Blue (18 page)

“It is our mission at the Practice of Blue, alongside the South African government, to make certain that the residents in the compounds are shown that they are cherished and wanted, and that their lives are truly valuable to us as a community. Today we will break the soil on the ground of the new building that will hopefully show the residents how much we appreciate and love them, but instead of just flipping the dirt, we will plant the first of these Jacaranda trees—a symbol that we will never forget the worth of a person, no matter how different they may look. No matter how abnormal or unwanted they might seem to others—they matter,” Inali said, walking off the stage and grabbing a shovel that was leaning against a wall, near a hole that had been dug in the ground.

Inali used the shovel to pull up a bit of the earth near the hole. Two young men came from behind a large truck carrying a young Jacaranda tree, about five meters tall, and placed it in the hole. Inali scooped some soil on top of the roots and patted it down with the shovel as cameras flashed, and someone brought Inali a microphone from the podium on the stage.

“I give you guys the first step to rebuilding. May these trees always be a legacy—a memorial—to the beautiful lives that were lost on that day. Thank you,” Inali said into the microphone, handing it back to the cameraman.

The television screen then switched to a shot inside the local news studio, where the newscaster thanked everyone for tuning in and returned the channel to the regularly scheduled programming.

Anytha looked up at her mother who seemed to be in complete shock, tears running down her face.

“You okay, Mom?” Anytha asked, rubbing her back.

“Yeah. It’s just so sad. I just get really emotional when I hear about those poor girls again. Just a tragedy. Nobody even saw it coming,” Delah said to her, grabbing a tissue from a nearby box and dabbing away her tears.

Anytha sat with her mother as she wiped the tears from her eyes until she heard the phone ring in the kitchen.

“I’ll get it,” Anytha said.

Anytha walked into the kitchen and picked up the receiver.

“Hello, Lindewe residence, Anytha speaking.”

“Hey, it’s me,” Ari said on the other line.

“Hey! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you until tonight. What a nice surprise.” Anytha said.

“Well, I was going to tell you tonight, but I couldn’t help calling. I finally got granted access into Humanity to tutor some of the kids. Looks like our months of visits are starting to pay off,” Ari said.

“Awesome! You’ll have to convince them to let me in when I come home in a couple of weeks. How’d it go?” Anytha asked.

“Well, I’m still here, but it’s been great. The kids were so much fun. I got paired up with a sweet little boy named Miles who’s in third grade. To see him light up when I showed him some attention—man, it was just really sweet. I can’t wait for you to come out here and do this with me,” Ari said.

“Well, I can’t wait to be there with you either,” Anytha said, her voice trailing downward.

“I know. I wish you were here. You would love this so much. I miss you so much.” Ari said, pausing a moment.

“I miss you too,” Anytha looked down at the floor, trying to hide her disappointment, but unable to find anything else to say.

“But—actually—the real reason I called is because Inali was here doing a press conference today,” Ari said.

“I know. I just got done watching it on TV,” Anytha said. “What did he do?”

“Nothing, really—I guess. I don’t know why I called. I guess he just makes me feel… uneasy. Something about him just gives me a bad feeling. Maybe that’s weird. I guess I just figured you might have seen the press conference. And I guess I just wanted to check on you,” Ari said.

“Check on me? You’re sweet, but I’m fine, really,” Anytha said.

“Okay, well, no matter how philanthropic he may seem to the rest of the world, I still don’t like him,” Ari said.

“I know, babe,” Anytha replied, turning around the corner in the living room to see her mother still sitting on the couch, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. “Me either.”

C h a p t e r 
14

Tabitha didn’t understand why it had to be so dark all the time. They had been cooped up in this place for what felt like years, so long that she had lost count of the days; the building’s lack of windows to the outside didn’t exactly help with differentiating between day and night. She knew that it had been at least ten months since she and all the other girls got in that truck, because they had gone through blood harvest at least ten times. When asked though, none of them even knew what day it was.

