Blue (14 page)

“It is our primary goal to treat the precious residents of the compounds with mercy and allow them to provide to the betterment of society using the commodity that they provide to our country. We want to invest our money in making their lives even more enjoyable and safe.

“With that, I would like to unveil a picture of the new Humanity Girls’ Dormitory.”

Applause erupted from the audience as the mayor ripped the white sheet off the board to unveil a huge picture of the new dorm, and the girls began to whisper among themselves in excitement about their soon-to-be home.

Tabitha was surprised by what she saw. They had added finishing touches since she had last seen it briefly the weekend before. It was a large wooden building, resembling that of a large log cabin resort. Green shutters graced the windows. And out front was what looked like a hand-painted wooden sign that said “Girls’ Dormitory” in white letters. The pictures had obviously been taken from inside the electric fence, because there was nothing in the picture that showed any way that the compound would protect the house from intruders. It was a perfectly peaceful looking place.

“To all of the residents here. Please know that the government is on your side. Your comfort, safety, and value are our number one priorities. Thank you for all that you do for our country, and the revenue that you provide for us to be able to better our communities. You mean so much to us,” the mayor said, stepping away from the podium as a small trickle of applause flickered through the crowd. He waited a moment and then stepped back up to the microphone.

“I would now like to invite the staff members and camera men to accompany me to the new dormitory for the official ribbon cutting ceremony. Thank you, everyone, for your time today. I wish you a successful and happy harvest. Thank you.”

Mayor Lesedi exited the stage as the gym gave a last unenthusiastic round of applause. The camera crews filed away after him and exited the gym, as the staff began to ask the elementary-age children to stand, then walk in straight lines back to their classrooms.

The familiar beep of the intercom interrupted the sound of the crowd in the gymnasium, and everyone stopped to listen.

“Harvest will begin at the next bell. Starting with all high school girls. All high school girls report to the harvest hall at the sound of the next bell. Thank you,” said the woman over the speaker.

“All high school girls?” Tabitha asked, turning to Alyssa with a confused tone in her voice and a worried look on her face, just as the bell rang.

They arrived at the harvest hall to see two separate lines of young girls forming along the walls, one much shorter than the other, and Dr. Hance standing at the helm of both.

“Okay. For those of you just arriving, I need all the girls that have started their monthly menstrual cycle to line up to my right, and those that haven’t started their monthly menstrual cycles to please line up in the line to my left,” said Dr. Hance to the girls as they entered the hallway. Tabitha glanced at Alyssa with a disappointed and nervous look, her lip curled down. Today she would have to do harvest alone.

Tabitha was lost in her thoughts. She had a million terrible ideas running through her head about what harvest might entail for the girls that found themselves in the line on the opposite side of the hallway. And all she could do was hope that none of them were a reality.

“Thank you, ladies, for your cooperation,” Dr. Hance yelled to silence everyone in the hallway. “Everyone will be having the same harvest today. We simply wanted to split you guys into the correct lines to know which of you need to be directed into the new dormitory. All post-pubescent women’s medical care and monthly harvest will be taken care of in the clinic located in the new girls’ dorm. This clinic within the compound walls will now be specifically for men and children. So, no offense to those ‘women’ present that haven’t had a visit from their monthly cycle yet, but you will not be permitted to move into the new dormitory until it has in fact—well, paid its first visit.”

The hallway filled with a small wave of uncomfortable laughter.

Tabitha looked over her shoulder at Alyssa who was at the back of the other line, and gave her a devastated glance. It had been so long since Tabitha had felt alone, and now she felt like she was losing her only friend in the entire compound. She didn’t know what to think. At this moment, being classified as a child made her want to break down and cry like one.

The rest of her time in line was a blur, as all she could think about was what her friend moving into another dorm would mean for their relationship. As she reached the front of the line, the nurse grabbed her gently by the arm and guided her into the harvest room where they checked her height and weight.

“You’ve gained six kilos. Good for you!” the nurse said to her. “Go ahead and enter Room B, remove your clothing and put on your gown. The nurse will be with you in a moment.”

Tabitha entered the room and undressed, put on her gown and lay down on the table in the fetal position to await her harvest.

The door opened to the room. She lifted her head to see Betsy walking in and sighed in relief.

“Hi, pumpkin. We’ll make it quick and painless today, okay?” Betsy said.

“Please do,” Tabitha replied.

