Grandfather (30 page)

Cornelius gently took and
kissed it.

“
How do you do, Mrs.
Harrison?” he asked.

“
Well,” she said, taking a
glass of champagne from a tray as a woman passed by her. “I just
can’t express how thrilled my husband and I are to have you this
fine evening.”

“
Ah yes,” Cornelius said.
“It’s a very beautiful mansion.”

“
We had people working for
hours and hours to make it presentable for you and your new
friends.” Her attention turned to us. “My dears, just make
yourselves at home.”

I nodded.

“Such a beautiful dress,”
she exclaimed, walking closer to Marley. “My, my, my.”

“Thank you,” Marley said.
“I have President Cornelius to thank.”

Mrs. Harrison seemed to
ignore Marley’s last comment. She turned her attention back to
Cornelius. “The boy has become quite the popular one, hasn’t
he?”

“
He has.”

I just knew Cornelius
hated every moment of it.

“The people here just love
a miraculous story,” she continued. “And you certainly have one,
don’t you?” She took a drink of her champagne. Cornelius did the
same. “And from what I’ve heard, other cities are just devouring
him too.”

“So it seems,” Cornelius
said, wiping his mouth.

“And, I don’t know if
Olivia Fabray talked to you yet, but she wants to write a biography
about Carsyn’s life in the orphanage.
Such
a wonderful idea. I can’t express how much I’d love to learn more
about Carsyn. And I think I speak for everybody.”

Cornelius’s eyes narrowed.
“Ah, well,” he said slowly, then glancing at me. “Miss Fabray may
have to wait. I don’t think he’s up for that just yet.”

I nodded my head slowly
when Mrs. Harrison glanced at me, wanting to hear from
me.

“But many people are
curious about your story,” she said. “Surely you want to share it
with everybody here.”

“Carsyn, here, just
doesn’t want to share,” Cornelius said plainly. “At least not
yet.”

I nodded my head again. “I
don’t want to,” I said.

Mrs. Harrison’s eyes,
filled with curiosity, examined my face.

I tried not staring at
her.

“
Very well,” she said. “I
suppose it does make a bit of sense.” She turned her attention back
to Cornelius. “Now, I must find that husband of mine. I do believe
he owes me a dance.”

Cornelius bowed his head.
“Mrs. Harrison,” he said. “Thank you again.”

She left, glancing all
around the room in search of Mr. Harrison.

Cornelius looked at me.
“My guess is that Miss Fabray will find you later.” He walked
closer to me, leaned his head next to mine, and whispered in my ear
for nobody else to hear. “You’ll say no and that it’s too difficult
to talk about. If she presses on, tell her maybe in the
future.”

“Okay,” I said.

“The same goes for you
two,” he added. “Get some food and blend in.”

I felt relieved when
Cornelius actually left us. I thought he would’ve been glued to us,
listening to every conversation we had. “Might as well eat,” I told
Ashton and Marley. They agreed.

We filled up a small plate
with fancy rolled up hors d’ oeuvre, a roll, and some fruit and
found a vacant table. The food was pretty good, but not something I
would’ve considered a full meal. But it was better than the
orphanage food and better than the food served under the
mountain.

As we ate, people stopped
by to meet us. It was kind of annoying, especially when they asked
me questions as I had food in my mouth. They all wanted to know
basically the same things: how I was enjoying the city, how I loved
being with Cornelius, and how bad it was to be kidnapped. I lied
and made everything sound great. Marley and Ashton did the same
thing. Ashton wasn’t too good at lying though. It was probably
eating him inside that he couldn’t yell out the truth to
everybody.

I found it fascinating to
watch how the rich interacted. They all laughed loudly together,
telling stories and jokes about I-don’t-know-what. Nobody looked as
if they were having a terrible time. Nobody seemed to have any
worries. More importantly, nobody had to fake having a good
time.

Cornelius was stopped by
so many people to talk. Every once in a while, he would glance
around the room, as if looking for somebody. Eventually, he found
me, and his facial expression became all the more
satisfied.

Mrs. Harrison had finally
found her husband, and they danced in the middle of the floor,
smiling and laughing together. A man walked around, taking pictures
of people. Nobody resisted. In fact, everybody seemed to love
getting their picture taken; I even saw a few people urging the
cameramen to take one. At one point, he came to us, asking if he
could take ours.

I glanced at Marley and
Ashton, not knowing what to say.

“It’ll be quick,” he
added. “It’s going to be on our blog.”

I shrugged my shoulders,
seeing no reason to reject. After all, we were supposed to blend
in, and everybody else was doing it. I agreed.

“Just stand here next to
each other,” he said, pointing to the floor beside the table. We
lined up and smiled big. The camera clicked. “Thanks,” he said.
“Would you mind if I also got a line from you.” He looked directly
at me. “Just tell me what you think of the fundraiser.”

“Oh,” I said. “Sure. It’s
. . . it’s really nice and the people are treating us
well.”

“That’ll do,” he quickly
said. He looked off into the distance. I turned around to see an
older man with neatly combed over white hair and a gray suit join
the party. “I must get a picture of our vice president,” the
cameraman said, rushing toward him. I noticed Cornelius also making
his way to meet the man.

We sat down and finished
our food as quickly as possible: before anybody else could
interrupt us. As nobody was near, Ashton leaned in and whispered,
“You think we can sneak out of here?”

I looked at the door where
people just flowed in. There was no way we’d be able to escape.
Even if we got outside, there were tons of people and officers who
would’ve probably catch us.

“I really doubt it,”
Marley said.

