The Rainbow Maker's Tale (9 page)

Why now?

As the question echoed inside
my head, I realised that I already knew the answer: Scarlett had
told me that to find out the truth I would need Cassie. Alone, I
had done everything else I could think of, but there were still
gaps in my knowledge. If I didn’t at least try with Cassie, I might
never get out of here.

When the alarm on the viewing
screen alerted me this morning, I did not respond with my usual
irritation. I bounded up from the bed, thankful that Monday had
arrived. Catching a glimpse of my reflection in the highly polished
plastic window in my bedroom I paused, startled by what I saw. A
happy young man – with highly erratic bed-hair – grinned back at
me. It was not the image I normally saw and knew exactly why he
looked so pleased with himself.

“You’re a stalker,” I informed
him firmly, but he didn’t seem bothered. His grin widened at my
words.

Knock, knock.

I turned slightly towards the
door. The sound of Mother’s reminder to get up didn’t even flatten
my mood this morning. Shaking my head at the fool I saw in my
window, we both turned away.

Breakfast was a quiet affair,
as usual, although I was a little surprised at this. I had expected
Mother would have a lot more questions about why I’d suddenly
wanted to be entered onto the extended Medic rotation, rather than
awaiting the fast-track option I’d initially signed up for. Even as
I’d started explaining on Friday my fictitious desire to get more
hands-on
experience, thinking that my academic record was
all well and good but could not be compared to real life knowledge,
she’d already been agreeing with me and offering to smooth over any
issues at The Clinic on my behalf.

As a rule, Mother had questions
for everything I did. She often appeared frustrated by the
information I gave her – or lack of it, more likely – so today was
a completely new experience. She seemed…happy. It was an odd thing
to see, as I was used to her being rather unemotional. The more
disturbing thing for me was the way her behaviour had affected my
mood. For no good reason I could discern, her unexpected happiness
made
me
feel uneasy. It was as though her happiness was a
bad thing.

Breakfast was a familiar mix of
bland cereals today with a soya-based liquid to soften them. There
may have been dried fruit pieces in it, but I couldn’t say for
certain. I barely noticed the actual contents of my bowl, hurrying
through my breakfast eager to escape from Mother’s unsettling
presence. I was in such a rush I forgot my vitamin tablet.

“Balik?” Mother called out to
me as I dashed out of the room, heading towards the bedroom.

I turned.

“You need your tablet.”

“Oh yes,” I mumbled, leaning
back around the corner and reaching out for it, thinking that she
would pass it to me from the table where it was hidden behind the
half-drunk glass of juice. The distance between us was very small,
but she did not move to collect the pill. Standing perfectly still
next to the table, Mother’s eyes were abruptly blank after their
earlier animation. I was confused, and following a few
uncomfortable seconds of silence I realised that she was not going
to pass me the vitamin.

Maybe she hadn’t understood the
meaning behind my gesture. I stepped back into the living space and
walked past Mother to the table. The tablet was still half-hidden
behind the juice glass and I reached over to pick it up. Circling
towards the bathroom again, I’d taken two steps when Mother
spoke.

“Can you take it in here,
please?” She asked, her tone was neutral but the words were
clipped, as though she resented having to speak them. It felt more
like a command than a question.

I turned for a third time,
confusion reigning now.
Why did I need to take it in here?
It didn’t seem like it should matter where I was so long as I’d
taken my daily dose. And, it was only a vitamin tablet after all –
surely I’d survive one day even if I did forget it? Mother’s
behaviour was getting odder by the minute.

“You have to take the tablet
with juice rather than water,” Mother said, nodding at the capsule
clasped in my hand, “it helps it break down for easier
digestion.”

I nodded automatically and went
back to the table for my juice glass, noting that Mother was
watching my actions carefully. Placing the small tablet on my
tongue – it now felt huge because of the strange significance it
had taken on in the past minute – I glugged down a mouthful of
juice. The pill remained resolutely stuck to my tongue, resisting
the torrent of orange liquid that sloshed around my mouth, trying
to force it down my throat. Another mouthful and the tablet still
had not dislodged and the glass was now empty.

