be able to breed indiscriminately. I don’t understand how you’ve all avoided the infertility epidemics.’
It wasn’t totally true. Alida knew Demis who fancied the idea of littlies – God could only guess why – but had run smack bang into the infertility epidemics. It seemed only the really young chicks got knocked up.
Alida shampooed, conditioned, detangled, rinsed, cleansed, exfoliated and removed all the hair from her body with a queue of creams and lotions all lined up beside the bath.
‘Lovely, my Cinderella. Let’s get you dried and dressed.’ Fairy Godmother Zaneela stood and held open an enormous fluffy towel.
Alida’s whole body flashed hot and cold. She didn’t realise a body could sweat while it was already soaking in water. She wasn’t ready for the next step. She wanted to stay in the bath preening, eating and chilling forever. Her knees shook as she climbed out. Zaneela captured her in the enormous towel and it sucked the water right off her body.
Fairy Godmother Jocasta rolled in a kind of large helmet on a stand, put it over Alida’s head and leaned against the sink, staring blankly into the distance for the ten seconds it took to dry Alida’s curly hair.
‘Perhaps if we had children he wouldn’t want to do all this.’ Zaneela held a silky golden dress up in front of Alida and tilted her head to the side. ‘You truly are a mere child. This is no life for a child.’ She arranged Alida’s curls on top of her head.
Alida’s voice stuck in her throat. Zaneela was right. This was no life for her. She touched the passenger capsule with her tongue, tempted to burst it before she bolted. But she didn’t want to use it too soon and have to go through the whole thing totally straight.
Zaneela pinned Alida’s hair in place. ‘Do you have a contraceptive chip?’
‘Um … no. Not yet. Freel said I could take a tablet this time and he’s gonna sort the chip for me soon.’ Maybe it would be too risky for them. Ganya had said the clients never used dick shields since LeaderCorp’s disease screening was so thorough that crotch rot was unheard of. Getting knocked up was a real danger. They wouldn’t want that kind of hassle.
‘Hmm.’ Zaneela slipped the gown over Alida’s head. It was a little loose and the straps slipped from her shoulders. Alida wondered if Mum had worn this very dress. It would’ve fit her better.
Zaneela smiled weakly. ‘You look lovely.’ She put her hand on the doorknob and squeezed her eyes shut. ‘Don’t take the contraceptive. If you fall pregnant we’ll pay you for your child – even obtain citizenship for you. If that’s what you’d prefer. I have contacts who can issue new citizenships. Please consider it.’
Alida blinked, chewing it over, trying to understand what she’d been offered.
‘I … I think things would be different … if there were a child.’
Fairy Godmother Jocasta pursed her lips and pushed away from the sink. ‘I don’t understand why you’re so set on a descendant, Zan. With the strides we’re making in life extension and consciousness uploading we may well live forever. We’ll be our own descendants.’
‘It’s not the same.’ Zaneela sniffed away a tear, smoothed her hair back from her forehead and opened the door to the bedroom.
A white fluffy cloud of a bed filled the room. A guy with the slick plastic face of every other Citizen got on his knees and held a shoe out towards Alida.
‘My Princess.’
Alida extended her foot forward and chomped into the passenger capsule with her back teeth. The shoe swam on Alida’s titchy foot but the Prince didn’t seem to notice.
CHAPTER 7
Alida worked her way up from deep inside her body where she’d been nothing but a passenger, gawking, even acting when the Prince prompted her, but feeling shit-all. Reality waited on the other side of a bank of fog. The empty bathtub, white and shiny as a polished tooth, met her when she emerged.
She was naked and alone.
Fairy Godmother Zaneela appeared and handed Alida her old threads. They’d been cleaned. So soft and fresh-smelling. She held them to her face. Zaneela had disappeared. She was alone again, except for the endless reflections of herself on the mirrored walls. She shook her head and shuddered. Hell. How had Mum carried on doing this for years? Mum had only been a teenager herself when she started working, but she was tough. Nothing got her down. She always put a positive spin on everything. Good brain chemicals, the luck of the genetic lottery, Mum had always reckoned.
Alida slipped o
n her threads and tried not to think about all the icky stuff that had happened. No one had told her the passenger would make her as obedient as a pet mutt.
Fairy Godmother Zaneela came back in and ruffled Alida’s hair. It took everything she had not to arc up and tell the woman, To hell with you. Your time is up. You can’t touch me anymore. But then the touch reminded her of Mum and she almost wanted to lean into the woman for a hug.
