by V. K. Ludwig
Instead, concrete buildings rose several stories high, their hundreds of windows glistening in the sun which took a dive toward the horizon.
The mix of gray concrete and the orange rays of the sun dipped everything in a hue of light brown, like millions of tree trunks shaped into squares, rectangles, and other distorted forms.
Most people wore long dresses or tunics, although some men optioned for flowing cotton pants and kimono-style shirts. They all had two things in common: a complete lack of color commitment and a uniform look which made one person look just as dull as the next.
Buildings arranged themselves in blocks of pretty much equal size, a small garden at the corner of each one of them. Light-up signs in olive and teal with small solar panels on top tagged just about everything with community-something. Community homes. Community stores. Community hubs. Numbers were the only variable here.
The car came to a stop, and the driver gave Ruth a nod.
“That’s it. Obsidian district, community home three,” Ruth said. “I think you’re going to like it because unlike the other community homes, we have interactive walls in our bedrooms. Your stuff should already be upstairs.”
When I stepped out of the car passersby scurried away at my sight, exchanging hushed words from covered lips. At least they didn’t point. Except for the little girl who stared at me open-mouthed, her index finger pointing at me, the other hand tugging on her mother’s pastel lavender dress.
“Mom, is this the lady everyone is talking about?”
“Sh.” Her mother kneeled down next to her. “Yes this is the clanswoman who will stay with us for a while, but it is rude to point at someone. Even if it’s someone like her.”
Someone like me? I gazed over to Ruth who gestured me with a shoulder shrug and a grimace on her face that I should ignore them. We climbed up a flight of stairs, entered the building and stepped into an elevator surrounded by glass.
“Whoa!” My knees wobbled underneath me.
“Oh, I am so stupid. I forgot that you’ve never seen an elevator before. We can take the stairs next time if you prefer.”
I peeked through the glass, watching how the marble tiles underneath us grew into tiny squares. “I’ve seen elevators before when we went to old towns or cities, but they don’t move anymore. It kinda tickles my stomach on the inside.”
“You’ll get used to it.” She pointed at a bunch of brightly lit buttons. “Roofgarden is a bit of a misnomer here. The garden is barely big enough to turn around in since the solar panels take up most of the space. The first floor has offices and community rooms. The second floor has our community spa. The third floor has a community kitchen and general living area. And finally, floor number four has our room.”
A ding announced our arrival on floor number four, and a sharp minty scent crept right into my nose when the door opened.
I fanned my hand in front of my nose. “It smells like someone went too hard on the Mojitos.”
“What is mojito?”
“It’s a drink with alcohol and lots of mint.” I followed behind her along the glass wall to the right of the elevator. We passed doors in all sorts of colors from eggplant to cobalt blue, until we stopped at scarlet red at the end of the hall.
“The smell comes from those vents up there.” She nodded toward the ceiling and pushed buttons on an electronic keypad on the door. “Almost every building has a built-in diffusor for natural oils. In the mornings it’s usually something citrusy like orange or lime. Mid-day it diffuses mint or eucalyptus. In the evenings it’s usually lavender. My favorite is bergamot, but that’s only a seasonal scent.”
The keypad beeped, and Ruth pushed the door open, gesturing me to go inside. A short hallway led into one large room, at least three times the size of my bedroom back home. Across from me, the entire wall consisted of nothing but huge windows overlooking sundown in all of its colors.
To the left, a small kitchen with an even smaller island and three barstools. To the right, a red couch in some sort of shiny material with some kind of projector hanging from the ceiling above.
“This is your bedroom.” Ruth pointed at one of the rooms. “The door across from it is mine. We each have our own hygiene pods in our rooms, and I can show you later how they work.”
“I know how they work. We’ve got one at home.”
She furrowed her brows. “You do?”
“Uh-huh. Its one of the amenities you get to enjoy when you are the sister of the chieftain.”
“I see.” She walked into the large room and turned around to look at me. “Most functions are voice controlled, but I have to tell you right away that I disabled my bot; otherwise he insists on cooking for me,” she winked at me. “I am pretty proud to say that I am quite the chef, though, and I rather cook my own meals.”
I gave her a warm smile. Now that the uptight meet and greet with the council was behind me, the built-up tension left my body, and I took a deep breath.
This wasn’t so bad, and Ruth seemed nice enough to tolerate for a year. Sure, the looks of the people and their twisted ideas about us bothered me, but why would I care?
Just ride this out, Autumn, and in one year you’ll be back home. Enjoy your time and kick ass, just like you planned it. What could possibly go wrong?
“Are you hungry?” Ruth asked.
“Ravenous.” I laughed and put a hand on my stomach. “Can’t wait to indulge in baked zucchini, topped with even more zucchini, and sprinkled with protein powder.”
“Oh, don’t you worry, Autumn.” She parked her hands on her hips and bore her eyes into me, an up-to-no-good smirk on her face. “I’ve got something special planned for dinner just for you. Why don’t you go and use the hygiene pod in your room, and I prepare everything for the three of us?”
“Three?”
“Uh-huh. Three.”
Chapter 8
Max
“Do us a favor and act like you’re a nice guy because we can not mess this up,” Ruth whispered.
