Blue (15 page)

“It was never my intention to make you feel that way,” Delah said, leaning down over the kitchen counter and rubbing her eyes.  “But, just so you know, you should probably say thank you to Inali the next time you see him. He actually was the one that picked up the tab on the bar for the entire party last night. So don’t think that the bar had anything to do with our inability to pay for your education.”

Anytha stared back at her mother, holding back the words that she so desperately wanted to say. Everything inside of her wanted to blurt out, “Thank Inali for what? Groping me?” but she held her tongue.

“I’m sorry. That was out of line. I need to get out of the house. I’m going to the coffee shop for a while,” Anytha said, turning and walking out the door.

Anytha pulled her bike out of the garage and pedaled quickly down the road to the coffee shop. She locked her bike in the rack and walked inside, as the bells rang on the door to alert everyone of her arrival.

Ari picked his head up from his newspaper to check the door, seeing her walk in, and smiled at her.

“I was beginning to think that you weren’t coming,” Ari said, “Can I buy you a drink?”

“I told you I would be here. I just slept a little later than I expected,” Anytha said. “Sure. That’d be great. Just a vanilla latte please,” Anytha said, sitting down in a chair next to his and setting her things down on the table in front of them.

Anytha picked up the newspaper to see what Ari had been reading, while he walked up to the counter to order her coffee. She read the article at the top of the page he had opened and folded over:

Vaal River at Dangerously High Level in Record-Setting Rainy Season

“Do you think that your school is at risk of flooding?” Anytha asked, pointing to the article as Ari handed her a steaming mug on a saucer.

“I don’t think so. It’s actually not that close to the river,” Ari said taking a sip of his coffee.

“Oh, well that’s good,” Anytha said, taking the mug in her hand and taking a sip of the foam.

“Yeah, but I was reading because I am worried about one of the ]places where I volunteer that is near the river. I was thinking about heading out there this weekend to help them put up some sandbags. You should come with me. We could even stop by my school and you could have a look around with me. No pressure or anything, of course,” Ari said, laughing. “Okay. Maybe a little bit of pressure.”

“Actually, I think I might really like that. Don’t want to get your hopes up or anything, but I got an acceptance letter from Vaal Tech in the mail yesterday,” Anytha said.

“Oh, well. Too late. My hopes are already up. Congratulations!” Ari said. “You have to come with me now.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll go check it out,” Anytha said, taking a sip of her coffee behind her smile. “When do you want to go?”

“How about today?” Ari asked.

“Today? Wow. You like spur of the moment, don’t you?” Anytha asked, setting her coffee down. “Sure. That’s fine. I just think I need to tell my parents that I’m going to be out.”

“Do you want me to drive you home really quick, and then we can go?” Ari asked, standing up and walking over to the counter to ask the barista for two paper cups.

“Sure. Why not?” Anytha said as Ari took her mug of coffee and poured it into one of the paper cups.

“To-go,” Ari said, handing her the warm cup. “Take the newspaper too, in case you get bored on the way there.”

“Thanks!” Anytha said and followed Ari out the door and to his car, opening the passenger side door to get in.

Ari stepped in through the driver’s side door, turned the key in the ignition, pulled out of the parking space, and headed toward Anytha’s house, pulling up in front of her driveway.

“Be right back,” Anytha said, hopping out of the car and running inside. After a few moments, she came out and climbed back into the seat beside Ari.

“So, your parents don’t even want to meet me before I take you on a day trip?” Ari asked jokingly as he placed the car in drive.

“Well, not this morning anyway. They weren’t even awake. I just left them a note. They trust me, though. And plus, I’m eighteen now, I don’t think they care. They know I’m going to make my own decisions,” Anytha replied. “They’ll sleep super late and then maybe go out this evening to get some service hours. I don’t think they’ll even miss me. If they say anything, I’ll just tell them I was volunteering for some service hours myself—at the orphanage.”

“Service hours?” Ari asked, his voice rising in confusion.

“Yeah—in Blue, depending on your level of dedication to the practice, you have a certain amount of hours that you have to log every month. I haven’t been meeting my quota lately. But now, I guess I don’t have one anyway. My mom has been trying to get me to go protest with them outside of the capitol for weeks, but I was just so busy with school, I didn’t get around to it,” Anytha said.

“What were they protesting?” Ari asked.

“Well, it changes all the time. This month it is the Termination of Pregnancy Bill that’s being debated right now. Our camp wanted to have a presence there at all times until it is passed,” Anytha said.