“I’ll do my best. Let’s just get the worst part over with first. What arm do you prefer?” Betsy asked, rustling through her cart of supplies.

“Wait—what?” Tabitha asked with a confused look on her face.

“Oh, baby. They didn’t tell you?” Betsy asked, holding up a large needle and syringe attached to an empty plastic bag.

“No. They didn’t tell me anything,” Tabitha sighed as Betsy tied a rubber tourniquet around the top of her arm.

Tabitha looked away as Betsy rubbed the crook of her arm with an antiseptic wipe and plunged the needle into her vein.

C h a p t e r 
11

After a moment standing there below the lights in the parking lot, Ari finished packing up his equipment and sent the servers home. By this time, the bartenders were the only staff needed to keep the party functioning the rest of the night, until the cleaning crew came in after everyone finally hobbled home.

“Do you want me to take you home?” Ari asked Anytha, closing the doors on the back of the van.

“Yeah. I’ll have to tell my parents that I’m leaving, though,” Anytha said, wiping her eyes.

“Okay, I’ll wait for you out here,” Ari said.

Anytha pulled off her shoes, walked back into the building and marched straight into the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and grabbed a piece of toilet paper to dab away the streaks of mascara that had formed on her cheeks. She sniffled and tried her best to put her hair back in place, before walking back out into her party. She looked around the room, using the sporadic flashes of the lights to locate her mom and dad standing in the corner, chatting up a few of the elder decrees of their camp.

“Mom, I’m not feeling well. I’m going to head home,” Anytha said.

“Oh, baby! I’m sorry you’re not feeling well,” Delah said, placing her hand on Anytha’s back. “What a bummer on your big night. You have a safe ride home, right?”

“Yes, I have a friend that is going to take me home,” Anytha replied, nodding.

Delah kissed her on the cheek and Anytha turned to head out the door, pushing through the crowds of bodies clumped together on the dance floor. She pushed her way out of the door in the back of the kitchen and into the parking lot.

“Thanks for waiting,” Anytha said, opening the passenger side door of the van and climbing inside.

“No problem at all. Ready to go?” Ari asked, putting his hand on the key in the ignition.

“Yes. Please get me out of here,” Anytha replied.

Anytha stared out the passenger side window, intermittently telling Ari where he needed to turn to get to her house, and listening to the trays and plates rattling in the back of the van until Ari pulled into her driveway.

“Is there anything I can do?” Ari asked, pulling the van to a stop at end of the driveway.

“You’ve done enough already. Seriously, I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t run into you tonight,” Anytha said, forcing a sweet smile and looking at him. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” Ari said, pausing a moment as Anytha looked down at the center of the dashboard. “Is there anything that you want to talk about?”

Anytha sat silently for a moment, wondering whom she may be able to confide in about the events of tonight. She, for some reason, felt that she couldn’t speak with her mom or dad about what Inali had done. They would probably just think that she was lying or that she led him on. Or worse, they could be upset with her for rejecting him. All of her studying in the last few months had put too much distance between her and her friends in school, and she felt that it would be inappropriate to share something of this magnitude with any of them. She desperately needed someone to talk to. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to tell her parents that she would just stop practicing Blue for no reason.

“I just don’t know what to think,” Anytha said, putting her head into her hands and shaking it back and forth.

“About what?” Ari asked, putting the van into park and turning off the ignition.

“Our commissioner came on to me tonight. In a very inappropriate way,” Anytha said, choking back the lump in her throat that threatened to send tears into her eyes again. “Now I keep going back through all of our interactions over the last few years, and I am just so disturbed to think that he might have been waiting years for this night. Waiting for the night when I finally wouldn’t be a child anymore—to make his move. I’m just disgusted by that thought. I mean—he was like a father figure to me. Now I just don’t know what to think.”

“Anytha, I’m so sorry,” Ari said, setting his hands in his lap.

“No—I’ll be okay. It’s just—he bent over backwards to come to my activation party, but now I realize that it wasn’t because he was proud of me. It wasn’t because he saw ‘promise’ in me like he said. He had an ulterior motive. Now I can’t look back on my past interactions with him without shuddering at the things that he has said and done over the years—all the little comments or the small lingering touches. I always thought that they were just in my imagination. I mean, he’s basically the same age as my dad!” Anytha said, pulling her hand away from her face in disbelief and then pausing for a moment. “I’m sorry to unload all of this on you right now, but I just don’t know who else to talk to.”

