The Rainbow Maker's Tale (25 page)

I nodded at his words,
understanding exactly how that would work. “What happens to the
muscle after that – we can’t eat it in that form, it would be too
tough?”

“That side of things sits with
the catering divisions and not agriculture, but I guess it gets
ground up and has vitamins and stuff added. That’s why we have
blended meats in our food and not bigger single pieces like you do
with fish.”

“Wow,” I managed, unable to
hide my surprise at what I’d just learned.

“I know, right! It’s enough to
put you off eating meat at all. Not that we’d be allowed to cut it
out of our diet.”

It wasn’t what I’d meant, but I
nodded anyway. Oddly enough, from this short conversation, I had a
feeling that Patrick and I had a lot more in common than I’d ever
expected. Maybe my peers saw more than I had ever given them credit
for.

“This is me,” Patrick announced
as we slowed outside the apartment building next door to my own.
“Maybe I’ll see you around this weekend, if you’re out with
Cassie?”

Not knowing how to answer, I
half-nodded, half-shrugged. I must have looked acceptably
non-committal as Patrick nodded and grinned in response.

“Have fun
studying
at
The Clinic tomorrow,” Patrick said as he headed toward the
door.

“You too,” I replied. “Have fun
electrocuting cow muscles.”

Patrick laughed loudly and
disappeared inside the building. I turned on the pavement and
walked the last few metres to my own block. It had been a random
but pleasant encounter, and it made me wonder whether there had
been a lot of things in life I’d been hiding from whilst I searched
for answers.

Beep
.
Swoosh
. Our
apartment door opened after I presented my mark.

“Night Mother, Father.” I
called out as I wandered into my bedroom. I barely heard their soft
response and neither came to speak with me. Not that I expected
they would.

I lay down on the bed and
stared at the ceiling, not bothering with the light. My mind was
too busy, and simultaneously too tired, with everything that had
happened in the last twenty-four hours. I fell asleep in just a few
seconds.

Today was going to be a good
day. I just knew it.

I should have been exhausted:
I’d spent much of the night lying wide awake in bed thinking about
Cassie, wondering about ways I could continue with my original plan
to leave the Family Quarter
and
stay with her. Needless to
say, I’d not come to a final conclusion, but something along the
lines of sneaking out and back in before she could miss me was
certainly an appealing idea at this stage. When my daily alarm
beeped into action at 5.00am, I bounced eagerly from my bed as
though I’d slept for a refreshing eight hours, rather than the two
or three hours I think I’d actually had.

The more time I spent with
Cassie, the more I knew that what I was feeling was not one-sided.
I grinned as I thought this (again!), crunching hard on the end of
my toothbrush, because I was brushing my teeth at the time.

This whole experience was quite
odd for me. I had to admit, my old irritations with the station
were still there, and the questions I had still burned inside my
head. But, I just couldn’t be angry about it. Cassie was filling up
my mind more than ever and it made me…happy.

It was 5.30am. The mirrors had
begun a gradual rotation thirty minutes earlier, but it was so slow
at this time of the morning, that most people on the station
believed that
dawn
started at 6.00am. As I left the Green
Zone, I noticed a couple of other early risers. It was an easy
guess that they were heading towards jobs in the agricultural area:
they all wore the same forest-green day suits.

I studied the figures,
wondering whether Patrick might be with them. But none of them
seemed to have his particularly, cheerful lope. Maybe he’d
accidentally managed to sleep-in after his late night.

A small grin turned my lips
upwards. Perhaps I would be tucked up in bed right now, if I didn’t
have a plan in my head and a ‘borrowed’ swipe card in my pocket.
With a bounce in my step, I headed towards the central zone and The
Clinic.

* * *

The large canteen opposite The
Clinic was virtually empty as I sauntered casually through the
door. Who would have thought from my calm and collected exterior
I’d just been stealing restricted medication? Perhaps there
was
something wrong with me…a psychological flaw that made
me not feel guilty about doing something I knew was highly dubious…
I shrugged and smiled to myself. I most definitely didn’t care
about breaking rules at this point in time, but that wasn’t a huge
change for me. What
was
new was my motivation for doing it:
it wasn’t about finding out how something worked, I simply wanted
to help Cassie.

