Blue (13 page)

She dug through the top drawer of her dresser, and pulled out a pair of white panties and a matching training bra. She slipped them on and then pulled a worn-out camouflage t-shirt out of her dresser, catching another glimpse of herself in the mirror of her dressing table. She tilted her head to the side and inspected herself in the mirror as she pinched her hipbone between her thumb and her forefinger. They seemed softer today, and much less jagged than she remembered. She pulled on the thin t-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts, letting her arms hang at her sides as she inspected the outfit in the mirror.

She couldn’t help but notice that her eyes gravitated toward her breasts. She had never really needed more than a training bra before, but today, in this t-shirt, she felt that she needed something more concealing. She pulled off the shirt and bra, reached into her top drawer, and pulled out a light pink bra with a thin layer of padding. Putting it on, she layered the t-shirt over the top again. She backed away from the mirror and inspected herself again; the padded bra was a wise decision.

Tabitha looked again at the clock and realized that she still had a while before breakfast. She sat down in front of her dressing table and rustled through her drawer of makeup that she had picked up from the donation boxes over the last couple of years. She picked out a small box of eye shadow and smoothed a streak of gold over her eyelids, then rubbed black eyeliner along the edge of her top lid. She coated her eyelashes with mascara, rubbed some tinted balm over her lips, and pursed them together. She looked back at the clock and sighed—still an hour before breakfast.

She stood up and put her ID card into the pocket of her shorts. Walking out the door of her room into the hall, she went out into the courtyard to sit on her bench. She sat kicking her feet and attempting not to think about harvest when she saw Alyssa approaching.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Alyssa asked as she approached the bench.

“Nope,” Tabitha said, looking down toward the ground.

“Yeah. Me neither,” Alyssa said, sitting down next to Tabitha. “You look nice.”

“Oh. Thanks—” Tabitha said, looking up. “Makeup.”

“Yeah right. You don’t need it. But it does look nice today,” Alyssa replied. “We have like a half-hour before breakfast. Do you want to do mine?”

“Makeup?” Tabitha asked.

Alyssa nodded.

“Sure. Let’s go back to my room,” Tabitha said.

Alyssa hopped up from the bench and started walking ahead of Tabitha back to the girls’ dormitory. Tabitha looked up from the bench as she walked away and caught a glimpse of a dark spot on the back of Alyssa’s yellow shorts. She followed close behind Alyssa, looking again to see if she had imagined the spot, and saw it again every time she took a step. Alyssa walked up to the door of Tabitha’s room, turned the knob, and pushed it open.

Tabitha followed Alyssa into the room, and Alyssa spun around to sit on Tabitha’s bed.

“Wait!” Tabitha said. “Don’t sit down.”

“What?” Alyssa asked, spinning around and looking behind her.

“I hope this isn’t embarrassing to you, but I promise nobody else saw it but me,” Tabitha said, spinning Alyssa around to where her back was facing the mirror and pointing to the spot of blood on the back of her shorts.

“Oh my god!” Alyssa said. “I’ve never had it before. This is so embarrassing.”

“It’s fine. You can wear something of mine if you want,” Tabitha said, opening the bottom drawer of her dresser where she kept all of her shorts.

“I don’t have anything—like a pad or anything. And the nurse’s office isn’t even open yet,” Alyssa said, almost frantically.

“It’s okay. I have some. I have been saving them in case I have the same issue soon,” Tabitha said, reaching into the back of her closet and pulling out a box of feminine pads, then handing them to Alyssa.

“Thanks. Oh my word. I’m so glad you caught it,” Alyssa said, grabbing a pair of shorts out of Tabitha’s drawer and taking them into the bathroom to change before coming back out and sitting down at Tabitha’s dressing table.

“Thank you. I was wondering why I had been so crabby the past couple of days,” Alyssa said, sighing and looking long at herself in the mirror of Tabitha’s dressing table. She reached into Tabitha’s makeup drawer and pulled out a purple eye shadow. “I like this. Can you use this on my eyes?”

Tabitha nodded, dabbing the powder onto Alyssa’s closed eyelids.

