by Lydia Hope
“Yes? Are they? Who?”
Gemma laughed at her eager listeners. “Some of them are big overall, so draw your own conclusions.”
Under the chorus of protests against cutting this discussion short, Gemma made her way to the other three helpers to get started on the morning routine. The tasks were essentially the same but their timing varied from the other floors. For instance, the women went outside in the afternoon, which meant the main cleaning was done by the second floor helpers in the morning, right when the aliens visited the courtyard. This overlap was problematic for Gemma who intended to catch Ruby for a quick word.
But she was nothing if not motivated.
“Here, let me. I’ll take them down for you,” Gemma volunteered as she took a stack of cups from arthritic hands of an old helper named Emato. She knew Emato had little desire to go up and down the stairs due to his arthritis. He was also lazy. He would let her do his job if he could get away with it. In ways, he was like Arlo only a lot more passive and a whole lot less intelligent.
“Thanks, Gemma.” Emato gladly released the cups. “I’ll sweep your area for you.”
“Thanks, Emato. You’re so sweet.” He wouldn't sweep for her. He hardly swept for himself.
Cluttering down to the kitchens with a stack of dirty aluminum mugs, Gemma made a small detour to see if Marigold had anyone at her counter. It was empty.
“Marigold!” Gemma called in a loud whisper. “Marigold!”
“Who is this?” The dragon lady emerged from behind the closet doors. “Oh, it’s you. What now?”
“You know Ruby? Ruby Beatty?”
“I know everyone,” she informed Gemma with no small amount of pride.
“Great. Will you give Ruby a message from me?”
Marigold’s face blanched. “What the hell? Don’t involve me.”
“I need to get a message out to her.”
Marigold looked around in fear and following her lead, Gemma did the same. Far away near the entrance door, she caught a glimpse of OO walking in. There was no time to lose.
“When she comes down for her bucket, tell her I’ll meet her here at nine sharp.”
“I ain’t gonna do it. Not my drama.”
“No drama.”
OO was nearing and he would soon be able to see Gemma standing there.
“Thank you, you’re a sweetheart.”
She ran off holding the mugs as still as possible to avoid rattling them and attracting attention.
“Wait! Listen here, helper McKinley, listen to me!” Marigold hissed to Gemma’s retreating back, but she didn’t stop.
Time flowed like molasses. Finally, a few minutes before nine o’clock, Gemma announced the need to go get a new set of brushes so that the women could reach the cobwebs under the ceiling.
“They won’t give you new ones. You’re wasting your time,” another helper wrinkled her forehead at Gemma implying that she should know better than to try.
“They’ve been a bit more agreeable later.” She breezed by and went downstairs at her unsanctioned time.
Ruby was already there.
“Gemma!” Her homely face lit up at seeing Gemma and Gemma’s heart warmed.
They hugged, both surprisingly ecstatic to see each other.
Marigold was watching them with equal parts interest and malice like Gemma and Ruby were minor villains in a saga, doomed to get their comeuppance soon. She was unabashedly hanging on to their every word.
Gemma didn’t bother asking her for new brushes.
“Are you getting any supplies?” she asked Ruby instead.
“Yes. Arlo wanted me to bring him his stuff. His knee is acting up. He claims it bothers him on the stairs.” Ruby rolled her eyes, showing what she thought about Arlo’s excuse.
Gemma waited until Ruby checked out a bucket. Marigold couldn't refuse her a legitimate request but being mighty peeved, she selected the oldest, rustiest, and dirtiest one she could find. It was also short one caster.
Gemma and Ruby looked at each other hiding grins.
“That’s what he gets for being lazy,” Gemma said when they made their way to the stairs.
“He’ll have to deal.”
“You’ll hear all about it. He will blame you.”
“I’m sure. I don’t care.” Ruby grew serious. “I miss you already, Gemma. Why did they transfer you?”
“That’s what I am trying to find out. Are you getting someone new?”
