by Leito, Chad
“Next.”
Teddy and Asa were ushered further into the bedroom and the next group was given instructions. The two walked along the hardwood and Teddy opened up the first chest that he saw. Directly under the wood was a panel of black metal. There were no instructions on it. “Guess this one’s already taken,” he said. “Where would you like to sleep?” Teddy asked.
“In my bed at home,” Asa said. “But if that can’t happen, a bed next to the window would be nice. I’d like a view.”
They made their way to the end of the room and found that there were more beds that hadn’t been claimed. To Asa’s delight, there was an open bunk only ten feet away from the row of thirty-foot windows.
“This alright with you?” Asa asked.
“As long as I can have the bottom bunk,” Teddy said. “I don’t do well with heights.”
As Asa climbed the twelve-foot ladder to the top bunk, he wondered how Teddy would handle flying, if that were really something they would get to do. The mattress was layered with luxurious sheets and blankets; a white bearskin was folded at the foot of the bed. Asa felt it and found that where he expected fur, he found bristles. He looked at it for a moment before deciding that it must be polar bear pelt.
Asa crawled over to the edge of the bed. Being twelve feet above a hardwood floor made him slightly weary, but the bed was sturdy and his mattress was wide. The chest on the foot of his bed opened up away from him and he saw white directions projected on the black metal, just like the man with the broken nose said there would be.
Instructions for using your chest:
First, make sure that you are satisfied with the bed that you have selected. After you follow through with these steps, you will have the chosen bed for a six-month period.
Once you have chosen your bed, place your palms down on the black metal and hold them there for five seconds. Palms may be placed anywhere on the surface. After this is done, you have officially claimed your bed. From that point onward, your chest will open each time you press your palms against the metal. No one else will be allowed to access your chest, and, likewise, you will not be able to access anyone else’s chest.
Enjoy!
Asa rubbed his palms together before putting them face down on the cold metal. He waited, and after five seconds, he heard a click. The metal was pressing up on his hands with light pressure, and when he released, the chest opened. Asa looked down into it.
Four horizontal bulbs situated in the surrounding metal walls lit the inside of the chest. The chest was completely empty except for a cylinder that stuck out of one of the walls. It was metal, and as thick as the head of a baseball bat. Curious, Asa reached out and touched it. The metal cylinder, as if reacting to his touch, expanded for a moment, and then shrunk back down. Asa withdrew and didn’t touch the cylinder again. He stowed his parka in his chest, shut it, and then climbed down the ladder.
Asa and Teddy both made their way from the window to the hallway that led to the nurse’s station. The hallway was situated next to the staircase that they had entered from. People were still waiting to be called by the man with the broken nose when Asa and Teddy passed. Many of them were staring at the animals on the wall.
They entered the hallway and saw that it departed from the log cabin theme and took on the look of an antebellum mansion. Everything was sparkling white. The floor was shining tile that appeared to have been recently polished. It was as smooth as a puddle of milk. The walls were whitewashed, and there were five portraits hanging at eye level. They were each set in gold frames and hand panted.
The first two were easy for Asa to recognize—Robert King and Ken Pudman. Robert King smiled out at them with his crooked mouth. His blue eyes seemed inviting. He had an air about him, that Asa attributed to the fact that he was the wealthiest man on earth.
President Pudman was traditionally handsome. He had jet black hair that he combed back from his face, and a smile that looked good on posters and commercials. Asa believed that he was elected president because he looked like he could make a good leader. Asa believed that he wasn’t reelected because time showed what his image lied about.
Asa stared at the other three the longest—they were people that he had never heard of before. What were their portraits doing, hanging there next to two of the most important men in history?
Directly between the two men was a portrait of a woman with short, spikey blond hair and tattoos covering her neck and arms. She was wearing what appeared to be a dirty tank top and her eyes looked out at onlookers, challenging them to comment on her appearance. She did not appear to belong. The plaque underneath the portrait said, “Stormy Rubins.”
To Ken Pudman’s left sat, “Vinny Natale.” He had olive colored skin, gelled black hair, and he wore a crisp suit. He looked closer to belonging than Stormy did. His neck was nearly as thick as his head was, and his shoulders were as broad as a bull’s.
Finishing off the line of portraits was “Dr. Sean Gill.” Dr. Gill’s head was adorned with a messy puff of white hair that rose from his head in thin wisps. He was not smiling in the portrait, and his eyebrows came together in a charming expression of curiosity. He wore plastic glasses. A red tie held his button-up together at the neck. His shirt had wrinkles in it.
“Who are these people?” Teddy asked.
“A drop in a bucket of water,” Asa responded, referencing what Teddy had said earlier. “One of many questions.”
Teddy smiled.
Along the smooth, white floor were seven lines, each painted in a different color: yellow, blue, red, purple, green, pink, and orange. Following the directions that the man with the broken nose had given them, they followed the blue line to the nurse’s station.
“He said that there were hidden cameras in the bedrooms,” Asa said. “Do you think that’s true?”