Ashton wanted to say more,
but was unable to as a younger woman approached us. She was
probably in her mid-twenties. Her black hair was put up in a bun as
Marley’s. Just like every other woman in the room, she had all
sorts of jewelry on that matched her short pink dress perfectly. I
took a second to admire her beauty.

“The survivors,” she said,
staring at us with a look of amazement. “I’m Olivia Fabray. “I’m a
writer here in New Dawn.”

We each shook her hand.
Ashton stared at her, probably admiring her beauty as well. I
remembered what Mrs. Harrison had said and the rules Cornelius had
given us.

“Nice to meet you,” Marley
said. “You look very beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Miss Fabray
said in a jolly tone. “As do you, Marley.”

At first I was surprised
she knew Marley’s name. But then, I felt stupid because we were all
over the news. Of course she knew who we were by name. Everybody
did.

“
I was thrilled when Mrs.
Harrison asked me to come. She’s a huge fan of my work. Thankfully,
she and I have become good friends.”

“Yeah,” Ashton said
slowly, “She told us about you.”

“Good things I hope,” Miss
Fabray said. “I must ask the very question you’ve probably had to
answer many times today. How do you like your new life?”

“
It’s . . . it’s good,”
Ashton said.

Miss Fabray seemed
pleased. “It must be so odd for you guys to be the big juicy news.
I imagine you’ve never gotten this much attention before, have
you?”

“
We haven’t,” Marley
answered. “It’s all so overwhelming.”

“
Kind of hectic?” Miss
Fabray asked.

“
Very hectic,” I
said.

She nodded, as if
understanding. “We can be a bunch of overwhelming people here. When
you have a large group of similar people all in one place . . .
well, interesting things can happen. Or maybe not so interesting.”
She chuckled.

I wondered if she saw
herself as similar to everybody else or different. She seemed a
little bit different. But what did I know? Everybody within the
wall was a completely different breed of people. I was still
learning their ways, even if I didn’t choose to.

“
You know, everybody is
fascinated with your story. And I don’t mean the story of you being
kidnapped, though we’re all interested in that as well. I mean your
story living in the orphanage.” She paused and then whispered,
“Your life outside of the wall.”

Cornelius was preoccupied
with the vice president, getting his picture taken with him. They
laughed with each other and those around them. I wondered if he was
also a part of Grandfather.

“One thing us writers love
to do is write something different from anything out there.
Originality is hard to come by these days, wouldn’t you
agree?”

I turned my attention back
to Miss Fabray. “It is,” I agreed, having no idea if it was or
not.

“
Well, you see, nobody
around here ever talks about those outside city walls.

That was actually one
thing I could agree on. But I was shocked she was actually bringing
it up. It seemed as if everybody just wanted to ignore life outside
the walls. Except for the few who were curious after my
interview.

“
Now, there is somebody who
has made it from outside to the inside. Very rare. What a
spectacular story that would be. The idea certainly has some
originality to it.”

Of course I would’ve loved
to have told her everything. There was a really good chance that
everybody reading my story would help our cause. But I knew it
wasn’t possible. Even if I could agree, I wouldn’t, because she
didn’t realize how much trouble she could get into. Cornelius would
no doubt have her killed if a riot or rebellion was to start
because of her work.

“I’d just love to turn
your transformation into a story everybody would read and learn
from. How ‘bout it?”

I didn’t want to say no to
her, but I had to. “I don’t know,” I said. “I-it’s been
hard.”

“Which is an even better
reason to turn it into a story,” she added. Then, she looked as if
she had just realized something. “Has somebody already told you of
my interest?”

“Mrs. Harrison has,”
Ashton answered.

“He’s just not ready yet,”
Marley answered quickly.

Miss Fabray eyed each of
us. “One thing I’ve learned while living here is that people are
afraid of the truth.”

We said
nothing.

“
I’ve become rich off of my
writing, just like my parents. Bitcoin is one thing everybody here
has in common.” She glanced around nervously before leaning toward
us and whispering, “But unlike most of these people, I realize the
separation is holding our society back. We’re supposed to live
together.”

We were all caught off
guard by her comment. Ashton grinned, this one real. “I agree,” he
said.

Nobody was near us.
Cornelius was still busy talking with the vice
president.

“I want to be known for
writing about the controversial topics. That is something that will
make me different from all the other writers out there. And the
separation is one.” Miss Fabray stared deep into my eyes. “Now
since you’ve gotten here, others have realized that maybe there’s
something more to people outside these walls. Do you understand
this?”

I nodded my head. “I saw
it on TV,” I said.

“Now, I’m not pointing
fingers, but there are people out there who don’t want to hear
this. If I can write your story, I’ll complete my dream of going
over the limits of society, and I’ll help others realize that this
separation might not be such a good thing after all. Be honest with
me, Carsyn, what do you think of the separation?”

I glanced around quickly,
not knowing what to say.

“
Don’t worry about others
here,” she said, putting her hand on my shoulder. “You are one of
the few who has lived on both sides of the wall. What do you
think?”

“
I . . . it’s different,” I
said carefully.

“
You don’t like it. I know
you don’t. Help me show others.”

Man, she was trying really
hard. I bet people weren’t able to tell her no very often. Ashton
looked as if he hoped I’d say yes, even though he knew I
couldn’t.

“
Miss Fabray,” I
said.

“Call me Olivia,” she
insisted.

“Olivia,” I started again.
“Why do you have to write about my story? Why not come up with your
own about the outside?”

“Two reasons, Carsyn,” she
said. “For one, if I write your story, it’s true. It’s a testimony,
and so it’s more believable. You’re famous around here, so people
will read it and many will believe it.” She paused.