You'll Like It Here (Everybody Does) (19 page)

Several times throughout the day, I find Colin staring at me with knitted brows. When his puzzled eyes meet mine, he turns away quickly. When we finally leave the park to go back to Building 9, we see Elvis Presley performing on the sidewalk again.

As we stop to listen to his music, Gramps whispers to me, “It really is Elvis.”

Yes, it really is, and apparently he's back from rehab, but not in all his glory. Gone are the shiny, silky clothes and blue suede shoes. Now he's dressed in beige from head to toe, and his dark wavy hair has been mutilated into a crew cut. Worse yet, all the light has gone out of his eyes, and he doesn't allow his body to sway in the least. Worst of all, he sings that most bland of all love songs, “Tea for Two.”

I think of the other Elvis, and the contrast makes me long for those sparkling golden days in America. Not just the green mountains and valleys, and blue waters, but also the happy people who were in charge of their own destiny. The energy. The wild music. The spirited laughter. The freedom from fear. And my heart aches to see that Earth again.

On
The Family Hour
we hear that the madman has been sent away for “an indefinite period of time,” but now I have a hard time trusting anybody or believing anything I hear in this place, and a new phobia creeps into my mind. I'm afraid of going outside, even for a walk. My family is patient with me, but Jennifer and Colin simply don't get it.

“You need fresh air and sunshine,” Jennifer tells me. “A strong body serves the Fathers far better than a weak one.”

I can't help thinking that I really have not breathed fresh air since coming to Fashion City. In fact, it's likely that the air-conditioning is safer than the polluted air outside. Mom has told me that it's only a matter of time before the lifelong residents here begin to come down with pollution poisoning, as they did on Chroma.

This morning Mom told us she has found what she thinks is a promising planet. Its name is Tranquility, its language is very much like Chromish, and it has strict environmental regulations. Now she and Gramps have to study the various governments to see if they can find a place like the United States.

I wonder how the Gilmores will take it when they wake up one morning and find that the Blues have vanished overnight. I'll miss them, but we knew this day was coming.

Later we're sitting on the balcony on a night so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face. No moon, no stars. It seems that Mom's refusal to marry Gil has only made him more in love with her, and he keeps asking her, “How can I win your heart? What must I do?” Mom has tried patiently to explain to him that her heart can't be won, but on this night she tries a different tactic.

“You can give up those stupid pills, for one thing,” she snaps at him.

Gil is obviously surprised. “Give up Lotus? But why?”

“They take all the natural survival instinct out of you, Gil, and make you sluggish.”

“But they make life bearable. You should try them yourself, my dear. David had a bad reaction. They usually make you more agreeable.”

“Oh, yes, I'm sure of it,” Mom replies with a laugh, “more agreeable and more submissive. That's how they turn you into zombies.”

“Meggie!” This cry from Colin is sudden and shrill. “What's in your hair?”

Once again, all eyes are on me, and from the corner of my right eye, I can see why. OMG! I am glowing!

“What on earth …?” Gil says.

“It looks like about a hundred fireflies!” Jennifer screeches. “Or a thousand!”

“Yeah, blue fireflies,” Gil says, “nesting in your hair!”

“And it just gets brighter and brighter!” Colin adds.

This cannot be explained away as paint, and we all know it. On this dark night I'm beginning to light up the balcony with what must look like a periwinkle fluorescent bulb attached to the right side of my head. I am so excited, my teeth start to chatter.

“Come, Meggie,” Mom says calmly. “Let's go inside and have a look.” Once inside, she whispers, “It's the loveliest shade of blue I've ever seen.”

She hugs me, and now I can't stop grinning. Yes! I have finally achieved blue.

“Too bad we have to wipe it out,” she says as I follow her into the kitchen.

I am lighting the way, so Mom finds the vinegar quickly and cleans the luminescent stripe with a paper towel.

“What will we tell the Gilmores?” I whisper.

“Nothing,” Mom says. “Don't worry about it.”

“But what if they tell somebody?”