“Oh, yes!” Teddy said. “If they can afford all of this stuff, then they can afford to monitor it closely. I have a feeling that we’ve been watched since we arrived. Maybe even before.”
The walk to the nurse’s station took them ten minutes—the whole length of the walk was lit with lamps sitting atop small wooden tables. Each lampshade was different—some had skylines on them, some had clouds, or flags of different countries. Some had faces that looked out onto the hallway, and some were just different colors.
The nurses station was impossible to miss—the blue line ran straight toward the door. Even if the blue line hadn’t been guiding them, they would have noticed the place; it stuck out among its ornate surroundings.
There was no door in the doorway, just a series of beaded strings hanging over the entryway. Above this was a sign that read, “Missus Ida’s Nursing Station,” in big block rainbow letters.
Asa and Teddy entered through the beads and they jingled shut behind them. They were standing in a waiting room atop lush brown carpet. There was an assortment of chairs that didn’t match—a recliner, a lawn chair, a rocking chair that didn’t rock because the carpet was so thick, and a line of pews that belonged in a Baptist church. The room smelled of cinnamon and there was incense burning on the tables. There was a reception desk in the corner with no one behind it.
Asa and Teddy sat down—Asa took the rocking chair and Teddy sat in the recliner—and waited for what would happen next. A plastic clock shaped to look like a tiger ticked off time along the wall; it’s tail undulating below with the seconds.
Asa and Teddy were both studying the room and did not notice the woman who had moved behind the counter until she said, “Hellooooooo,” in a voice that went higher in pitch as the word dragged on.
“You two must be Teddy and Asa. Nice to meet you. My name is Missus Ida,” she smiled warmly and showed a mouth full of missing and dead teeth. “I’m one of the Academy’s physicians.” She spoke with her hands, which were covered in big, blocky jewelry; each finger sparkled with metal and jewels as they moved, and her bracelets clanked together. Her earrings were silver balls four inches in diameter, and Asa believe
d that they were designed as Christmas tree ornaments, not earrings.
“Teddy, come with me, and we’ll do your exam.” She disappeared behind a wall, a door to the back opened, and before Teddy could stand up she called, “Hurry!” from a place far in the back.
Teddy left, giving Asa one last worried look before shutting the door and leaving Asa alone. Teddy and Missus Ida hadn’t been gone one minute when the beads in the opening jingled and Charlotte stepped inside, accompanied by a short girl with red hair and a mouthful of braces.
“I thought this was the boy’s nurses station,” Asa said.
Charlotte smiled back. “I think that the hallways lead back to a common area deeper in the mountain.”
“Next!” Came a shout from deep in the office.
Asa stood up and walked towards the door. Teddy came out looking flustered. “Don’t waste any time,” he told Asa. “She moves quickly.”
Asa moved through the doorway into a hallway that was carpeted with the same lush brown material. There were dozens of doors on either side of him, and at the end of the hallway was a heavy metal door that looked like it led to a freezer.
“This way!” Missus Ida rang out, “Hurry!” she appeared from one of the many doors on the left side. Asa began to walk forward before freezing. Swinging behind the woman’s back were two long, thick, orange and black objects covered in fur. They came out from the top of the woman’s green pants, and Asa was able to identify them as tiger’s tails.
“Hurry, keep walking,” she urged.
Asa walked forward to meet her.
“Strip naked,” she said, holding the handle to the metal door that looked like a freezer.
“What?”
“Strip naked,” she repeated. There was no humor in her voice. “Naked! Now! C’mon, I have a lot of exams to give.”
“We’re in a hallway,” Asa protested.
“A vacant hallway,” she responded, her eyebrows raised.
“Why must I be naked?”
Missus Ida sighed. Her thick, circular glasses lenses made her gray, bright eyes look twice the size of a normal human’s. “If you’re going to question everything in the Academy that doesn’t make sense, you aren’t going to be very productive here. But, if you must know, you have to strip naked so that this machine can take proper measurements of you. You’ve seen the suits that all the Academy members are wearing, no? This is a most efficient way of getting exact measurements. Now, don’t be shy. This is protocol. Take off your clothes and step inside. I won’t look.”
Asa took off all his clothes and left them in a pile on the floor. He was covering himself with his hands even though Missus Ida was keeping her promise not to look.
She turned the knob and pulled open the heavy metal door. There was no light inside, and every surface was surface.
“What do I do?” Asa asked.
“Just step inside. It doesn’t matter how you stand. It’s best not to cover yourself, though; the measurements take longer that way.”
Asa stepped inside and felt the cold metal beneath his toes. The door shut and he was in total blackness. Just as she had told him to, he uncovered himself. He had only been in there for four or five seconds when she opened the door again.
“All done,” she said. “Put your clothes back on.”
“Nothing happened,” he said. “It didn’t measure me.”
Asa saw that Missus Ida had the same device around her forearm that many of the chaperones do. She began to read—“Asa Palmer. Six feet and one inch in height. You weigh one hundred and eighty pounds. You wear size 11 shoe. Your thumb is two and one fourth inches long, and nineteen thirty-sevenths of an inch in diameter. Your forearms each span about fourteen inches in length.”