For a moment I figured she was being sarcastic, but her earnest face cleared it right up.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
She rolled her eyes, grabbed the triple-wrapped lump of meat from me and pointed down the hall. The clanswoman stood by the window, both palms pressed against the glass, staring down onto the buzzing streets.
She could have been one of us, though her tight jeans kinda gave her away. If she wanted to keep curious stares away, she better got rid of them. Her fire-red mane fell in playful waves over her shoulders, touching just below her blades.
“Autumn,” Ruth said, “I want you to meet my co-worker, Max. We work at the lab together only a few blocks from here, and he supervises parts of the Newgenics program.”
Autumn took her sweet time and didn’t bother turning around at first. Instead, I noticed how she stared down my reflection in the window like something out of a horror movie that might jump at her.
Eventually, she turned to acknowledge me — with a sharp nod and her arms across her stomach in a protective posture. I couldn’t help but raise a brow at her. This is going to be interesting.
I hadn’t even said a word yet, but the way she stared me down with her cold eyes made me doubt our plan. How could we convince her to be part of the project if she couldn’t even manage a smile on her face right then?
Ruth bumped her elbow against my back which made me stand up straight. Ok, Max, just be your charming self, and everything will be fine. Or maybe not, but at least you didn’t fail without trying.
I worked my mouth into one of those million-dollar smiles I’ve seen on those pop-up advertisements but left out the wink. A wink might have been a bit thick at that point.
I reached out my hand, my palms suddenly sweaty.
Our fingers met, my skin tingling at the touch.
I took in a sharp breath. “Pleasure to greet you. Um, meet you. Yeah, um, nice to meet you.”
Ugh, well if that wasn’t irresistible, then I got no idea
what might be… way to go idiot.
Although still not friendly, her sapphire blue gaze eased into something less hostile with a hint of amusement sitting on the corners of her mouth. In the end, she shook my hand, probably because a fool like me couldn’t pose a threat unless death by idiocy-overload were a thing.
“Look at that,” Ruth said with a tense smile on her mouth. “He’s even more excited than I am. Well, why don’t you two get to know each other, while I put the dressing on the salad and take care of that little surprise we got for my new roommate?”
She disappeared behind her breakfast island and left me standing on what must have been hot coals. The heat crept up my legs and into my torso, burning me from the inside like ghost pepper dipped in wasabi.
This was silly. She was just a woman like any other in the Districts. Except, those jeans hugged her feminine shape a bit better than anything I’ve ever seen before.
I tried hard not to look awkward and optioned for shifting my weight from left to right and back again in a rhythmic sway. “So, um, Ruth told me you’re twenty-four. I always thought clanswomen marry very young, pretty much as soon as they become fertile.”
She raised a brow at me, arched like a sharp dagger waiting to come blowing down. “This might surprise you but, against all the lies you’ve been told about us, men don’t actually treat us like breeding stock.”
“Of course not!” I plunged my hands into my pockets and clawed my fingers into my thighs. “I only tried to find a quantifiable event that would indicate, um…”
The way she narrowed her eyes at me made me lose my train of thoughts, and let my courage drop to the bottom of my stomach. Why is my mouth stumbling over my thoughts in front of her?
I took another deep breath. What was it that Ruth suggested again? Women like it when you ask questions about them — make them feel recognized and respected.
“I’m sorry, I guess my frontal lobe is a bit clumsy today.” I joked, but her lips remained a white line on her porcelain skin. “Curiosity got the best of me, and I wondered what’s wrong with you that you’re not married yet?”
Her brow came down cutting through the tension-filled air, anger oozing from her eyes which had turned into a dark blue. The one I was sure sailors saw at the Bermuda triangle right after midnight before it swallowed them alive. What did I say wrong now?
She took a step toward me, her hands on her hips and her chest pushed out. “Nothing is wrong with me!”
My brain went into overdrive, tossing variables around, trying to find the mistake. Apparently, something went wrong somewhere, or she wouldn’t wrinkle her mouth the way she did, biting down on her upper lip underneath short bursts of breath.
Every muscle in my face tensed. Why did she even come here if every question about her or the clans offends her?
“Max, is this supposed to look like that?” Ruth called from the kitchen.
Relieved at the opportunity to walk away from this mess, I hurried over to the counter where she pointed at a shiny, pink piece of body with four legs on it.
I glimpsed over my shoulder. Autumn stood rooted in the living room floor, shaking her head ever so slightly as if she wasn’t even aware of it herself.
“Do I just put it on the plate like that?” Ruth asked. “Is it supposed to be this pink and sticky when I touch it?”
“Man, this, uh…” I pinched a severed joint between my thumb and index finger and dangled the barely-a-handful piece of meat in front of me. “Whatever this once was, it’s still raw. I can’t believe they would charge me that much for something they haven’t even cooked yet.”
“So what now? I don’t know how to prepare meat, and if you want me to be honest, just touching it makes me want to vomit.”
I placed it back onto the counter, and together we stared at it with a mix of disgust and resignation.
“Is that squirrel supposed to be for me?” Autumn asked who had shown up behind us, poking her head between our shoulders.
