First to Dance (7 page)

Ayita paused, taking it all in. “Did anyone there speak of a place called Earth?” she asked.

Suddenly Kara’s eyes went wide. “Yes. Many,” she said.

Ayita yearned to know all the secrets of the people in that building, and she yearned to free them.  At the same time, the thought of being
a prisoner there for the rest of her life completely terrified her.  “I don’t want to go there,” she said. “But I don’t want to keep silent either, and there is nowhere else I could go.”

Kara
was silent for a while, and then she said, “There’s here.”

Ayita stared at her and didn’t say anything.

“If you have nowhere else to go, you can stay here. I don’t think they would look for you here, and you could hide in the basement when they come to check on us. If you chose a different name to go by, then if Sophie ever talked about you as she got older, no one would have to know it’s you she is talking about. Kris understands about the secondary school, and I don’t think he would mind. You would be welcome here.”

“I would be in hiding the rest of my life,” she noted.
 

“Yes, but believe me when I say it would be better than living for a second as their prisoner.”

Ayita nodded, and gave a quick glance to the door.  She wondered if she could be okay with only ever seeing this side of it again.

After her conversation with
Kara, Ayita gave her aunt a quick hug and, noticing the time, went out in search of Acton. She did not have to walk far, for he lived on this street and was on his way home.

“Hi,” she said. She waved and quickly walked up to him.

He walked right past her.

“Acton!  Acton, wait,” she said. “What’s going on?”

He turned around, and she couldn’t read his face.

“When I said we should come up with something to talk about, I didn’t mean
like this,” he told her. “I could tell you were different; I had no idea you were crazy.”  He turned again to walk away.

“What are you talking about?” Ayita said.

“Don’t play
dumb
with me Ayita. You know what I’m talking about: the books you’ve kept hidden in your basement for who knows how long.”

Ayita felt panic in every cell of her body, but she tried not to let it show.
She took a deep breath and looked into his eyes. “How do you know about that?” she asked.

He looked at her like she was stupid.
“Everyone knows,” he said. “They’re being burned right now in front of your house.”

Ayita felt her heart sink. She had
most of the books cataloged away in her excellent memory, but still she felt sadness, knowing that no one else would be able to enjoy them the way she did. No one else could see the things she saw. And, she thought, she would never know what Etana had written in her other letters to Aaron.

When Acton spoke again, her sadness turned to fear.
“Our instructor looked you up in the computer and made some calls after you skipped class yesterday. Your mom was called home from work today and three men came by with a warrant. They searched until they found your hidden room in the basement. Then they brought the books up and started a fire. I was on the porch steps the whole time, waiting for you. When I saw them bring the books out, I decided I’d better leave. I’d also better not keep talking to you or they’ll think I knew of this and send me away as well.”

He started to walk away
, but Ayita called to him. “Acton!” He looked at her and for a moment they stared deep into each other’s eyes. “Are you okay with my differences?” she asked.

He
continued staring, unsure of what to say. Then he came close to her and whispered in her ear. “I am never going to see you again, and for that, I am not okay.” When he stepped back, he had tears in his eyes. He took a short breath, then turned and walked away.

Ayita stood and watched him leave. Her mind was racing. Her first thought was to go back to
Kara’s house and ask for refuge. Then she thought of all the people at the secondary school and wondered what she could learn from them. She wondered how her mom was doing, having just witnessed this all take place. Ayita decided to go into the forest and walk toward her home through the trees, where she wasn’t likely to be seen. She wanted to be near her house so she could watch, and listen.

When she arrived, she saw a crowd of people around the fire. The fire was dying down and so was the crowd. People were starting to walk away from the excitement now that it seemed there was nothing left to see. A man
stood in front of the door to their house, and her parents waited outside. Ayita guessed that they were not allowed to go in, and that the other men who came were probably destroying the hidden room in the basement.

