Marigold

by Heather Mitchell Manheim

  Davis shook her head as if trying to remove the cobwebs from her head. “Yeah, I’m fine…okay. I think. I’m sorry. I don’t know how to answer that. I am baffled. Quinn, how did you process it all, coming here? Learning this information?”

  “I know it is a lot. It is overwhelming. But I benefited from being a Natural Immune, so the facts were more believable for me. I was terrified when Namaguchi took me, though.”

  “What? He took you?” Davis exclaimed, shock and surprise overtaking her voice.

  Quinn continued with her story, “Yes, I was at a Courting Dance. I didn’t want to be there, so I tried to be by myself, away from the crowds. He surprised me out of nowhere; he brought some punch and said he wanted to dance with me. I didn’t want to, but as you know, you can’t refuse. So, we drank our punch—I remember trying to make it quick to finish the interaction. He seemed to be in a hurry too. Then, he took me by the hand, presumably to lead me onto the dance floor. But, quickly, he grabbed me and pulled me out a side door. I had no idea what was going on or what to do. I was pulled into a vehicle by Ringo—although I didn’t know who he was then. They put a hood over my head. They kept talking to me, trying to reassure me, calm me down because I couldn’t stop crying. Once we got to the bunker, they let me go to my room and calm down a bit, and then Ana came in to talk to me. But, those first few days were very uneasy and scary. I’m sorry you have to go through this.”

  Davis couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It all seemed so, well, unbelievable to her. She decided to change her questioning while her mind tried to process this new information from Quinn. “Do you ever get out of here, get to walk around, or see anything besides these walls? I’m going stir-crazy already, and I haven’t been here nearly as long as you. I can’t imagine…” Davis’s words trailed off into empty air.

  “Yes, every once in a while. Maybe the solar panels need cleaning, or sometimes just general things need to be checked on, survey the area. Plus, everyone needs fresh air now and then. I’ll pop out for a few minutes every few days. Even if I’m not doing anything in particular, just get fresh air, see the sun, blue sky.”

  Again, Davis was surprised, a minute-by-minute exercise for her lately. “Do you worry about Drone Scanners or Security Patrols?”

  “Well, a little. But, we’re pretty isolated here, and we have a scope; we can see above the ground before going up. And the Drone Scanners are easy to fool.”

  “Really?” inquired Davis, sounding doubtful.

  “Yeah, you just clear your mind and then think of something great about President Everett. It doesn’t need to be a real thought, just real enough.”

  “I can’t clear my mind, especially lately, although for me, I do not think it would be difficult to have positive thoughts about President Everett.”

  “Well,” said Quinn, thinking about it a minute, “I guess some people need practice at clearing their minds; I did, especially in the beginning. What gets harder is the positive thinking on Everett.”

  “I wish I could do that now. I’m not feeling very patient about anything these days. Even thinking of trying to clear my mind makes me feel exhausted.”

  “Well, luckily,” said Quinn with a momentary pause, “it’s not something you have to worry about.”

  “Why is that?” said Davis, sounding doubtful again.

  “Well, if we get our way, the current government will get overthrown. That happens, and the Drone Scanners and Security Patrols go away. If we don’t, you either decide to stay here and live life as we do, or you go back and live life as you always have.” Quinn looked like she didn’t want that third option to happen. She sighed with a bit of hopelessness at the end of her sentence, betraying the cavalier sound to her words.

  “Oh!” exclaimed Davis, secretly hoping to get off this topic as quickly as possible. “Sorry to digress, but before I forget…do you know why your medical reports, yours and Ana’s, start marking you as Potential Immunes at twelve?”

  Quinn scratched her head. “Essentially, I know. There are some details I’m unsure about, but in general, they don’t worry too much about kids causing many problems. A little kid can say anything; for instance, the sky is purple, and fish fly in it. People will just laugh and say the kid has a great imagination. Plus, if they’re still under mind control, the parents won’t believe what the kid says anyhow. If the kid starts getting older and is still saying these things, people might start to wonder or ask more questions about them. And when they start becoming of age, that’s when they start to pay their full attention because those kids are going to go off, get married, and have kids of their own. Ringo once said that if one parent is a Natural Immune, the children will likely be. If both parents are, the kids will certainly be. The government can’t risk them getting into the population pool like that, so they nip it in the bud before they can have their children.”

  “I see,” said Davis, not feeling at all like she understood. “Well, I think I’m going to try to turn in, try and get some sleep. Goodnight, Quinn.”

  “Goodnight, sleep well.”

  As Davis walked to the door, she paused suddenly and turned around, a look of worry and anxiety written on her face. “Oh, Quinn. I’m not sure if I’ll be down for breakfast tomorrow. Please don’t tell everyone about our conversation. Or that you saw me. I’m just not ready to feel um, well, exposed for lack of a better word.”

  “Sure thing, no problem,” said Quinn with a smile that let Davis knew that she meant it.