She did neither.
Zaneela led her to the entry hall. Alida wanted to bolt. The air in the apartment closed in around her and she had to breathe deeply. How could these plastic-faces live so closed in? She needed to get out. She wanted to be back in her dirty, dusty shack with Graycie zonked out in a cosy curl next to her.
The Prince stood in the doorway, handing Ganya a parcel about the size of two bricks, which Ganya put in her satchel. Alida kept her gaze down. Pervy jerk.
The Prince’s attention glided over Alida. ‘BIS, our guests are leaving now.’
The door snicked unlocked and Ganya pushed it open. Alida’s chest loosened a smidge.
‘Wait here.’ Fairy Godmother Zaneela rushed away down the hall.
Ganya held the door open a fraction. The Prince sucked air through his front teeth and left them waiting for Zaneela. Alida paced from one side of the hallway to the other. Why wouldn’t they just let her split?
Zaneela rushed towards them with a crazed look. She shoved a thin biofilm bag into Alida’s arms and whispered in her ear. ‘These are for you, just in case.’ She glanced down at Alida’s belly. ‘My contact details are in there too.’
Alida raised her eyebrows. Did the woman really reckon Alida would be a littlie factory for her? Inside the bag were a bunch of mealworm nutrition bars. They would be for Graycie. They were exactly the kind of thing that would help her grow.
The apartment door closed behind them.
‘Take this now.’ Ganya handed her a tablet right there in the hallway outside the apartment.
‘Is that to stop me getting knocked up?’
‘That’s the one.’
Alida swallowed it immediately and they entered the stairwell.
‘How you holding up?’ Ganya asked.
‘I dunno.’ The passenger had made everything a distant memory of something that happened long ago. Still icky, but distant. If she thought about it too much she’d need another cap of passenger to take her back to the numb place.
They traipsed downstairs in silence.
Ganya pushed open the door to the storage room. ‘Did she ask you to have a baby for her?’
‘How did you guess?’ Alida wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a secret. Zaneela hadn’t told her not to tell Ganya or Freel about it.
‘Citizens ask our girls all the time. It can be quite lucrative. You’d have to give Freel a cut.’
‘What – and then I’d never see my own littlie ever again. I couldn’t do that.’ Alida wondered if they regularly offered their baby factories citizenship and if it ever worked out. Freel wouldn’t want that. Not if it meant he’d lose workers. The citizenship thing seemed too slick to be true anyway.
They emerged onto the street and climbed into the solar car. Ganya adjusted her satchel.
‘Looks heavy. What did the Prince give you?’
‘Something Freel needed.’
‘What did Freel need?’
‘Eish! You’re nosy.’
Alida shrugged. You never found anything out if you never asked questions.
The city seemed even emptier than when they’d come in. There was no sign of the Security Force goons they’d passed earlier and the high-rises now had more dark windows than lit.
Ganya chewed her bottom lip. ‘Freel didn’t say it was a secret.’
Alida waited. Mum always said Ganya loved a gossip.
‘It’s explosives.’
Alida grinned. Freel really was going to wreak some havoc. ‘How did he convince Citizens to give him explosives? Are they stupid or something?’
‘Damn right they’re stupid.’ Ganya smirked. ‘Freel told them it was to ambush a couple of supply trucks in the burbs. As long as they don’t think it affects them, they don’t care. Selfish pricks. The Prince acquired the explosives from his construction company.’ Ganya made air quotes with her fingers when she said acquired. ‘For him it was a cheaper way to engage our services.’
‘So what’s Freel’s plan?’
‘We’re going to hit LeaderCorp where it hurts.’ Ganya’s smile fell. ‘Keep Graycie away from the roads out of the city for the next few days.’
Graycie. Alida hoped she’d zonked out again.
They returned the car to its rack near the tunnel entrance.
Ganya cleared her throat. ‘Did your mum ever tell you about the time she was a surrogate for a Citizen?’
Alida froze. ‘What? No!’
Ganya lifted the grate, ‘It was one of her first clients. She was young. She thought she could handle it. When the baby came she couldn’t hand it over.’
‘She kept it?’ Alida followed Ganya down into the dark. ‘What baby?’ What the hell was Ganya talking about? Alida didn’t remember Mum ever being knocked up. They’d found Graycie as a toddler. The only littlie Mum had ever popped out was her. She was sure of it.
