Blue (22 page)

C h a p t e r 
19

Anytha stood at the wall of the clinic, looking at the photograph of her mother and father from so many years ago lit up inside the artwork. She stood staring at it, her eyebrows dipping in the center, with so many thoughts racing through her mind.

“I should have known. She looks just like you in this picture,” Ari said. “I mean, apart from the pregnant belly and all.”

Anytha looked at Ari with her mouth open, and back at the picture. She couldn’t find the words to speak for a moment.

“Are you okay?” Ari asked.

“Um—no—actually—uh,” Anytha said, stumbling on her words. “I mean—um—are you sure you saw her at the compound?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was her. I knew she looked familiar. I can’t believe I didn’t think that she actually looks familiar because she looks just like you,” Ari said, laughing a bit.

Anytha just stood and stared at the picture, trying to piece together so many questions rolling through her mind. It was a picture of her parents that she had never seen before. It was a picture of them standing in front of the Jacaranda tree in front of their house; her mother was at least eight months pregnant. She stood, trying to place this picture in the timeline of her life, and so many things didn’t line up.

“Anytha, what’s wrong?” Ari asked, rubbing her back as she stood staring at the picture with her eyes beginning to water.

“Ari, this isn’t me,” Anytha said as she let the tears drip from her eyes without blinking. “This pregnancy. That isn’t me.”

“Is that not your dad with her?” Ari asked.

“No. That’s my dad. That’s not it,” Anytha said, trying to pull herself together.

Ari stood in disbelief alongside her, rubbing her back as she let the tears drip down her face. Anytha waited a second, knowing Ari well enough to know that he was simply going to let her talk, and wouldn’t ask any more questions until she was finished.

“It’s not that. That’s my dad. But the timeline just doesn’t work. I was born in January, and look, the Jacaranda in our yard is just starting to bud. This had to have been taken in late October or early November,” Anytha said, pointing to the tree in the picture.

“Well, maybe she just looked really pregnant really early. She is little and skinny like you, maybe she just showed really early,” Ari said, trying to reason with her.

“I thought about that. But look at my dad’s hand. He’s wearing his wedding ring,” Anytha said, pointing at his hand that was wrapped around his wife’s side. “Ari, they didn’t get married until about three months after I was born.”

Ari just stood there and rubbed her back as she continued to try to piece together the puzzle.

“You’re certain that you saw her at Humanity?” Anytha asked.

“I mean, I would say that I was pretty certain, but I guess I could have been wrong,” Ari said.

“And she was with Inali?” Anytha asked, as her tone started to change from despairing to angry. “And she was crying?”

“Yeah. If it was in fact her, she was with Inali. And she was crying. Looking out the window.”

Anytha stood still for a moment, looking into her mother and father’s smiling faces. She turned to Ari, wiping the last tear from her eye.

“Do you think that they would let you in the office at Humanity if we went today?” Anytha asked.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they would let me,” Ari said as Anytha grabbed his arm and started quickly walking back to the car.

“And exactly how secure is their filing system?” Anytha asked, turning the key of the car for him as he got into the driver’s seat next to her.

C h a p t e r 
20

Tabitha set her fork down on her plate as she turned from Marguerite’s gaze to look over to Commissioner Inali. The rest of the girls in the dining hall clapped their hands for him as he began to address the room. Tabitha awkwardly met his gaze, which lingered a moment too long before she conceded to clap as well.

“Well, good morning, ladies. It’s a pleasure to be here with you today. I hope that you are finding your new home to be to your satisfaction,” Inali said as the room filled with agreeing laughter and whispers. “Let me just say this, I was horrified when Dr. Hance told me what conditions you ladies were living in over the last months since the flood, and I wanted to personally see that you were all treated with the respect that you deserve. This facility was supposed to be a retreat center for my camp, and before the flood, the plans were being drawn up to break ground on it. After I found out about your predicament, I decided that there was no way that I could build a lavish retreat center for my camp members, while you beautiful ladies were forced to live underground. We made some minor adjustments to the plans, some extra security features to protect you guys from the black market, but otherwise it was my prerogative to ensure that this place would be just as lavish as it would have been for my camp. I hope that you all find it hospitable and welcoming.”

A small round of applause went through the room again. Tabitha sat still.