The girls left Tabitha’s dorm together and headed to the dining hall where they grabbed their trays and filed into the line. Tabitha looked down the line behind the bar and around the dining hall, and noticed that Marguerite was nowhere to be found. She looked at the end of the breakfast line and saw that Dr. Hance was leaning against the wall behind the nurses’ tables, supervising the distribution of the daily vitamins. Tabitha then saw the doors of the kitchen fling open as Marguerite walked through, carrying a tray full of small plastic cups. Marguerite set the tray down on the table next to the computer where they received their daily vitamins, sat down behind the desk, and started handing the residents their vitamin cups.

One by one, the residents walked up to the table and recited their number. Marguerite would grab a cup with the correct number from the end of the row nearest to her and hand it to the resident. As Tabitha approached the table, she noticed that there was an extra row of cups filled with water set up at the end of the table. The residents were being asked to take their vitamins at the table, under the supervision of Dr. Hance. Each resident was asked to set down their tray and take the cup with their vitamins and a small cup of water. They were supervised until they could show the doctor that all the vitamins had been swallowed.

Tabitha approached the table where Marguerite was sitting and recited her number from memory. The large “8” flashed across the screen and Marguerite reached for the cup farthest away from her at the end of the row. She handed it to Tabitha as a nurse handed her a small cup of water.

Tabitha looked nervously at Dr. Hance, who was staring at her with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall. Tabitha popped the capsules into her mouth, and they tasted sweet. Her eyes met Marguerite’s who gave her a serious look. A terrifying look. A warning look.

The pills had never tasted sweet before.

Tabitha swallowed hard and jumped at the sound of the intercom beeping to signal an upcoming announcement.

“Attention, residents, the mayor of Tshwane will be here this morning for the ribbon cutting for our new girls’ dormitory. All residents, please report to the gym at 8:00 a.m. Attendance is mandatory. Since the assembly will be broadcast on television, we suggest that everyone be on their absolute best behavior. Regular harvest will begin after the assembly. Thank you.”

Tabitha sat down at a table in the back of the dining hall, and squinted her eyes in thought. It was rare that anyone from the government came around the compound. Well, every month on harvest day government officials came to inspect the harvest process, checking for “humaneness” in every aspect of harvest, but every month they would leave without saying a word to the residents. It was very rare for the government officials to have any type of real contact with the residents, especially not enough to invite them to listen in on a mayoral speech. Tabitha shook her head as Alyssa sat down next to her, trying to shake off the skeptical thoughts that were crossing her mind about the purpose of the assembly. She couldn’t help but think that everyone had ulterior motives today.

“They are getting really intense about these vitamins,” Alyssa said, shaking her head and poking her eggs with a fork.

Tabitha just pushed her food around on her plate, lost in her thoughts. Lost in her fears. The breakfast line had closed, and the nurses began cleaning up all of their supplies and packing it all away. Tabitha glanced back over her shoulder to see Dr. Hance approaching their table from across the room.

“Just a word of warning,” Dr. Hance said as he approached them and placed his hands on their shoulders. “If you girls want to keep your hair for any length of time in the future, I highly suggest that you go back to your rooms and find something to cover your heads. The government officials may not be happy with the fact that you have been allowed to let it grow for so long. I personally think it is very flattering on the both of you, and I’m happy to allow you to keep it, but the government officials won’t be so nice.”

“Oh—okay,” Tabitha replied, trying not to flinch under the weight of his hand on her shoulder. “Thank you.”

“Yes. Thank you. We would really like to keep it,” Alyssa said, turning and giving him a smile.

“I know you would. You all look so much more beautiful with your hair. I would hate to see them ruin that. Now run along, I’ll see you girls later in the harvest rooms,” Dr. Hance said, shooing them away with his hands.

Dr. Hance moved away and approached another group of young women that were proudly displaying their hair to share with them the same advice. Tabitha took a bite of her eggs, then got up from her seat and threw away her plate, setting her tray in the stack on top of the trash can

Alyssa scooped a few bites of her breakfast into her mouth, then followed close behind Tabitha. They walked out into the courtyard together, passing by Dr. Hance as he leaned over the table to speak with yet another group of girls. Tabitha made eye contact with him as she passed, and he winked at her with a wry smile. Tabitha turned away as if she hadn’t seen him. Nothing about Dr. Hance felt right to her. They walked back to their rooms and helped each other tie the scarves around their heads, being sure to tuck in every strand.

