Out There (5 page)

“This has a list of all the leaders and how they got their role. Thought you might like to look at it,” she said, handing it to me.

I skimmed it. “Wait, this is post-Movement.”

“Oh yeah,” she said, leaning over my shoulder, “I guess there must not have been many records so they improvised.”

“They?”

“The community.”

“They can do that?”

“Course they can,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Half the artefacts here are copies of the real things because they were falling apart. Or they created books with information from old artefacts that they weren't able to preserve, or from memory.”

“How come you know all this?”

“I specialise in Movement history, remember?”

“Oh yeah, sorry Lexi, it just slipped my mind.”

She looked almost hurt for a second, then continued scanning through the books on the shelf. I felt bad; Lexi was one of the smartest and most confident people I knew, yet she always had a soft spot when it came to my friendship with her. She always agreed with what I said, took my side, asked for my opinion. Of course that didn't mean that she always took my advice, she was just sure to hear my side. She was beyond loyal, and expected me to be the same in return. That meant remembering basic facts about her.

I tried to steer clear of awkwardness by continuing, “So what profession are you going to apply for with that specialisation?”

“I want to go into History Preservation, have since age ten. You?”

“Well, with my specialisation in pre-Movement history I could work here. Which would be amazing, but I sort of want to do something different.”

“Like what?”

“I don't know.”

“Well, here's the book if you want to look at it,” she said, handing me the little brown artefact.

“Thanks,” I said, flipping through it.

There were lists of leaders of different cities and greater cities and photos to go with each one. It wasn't surprising that they were all men. I paused to read some of the bios. One read:
His female assistant wrote all his speeches and he was elected based on his way with words. Later he brought war and poverty on his people and when he wasn't re-elected, he said he had received all his advice from his assistant.
I recognised him from my studies. Then there was another one, which was a common pattern for a leader of that time:
He seized power through force and whenever
he was questioned or challenged, he would kill ten of his people. He ruled for fifty years before dying a painless and easy death.
Classic.

And not a single woman. It wasn't surprising in the least, but a strange part of me always hoped that life wasn't always that horrible. I trusted everything I was taught, yet I sometimes felt like the only person who found it all so extreme.

“Can I help you?”

I turned round to find a woman wearing a white archive uniform smiling at me. She was familiar, of course, but she was new to the archives.

“Oh no, we were just looking. Are you new here? If you don't mind me asking.”

“Yes, I just graduated actually, so I only started the job recently,” she said.

“That's cool. I might apply here myself when I graduate.” “Well, it's a great profession. What's your specialisation?” “Pre-Movement history. This is one of the only professions I can do.”

“Well, there is this new programme opening, actually. It's called the archaeology profession. I wanted to apply myself, but there were only a few places for each year.”

“Really? What is it?” I asked, curiosity building.

“They approve the applications of only a few people that show a strong interest and they send them off to increase the artefact collection.”

“They send them where?”

“Outside.”

“Outside the
Bubble
?” This was unbelievably shocking.

“Yes, it's a very unique programme. They send people overseas to the ruins of old cities.”

“That's amazing! How do you apply?”

“Like any other profession, but you have to go through initiation first. I can get you an information pack if you like.”

“Oh that would be great, thank you. I didn't catch your name.”

“Hannah Peters – you?”

“Ava Hart.”

“Oh, like Donna Hart?”

“Yeah.”

“
That's
where I recognise you from. Congratulations,” she said, walking away.

“Thanks, I'll pass it on.”

Lexi strolled over. “Who was that?”

“She works here. She was explaining to me about this new profession.”

“Cool. So did you find the book interesting?”

“Same old. Evil man takes over and makes women's lives miserable.”

“Well, at least it's in the past. Hey, I'm going to go find the others and see when they want to leave. Can you put the book away? I'll be right back.”

“Sure, Lexi.”

“Thanks,” she said, running off to the documentaries section.

I walked along the aisles, searching the section on politics.

Soon I spotted the column of shelves dedicated to leadership, most often corrupt. I was slipping the book into a gap when I saw a tiny leaflet sticking out of the shelf opposite. It was perfectly held between two large books, even though it was only halfway in.

I inhaled the mystery of discovering something new and pulled it out. So tiny and fragile in my hands, I scanned the plain blue cover for a registration label.

Nothing.

It must have been a mistake. I was about to open the thin front page when…

“Ava!”

I jumped and saw Lexi and the others beckoning me over. Shoving the thin packet of mystery back on the shelf, I scrambled back over to my friends.

“Were we interrupting something?” Jade asked.

“No. You just caught me off guard,” I replied with a straight face, but inside I was feeling a rush of excitement from almost opening the unregistered leaflet. The strange rare feeling that came with doing something you weren't supposed to was forming inside of me.

I must have just missed the label.

“So, ready for the show?” Katelyn asked.

“You betcha,” I said, grinning, and we all walked out of the archives.