“Not that I heard. Is the women’s block short of helpers?”
“No, they have plenty without me.”
“This makes no sense.” Ruby shook her head. “But, you’re much better off on the second floor. I was getting worried about that Obu. Don’t question your good luck, Gemma.”
“No, I want to come back. I will come back.”
The vehemence in Gemma’s voice made Ruby search her face.
“Oh, boy,” she said softly. “I hope your alien Simon isn’t the reason for the resolve I hear in your voice. He isn’t worth putting yourself in danger.”
Hearing his name made Gemma’s heart clench and release. She took in a shallow breath. “Will you tell him I’ve been transferred? So he knows.”
“Why? He never responds. And if he could respond, he wouldn’t care. Baby, he’s an alien. They don’t give a rat’s ass about us humans, even pretty gentle ones like you.”
“Please, Ruby, for me. Tell him that I’ve been transferred but I’ll come back. Tell him that I promise.”
Ruby looked comically uncertain. “If it makes you feel better, hon…”
“Yes, it does. It’s very important to me. And thank you.”
Ruby nodded and said, “We better go.”
“Let’s take the stairs.”
They started moving toward the staircase.
“Marigold’s too nosy,” Ruby said under her breath. “That old bitch thinks she’s important because she lords over the buckets. A bloody warden! Ha.”
There was no love lost between the two women.
“I was trying to catch Arlo. Is his knee for real?” Gemma asked.
Ruby looked uncomfortable. “It’s hard to tell with him.”
“Ruby, do you think he had something to do with my reassignment?”
Ruby visibly fidgeted. “I don’t know. But like I said, you’re better off on the second floor anyway.”
Gemma waived Ruby’s concerns aside. “I can handle the Obu. It’s a matter of logistics. And about Arlo, Ruby, do you know something I don’t?” She drilled Ruby with her eyes.
Ruby blew out a resigned breath. “I don’t know for sure, all of it is pure speculation. When they had moved Bug from us and sent him to the fifth floor, Arlo had been very upset. Arlo and Bug were pals, they did… some things together.”
Clarity came to Gemma. “Together they peddled dope to the inmates, you mean?”
Ruby looked startled. “You know?”
“More than I care to. I am surprised you do.”
She looked ashamed. “Please don’t think I participated. I didn’t. I guess I’m too scared to do it even for money. But I turned a blind eye and that’s all they needed. I minded my own business and they minded theirs.”
“Arlo invited me in,” Gemma confessed.
“What?” Ruby looked floored.
“When I started taking Simon outside, he saw an opportunity.”
“You don’t say!”
“I turned him down. He was royally pissed.” Gemma gave Ruby an abbreviated version of her conversation with Arlo and the resulting fallout.
Ruby remained skeptical. “I see. He’ll never forget your rejection. But having you reassigned? He doesn’t have that kind of power.”
That’s where Gemma disagreed. “Arlo knows people. They owe him favors.”
“But to what purpose? Pure revenge?”
Gemma had a theory. “He wants someone else in, someone like Bug, or at the very least someone like you who wouldn't put a kibosh on his activities. He
’s afraid I will turn him in.”
Ruby shuffled her feet uncomfortable to be caught in the middle of a war between her co-workers. “And what is your plan?”
“For starters, I need to find Arlo and talk to him.”
“That’s it? That’s the plan?”
“I’ll add more details later. I’m playing it by the ear.”
“I can see that.” Ruby looked highly skeptical.
They went up the stairs together and stopped on the second floor. Before Gemma went in, Ruby touched her elbow and said, “Listen, I’ll help if I can, even though I don’t think you should come back to the third floor. And Gemma? Be careful with Arlo.”
“Arlo is a bit of a wuss, Ruby. He won’t harm me.”
“But he might find someone who will.”
Chapter 18
Catching Arlo throughout the day proved trickier than Gemma had originally estimated. He was stubbornly absent at any and all of his hangouts known to her. Where before you couldn't keep him on the third floor, now he wouldn't come out.