Oh.
‘Hell.’
CHAPTER 8
It was past midnight when Ganya dropped Alida off near the market. Housepods nestled like black eggs between tarps and cardboard. The odd light glowed from within a dwelling and set shadows playing on the walls. Somewhere someone was chatting or watching a tube on their handheld. Maybe even birthing a littlie. They always seemed to do that in the middle of the night. It could end in a shouting match if a neighbour arced up. She’d have to put in some earplugs. Just in case.
The voices got louder the closer Alida got to her own shack. Stripes of light escaped through the gaps in the plywood. Alida’s gut clenched. Graycie was supposed to be asleep and alone. It could be bad news if people clocked Graycie was left home on her own some nights. Graycie would have to get tougher. She’d have to learn how to be quick with a blade. People didn’t want to mess with littlies with blades. Sure enough they’d win the fight in the end, but they’d end up with some nasty cuts in the process. Littlies survived by being wild animals, all sharp teeth and claws and not enough brain power to stress about the consequences of using them. Not Graycie though. She was timid. And everyone knew it.
Alida pushed aside the sheet of black plastic that acted as their door. Graycie was in the corner sucking her blanket, eyes wide. Sitting across from her, with feathers woven into her hair, wearing a dress pieced together from wildly patterned fabrics, was the local alternative-medicine scam artist.
‘What are you doing here, Odeene?’ Alida dropped her plastic bag of goodies on the floor behind her bedroll and crossed her arms over her chest.
Odeene smiled. Her make-up cracked into canyons and dry riverbeds. ‘I was sorry to hear about Valerie’s passing.’ Odeene and Mum had both grown up in the same anti-tekker cult in the burbs, the Rewilders.
‘Not as sorry as me and Graycie. What do you want?’
The lamp threw sinister patterns on Odeene’s face. ‘The babe was crying. Everyone in the market could hear her.’
Alida didn’t know what to say to that. She hated that she’d had to leave Graycie alone, but she didn’t have to explain herself to Odeene. Bloody Graycie. She wouldn’t be getting those bloody sweets tomorrow. Mum had warned them both heaps of times not to let the neighbours in on their business. Everyone was looking for weakness and a chance to rise, using someone else as their step.
Odeene stood up, using a carved walking stick to support her bulk. ‘The babe’s sick, Alida.’
‘Lot of people are sick right now and your dicey medicine has done shit-all except clear out their credits.’
Even uneducated Demis like Alida could see that cracking your joints, holding a crystal under the moonlight, making tea with bark and leav
es or drinking some water Odeene reckoned had the essence of a toad or some ridiculous thing in it was bullshit. Even the diagnostic AI at the LeaderCorp Hub gave better medical care. Odeene was just in it for the dosh, and if her cures didn’t make you better (and they usually didn’t) she claimed it was your fault – you’d sought her out too late or you didn’t believe enough. Alida had the scar on her cheek to prove it. When she was three she was bitten by a mutt and Odeene had given Mum some kind of fermented leaf juice to rub into it. All that happened was that Alida’s wound got infected and Mum had to spend a shitload of dosh to buy proper medicine at the hub.
‘It’s true I haven’t been able to do much for this latest virus. It’s fast and I often don’t treat them in time to draw the miasma of the virus away.’
‘Miasma of the virus,’ Alida scoffed.
‘But this babe’s ailment has nothing to do with the virus. Why didn’t you or Valerie bring her to me sooner?’ Odeene looked at Graycie with her deeply concerned expression. She was more dramatic than half the actors on the tubes.
‘Why? So you could stick her with needles, take our dosh, and leave us worse off?’
It was risky offending Odeene. She had clout in the Demi-Settlements. Almost as much clout as Freel. But Alida was shattered and she didn’t need the hassle right then.
‘Let me help her build up her immune system. She has a weeping sore on her leg. It could turn septic. I have a poultice that will help.’
Alida pursed her lips and said nothing. She had zero answers when it came to Graycie’s health other than keeping her well fed, well rested and well loved.
‘If your mum had come to me about her cancer I could’ve helped her too.’
‘That’s bullshit and you know it. I’ve heard about your cancer cures, injecting poor sods with industrial chemicals you dredged up from out in the burbs somewhere. Mum died and there’s nothing anyone out here could’ve done about it, so don’t try that shit on me.’
The Shining Wall Page 4