As we left, I peered over my shoulder one last time, as if looking back would reveal the answers of the mystery leaflet.

“Ava, are you OK?”

I looked over and saw Katelyn staring at me with her concerned expression.

“Yeah Kay, don't worry.”

We boarded and departed the tram, leaving us at the theatre in the centre of town. Each of us stepped forward to purchase our tickets, and Bri bought hers using her birthday bonus.

“Hey, today's Comedy Wednesday, right?” Bri asked as we took our seats near the back.

“Oh yeah. We got lucky, Wednesdays are the best shows,” Lexi said and the others nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, but the problem is that they often repeat the Wednesday shows several months later because they're the most popular,” I stated, taking off my jacket.

“True. Fingers crossed it's a new one,” Katelyn said.

Then the lights dimmed. Evening shows were always very exciting. The one source of entertainment handed to you on a silver platter and fed to you with a silver spoon. Anything else had to be created. Like the archives, they weren't that entertaining unless you knew how to make it that way.

The curtains parted to reveal several men sitting round a large table. Of course they weren't
real
men, simply women dressed as men. The classic man look being suits and beards. The audience laughed instantly.

I recognised most of them from earlier shows I had seen. My mind did a brief review: she was the blonde lady in the drama last Tuesday; she was the wild beast in the comedy three Wednesdays ago, etc.

All the ‘men' were arguing over something, shouting at each other from across the table. I noticed there was a small flag in front of each of them, indicating they represented different countries. They kept shouting at each other as the audience laughed.

Finally one burst out, slamming his fists on the table, “I've had it! We'll never work this out.”

“Well then, what do you suppose we do about it?” another asked.

“Hmm…” they all thought for a moment.

“Go to war!” they all declared in unison.

The audience cracked up. Lexi, Jade and Bri were almost doubled over in laughter and Jade was rolling on the floor at one point. Katelyn and I were giggling and making faces at each other to provoke the other to laugh even harder.

The actors then proceeded to show many different scenes where they blew each other to smithereens. They had one scene where there were two leaders sitting together and the messenger ran in shouting:

“Quick you must do something! All the troops are miserable and they won't last much longer!”

“What would happen if we took them out of the battle field?” the leader asked.

“We would lose, but our soldiers would be safe,” the messenger replied.

The leaders looked at each other and laughed. “Tell them to toughen up!”

The show continued like that until most of the actors were lying on the ground dead and the cities were in ruins.

“Well, I say we call a truce,” one of the survivors said.

“Good idea,” the other agreed.

They looked around them and saw all the other dead and sighed, “Oh well. Guess it's just you and me.”

The curtains closed and the actors took their bow. The crowd was laughing and cheering wildly. Clearly the actors were pleased at the positive response to their skit. I overheard people talking amongst themselves about particularly comical moments and recalling certain scenes. The five of us did the same as we gathered our things and left.

We were on the tram home when Katelyn asked Bri what she thought about her birthday celebrations.

“I had the best time. Thank you everyone.” Bri smiled across at us.

“Do you have any plans for later?” I asked.

“Well, Mother and I are going to have dinner.”

“That's nice,” said Katelyn with a smile.

“Hey it's my stop,” Lexi said standing up. “I'll see everyone tomorrow maybe?”

“Yeah sure,” everyone agreed, waving goodbye as she got off the tram.

I leant my head on Katelyn's low shoulder and sighed, “I'm in the mood for one of your mother's famous red velvet cakes. Any chance I could stay over?”

“Ava, you're always in the mood for my mother's cake,” she replied, laughing.

“Well, the fact that your mother is the best baker in town is the only reason we're friends you know,” I joked.

“And the fact that your mother runs the whole city is the only reason we're friends, so I guess we're even,” she said, smiling.

“So, I can stay over?”

“Don't you think you should spend some time with Donna? She did just win the biggest honour there is.”

“No, I think I should spend some time in your kitchen.”

Katelyn laughed. “Ava, you go home and I'll get you a cake tomorrow, deal?”

“As long as there will be cake in my stomach within the next twenty-four hours, I'm good.”

“That's what I love about you.”

“My ever-expanding appetite?”

“No, silly.” She pointed at the tram door. “It's your stop.” I stood up with Bri. “So what is it you love about me then?” “Night, Ava.”

“My charm? My wit? My incredible sense of humour?” I asked, walking off the tram.

“Don't forget your modesty,” Katelyn said and winked as the doors closed.

“Wait, I forgot to mention my other many virtues!” I exclaimed as the tram continued on the tracks.

Bri laughed next to me. “Come on, oh talented one, let's go home.”

“I can tell
you
the list if you like.”

“Ava, you are strange,” she said as we walked to our houses.

“That wasn't on the list but I am open to suggestions.”

Soon we were at our street and Bri hugged me goodnight. “Thanks again Ava.”

“No problem, birthday girl,” I replied, walking to my house next door.