Her parents looked stressed, but in different ways. Her mother looked cold and hardened. Her father looked sad and concerned. They were
having an argument which Ayita could not hear, but it was clear that Taya had taken the role of the aggressor. She was verbally attacking while her husband patiently took the abuse and did not respond except with kind but sad looks. Finally, she broke down into tears and simply fell into his arms. All that anger disintegrated and she allowed herself to be vulnerable.
She’s not heartless after all,
Ayita thought
.
She watched her father hug her mother, and while they were holding each other, with Taya’s face buried into his shoulder, he looked past his wife, into the trees, and made brief eye contact with Ayita. He stared at her for a moment and then looked away. Ayita quickly slumped down behind a bush where they could not see her and she could not see them. She wondered what was happening now. Was he telling Taya that he saw her there among the trees? Was he alerting the men who had come to take her away?  Ayita sat in a frozen stillness unsure of what to do. Quietly she peeked around the edge of the bush to see what was happening. Her father made no movement to indicate that he might tell the others where she was. Ayita’s heart calmed and she sat patiently, peeking around the bush every few minutes to get another glance at the situation.

Throughout the evening there was always a
t least one man standing at their door. The other two came out at various times to trade posts. Eventually, her parents were let inside. As the darkness increased, all the onlookers disappeared to their own homes and eventually even the three men left, but Ayita did not see where they went. She assumed they did not go far, and that they would return early in the morning.

Ayita sat, unsure why she was sitting. She felt she should be doing something or going somewhere, but she could not seem to come up with a plan, and so she sat.
She thought her father might come to see her, but as the night went on she wondered whether they had really made eye contact or not. It got later and later into the night and nothing was happening.

Then, just as she was about to get up and move deeper into the forest, she heard the soft sound of footsteps in the gravel. Her body froze and she breathed slow, silent breaths. Then she heard her father whisper, “Ayita?”

“I’m here,” she whispered back.

“You
cannot come home or they will take you away. You must flee.”

“
Where can I go?”

He stepped in among the trees and found her, then sat down beside her.  They sat in silence for a while.
Then he held out his hand. In his palm was a small wooden turtle attached to a chain. “I made this when you were a baby,” he told her. “I knew somehow that one day I would be giving it to you.”

“I don't understand,” she said. There was no way he could know
what a turtle looked like, unless he had read the books.

“Ayita, we share a knowledge that no one else on this planet will understand.” He placed the turtle in her hand and closed her fingers around it. He looked her in the eyes. “Never let it go.”

Ayita nodded.  She had so many questions for him, but she knew there wasn’t time to ask. There was such urgency in his voice.

“You must leave as quickly as possible,” he told her.
“Your destiny is not to be a prisoner at the secondary school for the rest of your life.”

“
Where can I go?”

“Follow the directions
that were in Etana’s letters, and go to Earth.”

“I never finished reading
the letters.”

“Then listen carefully, and I will recite
them to you.”

5

Her father quietly recited
all of Etana’s letters, written to her son, and Ayita memorized every word. Then they hugged and said goodbye, both knowing they would never see each other again.

According to the letters
, she would find the space station if she walked straight through the park and through the forest behind it. It was about a five mile walk: uphill for a very long way and then downhill.  She was amazed that it could be the same park and the same set of trees as described in the letters, but her father told her that when he learned of it he went to see for himself, and the building was there. However, he did not go inside.

As Ayita
entered the park she realized this was the same direction in which she saw that strange orb flying through the sky. Beyond the lonely swing set grew a wooded area on an upward slope.  Ayita had never before ventured far enough to see what lay beyond those trees.  The forest was not easy to travel through.  There were thorns and branches sticking out and getting in her way, snagging her clothes and the small bag of food her father brought her, but Ayita continued on.  The further she walked the denser the trees became until she reached the top of the hill, and on the other side of the hill there were very few trees. When she got there, she could look down and see, far off and alone, a large square building with a perimeter more than ten times that of her home.  She wondered how it could be so close to everyone this entire time and manage to go unnoticed.  Did no one ever stray so far from the town?  Surely someone else must have walked up this way before, and yet, looking back, Ayita knew she herself never did.  The idea never entered her mind before her father suggested it.  Likewise, no one else seemed to have the need to explore either, to venture through the forest and find something new, or, in this case, something very old and forgotten. Or perhaps it had been found before, by others running from the secondary school, but once seen was assumed to be another government building and left alone. Whatever the case, this building was unknown to the general public of Zozeis.