Why did I do it?

I don’t know. But, instead of
getting something else to drink, or even swallowing the vitamin dry
because it was easily small enough to do that, I pushed the tablet
to the side of my mouth and left the room. Mother seemed content,
now that I’d taken my dose, and allowed me to escape to the privacy
of the bathroom without further questions.

Closing the door behind me and
locking it firmly I opened my mouth and pulled out the offending
tablet. It sat in my open palm: small and unassuming with only a
tiny amount dissolved around the edges from my attempts to wash it
down my gullet.

Why was it so important?
I prodded the pill, as though that might magically release the
answer for me. It didn’t.

Through my bewilderment over
the whole episode I was conscious of the unsettling notion that
Mother had answered unspoken questions straight from my mind. I
replayed the conversation in my head, trying to understand what had
happened.

I’d forgotten my tablet…she’d
asked me to come back for it…she wouldn’t pass it to me and asked
that I take it in the room…the implication was that I took the
tablet where she could see me…that had confused me and I’d wondered
why I had to take it in there…thought it wouldn’t matter where I
took it…and then she’d given me the answer for something I’d not
asked…not asked aloud at least.

Had the question been written
so plainly in my expression that she’d been able to guess what I
was thinking?

It was possible, I conceded,
but it didn’t feel
right
. I paused a few moments longer,
mulling over the peculiar exchange. More likely was that Mother
knew my inquisitive nature: that I liked to understand how
everything worked and why. Of course, she was unaware of how far I
really
took things, but still, she knew enough about me to
think that I’d want some reason to back up her request. That must
be it.

The pill still sat in my open
palm. A new question began playing around my head. For the first
time I had a tablet in my hand, without someone watching over my
shoulder while I obediently swallowed it. I was alone now and had
the freedom of choice whether to take it or not…what would I
do?

Of course I wasn’t going to be
a good boy and do what I was told if there was no one watching. I
curled my fingers around the capsule and pushed it carefully into
my pocket. It would be nice to understand
what
was in my
daily vitamin, and I knew just how to find that out with some
choice supplies from The Clinic. I smiled to myself, already
relishing the new knowledge I would have by the end of the day. It
looked like today was going to be even better than I’d
expected.

Quickly stripping out of my
night-suit and stepping into the shower, I couldn’t stop grinning
as the hot water pounded over my skin. My hair – erratic from being
in bed – flattened against my scalp and drifted towards my eyes as
the water tamed the dark curls. I pushed them away and held my hair
back from my face allowing the spray to spatter my across my eyes
and cheeks, as I began to plan out my day.

Twenty minutes later, I stepped
through the sliding door of our apartment pod onto the corridor
outside. I was wearing a fresh day-suit and had managed to pacify
my unruly hair somewhat, so that I looked presentable. I set off
towards The Clinic with an excited bounce in my step, the stolen
tablet sitting securely in my pocket.

* * *

It wasn’t difficult for me to
blend in with the pedestrians milling around the plaza in front of
The Clinic. There were lots of people coming in and going out, some
even forming queues to wait in an orderly fashion for their turn to
pass through the gapping hole of a doorway. The Clinic was a large,
clear-fronted structure, but it still managed to dominate the whole
square, standing several stories above the surrounding buildings.
It was also the widest building on the square, taking up the
equivalent frontage of five other properties. It was huge compared
to the blocks in the residential zones, which were limited to three
storeys, housing six families each. Of course, The Clinic needed to
be big: it was the main medical facility for this area of the
Family Quarter, serving the surrounding Black, Green and Blue
Residential Zones.

I shook myself. Why was I
thinking about architecture? Or the logistics of which sections of
the space station population were served by The Clinic? I must be
desperate for a distraction! Clearing my head, I refocused on my
feet and began walking again.