  “Great, thank you then. And goodnight.”

  With that, Davis walked out the door and down to her room. As she lay down on her bed, she tried to clear her mind of everything else and focus on something she genuinely wanted to think about. Her mind floated. It landed on Brookshire. Hmmm, she thought. Quinn was right; it was easy if you had the right thing to think about, the right thought could make your soul soar instead of plunge.

  September 1, 2056 –

  Cilantro and More Answers

  When Davis awoke, she felt like she had the first good night’s sleep she’d had in a long time. No nightmares or screaming boys. No darkness. No confusion. She quickly realized that wasn’t entirely true. There was still the complete bewilderment. It felt nice, though, to have the fog lift, for even the half-second it had done so after she awoke. Davis had been in the web between the dream and the waking world for a few precious seconds when everything seemed okay and before reality caught up.

  Davis was trying to decide if she would go and eat breakfast with everybody else. She felt a little more comfortable with Quinn and thought perhaps these people knew a bit about what they were saying. Even though she didn’t feel like she trusted them completely, she had to admit there was some compelling evidence. It was difficult to imagine that all these papers, signatures, and watermarks were forgeries, especially when some were so specific.

  Davis looked at the clock and saw it was only a little after 5 a.m. She didn’t think they would have breakfast this early, and she wasn’t all that hungry. If anything, her stomach felt a little upset, queasy. She decided she would take a shower first, then figure out breakfast. One thing she had undoubtedly become accustomed to very quickly was the warm, untimed showers. The several pleasant-smelling soaps and shampoos available, and afterward, wrapping herself in a comfy towel that wasn’t brown and too little and scratchy like the ones in the Pods was a welcome change also. These were big and soft and a lovely sage green color.

  After her shower, Davis decided she would go back to her room, look over the paperwork again, and then meet the group for breakfast. She intended to scour over the paperwork, line by line, to find any inconsistencies, anything that could be a lie or forgery. She looked and looked, every page three times over, almost in a frenzy toward the end of her search. Nothing seemed out of place; it was as it should be. Every i dotted and every t crossed.

  When Davis walked into the break
fast room, she could tell that everyone was sort of surprised to see her. Luckily, they all quickly looked down, although Audrey had to give Oliver a soft slap on his little hand for him to look away from Davis. Even Buster was there and had the decency to turn toward his food bowl when Davis sat down.

  “So, what are we having?” asked Ringo in a matter-of-fact way, making Davis think he knew what they were eating and had only asked to break the tension a little bit.

  “Eggs and oatmeal, and some nice strawberries from the garden,” replied Quinn.

  “So,” Davis replied, looking at Ringo, “Sorry that I walked out the other night. It was all overwhelming.”

  “Not a problem at all…not at all!” Ringo said. Even Audrey looked up and gave Davis a friendly smile and added,

  “We know. Nobody expects you to feel completely comfortable right away, although, of course, we wish we could bring you that comfort. We all know it isn’t that easy, though.”

  “Thank you,” Davis felt choked with emotion as she said it. She didn’t know where this emotion was coming from, but it burned hot in her throat as she tried to keep the tears from falling. Brookshire, who sat next to her, put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a warm half hug. That did it—no more stopping the tears. They spilled out, right in front of everybody. Embarrassed, she got up to leave. Brookshire lightly tugged on her hand and indicated with a nod of his head that she should sit back down. Brookshire spoke directly to her, looking into her eyes.

  “It’s okay, Davis. We all understand. We’ve all had some ups and downs here. Nobody is going to judge you for feeling sad or questioning things.” He then handed her his napkin, but he pulled his hand back at the last minute so that she couldn’t take it. Instead, he reached up and dried her tears for her. It helped her feel a little more at peace, although “peaceful” would be the last word she would describe herself as feeling.

  Then, as she commonly did, Davis decided to deflect the emotional situation, and she cleared her throat and then looked at Ringo. “So, do you think we can finish the conversation we started, maybe after breakfast?”

  “Yes, of course, that is fine,” replied Ringo. “Of course,” he added as if he needed to certify his earlier affirmation.

  Davis chewed mindlessly and silently, as did her tablemates. Nobody made one noise until Buster came over to weave himself in between the legs of everyone at the table. When he got to Namaguchi, he looked up at him and gave him a loud “mew.” Davis was surprised this was the target Buster had picked for a tidbit, but more to her amazement, Namaguchi plucked a bit of egg off his plate and held it down for Buster. Namaguchi did not strike Davis as someone who was overly sensitive. Then there were several minutes of silence, only broken by Buster’s mews as he went from person to person, begging for food. Davis felt like she couldn’t stand the silence one more second when a thought popped into her head that made her feel like she had just stumbled upon the key to everything. “So,” she blurted out, “How do Namaguchi, Duffy, and Hernandez pass medical checks now? If they’re now ‘immune’? Because when they go into the city to be double agents for you, they must get their ID Cards scanned and have to go to medical checkups. And they gave an execution order for Namaguchi. How did he escape that?” She gave a huff of satisfaction before lightly slapping her hand down on the table as if she had just solved every mystery since the dawn of time.