The building was definitely underground. They had to walk down two flights of stairs the day they brought them there for the first time, and since then, they had not been allowed to leave. The low concrete ceilings were lined with small halogen bulbs that shed just enough light on their living space to let them see a few feet in front of them. The concrete walls were lined with about a hundred twin beds, each with fresh linens and pillows, but the dampness of the room sucked any freshness of the linens away. The room was a large open floor plan, with concrete columns placed invariably around the room, seemingly the only thing holding up the roof from burying them all alive.

The guards, armed with guns, watched the only entrance and exit door closely. The girls had been told that this new home would only be temporary. That Humanity had been almost completely destroyed by the flood, and there was no safe place for them to stay. They had to stay underground, away from sight, being sure to keep the black market from catching wind of their new, much less secure, hiding spot until they could get Humanity cleaned up and ready to hold residents again.

Tabitha sat on the edge of her bed, watching the light above Alyssa’s bed flicker. Marguerite walked by their beds to tell them that dinner would be starting soon. There was no longer a bell to ring. No loud voices were tolerated below the ground. It would only take one girl yelling to lead the harvesters right to their hiding spot.

Tabitha couldn’t help questioning what might really be going on. She hadn’t wanted to scare the other girls with her account of what had happened to her the night of the flood. The other girls were convinced that Dr. Hance was simply there to protect them. She couldn’t justify sharing with them the evil she saw in his eyes the night that he specifically sought her out to have her join the rest of the older girls. She couldn’t help wondering what would have happened if she had run and hidden like Marguerite had said. Would she have died in the flood? Would she have made it to the third floor with the rest of the residents?

They had made a great case, Tabitha thought. Everything Dr. Hance and the staff had been telling them made sense. They told them that they brought them to this hole in the ground to protect them from the harvesters. If word got out of their location, they would be in grave danger. Dr. Hance was sure to show the girls that the government even sent an inspector once a week, who would check to make sure that their living conditions were up to par. On one of the inspector’s visits though, Tabitha had seen her talking with Dr. Hance as if she knew him personally, so Tabitha wasn’t convinced she was actually from the government at all.

The girls walked quietly over to the makeshift cafeteria, set up in one corner of the room. Marguerite brought out a large pot full of chicken noodle soup for the girls. Tabitha wasn’t sure how Marguerite managed to keep delicious meals on the table here—she was certain she was working with very scarce ingredients in the kitchen.

The cafeteria consisted of plastic tables with metal folding chairs lined up around the perimeter. Tabitha walked up to the table where Marguerite was serving the soup into Styrofoam bowls. She picked up a bowl and her vitamin cup and brought them back to the table, followed by Alyssa, who did the same. The girls all sat down to eat their soup, trying desperately not to make too much noise with their chairs scraping against the cold, concrete floor. Tabitha watched as Dr. Hance walked behind a few of the girls, rubbing their backs as he made his way to the corner of the room.

“Attention ladies,” Dr. Hance said from the corner of the room where one of the only real light bulbs in the room shone down upon him. “I have great news to pass on to you guys. They are finishing up your new living quarters and we should be able to move in, fingers crossed, within the next couple of months.”

The staff tried hard to stifle the cheers of the girls as many of them gasped and whispered to each other in excitement.

“We just want to give you the safest life possible. We apologize that this place is not ideal, but hopefully we will be able to leave sooner than later!”

“Are we going back to Humanity?” Alyssa asked Dr. Hance quietly, raising her hand as she spoke.

“Actually, no. We’re going someplace much better,” Dr. Hance said as he walked through the crowd of girls and tapped Tabitha on the shoulder.

C h a p t e r 
15

Anytha pulled her father’s car back into the garage and turned off the engine. She was stuck in Pretoria for three more weeks until the dorms reopened, lectures began again, and her parents allowed her to return to her life in Vanderbijlpark. Her life away from them. Her life with Ari.

She popped the trunk of the car and pulled out the couple of grocery bags holding sports drinks and canned chicken noodle soup that she had stored there.  Her parents had both been hit with a nasty case of food poisoning the morning before, and both had spent the last day hunched over the toilet in the bathroom. Anytha had volunteered to run to the corner grocery and pick up some essentials to get them well again—not really needing any excuse other than to drive somewhere on her own.