I had arrived early – really
early – and had been wandering an invisible track around the
square, pretending to myself that I wasn’t waiting for someone,
even though I obviously was. But there was no sign of Cassie so
far.

Was she going to be late? I
wondered, before a second thought pushed it away.
Had she
changed her plans?
This prospect deflated my buoyant mood and I
tried to ignore it.

As I walked the first few
circuits in front of The Clinic, I was still persuading myself that
my pursuit of, and interaction with Cassie, was purely for academic
purposes. I had told myself a hundred times already: Cassie has an
interesting mind and could offer me an alternative perspective on
my questions about Space Station Hope.

And the fact that your missing
friend Scarlett suggested that Cassie would be able to help you
find out something you haven’t been able to do alone...?

Ambushed by my own sarcasm, I
knew there was no answer to
that
question. More accurately,
there was no answer I was going to offer to my questioning
subconscious at this point in time. I shrugged it off and continued
pacing.

Another lap of the plaza, with
these thoughts churning, and I gave up. I was even boring myself
with my thinly veiled excuses. Cassie was undoubtedly a bright girl
and looked at life differently than me, so that was true. But it
wasn’t the reason I was pacing around the central hub of the
residential zones at 7.00am on a Monday morning. No. I was here
because I was a sad, lonely stalker. I couldn’t even muster a
silent, bitter laugh to accompany that thought; it was too painful
because it was true. My mind slipped into a blank limbo as I
continued walking in circles.

8.07am. There was still no sign
of Cassie arriving.

Surely she wouldn’t be late on
her first day?

As I passed under the clock –
it showed 8.09am now – I fell into step behind a boy from my Green
Zone school class. Matthew. I didn’t greet him or make him aware of
my presence. Why would I?

“Hey Matt!”

I turned towards the voice,
even though it wasn’t me that had been shouted. A boy I didn’t
recognise was waving and he turned in my direction. I saw Matthew
raise his own hand in acknowledgement when he saw the guy and he
slowed down to wait as the newcomer approached through the crowd. I
slowed myself, mainly because I had little else to do at the moment
apart from continue with my circuits of the square.

The boy was tall – a good few
inches bigger than me – and he had the dark skin colour of the
station descendents with African heritage. He had a relaxed walk,
more of a lope really, and he covered the distance between them in
a few long strides. I found myself eavesdropping on their
conversation, as a distraction from my own concerns.

“Hi Joel, how’s things?
Where’re you going?” Matthew asked as the boy joined him.

“I’m starting my Medic
placement today at The Clinic.” The boy – Joel – nodded towards the
large building that I’d been circling for the last forty minutes.
“What about you?”

“Yeah, I’m on placement too.”
Matthew shrugged his shoulders dismissively as he replied.

It was exactly the same
movement Cassie made and I wondered whether this was something
she’d picked up from him or vice versa, as I knew that they hung
out at school.

“I’m just heading over to
Engineering, I applied for the longer rotation and start
today.”

I could tell by the sound of
Matthew’s voice that he wasn’t overly happy with this and I wasn’t
surprised; from what I could remember of his answers in class,
engineering was not his strong point. That would explain the
extended placement and lack of enthusiasm.

“I know – no holidays right?”
Joel complained lightly, echoing Matthew’s apathy. “It sucks!”

“Anyone else you know on these
earlier rotations?”

Joel shook his head. No. “Not
on the Engineering side of things,” he said, “just a girl from my
class on the Medic rotation.”

“Nice?” Matthew asked. I knew
he wasn’t referring to her personality.

“Oh yeah,” Joel laughed,
catching his meaning immediately. “But man, can she talk!” He held
his hand up and flexed his fingers open and closed rapidly to
reinforce his words. Matthew laughed and rolled his eyes. “Anyone
you know on my placement?” Joel asked a moment later.

“I think Cassie’s doing the
extended Medic rotation,” Matthew replied after a few seconds
thought. “She might be with you.”