Tabitha and Alyssa were some of the first residents to arrive at the gymnasium. Video cameras were being set up in the middle of the floor. A woman was applying powder to the nose of another sharply dressed woman with a microphone in her hand, who was looking into the camera and checking her reflection. At the end of the gymnasium floor they had set up a stage, and in the middle stood a red and white podium with the South African crest pasted proudly on the front. On top of the podium was a tall, thin microphone. Next to the podium was a large board that was covered with a white sheet. Behind the podium proudly stood the South African flag in front of a royal blue curtain.

The residents began to file into the gym over the course of half an hour. The staff had the children in grade school sit cross-legged on the floor, and the middle and high school students were ushered into the stands. As the residents sat chatting amongst themselves, Tabitha saw the side door of the gym open, and two large men in black suits with microphones attached to their heads walked in. One stood beside the door with his feet spread hip width apart, and crossed his hands in front of him. The other walked to the edge of the stage and fell into the same stance. She could see that they both had a gun at their side.

Suddenly, one of the teachers flashed the lights in the gym— the signal that everyone needed to quiet down. The chatter in the gym faded into a very soft whisper as the side door opened again and Mayor Lesedi entered. The staff erupted into applause, causing the residents to echo them with their hands. The cameramen began counting down backwards from three with their fingers, and pointed to the stage. Mayor Lesedi walked up the steps to the stage and took his place behind the podium as the crowd grew quiet.

“Thank you, kind population of Humanity for welcoming me and my staff here today. Your hospitality has been amazing,” Lesedi said, picking up a small stack of large index cards from the podium and tapping them against the top to align them together.

“Most of you know that today I am here to speak on behalf of the government to celebrate the opening of the new girls’ dormitory here at Humanity, the largest Humane Harvest Compound in all of South Africa. This new building is the first addition and expansion that the government has been able to perform in many years, and we are very excited to have the opportunity to invest our money in support of such a noble cause.

“Citizens of South Africa, your government officials want to thank you for making it possible for these children, and some adults, to be able to find refuge in compounds such as Humanity. There is nothing more terrifying for a child than to fear for their life. To wonder every night if they are really safe, or if someone might be coming to attempt to take pieces of their body. There is nothing more sickening for a parent than to worry over the life of their child. To feel the weight of their child’s safety hanging on their shoulders every day of their life.

“The life of a child with albinism without proper protection isn’t much of a life at all. They are never at peace. Many of you here today are aware of what it feels like to be hunted. What it feels like to have a huge target on your back at all times. What it feels like to wonder if you will live to see tomorrow. And I am so thankful to be able to say that, by the grace of God, I will never understand what any of those things feel like. Because of this, I have dedicated my life to protecting the safety of these valuable young people.

“This is why it is exciting for me to be able to announce that the new girls’ dormitory is the first step of many in bettering the lives of the residents of South Africa’s Humane Harvest compounds. There are exciting things on the horizon for residents, and we are so pleased to see that things are moving in the right direction to making the facilities and harvest process more comfortable for everyone involved.

“First of all, I wanted to say thank you to all of the residents of all of the Humane Harvest Compounds for being patient with us as we move forward on these renovations. This is the first of many improvements that we will be making to your everyday lives.

“Second of all, I have a very exciting announcement to make. Congress has recently passed a revision to the Humane Harvest Law that will allow our compounds to make an estimated nine billion rands more in revenue over the course of the year. The newly signed bill has recently been released to the public, and is available to anyone that would like to read it and look into the specifics of what the new changes entail. Over half of all of this revenue will be poured directly into bettering the lives of the residents in the compounds themselves, and we are excited to be able to begin the first of these renovations at the first of the year. We want to be able to provide our residents with quality education, and the ability to live in safety while working toward their college degrees, so that, if they wish, they can one day leave the compounds and become functioning members of society. The other half of this revenue will be going straight into improving South Africa’s communities in a tangible way.