Ayita took a deep breath
and started treading down the hill, away from their broken society, possibly toward another. After walking once around the building, Ayita came upon the front of the old space center, to the only entranceway she saw.  It was a strange looking door: tall, transparent, and without any obvious doorknob.  She wondered how she would get inside, but when she stepped closer, the door opened all on its own. Ayita froze in amazement, and then cautiously stepped inside.  After several steps, the door shut behind her.  Ayita jumped, and then froze again to the point of not breathing.  She stood still for a long time and listened, but the building was silent. She could not see very far down the hallway, so she looked for a light switch. When she finally found one, the whole place seemed to come alive. Bright lights came on above her and small beeps and whirring noises seemed to come from every direction. At the end of the hallway was a very large room which made up most of the building. In the center of the room were three large round platforms. Atop two of the platforms sat small, round spaceships, similar to ones she’d seen in the books from the basement. The third platform had nothing on it. The third spaceship was missing. Ayita quickly realized: the missing spaceship was the orb in the sky which her family had seen not so long ago. But who was flying it? And where did they go?

Upon a quick survey of the building, it was clear that this place had not been abandoned. It
appeared to be well kept, and while there was a thin layer of dust atop a few things, most of the room looked quite clean. A chill went down Ayita’s spine as she wondered if someone else were here now, watching her. But as she stood still and silent, she reassured herself that anyone else in the building would have likely made themselves known by now in some fashion.

Ayita approached the two spaceships. Beside each platform was a computer which came to life when she touched the screen. From the computers she learned that one of the spaceships was fully charged, and the other was only
35% charged. The computers also each gave a log of where the spaceships had been.  There were many location names which she did not recognize and then two which she did recognize: Zozeis and Earth. The most recent log for each spaceship of course was their landing on Zozeis where they were now docked and charging. Earth was only mentioned a few times, but the other planet names were listed many times. Ayita scrolled through each log of places and was amazed at how many trips had been taken. Then she went to the computer beside the empty platform and checked its most recent departure. Whoever had flown it last was headed for a planet called Adonia.

Ayita looked over the spaceships, but she couldn’t figure out how to get inside. She decided to see what was in the other rooms of the building, hopeful that she would find instructions or a user manual of some sort.

The first room she came to was a small bathroom with a toilet, sink, and shower. The next room appeared to be a sort of one-room apartment. There were kitchen appliances and counter space along the far left wall, and a bed, dresser and small couch along the right. In the center of the room was an oval table with two chairs, and there were two doors side by side along the wall across from her. The first door led to a small room containing a washer and dryer, and the second door led to a closet full of clothes. On one side were men’s slacks and shirts, and on the other side were women’s dresses, blouses, and a few pairs of pants. Ayita wondered about the people who lived here and what their lives were like.

The third and final room looked like a very
simple office.  There was a single computer with a large flat screen seated atop a long brown desk. When Ayita touched the keyboard, the screen came on, and what it displayed absolutely shocked and amazed her. The screen was split up into six squares and each square showed a different part of the community where she lived. It was still dark out, so the pictures were slightly unclear, but Ayita could make out the image of the school building and several other locations she recognized. After about a minute, all the images changed and she had a view of six other places around town. Ayita moved the mouse again and a white arrow came on the screen. The next time the pictures changed, Ayita’s home was showing in one of them. Ayita moved the mouse to click on the image of her home. Then she gasped. The images changed to show the inside of her house, and it wasn’t just pictures she was seeing—this was live video. She could see her mother sleeping in her bed, and her father was on the living room couch, still awake. He had the lamp on and he was holding his head the way he did when he was deep in thought. The rest of their house was dark and still. Ayita watched the screen for a long time.

Suddenly a white box popped up on the screen. It displayed the following words:
“Unit 6437 has landed at Adonia. Transmitting records now.”

Below this were two buttons: “Conference” and “Home
.” Ayita was afraid to touch anything, but after waiting several minutes, she clicked “Home.” This took her to a new screen which gave her many options to choose from. She could go back to watching the live videos, or select an option that would help her learn how to work one of the spaceships, but there was another application which piqued her interest: History Log.

This took her to a screen which allowed her to choose from a list of planets. Earth was not on the list. Ayita clicked on
Zozeis.  From here she had the option of “Condensed Records” or “Complete Records.” Ayita clicked on “Complete Records.”

A screen
popped up with a list of names. The list seemed to go on forever. At the top of the screen was a search box. Ayita typed in her own name and hit ‘enter’.

The first line in the document said, “Ayita has accessed Computer 17582. She has viewed inside her home in the video interface and searched her personal record in the History Log.”