“I cannot even begin to understand what you girls must go through every day. I will never understand what it must be like to know that stepping outside the walls of a compound could cost you your life. I will never understand how it feels to know that you are confined to these walls, when your entire family is living in safety and happiness outside without you, as some of you do. I will never understand what it must feel like for some of you that got sold to the compound before you even got to meet your family. To live your life feeling unwanted and betrayed by them. I know that many of you might feel like you didn’t mean anything to your birth parents. That you were an accident, and you now feel like your sole purpose in life is to provide money to your country. No, I can’t imagine what it must be like to be you. But I am here to say that you are wanted. You are desired. You are beautiful. And I want to see that you have the most comfortable and enjoyable life possible while you are still confined to these walls,” Inali said, pausing for a moment to swipe the corner of his eye with his finger, as if wiping away a tear. “I look forward to watching you grow here, and maybe even getting to know you all a little better over the years. Thank you for your service to our country.”

Sporadic applause trickled through the crowd as Inali stepped to the side. Dr. Hance stood at the end of the table.

“Okay, girls, sorry to have to be the one to break the news to you, but today is going to be harvest day,” Dr. Hance said as groans echoed through the room. “I know, I know. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think that you guys will be happy about some more news that I have obtained from our government representative who was here yesterday inspecting the building. Since we are now allowed to draw blood from you, we have obtained special permission to allow all of you to keep the hair on your heads for as long as you want. Since blood is worth exponentially more than hair to the healers, we were able to convince the government to let the girls keep their hair because of how little profit they would be making off of it in comparison. I know we have been avoiding shaving your heads for a long time out of the goodness of our hearts, but we always feared that the government would catch on and make us shave you again. But now, we don’t have to worry about that anymore! So, don’t worry about losing your hair anymore, you will be able to keep it for as long as you want. I know that the blood draw is a little painful, but I hope that this can offer you guys a bit of a silver lining to a crummy situation.”

The girls whispered to themselves excitedly over the thought of no more worrying whether this might be their last month to keep their hair. Tabitha looked at Alyssa and smiled, then looked at Marguerite, who stared back at her blankly.

“And there are some more surprises for you all today, but I won’t share them with you just yet. I want you all to be able to experience them for yourselves. After you finish eating, we’ll all walk out together to the Harvest Facility, which is located out back behind the dormitories. So finish up,” Dr. Hance said, tapping the table with his hand and walking out of the room.

Tabitha finished her brunch and wiped her mouth with a napkin, then walked over to the bar where everyone had been placing their dirty dishes. She set her plate down on the counter, making eye contact with Marguerite, who was scrubbing some pots in a large metal sink. Then she turned to head out the doors of the dining hall.

In the hall, the girls had all collected into a large group. Some were sitting on the floor against the wall, but most were standing in cliques just talking with each other. When Dr. Hance walked out of the foyer of the building, he addressed the crowd.

“Okay. We have enough staff and capacity to harvest half of you at a time. So, I need Dorms A-G to line up over here behind me, and H-N to line up behind Commissioner Inali,” Dr. Hance said, directing the girls into their lines.

The girls failed at attempting to form a line and ended up in two large groups. Dr. Hance shrugged his shoulders and laughed at their attempt.

“Good enough. Okay, A-G you will be going through harvest first, the rest of you girls will head over to a separate facility for a surprise. Then we’ll switch,” Dr. Hance said. “Okay, let’s go.”

The girls tried their best to stay in somewhat of a line as they made their way out of the building and walked along the brick pathway out beyond the dormitories. Where the dorms ended, the pathway ended, and they walked on the grass for a while until they reached the tall, decorative wall that encircled the dorms. Dr. Hance pulled a key out of his pocket and opened the gate, and as they walked through, the ground turned from thick grass to dusty desert terrain.

Tabitha looked out at the horizon of the desert. In the nearby distance she saw the same type of electrical fence that had once circled the new girls’ dormitory at Humanity, and she realized that it must enclose the entire facility. She wondered if that was one of the extra safety measures added to the original blueprints to protect the residents.

They walked out into the desert for a few dozen feet, and Dr. Hance asked the girls to stop where they were for a moment. He walked a few steps in front of the group and reached down to the ground. Tabitha noticed a small metal object on the ground, and just as she realized it was a handle, Dr. Hance pulled up on it. The ground itself opened up to reveal a hole. The door, obviously covered in sand that had been glued on, flung open until it smacked hard into the ground on the other side.