The only area where he had to have gone was the courtyard during the aliens’ outing, but checking there presented Gemma with a massive roadblock in the form of the stupid Obu.
As the day wore out, Gemma had to accept that there would be no quick fix to her reassignment. She made one last attempt to wait Arlo out by the lockers before going home, but as the prison darkened with suppressed power, it became clear that Arlo had managed to leave ahead of her.
Feeling wretched, she went home.
That night, Gemma cried herself to sleep.
The next morning brought no change to her situation. Coming in, she had been holding on to a glimmer of hope that the reassignment had been a fluke, a mistake on the schedule. But the guard lady glared and read “the second floor” from the ledger, her wintry eyes daring Gemma to argue.
She silently accepted the stun gun and moved on.
There was no mistake.
Again, throughout the day Arlo remained invisible, an effing phantom tied to the realm of the third floor by tethers of cowardice. But she was determined to wait him out.
Her work was steady but not overwhelming because the second floor was so well staffed. Despite the light load, Gemma had no energy and was barely able to move a full bucket of water around. Her head was ringing, and she was afraid she was coming down with a bug.
The next day she woke up seriously sick. But she pulled herself together, made herself eat the yogurt she’d long come to think of as Simon’s, and braved the cold weather made particularly unpleasant by her chills.
In another blow, she hadn’t been able to see Ruby since their first arranged meeting by Marigold’s counter, and the uncertainty was wearing on Gemma. How was Simon? Was he hungry? Cold? Lonely?
Plagued by worries, she felt blazingly unwell. Her head was woozy, the area behind her eyes hurt and made it difficult to concentrate, and all she could do was to make sure she didn’t fall doing her tasks.
Questions loomed about what she would do if she couldn't come back and start taking Simon out again soon. Maybe Ruby could get authorized to take him if she agreed to it. Gemma would have to meet with OO to ask about that. It would be unpleasant, and he’d want to grope her again, but she was willing to ask.
Heck, maybe she should solve her problem by straight out asking him to put her back in with the aliens. Could she entice him in granting her the request? She was pretty sure she could. But her virtue was tied fast to her sense of self-worth. It meant a lot to her.
But so did Simon…
No, it was her fever talking. It’d only been four days. Simon had survived without food for much longer. She needed to wait and see how the cards would fall.
She forced herself to eat at lunch, sitting slumped at the table with her teammates and sucking in the nasty gruel she thankfully couldn’t taste today.
After lunch, she was making her way across the lobby when she saw a familiar preening figure accompanied by a guard. He looked different and it took her a moment to realize that he was wearing civilian clothes.
“Hello, beautiful Gemma! How lucky am I to see you to say goodbye.”
“Number 34! You’re all done, then?” They came together in the middle of the lobby.
“Yep, all done. And since I’m no longer an inmate, you can drop the Number 34 routine. I’m Arc.”
Gemma managed a genuine smile. “I’m happy for you, Arc. Truly. I wish you luck, and to never see you here again.”
He chuckled. “I won’t be back, trust me. But I’ll miss you.”
“No, you won’t.”
“I’ve missed you these past few days.”
He made her chuckle. “I’m surprised you even noticed.”
“Are you kidding? Everyone noticed. Even the mad Weerstra noticed. He’s been pissing into the corridor in disapproval.”
“I doubt he did it on my account,” Gemma said.
“No, I was kidding.” Arc reached out and touched a lock of Gemma’s hair, right above her ear. He was large and his eyes were feral. She didn’t flinch but it took an effort.
He dropped his hand from her hair but not his eyes from hers. Arc’s eyes glinted with reflected light, weird, that, in a well-lit lobby.
Then he smiled. “You take care. I know you’ll miss me, but your Rix will be here to keep your company.”
“He isn’t my Rix.”
“Is he not.” There was genuine mirth in his face. “He’s getting better. Soon, he’ll be back to his normal self, and… Let’s just say I’m glad I’m getting out before shit hits the fan.”