Ruth shrieked, “That thing is a squirrel? But they are so adorable, why would anybody want to eat them?”
“They’re good eating.” Autumn laughed and pointed at the purple area where they had cut the head off. “We use rat traps too and make sure the springs are in good shape for an instant kill. It’s pretty much the first animal our kids learn how to trap because they skin easily. You just make one large cut down the —”
“I think I lost my appetite,” Ruth said and walked away with the salad bowl.
“I thought you don’t eat meat in the Districts?” Autumn asked.
This was my moment to make up for whatever went wrong back there. It had cost me another visit to dad’s and then some, just to get my hands on this thing. But it would all pay off now, catapulting my trial into gear.
“The council shut down livestock agriculture decades ago since it is so damaging to the environment once our numbers recovered.” I cocked my head and looked at her, the top of her copper head barely reaching my neck. “But I know you guys eat meat up there, so I wanted you to have something familiar on your first night here.”
I peeked at her from the corner of my eyes, trying not to make it too obvious how I observed every change of her facial expression.
Dozens of questions raced through my mind: did I choose the right words? Would she accept it as a peace offer? But the most critical question burned at the back of my head — would this convince her to work with us?
She shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve got no problem with protein powder, or even entire grubs for that matter as long as they’re cooked.”
Ruth gave us a confused look. “Grubs?”
Autumn took a step back, her eyes dashing back and forth between Ruth and me. “Never-mind. No need to go through such a hassle just for me. I’ll be fine with whatever you usually eat plus protein powder.”
Autumn tapped her nails on the counter. “Do you have a way to keep this cool? I can cook it up tomorrow once Ruth got over herself.”
With the community gardens on each corner, most people picked up their fruits and veggies on their way home from work. Couldn’t get it any fresher than that, and we had no need for cooling anything, so I shook my head in defeat. “But I can fry it for you if you want.”
“Not necessary.” She walked over to the table and sat down beside Ruth, giving her a pat on the shoulder. “It was lovely of Ruth to get me that meat, but I don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable because of it. If you fry it, the entire place will smell like it.”
A mumbled “ugh!” escaped Ruth while she served greens and chopped up veggies onto small red plates. Anger rolled over me, burning my skin like an alcohol-dipped cotton swab. Ruth might have had the idea, but it was me who put his ass on the line to get it.
“Like I said,” Autumn said, “protein powder is more than fine with me.”
A quarter of my paycheck began rotting on the counter of my coworker’s kitchen. By now, I figured this evening couldn’t get any worse. But just like that, as if I had said it out loud, life accepted my challenge.
While Ruth and I poked through our lettuce, cucumbers and red peppers, Autumn went heavy on that protein sprinkle and dug in with an overly healthy appetite.
“Do you usually eat this much?” I asked her.
A sharp pain vibrated through my toe and I fought hard not to scrunch up my face. Ruth shot me a venomous look. What did I do now?
Dumbfounded, Autumn stared at me over the pile of lettuce on her fork, a few crumbs of protein powder clinging to her mouth which stood open. It took a while until she remained the chewing motion, and she put her loaded fork down as soon as she swallowed. “Do you always ask such rude questions?”
“Why would that be rude? It’s a normal question, and if someone asked me, I wouldn’t consider it as rude at all.”
“Oh yeah?” She shoved her hair behind her shoulders. “That’s because you’re a guy, but it is considered rude to ask that question to a woman.”
I sighed. “W
hatever. You can't upset women in the Districts with those kinds of questions, but I am getting the feeling pretty much everything that can be said offends a clanswoman.”
Ruth dashed her hands toward the two serving spoons inside the bowl. “Who wants more salad?”
“Oh, I guarantee you we are not easily offended,” Autumn said. “I guess it must be you. But then again, who could blame you considering that you simply don’t have any experience with women?”
I gave a dismissive wave and sunk deeper into my chair. That lady had no idea what she was talking about. My supervisor was a woman, so was Ruth and one of my friends. “For your information, I grew up with a sister and —”
“I didn’t know you had a sister,” Ruth said. Maybe she tried changing the subject to something less explosive. That didn’t work, of course. The fact this argument made me mention my sister made my guts roar and fueled my annoyance like an explosive mixture.
“Bet that’s hard to believe for her.” I pointed at Autumn, at this point not far from shouting. “But yeah, I grew up with a sister, and she wouldn’t have been such a hypocrite and feel offended about everything all the time.”
“Max!” Ruth blurted. “The last thing I need is the neighbors to knock on that door. What if they heard you?”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Autumn said in a voice as sharp as a skinning knife. “Oh wait, probably because women here have no idea about the dynamics between men and women. And neither do you, so I guess I really can’t blame you for your verbal bullshit after all.”
“Dynamics?” I spit the word through gritted teeth, my hands clenched into two fists resting atop the table. “If by dynamics you mean your men raping women, then I’m proud to say we really know nothing about those dynamics.”
The room fell as silent as a funeral home, with only the occasional buzz coming from the bot charging station in the corner of the kitchen. Blood pumped through my veins, in fact, I could see it throb along my underarm.