It was love. Dirk knew if they were not paired he would also walk into the void to die.
That was eight years ago, and the incident still made Dirk’s heart soar. He put down at his work bench and took a drink from his water can, then munched on his stale bread roll. He could smell the soup his mother was making for dinner. Soon, he and Eve would be together for life, making their own dinners. Dirk smiled and took up his hammer again.
Chapter Seven
Mosaics and Maps
After dinner and the much-appreciated honey cake treats for James, Eve asked her mother to come downstairs to her room. She had thought about everything and decided to give all the food from the bunker to her mother to use as she wished. Keeping it hidden would be too hard to explain when it suddenly appeared at their dinner table. Eve’s mother looked into the box at the much needed food.
“Tell me again how you came by this treasure of food, Eve. You say they each took their share for the day, and there will be more for several months? Do you trust these people to be silent?” Her mother continued staring into the wooden box in Eve’s room; the box containing the corn, rice, flour, and the canned apricots and pineapples.
“Yes, they can be trusted. And remember, they each took their own share. I have to believe them when they say Manager Miggly will keep the rest for himself. We’ve always suspected they hoard food, Ma.” Eve tilted her head and frowned, adding, “Besides, you know the cold times are coming, and last year we lost many of our children. You know it was because of hunger, Ma. James may need this food. And you are much too thin. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you give most of your food to James. If anything happened to you, I don’t know how I would manage.”
Eve’s mother nodded, smiling, a single tear in one eye; she saw that child was becoming mother. Her beautiful daughter was an adult. She continued staring at more food than she had seen in months, calculating the risks involved in hoarding. She finally told Eve they would cook it as soon as Eve brought it home, so security would not find hidden food in their home, just a big bowl of cooked gruel.
“And you say there will be more, when you bring the rest out? I’ll fetch your father’s lunch bucket. It’s large, but not so large as to cause concern. So you brought the rest in your coat pockets. Tomorrow take my coat; it’s bigger,” Eve’s mother said. “Thanks for understanding, Ma. This food will help us to get by this winter,” Eve added.
“You’re right of course; we have to take it for James. But never speak of it to anyone… and especially not James; he’s much too young to keep secrets. We’ll say it is all from the market; that we can purchase more food now that you work. He won’t know the difference,” her mother finished. Eve watched her examine the rest of the illegal food. When her mother opened the container of rice, she asked, “What is this? Do you know how to cook this?”
“It’s called rice, and you have to boil it until it swells up, and it tastes very plain. Cook it with the onions and canned corn. Add some carrots. James won’t notice what it is,” Eve replied, handing the jars of corn, flour, and rice to her mother. They would cook it all that night in one big pot to last for the entire week, and Eve would bring more food home once a week. She noted her mother staring at her, seeming to want to add something.
“What is it, Ma?” Her mother reached over and touched Eve’s auburn braid. “You’ve grown up.” And then she added something that Eve would remember later. “You have grown to a fine member of the family.” She then opened and they ate the two cans of pineapples and the one of apricots, right there in the bottom level room, while seated on two trash brick boxes. It was like an Atonement Day party. James would not be able to keep this a secret, her mother decided. And besides, he’d never tasted them before, so would not miss them.
“These tastes are so filled with memories, Eve. I remember your father and I had a can of apricots for our honeymoon night. The bunker supply of them was almost out, but he saved extra worker chits for six months. We ate them under the dome star pictures out in the park…right out there,” her mother said softly, spooning another bright orange, sugary apricot into her mouth. Eve gave her mother the entire can.
“I remember eating a can of pineapples once with Father when I was five years old. I had fallen from a wall and broken my arm. Do you remember that time? He must have spent a fortune on them for me. I miss Father so much,” Eve said, finishing the last of the canned pineapples. They would strip off the labels and rinse the cans out before setting them out for recycle. Otherwise someone might notice the pictures and report them for hoarding.
“I miss him every moment,” said her mother. She looked out the window into the park and sighed, her eyes tearing. After several minutes, Eve’s mother went back upstairs to cook the rest of the food. Eve got up to recheck the spot behind the crumbling cement block for the other, less explainable, and thus, more dangerous things.
“What am I supposed to do with these? I need to hide them in a safer place because now Mother will be down here regularly to get the food when I bring it home,” Eve whispered to herself. She checked the wind-up clock on the table by her sleeping cot. It was almost ten o’clock. Dirk would be there soon, and Eve had not decided if she would show these secret treasures to him.
Finally, she removed them all, the binoculars, shock guns, and knife, from the wall and stowed them in her pack, along with Dirk’s book, the file containing the torn map, the ancient archive book, and the single strand of auburn hair. She slipped into her leather jacket and boots, and awaited Dirk’s arrival.
“I’ll take them with me to the decay zone. Maybe I can hide them someplace under one of those mosaic tiles,” she thought, as there was a knock at the door. Dirk popped his head through the door, smiling. He asked, “Are you ready?” “Yes, but you can’t just go barging into my room. It’s not a storage room anymore, Dirk. This is my room and I could have been dressing!” Eve teased. “Void gods forbid I see you unclothed, you beautiful shinlee,” Dirk replied, laughing. Shinlee was his favorite nickname for Eve; it was a fabled furry creature that lived out in the void, and had mythical and magical powers.