Who would have thought that
being the crazy person would have benefits?

Heading towards the servery, I
was about to get breakfast – with my multi-vitamin complex, of
course – when I glimpsed Cassie sitting alone at a table in the
corner of the canteen. She was as far away from the entrance as it
was possible to be, as though she was trying to hide in plain
sight.

“Hey!” I called across to her.
My breakfast plans entirely forgotten.

Cassie’s gaze jerked towards my
voice and even though I could see from this distance that she
looked tired, when she saw me, the most wonderful smile spread
across her face. With an explosion of excited nerves wriggling
inside my stomach, I began weaving through the empty tables making
my way towards her. I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face as I
moved.

“What are you doing here so
early?” I asked, as I arrived at Cassie’s table.

When she turned in my direction
I realised just how tired she looked. Beautiful as ever,
but…drained. I felt my previous happiness deflate in my chest. “You
look tired,” I said.

“I’m fine,” Cassie shrugged off
my observation.

I knew that “I’m fine” should
be translated to mean:
yes I am, but don’t focus attention on
me, please.
Her gaze fell away from mine and she turned towards
the canteen serving area, as though she had suddenly become very
interested in food.

Without waiting for an
invitation, I pulled out the nearest chair and sat down, we were
not quite facing one another. “Was your shoulder hurting? Is that
why you’ve not slept?” I didn’t mean to sound as cross as I did,
but Cassie could be so infuriatingly dismissive.

“No, my shoulder’s fine.”

My head tipped to the side,
eyebrows quirking at her obvious denial.

“Alright!” She huffed. “It was
hurting quite a bit, but felt much better after I’d taken some of
the tablets you brought for me.”

I didn’t hear a
thank
you
in her grumbling.

“And once I’d found a
comfortable position I was able to get some sleep. Are you happy
now?”

Her words made me frown: how
could she think it would make me happy? “No, not happy. I know
you’re trying to make me feel better, but I can see you’ve barely
slept. You should have let me take you to The Clinic straight
away.” My words faltered, and I corrected myself. “
I
should
have just taken you, and not let you persuade me to do what we
did.”

“Hey!” Cassie reached across
the table and wrapped her fingers around my arm. “You did the right
thing and I wouldn’t have
let
you do anything else than what
we did.”

I couldn’t look at her. Right
now I was too angry with myself. I had been so caught up with
feeling clever about sneaking around The Clinic and beating the
systems, I hadn’t stopped to think about the damage this could be
doing to someone I supposedly cared about.

Squeezing my arm with warm
fingers, Cassie made me glance up. “My shoulder is fixed now. It
will just take a few days for the swelling to come down that’s
all.” A soft smile lifted her cheeks, as she promised me there was
no lasting damage.

I shook my head, mainly at
myself. “That’s not true. When you’ve had a dislocated shoulder
once you’re more likely to suffer a similar injury in the future
due to damage caused to the joint during dislocation.”

“Fine,” Cassie snapped back,
eyes rolling at my stubbornness. “There may be some minor lasting
damage, but once the accident happened we did everything they would
have done in The Clinic if we’d gone there –”

“Except for scans and heat
therapy and anaesthetic…” I couldn’t help myself, although the real
fire had gone out of my argument. Cassie was probably right anyway,
I couldn’t turn back time, could I?

Cassie ignored my interruption.
“Now I’m feeling pretty good overall.”

“OK, OK, you win!” I smiled.
But, when my eyes met hers, I saw how tired she looked again. “So,
if your shoulder wasn’t bothering you so much – as you say – then
why do you look so tired this morning?”

“Is that a tactless way of
saying I look bad?”

Cassie was teasing me, but I
wasn’t ready to brush this off just yet. “No. It’s a concerned
friend’s way of saying they are worried about why you might not be
sleeping. That is, if you’re adamant it’s not because of your
shoulder…”

“It isn’t my shoulder.”