Ayita clapped her hand over her mouth and her heart started racing. Then her mind went to the screen that had shown only a few minutes earlier. Records were being transmitted to whoever had traveled from here to Adonia. She swallowed hard and her hands started shaking. She scrolled down and skimmed through her record. This file seemed to contain every single word she’d said and every action she’d taken in her entire life. She did not try to read the whole document, but she read enough to know that it was indeed ‘complete’. It was also automatic somehow. Ayita scrolled up to the top of the file, which had updated to state how far down in her record she scrolled before scrolling back to the top of the file. Ayita stared at the screen.

“Hello,” she said.

The record updated to show that she said “Hello” but that no one else was present.

Ayita took a deep breath before she
clicked back and went to the Condensed Records. Here she found a single bullet-point list of events. Conversations were summed up in a sentence or two and there were notes on when people entered and left buildings.

“How do they do this?” Ayita said to he
rself. Then she smiled a little because she knew her file had just been updated. For a moment it felt like she was let in on an inside joke, but her amusement turned again to fear as she wondered if the people running the secondary school knew about and had access to these files.

I need to leave soon,
she thought.
They might already know I’m here.

Ayita returned to the home screen and found the computer’s controls and information for the two spaceships in the other room.
She selected the spaceship that was fully charged and clicked the option that said, “Prepare for Launch”. This brought up a list of options. She selected that there would be one person flying and the destination was Earth. There were three landing centers on Earth; Ayita chose one at random. The next screen showed her the spaceship’s status in several areas. Everything was green for the spaceship to fly to Earth, except for the food supply, which was shown in red and only said 67%.

“There’s not enough food,” she whispered. She jumped up and ran
to the apartment-like room, where she looked through the kitchen cabinets and the refrigerator. The cabinets were packed full, but the food was unlike any she’d ever seen before. Everything was packaged in an airtight sort of plastic and had odd labels on them with words she didn’t recognize. Ayita opened one to see if it was really something she could eat, and it was. The one she opened was some sort of dried vegetable. The taste was unfamiliar, but not bad or spoiled. 

Ayita
went back to the computer and scrolled down the list of statuses. At the bottom there was the option: “Open for Loading”.  Ayita selected this and afterward she heard a whirring noise coming from the other room. A side panel of the spaceship had lifted straight up, creating an opening which she could walk through.  Ayita climbed up into the spaceship and looked around. There were two seats facing a window. Ayita could see out the window from inside the spaceship, but she could not see in from outside. Below the window was a panel of buttons and a small computer screen. Within moments the computer came on and showed the same screen as the one in the other room. Ayita followed the directions for loading the food packages, which involved scanning them into the system and placing them in a specific compartment on the left side of the spaceship. As she did this, she watched the percentage go up to and then exceed 100%. Ayita decided to stock extra food just in case Earth was truly devastated.  If finding food there proved to be difficult, she wanted to be prepared.

By this point, Ayita’s eyes were burning and she was feeling exhausted, but she knew that she had to leave tonight. She didn’t want to take the risk of anyone finding her here, and her thoughts kept going back to the computer system that was logging her every move.

The spaceship was all set to go. Ayita strapped herself into the seat and directed the spaceship to close the door. All that was left was to press Launch and see what happened. Ayita hesitated as she looked at the button on the computer screen. She knew that once she left, time would move more slowly for her. When she returned, her family would be gone, and very likely Aira and Acton would be gone as well.  Time would not slow for them. What if she left and found nothing? What if Earth was completely empty? If she returned home, she would face the same problems, but with no one who even remotely cared.

She reflected on her father’s final words to her, and gained courage.

“I will not be here when you return, for my days will have passed by then, but I believe that you
will
return, and when you do, I know you will turn this planet on its head and paint all the walls of this city. If anyone can do it, you can.”

Ayita bit her lip and pressed Launch.

6

The roof of the building opened up for her departure before the spaceship shakily lifted off the platform it was on. It rose above the building, the roof closed up again, and the spaceship quickly shot through the sky: away from Zozeis, toward Earth. As the spaceship gained speed, the shakiness went away, and there was a loud noise as it tore through the sky. Ayita wondered if her father was still awake and if he would look outside to watch her leave. “Goodbye,” she said. She held the wood turtle in her hand and close to her heart.