She walked in the back door, set her grocery bags down on the kitchen counter, reached for the can opener in the drawer and opened the can of soup, pouring it into two separate bowls. She heated them up in the microwave and pulled a tray out of the kitchen cabinet. Setting the piping hot bowls on the tray, she carried them into her parents’ room.

“I brought soup. You guys think you’re up for it?” Anytha asked, setting the tray down on the bed in front of her parents.

Her mother lay on her stomach with her arm and leg hanging over the side of the bed, looking like she may have been sleeping. Her father sat on his side of the bed, reading a book. At the sound of Anytha’s voice, Delah turned over and sat up in bed, reaching for the tray.

“Careful, it’s hot,” Anytha said, as her father grabbed his bowl from the tray.

“Thanks, honey. I’m feeling much better. I’m finally actually hungry again,” Chester said, shoveling the soup into his mouth.

Delah sipped the soup off of her spoon. She thanked Anytha for her trouble, while dipping a cracker in the broth and gnawing on it as if it was the first real food she had consumed in days.

“Before you leave, can you bring me the remote?” Chester asked, pointing to the armoire in front of their bed where their TV was located. “One of your mother’s friends got interviewed by the local news at the capitol the other day. She’s supposed to be on the six o’clock news.”

“Oh, which friend?”

“Um—have you met—I don’t think you’ve met her. Agatha?” Delah asked, raising her voice in question.

“No—actually, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone named Agatha,” Anytha said a little sarcastically as she opened the armoire and grabbed the remote from beside the television. She handed it to her father, who clicked the television on.

“Well, if it wasn’t for me, you might be named Agatha,” Chester said, looking over at Delah with a smile.

“What? You almost named me after her, and I’ve never met her?” Anytha asked. “Why have I never heard of her?”

“No, no, no. I just liked the name Agatha. Your father wasn’t a huge fan, so we compromised and went with Anytha. I just met this Agatha about a year ago,” Delah said, laying her head back down on the pillow and clutching her stomach.

“Oh, well good—I guess,” Anytha said, turning around to leave. “I think Anytha suits me much better.”

Anytha walked back into the kitchen and made herself a sandwich, feeling thankful once again that she had skipped the Chinese food her parents had eaten two nights ago. She took a bite, thinking about how thankful she was that she hadn’t spent her last two days hunched over a toilet bowl, like they had.

Anytha stood by the kitchen window and stared at the Jacaranda outside. It had changed so much over the last years since they moved into this house together. It had grown into something so beautiful. Anytha always thought it was the type of tree that an artist would want to paint; perfect in shape and size, and when in bloom, more vibrant than any other she had ever seen.

Anytha heard a small yelp coming from her parents’ room. She set her sandwich down on her plate and went to see what was happening. She saw her parents staring at the screen intently and smiling and laughing a bit.

“What happened?” Anytha asked, smiling at her parents’ obvious celebration.

“We were just on TV. They were reporting on the implementation of the Termination of Pregnancy Bill that is coming in a few weeks, and they showed a shot of us with our signs from the day that it was passed!” Chester said, laughing..

Anytha just gave them a half-smile and turned around to head back into the kitchen. She finished her sandwich and washed her plate in the sink, just as she noticed that the sun was beginning to set outside the kitchen window. Anytha poured herself a glass of water and headed upstairs to her room, hearing her parents still giggling at their short television appearance.

Anytha lay on her bed sketching on a white piece of paper. She didn’t know how to feel about the Termination of Pregnancy Bill being passed, but she felt deeply in her heart that either way, it wasn’t something to be so happy about. She knew that her parents had vested much interest in this law and realized that they were probably just relieved to see it pass, but their reaction to the passage of this bill just seemed strange to her. Why would the passage of such a somber bill make anyone that excited?

She sketched until the sun had completely set, then flipped over on her bed, lying on her back. She heard the phone ring downstairs and her father answer it, then footsteps coming up the stairs before a knock came at her bedroom door.

“Anytha,  Ari’s on the phone.” Chester said in a direct voice.

“Thanks,” Anytha said, jumping out of bed and skipping down the stairs two at a time.

“Hey, it’s me,” Anytha said into the receiver.