“What is it, then?”

Cassie’s lips parted, as if she
might answer. But, then her stomach gurgled loudly, interrupting
whatever she had been about to say. She gave a little,
self-conscious giggle.

“Have you eaten yet?” she
asked.

I could tell she was forcing at
least some of the brightness into her voice, if not all of it. But,
I also knew she was doing it for me – to ease my guilt about her
getting hurt – and so I let it go. I hadn’t eaten, and so I
answered honestly. “No.”

“Me either and we’ll have to
leave for placement soon, so I could really do with getting
something now. But, you know, with my arm, I don’t know if I can
carry the tray…”

“Ha! Nice try!” I laughed. She
was the worse actress ever, with the tiny shoulder shrug, elbow
waggling and comic grimacing. “How about this: I’ll pretend that
wasn’t the worse diversion I’ve ever heard, and will get you some
breakfast.” Cassie grinned at me as I pushed my chair back, she
could sense victory in the air. Unfortunately for Cassie, it wasn’t
going to be
her
victory. “After all,” I continued. “I am a
gentleman, and wouldn’t want to see you suffer. If it makes you
feel any better, you can pretend that I’m going to forget about
this.” I was on my feet now and staring down into her face. “But,
I’ll make you tell me later. Even if I have to dangle you from a
cliff to get it out of you!”

Cassie stuck her tongue out at
me, but I could tell from the set of her jaw that she knew I meant
what I said. And she didn’t like it. Turning away from the table, I
began weaving through the empty chairs in the direction of the
service line. Whether she liked it or not, I wouldn’t stand by and
watch her suffer – whether I was the cause or not.

I was at the counter for a
matter of two minutes. No time at all, but somehow it was enough
for Joel to appear! When I turned back towards the table he was
there: long limbs dangled all over, the chair barely big enough to
contain him.

I let out an irritated breath,
before adjusting my features into a relaxed smile. “Give the girl
some room,” I muttered. It was hard to ignore Joel’s arm thrown
casually across the back of Cassie’s chair, bringing him closer to
her.

Was it really necessary to sit
that close at breakfast?

I had double standards, I know,
but I couldn’t help it. Cassie was smirking at whatever he was
saying to her just then, and it made my insides burn. A second
later Cassie pointed towards me, and I busied myself with gathering
utensils to go with our meals, so that I didn’t have to look at
them.

Fully stocked up on knives,
forks and napkins, I began my journey back to the table. I was
obviously living by the motto that you can never have too many
napkins today: in my haste I’d managed to take a pile that was
almost as high as my water tumbler. Excellent.

Cassie smiled warmly at me as I
drew closer. I managed a brief lip twitch.

“Hi Joel. You’re up early.” I
set the trays on the table as I spoke. It was good to have
something to do, and dropping them on Joel’s head wasn’t a viable
option, even if it was inviting.

“Hey, you too! I’m just going
to grab some food before it all goes.” His long arm waved towards
the empty seats around us, to reinforce the joking sarcasm.

I just nodded.

Untangling his limbs from
beneath the table, he bounded off towards the serving area;
providing us with the unnecessary announcement of “I’m starving!”
as he went.

Cassie sighed just after he
left. I was just taking my seat at the time.

“Do you miss Joel that much?” I
didn’t mean to pounce on her, but I couldn’t help it. I felt angry
and resentful, for no real reason other than that I didn’t want
Joel to be there. I didn’t want him making Cassie laugh and smile.
I just wanted it to be us. And now she sounded like she wanted him
around, and not me.

Paranoid much?

Internal sarcasm was no help
either.

“Are you teasing me?” Cassie
asked sounding bemused.

I was immediately sorry for
what I’d said, but also unable to pull my emotions back completely.
I still sounded testy when I replied. “Yes, I’m kidding.”

Avoiding Cassie’s enquiring
gaze, I became very interested in my cutlery.
Maybe I could
present her with some of my many napkins, as a peace
offering?

“I was sighing because I was
thinking about spending another day at The Clinic,” she said,
picking up her own utensils.