She looked up at him, blinking behind her glasses—“Do I need to go on?” she asked. “Is there any body part of yours that you would like exact measurements on? I can use the metric system if you prefer?”
Asa began to pull on his clothes. His face was red. “No,” he said. “I’m fine. Thank you, though.”
Once Asa was dressed, she led into one of the small rooms that lined the hallway. It smelled of medicine, there was tile floor, and the whole thing was perfectly cleaned. “Sit down,” she said.
This time, Asa obeyed without questioning her. A fluorescent light buzzed above his head. Missus Ida turned her back to him and began to hum as she got supplies ready, her two tiger tails were drifting back and forth behind her. Her hands moved remarkably fast—opening and closing drawers and arranging supplies on the surface before her. It reminded Asa of how quickly Conway had moved when he had chained Asa up in the hull of the ship atop Kings Lake. Missus Ida spun around, and she held four syringes in the same hand, all between a different set of fingers.
She moved so quickly that had no time to protest. She placed one impossibly strong hand on Asa’s chest, held him down, and injected the vaccines into his skin two at a time. It was over in three seconds, and she disposed of the trash in a biohazard container.
“Aren’t you supposed to put alcohol on my arm first so that I won’t get an infection.”
“You won’t get an infection again,” she said dismissively.
He cocked his head at her, but she did not explain further.
“The medicines I gave you may have some possible side effect for the next few days—back pain, fatigue, heart attack...”
“What?!”
She was across the room and standing at the door in the flash. She slammed it shut and looked at Asa. “Asa Palmer,” she said. A rain cloud had darkened her mood, and she looked worried and disturbed behind her enormous spectacles. “Be careful,” she whispered in hushed tones. “There are many here who will do anything to kill you. I loved your father, but I fear he didn’t think things through all the way. Be careful. I really think that you will die here.”
Asa sat up to ask her what she meant, but she left before he could speak a word. When he managed to get out of the chair and back into the hallway, Missus Ida was already walking Charlotte to the back room.
“Leave here, Asa, we’re about to do an exam. Follow the color red to the auditorium,” Missus Ida said. She turned to Charlotte—“Strip naked.”
“What?” Charlotte asked.
“Take your clothes off.”
“Why?”
Asa walked back down the hallway and exited through the front lobby while Charlotte and Missus Ida were still arguing.
9
The Assembly
Teddy was waiting for Asa when he stepped through the beaded entryway.
“She’s a mess, isn’t she?” Teddy said, smiling.
Asa smiled and nodded halfheartedly. He was still thinking about what the woman said. It reminded him of what Harold Kensing had said; it was another reason to believe that Harold wasn’t crazy; it reminded him that even if this place was beautiful, people with black gums roamed freely.
Powerful people.
People who made huge police officers scared out of their minds.
People who wanted to kill Asa.
“Is something wrong?” Teddy asked.
Asa looked at him, and remembered what McCoy had told him. Only tell people that you can trust with your life. Asa was fond of Teddy, but he wasn’t sure that he felt that strongly for him yet. Or that he had that much trust in him. “No,” said Asa, and he did his best to cheer up so that Teddy wouldn’t be suspicious.
They made their way down the hall towards the auditorium, following the red line in the ground up stairs and around corners. They had been walking for five minutes when they heard the noise.
A high-pitched whine caused them both to stop where they stood and look around. It was difficult to tell where it was coming from, and neither Asa nor Teddy could identify what the noise was.
Then they saw the thing come shooting around the corner. It was a car, except only about four feet high. The machine was painted a shiny red with small, black tires. There were two bucket-seats in the front,
and none in the back. They were too small to hold a human. Tied to the rear of the vehicle was a wooden barrel with no top. Inside mops and brooms and a small vacuum and bottles of cleaning fluid clanked around as the machine moved.
The most interesting and unusual thing about the whole sight was the two creatures sitting in the front seats. The things driving the car were raccoons, only not exactly. Raccoons were the closest things that Asa could think of to these creatures, but they weren’t raccoons. They had the same markings, the same nose, and the hands that drove the steering wheel were raccoon hands. But the way the head was shaped—much too big for a normal raccoon and the top protruded up much too far—and the looks in their eyes
…sentient…
were not like normal raccoons. They reminded Asa of the bear on the wall, and of the dog that attacked Harold Kensing from the woods. The vehicle swerved toward them at an alarming pace; Asa had to jump out of the way, the car let out one small, angry honk, and then they drove on down the hallway.
“Raccoons?” Teddy gasped. “Driving cars?”
“I don’t think that those were raccoons,” Asa said, brushing dust off of his pants. “Just like I don’t think the chaperones are people. Both aren’t normal.”
“In what ways? What do you mean?” Teddy asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” said Asa. “I need more time to think about it.”
They followed the appropriate line on the floor until they found the auditorium. This, like the nurse’s station, was impossible to miss. It reminded Asa of the opera house that Lincoln had been shot in. As he entered, even though he was dressed on par with all the other Fishies, the elegance of the room made him feel slightly embarrassed of his casual attire..