“Sorry, I forgot…next time I’ll knock first.” Dirk said, feigning an apology. “I wouldn’t want to see you dressing. Your face looks better,” Dirk lied. Eve’s face was now a patchwork of purple and yellow, like one of her first level water colors. She could see that in her mirror. Dirk went on, “We have to hurry, Eve. I think we may be up most of the night. I brought extra candles and even one of those flashlight things,” Dirk explained. He proudly held up a flashlight.
“Where did you get a flashlight?” Eve asked. “I took it from the workers’ common store room, but I have to sneak it back inside by tomorrow morning,” he explained, showing Eve the tube-like metal object with a glass enclosed end. It had a button on the side that, when moved, caused a light to glow inside the glassed-in part. It was similar to the light on Eve’s work helmet.
Dirk said the flashlight was very precious and was saved for exploring the lower level tunnels to look for more food bunkers. Eve squinted her eyes closed when he shined the bright light in her face. She knew it would come in handy, especially because this time they would probably go through several candles on the trip into and out of the decay zone.
“I’m ready,” Eve said. She had her pack, was dressed in her brown woolens and miner’s boots, and her father’s goat hide jacket. She slipped on her pack with its precious cargo, and started to leave. But just before they left, she stopped, changing her mind.
“Wait, I have a present for you, Dirk. I didn’t just take food from that bunker; there were other things…wonderful things. Here, I got this for you,” Eve explained. She reached into her pack and removed a small red object, handing it to Dirk. He held it in his hand, as if he was not quite sure what it was.
“What does it do? It’s beautiful, but what does it do?” Dirk asked. “You push here and a knife comes out. Hugh Endley showed me.” Eve pushed a lever on the side of the red obje
ct. “He works in Steam Belt Repair. He has one from his great grandfather. It’s from old times, but this one is like new. His is worn and somewhat rusty,” she added, showing Dirk how to release another blade from the small metal object with its red holder on the outside.
“What’s the name of this thing?” “Hugh told me it’s called a pocket knife. This one has other things in it too. Look…when you pull this out, he says the thing can work as a small saw, and this one opens things, and there is even a scissors here, and here is a screw driver, and this curly thing twists into wood.” Eve finished showing Dirk how to use the pocket knife and handed it back to him. He looked like she’d just given him a year of strawberries.
“This is beautiful, Eve. It must have been made from our home place because we can’t make such amazing things here,” Dirk said, opening and closing the knife, over and over. “Look, there is a number on the side and some letters. I wonder what they mean,” he added, rolling the pocket knife in his right hand. “Hugh said it’s the knife number…from a bunch of knives they made...and then the year it was made. See…this says 2175, the year 2175,” Eve said, pointing to the numbers on the knife. “But that’s way different than our year. Ours is now 499, the year 499,” Dirk said, seeming unconvinced.
“We don’t really know what year it is, Dirk. We only go by when we think Robin Lightfighter first got here. But now we know it’s at least the year 2674…if you add 2175 and 499 together…it’s 2674 someplace,” Eve explained. She put her pack back on, and blew out her room candle, getting ready to leave.
Dirk nodded and placed the precious knife, made someplace in the year 2175, respectfully in his deepest pocket. He turned and gave Eve a kiss, causing her to pull back from the slight pain on her bruised cheek. They then stepped out the door, into the almost darkness of the single candle lighting the alley to the town park. “Let’s run; we’re losing time.” Dirk closed the door.
They were back at the Boardroom Building backdoor in thirty minutes, and it was already deep dark time, and unlawfully past even the adult curfew. But luckily they would not get into trouble because the previous month the current clock winder, their official timekeeper, had forgotten to wind the clock for at least a week, and now no one knew exactly what time it was. Eve and her mother thought it was three hours later, but their neighbor, Mrs. Nettle insisted it was an hour earlier. So now they all just reported to work at the newly declared time, though the change had taken some workers several weeks to get used to.
The then Head of the Committee, Mr. Miggly, finally decreed that for one year there would be a two-hour grace period for curfews should someone still be looking at their old clocks, like an old person who no longer worked, or someone young who had forgotten or did not care…like a student.
And the older students took advantage of the mayor’s decree by staying out much later than they should. That was why Dirk and Eve were dressed in their brown clothes as they walked as casually as possible into the decay zone holding hands. Someone watching would think they were two older students out for a curfew-breaking date. Romance was tolerated a bit…especially in a domed city.
“Here it is. This is the same spot shown on the map…look,” Dirk whispered, holding up the torn map from the file to his flashlight. Dirk placed the map on one of the mosaic tiles right next to the identical symbol…ΩD. They were now standing on the mosaic tiles, Dirk holding his flashlight up, while Eve examined the map.