“Wait, until it is passed? They’re not against it?” Ari asked, stunned. “There are a ton of churches and other pro-life groups there all the time protesting against it.”

“No, they’re strongly for it,” Anytha said. “Commissioner Inali is heading up the whole thing.”

“Inali—wait, your commissioner’s name is Inali?” Ari asked. “Wait—was that the guy that came on to you last night?”

“Yeah. Why? Do you know him?” Anytha asked, curling her eyebrows up a little.

“Well, I’ve definitely heard of him,” Ari said, reaching down from the steering wheel and grabbing the paper. “I saw his name in here today too. There’s an article about one of his projects. Look—I think it’s on the second page.”

Ari handed Anytha the paper and pointed to the bottom of the page; Anytha folded it over and inspected the article.

“Amniotic Testing Research Seeks to Prepare Expectant Mothers for Babies with Albinism,” Anytha read aloud inquisitively, looking up at Ari and setting the paper down in her lap.

The two sat in silence for a while as Anytha finished reading through the body of the article. Anytha looked up from the paper and then set it down again in her lap, looking out the front window.

“This may sound crazy and controversial, and honestly it almost hurts my brain to think this way—but do you think that Inali has anything to gain from the compounds being shut down?” Ari asked.

Anytha looked at him as she puzzled through the question in her mind.

“Okay, I’ll admit—it probably sounds insane. But if he is funding legislation that will allow easier abortion, and he is also funding genetic testing of unborn babies for albinism, can’t you conclude that he might be attempting to put the compounds out of business? I mean, if there are no more albino babies being born, then there is no need for the compounds, right?” Ari continued, looking at Anytha briefly to see if his comments were coming across as crazy as they sounded.

“Well, when you say it like that it sounds suspicious,” Anytha said, shaking her head as she thought about the details of what Ari was implying. “Even though I don’t really like him right now, I don’t think that is his motive. Our camp donates truckloads of stuff to the compounds every month, and Inali drives the truck there himself. He has always been really supportive of the compounds. And to answer your question, no, I can’t think of anything that he would gain if the compounds shut down. Actually, Blue really focuses on the betterment of our communities, and of our government. The compounds bring money into the government and our communities, so I would think that Inali would actually be fighting to keep the compounds open. The only people that I can see profiting off of the compounds shutting down would be the home security industry. If the compounds shut down, the security system business is going to boom, because all of those families are going to have to outfit their houses with proper security for their children with albinism. But, I don’t exactly see Inali being the kind of guy to go around installing alarm systems.”

“You’re too nice, Anytha,” Ari said, shaking his head. “This guy basically groped you and you’re defending him.”

“Well—I agree. He has chosen a strangely suspicious combination of causes to support, I’ll agree with you there. But I just don’t think he has a way to profit financially from shutting down the compounds,” Anytha said, shrugging her shoulders and scanning the article again with her eyes.

“Who said it had to be financial?” Ari said, looking at Anytha and raising his eyebrows as he pulled his car up in front of her house.

“Okay, now you’re being a little bit crazy,” Anytha said shooting him a sarcastic glance, then looking out the window.

Anytha saw the sign for Vaal Tech on the side of the highway, and Ari took the exit heading onto campus. They pulled into a horseshoe drive in front of an orange brick building, with a large circular awning in front of it held up by red columns.

“Well, this is the main building where the library is located. It might not be as pretty as Pretoria University, but I promise that the company will be better,” Ari said, looking at her with a wry smile. He parked the car and motioned for her to get out of the car and follow him. They both got out and began walking up and down the alleyways, through the courtyard, and around the entire campus together as Ari told her about every building.

“So, am I just completely wasting my breath?” Ari asked, stepping in front of Anytha and turning around to face her. “Tell me the truth, would you even consider going here with me?”

“Ari, would I be here if I wasn’t considering it?”Anytha asked, tilting her head to the side and smiling at him.

“I don’t know. I thought you may just be humoring me because you’re sweet,” Ari said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Ari, I’m considering it,” Anytha said, nodding and smiling. “Trust me.”

“Good,” Ari said, reaching down and gently taking hold of her hand and weaving his fingers into hers. “You have no idea how happy that makes me.”

The two of them continued walking around the campus together as Ari shared with her what life was like as a student in these halls. They walked around the campus for about an hour, and then decided it would be best if they headed to the orphanage to start being productive.