“Don’t be scared. We only decided to have the harvest facility installed underground so that anyone who happens to come visit and has ill intentions for you guys won’t be able to tell that this is, in fact, a harvest compound. We’ll only be down here for harvest, and in case of emergencies,” Dr. Hance said, taking a step down into the hole. “Come on. It’s actually pretty incredible down here.”

The girls filed down a staircase that led into the hole in the ground. Tabitha felt as if she needed to hold her breath as her head dipped below the surface of the ground. The darkness around the mouth of the hole only lasted a few seconds until they were met by the lights along the sides of the steps. The walls of the stairwell were made out of painted cinderblocks, and it looked surprisingly clean and well kept for being underground. Aside from some of the dust that had fallen when Dr. Hance opened the door, it was spotless.

The girls filed down the steps that led at least two flights, into what looked similar to the waiting room of a doctor’s office. The room was bright and looked stiff and sterile. It was lined with purple fabric chairs with metal legs and tables topped with magazines. Tabitha couldn’t help thinking about how long it must have taken them to dig the hole to make this room possible.

Tabitha turned to see Dr. Hance walking back up the steps and heard a thud as the door to the outside closed.

“Go ahead and get comfortable everyone,” Dr. Hance said as he walked back down the stairs. “A nurse will come out and call your name when it’s your turn.”

Tabitha and Alyssa sat down in two of the chairs in a corner of the room. Alyssa reached over and grabbed a magazine, starting to flip through the pages that were filled with beautiful celebrities and models.

“This haircut would look so cute on you,” Alyssa said, pointing to a picture of a model with wavy caramel brown hair with blond highlights, cropped right below her chin. “Maybe I can read up on how to cut hair and we can experiment on each other, now that we know they aren’t going to be shaving it.”

“I actually really like that haircut,” Tabitha said. “But I’m pretty sure that if we do cut our own hair, they’ll want the hair. So, we’ll have to ask them what the rules are now.”

A nurse opened the side door and read out a list of names, Tabitha’s being one of them. She got up from her seat and followed the nurse through the doorway into a long hallway that was lined with small rooms. Each room they passed contained a patient table, covered in white paper. The nurse walked with Tabitha into one of them and closed the door.

“I’m Sarah. I’m pretty sure that nothing I do today will be a surprise to you, but I guess I’m supposed to shave everything but your head and brows, give you a mani-pedi of sorts, and draw some blood. I’ll hook you up to your blood bag first, and then start on your nails and body. Sound good?” the nurse asked, picking up the plastic blood bag and needle off the small counter near the sink in the room.

“I don’t really have a choice,” Tabitha said. “But, yeah, that sounds good.”

The nurse asked Tabitha to undress and gave her a small robe to change into, then left the room for a few minutes. Tabitha undressed, put on the robe, and sat down again on the table, swinging her feet.

The nurse came back in with a metal cart and asked Tabitha to squeeze a small spongy ball in her hand. The nurse pushed on the crook of her elbow with her fingertip, and wiped her skin with a sterilizing pad before she plunged the needle into her vein. Tabitha swallowed hard as she saw the blood run into the needle, then the tube, and then drip into the bag at her side.

“Okay, just lie back and relax,” the nurse said, leading Tabitha’s torso down to the table with her hands.

Tabitha looked over as the nurse pulled out her electric razor. It looked much different than the other razors they had used at Humanity; it looked much more advanced and clean. The nurse set it down beside her on the table, pulled a bottle of lotion out of the drawer of the cart, and began rubbing Tabitha’s legs down with it.

“Wow, this is nice. And it smells amazing,” Tabitha said to the nurse. “They never used lotion or anything when shaving us before.”

“Well, I guess they do now. That must have been awful, being shaved with no shaving lotion. Ouch!” the nurse said, rubbing it into her legs and running the razor over her skin, gently removing the hair.

Tabitha started to feel very relaxed lying on the table and felt for the first time that she was actually being pampered rather than harvested. She lay back on the table and closed her eyes as the nurse removed all the hair from her body and clipped her nails.

“Okay, you can sit up now,” the nurse said, reaching her hand out to Tabitha to help her sit up.

Tabitha sat up and lifted her arm that was still attached to the bag. The nurse reached for her arm and removed the needle gently, placing a cotton ball over the hole and putting pressure on it.

“Okay. Now, I suggest that you sit here for a few minutes before trying to walk. And just let me know if you feel dizzy or anything,” the nurse said, reaching into the cart and pulling out a small package of cookies. “Eat these if you feel light-headed. Or if you just want some cookies.”