“And have people consider them as loony as the madman?” Mom says with a chuckle. “Besides, we'll be gone from here soon.”

As we approach the glass doors, which we left open, I can hear Gil saying, “I don't understand. What
was
that?”

“What was what?” Gramps says.

“You know exactly what,” Gil says. “That blue light. What the heck was it?”

“Blue light? I didn't see any blue light. Did you, David?”

“Nope,” David comes back. “Maybe you guys are taking too many blue pills.”

“Oh, come on. Don't give me that,” Colin says. “What's wrong with Meggie?”

“Nothing's wrong with our Meggie!” Gramps says loudly and with much feeling.

“But the way she was jabbering in the park the other day,” Colin goes on, “like she was having some kind of fit. And the way her hair lit up. Is she sick?”

“Stop it, Colin!” Gil scolds him.

“I'm just saying,” Colin goes on, “if you're trying to protect her from being sent away, we're not going to turn her in.”

“We'd never do that,” Jennifer adds.

Mom and I resume our places on the porch.

“I don't know what to tell you, Colin,” Mom says, “but no, Meggie is not sick.”

“Then what?” Colin persists. “I mean, that's not normal!”

“Yes! Yes, it
is
normal!” Gramps says emphatically. “And that's all we can tell you.”

“But we've never seen anything like this,” Colin says. “She's spooky.”

I am suddenly so mad at him, I can't see straight.
“Yeah, maybe I am spooky,” I cry. “But at least I don't pretend not to see when a policeman bullies somebody, and I don't yell at people to shut up!”

I didn't mean to say that, but I realize now it's been bothering me for days, and I'm glad it came out.

“And you, kiddo, are grossly unique,” Colin fires back.

“Thank you!” I cry out with a laugh in my voice. “That's the nicest thing anybody's said to me since I've been in this place.”

“It wasn't meant as a compliment,” Colin mumbles.

“Colin! Not another word from you!” That's Gil putting his foot down.

After a short silence, Colin whispers, “I hope the night watchman didn't see her.”

“What night watchman?” David speaks up. “You really think there's somebody down there looking out for us? Well, think again. There's only bounty hunters.”

It's for sure, our friends now see us in a new light, so to speak, and it seems even more essential to leave this place quickly.

At breakfast Gramps says, “We'll set up the Carriage this evening.”

“So you've settled on Tranquility?” David says excitedly.

“Yes,” Mom says. “It has its problems, like every place, but we need to get away—yesterday!”

“It'll take twenty-four hours for the Carriage walls to restore,” Gramps explains. “Then we'll be ready to leave the Land of the Fathers forever.”

“Amen!” Mom says with a long sigh. “We have only today and tomorrow to work in that stinking factory. Maybe I can stand it for that long.”

Poor Mom. She has tried to hide her frustration with the monotony of her work, but now she doesn't have to do that anymore.

That afternoon the telephone rings, and I'm reminded of our second day in Fashion City, when Joe installed it. We've been here for the entire summer season now—autumn is upon us—and the phone has rung only a few times. Though Mom and Gramps have made calls on occasion, David and I haven't used it at all.

“Hey,” Jennifer says when I answer. “There's something I've been curious about. How come your mom was fussing at my dad for taking Lotus?”

“Because she thinks it's addictive, Jennifer. You all may be addicted already.”

“The Fathers have us watched for symptoms of Lotus abuse,” Jennifer explains. “That's one of Tom's jobs. He knows all the signs, and reports when he sees them. Then you're called in for rehab. They don't want anybody so out of it we can't function.”

“But why take Lotus at all?” I say.

“Because it makes you feel good.”

“When it comes to feeling good,” I tell her, “I always listen to Gramps's advice. He says he never feels bad, and he's the healthiest person I know.”

“Yeah, for an old person he seems to have a lot of energy,” Jennifer agrees. “Exactly what is his advice?”

“Just the basics,” I explain. “Eat right and exercise.”

“How old is Gramps, anyway?”