Ari opened the door of the car for her, and she smiled at him as she got inside. He sat down in the driver’s seat next to her, and Anytha left her hand vulnerable on the center console. Ari turned the key in the ignition, put the car into reverse, and slipped his hand underneath hers before he could even pull out of the parking spot.

After driving for a few minutes, they pulled into the driveway of what looked like a little brick school building built on a small, dusty hill in viewing distance of the Vaal River. Ari and Anytha got out of the car, and as they approached the building, they could see a group of people outside swinging sand bags and making a wall at the edge of the hill where the orphanage stood. The two of them made their way over to the group, fitted themselves with a pair of work gloves, and dove into helping build a wall to protect the orphanage from the ever-rising water. Anytha grabbed a shovel and began filling bags from the sand pile with some of the other women.

“If there is a flash flood, you guys are going to evacuate this place right?” Ari asked the head volunteer, Brian, whom he obviously had met before.

“Yeah, definitely. If the water even gets close to these bags, the kids will have been out of here for a while. This is just to protect the building as much as possible, so that our flood insurance company doesn’t think we were negligent,” Brian said, wiping some sweat from his upper lip. “It would be a shame to see this place flood. We were actually supposed to be getting new playground equipment and an entire interior remodel in a couple of months.”

“Oh, really? That’s surprising to hear,” Ari said, standing up after throwing down a sandbag. “Last time I was here you guys were struggling just to pay for toilet paper. What changed?”

“The harvest laws,” Brian said, heaving as he lifted a bag.

“You guys get funding from the compounds?” Ari asked, crossing his arms and giving him a confused look.

“We have always gotten a small percentage of the proceeds from the harvest at the compounds, because technically, I guess the compounds are very similar to orphanages. But the law changed, and it seems that they are planning on making more money off of the kids now. So, we’ll see the fruit of that, too.”

“Oh. Wow. What changed?” Ari asked again, curling his eyebrows as he reached for another sandbag. “With the harvest laws, I mean.”

“I haven’t really looked into it yet,” Brian said, shrugging his shoulders as he stood up and took a drink of water out of a plastic bottle. “All I know is it seems to be a big revenue increase. So much more that they tripled the grant they offer parents who give their children to the compound. It’s over 600,000 rand now. I still can’t imagine having to give up a child for 600,000 rand, but I guess it is a helpful push for the families that really want to keep their children safe, but still feel guilty about putting their child into a compound,” Brian said, screwing on the cap of his water bottle.

The group worked all day, until the sun was starting to set, and the wall of sandbags was at least two meters high around most of the perimeter of the hill the building stood on. Ari wiped the sweat from his brow with his glove and took a drink of water, taking a seat on the wall they had just built.

“You ready to go home?” Ari asked Anytha.

“Not really. But we probably should,” Anytha said grinning, taking off her gloves and rinsing her hands with water from her bottle.

“So I guess you liked it here, then?” Ari asked, smiling at her. “And the school?”

“Yeah—like you said, it may not be as pretty at Pretoria, but the company is much better,” Anytha said, grabbing his hand and peeking at him from the corner of her eye, smiling widely.

The two of them headed back to the car together, and Ari opened Anytha’s door for her. She smiled at him and stepped inside, as he walked around the car and got into the driver’s seat. Ari turned the key in the ignition and immediately placed his hand into hers before he pulled out of the driveway and onto the highway toward Pretoria. As they started passing the Jacarandas on her street, Anytha looked down at his fingers intertwined with hers and then back up at his face.

Ari felt her stare and turned to her. “What?” he asked, smiling widely and rubbing her hand gently with his thumb.

“Nothing,” Anytha said, pausing and grinning sweetly back at him as he pulled into her driveway and turned off the car. “I just really had a great time with you today.”

Ari jumped out of the car and ran around to the other side, unable to catch the handle before Anytha had opened it herself.

“Hey, you’re supposed to let me do that for you,” Ari said, pulling open the door.

“Oh, sorry. I forgot,” Anytha said, stepping out of the car and walking alongside him toward her front door. “Next time.”

She turned toward him when they reached her doorway.

“Thanks for such a fun day,” Anytha said.

“Thank you for coming with me today. It was so much better with you there with me,” Ari said, grabbing her hand again for another touch.

“Well, thank you again for everything. I had so much fun today,” Anytha said, squeezing his hand and averting her gaze down to the wooden beams of the porch, then back at him.

Ari pulled her gently toward him by her hand, leaned in, and planted a small, sweet kiss on her lips.

“Goodnight,” Ari said, letting go of her hand as Anytha smiled at him.