“No, Anytha—seriously. I don’t mind at all. I’m just sorry that this happened.” Ari said, putting his hands back on the steering wheel. “I wish I knew what to say to help.”

“Well, thank you—again. For everything. I’ll be okay. I think I just need to get some sleep. I’m so glad that this night is over,” Anytha said, grabbing her purse and pulling on the handle to open the door. “Thank you so much for the ride home.”

“Of course. You’re welcome, anytime. Seriously.” Ari said, rubbing the steering wheel nervously.

“Goodnight,” Anytha said opening the door of the van and stepping out.

“Wait—hey, do you think you might want to come meet me for coffee in the morning at the coffee shop?” Ari asked, sounding a bit flustered. “I’ll be going back to school soon, and I would really like to spend some more time with you, if you are willing.”

“Um—yeah. That sounds fun,” Anytha said leaning on the open car door and smiling back at him. “I’ll head over there first thing in the morning. It will help me avoid having to talk to my hung-over parents, too.”

“Awesome. Well, I’ll see you in the morning then,” Ari said, smiling.

“Yeah—see you in the morning. Goodnight, Ari. Thanks again for everything,” Anytha said, closing the van door and turning toward her front porch. She opened the front door and turned around to hear the rumble of the van’s engine as she walked inside.

Anytha threw her heels into her closet, and ripped the neck of her dress as she pulled on the zipper too hard while trying to take it off. She pulled on some sweatpants and a t-shirt that was three sizes too big, turned out the light and lay down in her bed, sinking her face into her pillow.

She didn’t know what she was going to tell her parents. How she was going to tell them that she wasn’t going to be practicing Blue anymore. She decided that she would wait to bring it up until they became suspicious, and figured there was no reason to worry over it tonight. Her eyelids grew heavy, and she drifted off to sleep.

She awoke to bright sunlight streaming in through her curtains. The clock read 9:00 a.m. She panicked a little as she got up and put on her clothes for the day, throwing her hair into a ponytail and running downstairs. She could only hope that her parents had slept in later than she had, and she could make it out the door without confronting them.

As she walked down the stairs, she heard the clinking of the coffee pot against the coffee maker and she paused on the step, rolling her eyes and sighing. She walked more slowly down the rest of the steps until she made it into the kitchen.

“Morning, sunshine,” Anytha said to her mother, who was leaning over the counter in the kitchen, using every ounce of energy she had to get the coffee grounds into the filter.

“Morning,” Delah replied, rubbing her forehead.

“You’re up much earlier than I expected you to be,” Anytha said.

“Yeah, I woke up with a pounding headache. Had to come down to make some coffee and take some aspirin,” Delah said.

“Well, did you have fun last night at least?” Anytha asked.

“So much fun. Sorry you had to leave early,” Delah said.

“It’s ok. I’m feeling better this morning,” Anytha said, flipping through the unopened mail on the table to find a letter from Vaal Tech addressed to her. She reached for a knife out of the drawer and sliced the edge.

“Huh, I got in,” Anytha said.

“Got in? Where?” Delah asked.

“Vaal Tech,” Anytha replied.

“Vaal Tech? I didn’t know you were applying to Vaal Tech. That’s over an hour and a half away,” Delah said.

“I just applied because a friend asked me to. I didn’t actually think I would go,” Anytha said.

“Well, we were going to talk with you about this later this afternoon, but your father and I have been looking at the price for tuition and boarding at the University of Pretoria. We can barely afford to just cover the tuition there, even with your scholarship,” Delah said. “I know you had your heart set on living on campus, but we can’t afford the boarding. We’ll help with the tuition, and you’re more than welcome to use one of our cars—when you get your driver’s license of course.”

“I thought you guys had saved money for me to be a full-time student at least the first year! Now, you’re saying that you can hardly even afford tuition?” Anytha asked loudly. “Maybe if you would have just spared some of the money on the bar tab at a stupid party that I didn’t even care about, you could have afforded my college education for a year or so. Sometimes, I just can’t understand your priorities.”

“We threw that party for you! It was all for you! How dare you call it stupid! Why is this the first I’m hearing about how you felt about the party?” Delah asked, rubbing her forehead as if her own words were too loud for her headache.

“Because you were so excited about it! I thought it would break your heart if I told you to spare the money on it. You never even asked what I really wanted,” Anytha said, crossing her arms and looking down at the floor.