His veiled threats didn’t make Gemma’s pounding head hurt any less. “Why? What’s going to change? I don’t understand.”
“I know you don’t. That’s what made it so interesting to watch.”
He bowed his head at her and moved on, walking on his backward-bent legs to the door that led outside.
Confused and shaken, Gemma went to the second floor. Arc was gone, and she knew for sure she wouldn’t miss him. Now, if she could find a quiet corner to crawl in and curl into herself, she’d appreciate it. Her fever continued to rage.
Gemma barely remembered getting herself home that night. There might have been another small riot going on where City residents clashed with the migrants, and where Perali, like vampires feeding on bad blood, ripped into fighting men. She recalled seeing a troop of militants trotting briskly to break up the fight, but she didn’t stick around long enough to see what happened.
She slept, restlessly, waking up throughout the night.
In the morning, her entire body ached and she could scarcely imagine getting out of bed much less walking for miles in the frigid winter weather and to work all day at the prison.
She slurped her yogurt and drank some water. She bundled up and she went. The cold air took her breath away and burned her over-sensitive feverish skin. But she went.
The stun gun guard paid her little attention but another helper from the line asked if she was alright.
“Yeah, just under the weather.”
“I’d say…”
As a teammate, she was useless. She got to the second floor and slid down to sit with her back to the wall, eyes closed, watching interesting blue and purple clouds swim behind her eyelids. Emato bitched about having to do her job but even he left her alone, seeing how clearly sick Gemma was. She was grateful. She needed to tell him that.
She was going to rest for a bit… keeping… track of time…
Cold hands touched her burning ones jerking Gemma awake. Ruby’s face swam in front of her eyes.
“What… Ruby?”
Here, on the second floor, sitting with Gemma on the cold concrete, was Ruby.
“My God, girl, you need to be home.”
“How did you get here?”
“Marigold said she saw you come in looking like death.”
“Marigold?” Gemma had trouble concentrating.
“Yes, Marigold, the all-seeing eye.”
Things were starting to make sense. Gradually.
Gemma rubbed her eyes. “How did you get inside here?”
“Your nice co-worker let me in. She said you’re unwell.”
“I am. What bad timing.”
Ruby smiled. “Is there a good one?”
Gemma struggled to her feet with Ruby’s help.
“I saw Arc leave yesterday.”
“Yeah, he was released. And so was one of the other Perali, the one next to the green man’s cell.”
“How is Simon?”
“I knew you were going to ask. Fine. Same as always. Sitting in the dark like a mushroom.”
“Did you tell him about me?”
“Yes, and let me tell you, I felt right stupid doing that. Like I was talking to a post. Are you sure he isn’t deaf?”
“I’m sure. He heard you.”
Ruby shook her head. “What an odd creature.”
Gemma walked Ruby to the door knowing that the woman didn’t have a lot of time to spend with Gemma.
“About Arlo. Gemma, I do think he’s avoiding you.”
“So I figured.”
“Do you still see a reason to talk to him?”
“I do.”
“Well, I’ve been thinking. The only time Arlo ventures out is to go to the courtyard. You could catch him there.”
“I can’t. Because of the Obu.” She’d already considered it.
“Hear me out. Do you know how we line the inmates up according to whose cell is farthest from the door? Now with only the two of us, I take the lead, the guards walk with the inmates, and Arlo comes in last. If you get your timing right, you can ambush him then.”
Gemma’s feverish mind was furiously processing this scenario. “And the Obu is in the middle of the line, so he’d have already left.”
“Exactly.”
“Ruby, you’re a genius.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Thank you.”
“Be careful.”
“I will.”
“Don’t try today. You’re dead on your feet.”
Ruby checked the time and left without looking back.
Gemma leaned her forehead to the door. The aliens’ outing would be happening in thirty minutes. Like hell she wasn’t trying today.