“This is so strange. It has an ancient Greek-speak letter and a capital D. What an odd combination. I wonder who selected this symbol,” Eve asked. Dirk shrugged his shoulders, unable to come up with an explanation. “What should we do? Should we dig under the tile with the symbol? I don’t see anything else around here except piles of stone, and the door of course,” Dirk mumbled. They both stooped down to examine the tile, admiring the shape, wondering what it meant, and why it was on the tile and drawn on their torn map. Dirk then tried prying the stone loose with the screw driver device of his new pocket knife.
“It can’t be a coincidence, Dirk; the shape is too unusual. It has to mark something…or someplace…but what?” She started to use her fingers to pry under the tiles around the shape, while Dirk continued the same with his knife. “Wait, look over there; there are more tiles leading this way. They look like they point out a path, but in flowers; it’s like each flower is pointing to this symbol.” He stood to examine the strange flower patterns on the tiles, noting they stopped at the place where the fountain should have been. Nearby were the crumbled remains of a headless statue.
“Do you suppose something was hidden under this fountain…when it was still here, I mean?” Eve asked. “And I wonder if that headless statue is of Robin Lightfighter. Look at the hand…that’s a woman’s hand.” Dirk nodded; he went back and stooped over the symbol-marked mosaic tile, still trying to pry it up with one of the sharp things in his brand new pocket knife. But the tile was apparently glued with the same material used to hold the cement blocks together when making their city buildings.
“Maybe I should use a big stone and break it open,” Dirk said. He went to look for a rock. “I think we need to read the book some more before you destroy something so ancient. Let’s look at the map again,” Eve replied, further examining the torn map. She’d felt guilty about taking the files from the archives. And if the book fell apart, no one else would ever know what Robin Lightfighter really looked like. She handed the map carefully to Dirk, who then handed the flashlight to Eve to hold up next to the torn outspread map. The light shone brightly against the yellowed paper, but unfortunately it did not illuminate anything more about the location of hidden bunkers, or what lie beneath the marked mosaic tile.
“We need to align the map with this spot. I think this bend corresponds to that building over there…and this spot where we are now, this open area must have been the courtyard shown here,” Eve said, pointing at the map and to where they were now standing. “It shows a statue and round area with what must be water coming out…at least that’s how I would draw water. What do you think?” Dirk asked. “Yes, that’s called a fountain. Remember, we saw one in your book? They were used for gathering places, and sometimes to grow fish. I think they had one here in front of these buildings. And look, the picture of the statue is of the real Robin Lightfighter,” Eve replied.
“So that must mean the crumbled statue over there is the same. That is the statue of Robin Lightfighter, and the tiles point to something here…or something underneath here. I wonder why they changed the statue at the town square. I mean why would it matter what Robin Lightfighter looked like or if she was a he or she?” Dirk asked.
“I don’t know. But someone obviously wanted to disguise Robin Lightfighter’s identity...or looks. Maybe she needed to hide from someone on the home base, or even someplace else. I wish we understood more,” Eve looked first at the map, then at the headless statue nearby. She went on, but in the back of her mind, she was just beginning to understand…it had to do with her dreams.
“I just know we have to find solar bulbs and supplies or we will all die in a year. That’s what Miggly and Blakeley said,” Eve flatly stated. She stored her dream idea in the back of her mind. It was too weird. She wanted them to stay on track because their time out in the decay zone would be much more limited now that they had jobs during the day and so many chores at night.
“This area looks like where we are standing…here, on the large section of the map that is torn out. I wonder what was so important about this place. Why would someone want the location hidden? We’ll have to either dig down, or find a tunnel,” Dirk said, mostly to himself.
“I vote for finding a tunnel. It would take forever to dig underground into a bunker. The one I found today was over 77 levels down,” Eve replied. Dirk scratched his dark head of hair, shrugged, and looked at Eve with amazement. “That far down? How would someone dig that far?” “They must have had better digging equipment back then. Let’s look for the tunnel entrance.” They
continued to search, finding things of value every so often. Eve found a jar of precious nails. She’d be able to trade them for a month’s supply of potato flour and a jar of honey, and still have enough left over to mend those stairs at home. Dirk found several lengths of metal pipe for one of his current blacksmith projects…but no tunnel entrance. After another thirty minutes, they decided to give up. It was time to try getting inside the Boardroom Building…or at least try out the strand of hair biosample.
Once again, they walked past the torn spot in the dome and down the tiny path to the tunnel. This time they were sure they would not be interrupted by Miggly or Blakeley, because both were most likely busy doing an inventory of Eve’s food bunker find. She imagined Miggly’s greedy eyes scanning each bucket of food, careful to keep the most valuable things. Once they approached the tunnel, Eve reverently removed the single strand of auburn hair from her pack, and both walked into the tunnel using Dirk’s borrowed flashlight for illumination.
“Are you sure about this?” Dirk whispered as they approached the door. “We have to try, Dirk. Did you hear what they said? They used a word I didn’t recognize at first…evacuation.” “What does it mean?” Dirk asked, still whispering. “I remember Oscar Winemaker the rabbit inspector used the word once when I was only eight years old,” Eve explained. “When did that happen?” Dirk removed the door key and handed it to Eve.
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