I laugh. “Well, he tells everybody he's sixty, but he's really sixty-five.”

“No!” Jennifer screams suddenly into my ear. “No! Stop it!”

“What are you talking about?”

But Jennifer has hung up. A moment later she's banging on our door.

“Now they know!” she cries frantically. “And they'll come for him.”

“What do you mean, Jennifer?”

“They know how old Gramps is, and they'll force him into Vacation 65.”

“How would they know?”

“The phones are bugged!”

“What! There's a tap on our phone?”

“On everybody's,” Jennifer says as her pretty face melts into gloom. “The Fathers are fond of reminding us that we have privacy inside our homes. And it's true. We do. But what good is it when the phones are bugged?”

“That's unconstitutional!” I protest. “It's an invasion of privacy.”

Jennifer stares at me, uncomprehending. Unconstitutional? Yeah, right! In this upside-down world, there is no U.S. Constitution! The Fathers make all the rules, and they make them to suit their own purposes.

“Why didn't you warn me about the phones?” I raise my voice to Jennifer.

“I keep forgetting that you don't know all the ways of the Fathers,” she says miserably.

Jeez! The last thing Gramps needs right now, when we're so close to leaving this place, is a vacation. It seems to me a person should have a choice about a thing like that, but just before five o'clock, two police officers show up at our door. Boldly they walk inside and park themselves on one of our couches. I have told David about the phone call, and now we look at each other with worried eyes. I know we are thinking the same thing: we should warn Gramps.

David eases toward the door, saying, “I have to do some shopping for dinner.”

“Not now,” one of the officers says firmly. “Sit down. Both of you need to stay right here until the old man comes home.”

As soon as Mom and Gramps walk in the door, the officers stand up, and one of them says, “Time for Vacation 65, old-timer.”

“What're you talking about?” Gramps exclaims.

“The next white bus leaves the day after tomorrow. We'll hold you in custody until then—just for safe-keeping.”

“I can't go on vacation now. My family needs me. Besides, I'm only sixty years old!”

The officers look at each other and laugh.

Gramps gives up way too easily. “So I lied,” he admits, “but how'd you find out?”

I cringe in dread, waiting for the officer to tell on me, but he simply says, “I have no idea. We're just following orders.”

On top of being mad at Jennifer for not telling me about the tap, I'm also mad at myself for giving Gramps's secret away. Mom is so distraught the night after he's taken, she actually allows Gil to put his arms around her.

“Not to worry,” he explains to her. “Vacation 65 is a gift from the Fathers to the people. You stay in a luxury hotel on the oceanfront in a warm climate with everything your heart could desire, right at your fingertips. There's entertainment and fine food and festive clothing, friends of the same age, games, exercise, dancing, cruise ships. Everything you've always wanted but didn't have money or time for. Vacation 65 guests are also given the best medical care in the best hospitals and are treated like royalty.”

He sounds for all the world like an infomercial.

“That's fine,” Mom says, “but for how long? Even Tom couldn't tell me how long my father will be kept from us.”

She's thinking of the Carriage to be set up and our upcoming voyage, and the fact that she'll have to work at that awful job until Gramps comes back.

“How long?” Gil says. “An indefinite period of time.”

“Indefinite period?” David screeches.

“How long is indefinite?” Mom says irritably, and moves away from him.

“You people are obsessed with time!” Gil says tersely.

“And you people
ignore
time!” she snaps back.

On the morning of Gramps's departure, I force myself to leave our apartment and stand on the sidewalk with David, Colin, and Jennifer to watch for the white bus
marked
VACATION 65
to come rolling by. When we see it, we wave frantically and call to him. “Goodbye, Gramps!”

His balding head appears at one of the windows, and I'm glad to see that he's smiling. We wave until the bus is out of sight.

“Okay, the truth, Mrs. Blue.” Tom speaks irritably to Mom that night because she keeps bugging him about Gramps. “He won't be coming back at all. Nobody comes back from Vacation 65, nor do they want to. They love it.”

“But they can come back for visits, can't they?” David asks.