  “Maybe not in front of the children…” Ringo started to say.

  “It’s okay,” said Duffy, who was at the end of the table. “One of the benefits of being in the medical field is that we can make sure certain documents get certified for all of us. It’s not hard to write what they want to see, especially since we’ve written it so many times for so many others.”

  “Oh, so you lie?” Davis lifted her eyebrow in skepticism as she said this.

  “We don’t think of it like that,” interjected Hernandez. “Sometimes, we need to bend the truth to make sure people don’t get hurt or killed.” He sounded a little angry at having to defend himself, which surprised Davis. He had been so amicable before this. She then realized how accusatory what she had said probably sounded.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t mean to offend, I’m just trying to get everything sorted out in my mind still, and so many things still don’t make any sense.” She added a slight smile and nodded toward Hernandez.

  “No problem, sorry if I got a little in a huff about it myself. I just really feel like I’m helping people, and having that called into question…” Hernandez trailed his sentence off and looked down, shaking his head as if there could be no question about his actions.

  Ringo spoke up once more, “Again; maybe we should set this aside until the children go off to their lessons with Ana.”

  “Oh!” said Davis, seeing an opportunity to both change the subject and smooth things over. “What are you guys learning?”

  Oliver answered, “Well, we’re all different ages. So, my sister and I, we’re ten, and we do mostly big kid stuff, like math with letters. Did you know you can do math problems with letters like x and y but get number answers?” Oliver seemed very proud of himself as he gave this fact, and Olivia beamed with self-satisfaction herself before butting in.

  “Yes, but I’m better at the math!” Olivia very excitedly exclaimed.

  “Olivia,” her mom reprimanded, “You’re both very good with your math. And your brother was talking, you interrupted.”

  “Sorry, bro!” Olivia did not seem too put out having to apologize.

  “It’s okay, sis. So, we do big kid stuff. But, the little kids, Russell W. and Mae, mostly work on things like letters, numbers, colors. Sometimes we all make music together, or Ana will let us help the little kids; we’ll read to them or help them learn how to write,” he said, and at this, Oliver got a massive smile on his face, a toothy grin that was missing a few teeth. He very excitedly added, “We get to watch a movie together sometimes. We’ve seen it a few times. We normally like different stuff ’cause they’re so little. But it’s a math cartoon Ms. Ana plays for us, Owl in the Numbers, and we all like that. Olivia and I like the math problems, the little kids like the owls and their animal friends. Have you ever seen that cartoon? Ms. Davis.”

  Davis had never been called “Ms.” in her life, and she found it tickled her to no end. “No,” she replied. “I’ve never seen that one. It sounds like it might be fun.”

  Olivia looked to her mom and her brother as if she wanted to make sure neither talked first. “What is your favorite movie, Ms. Davis?”

  “Hmmm…” Davis had to think a bit. “I have to think about that a second. I like to read; I go to the library a lot.” Davis was getting lost in her thoughts. “I saw one movie once. It was pretty old. It even had a famous Davis in it. It’s so old; people had first names still. Her name was Bette Davis, and the movie was called All About Eve.” Here she paused and tried to sound as if she was relaying some grand, secret information. “The movie is so old; it’s in black and white! There was no color!”

  Both Olivia and Oliver looked stunned and had great big wide eyes. “WHAT!” Olivia and Oliver said together at the same time, which started a round of giggling. “No color!” again, in unison, and another round of giggling.

  “That’s right. Some movies are so old; not only are they in black and white only, the ones older than that don’t have any sound either,” said Davis with a nod of assurance.

  “Wow,” Oliver looked like he couldn’t believe it. “Ms. Ana, can we see one of those movies?”

  “Well, maybe one day,” said Ana. “But, unfortunately, we don’t have any of those movies here. I don’t think. I’ll double-check, but we only have a few movies here. As you know from seeing Owl in the Numbers about seventy-three times.” Ana said the last part with a smile, indicating she wasn’t all that upset the kids had watched a movie they enjoyed so many times.

  The kids
continued to chit-chat throughout breakfast, and Davis picked at her breakfast. She wasn’t too crazy about those eggs. Spongy. Slightly chewy. An odd, off yellowish color. Weird green flecks. “So,” Davis asked in a moment of silence, “You just add water to most of this dehydrated stuff? Then it becomes eggs?” her nose betrayed her thoughts about the eggs and scrunched up as if she had smelled something terrible.

  “Not a fan of them?” Quinn cut in, smiling. “Honestly, not my favorite either. But, good protein and some other vitamins and minerals. Oh, you know, there is a tiny bit of cilantro in them too. It’s a herb. Also good for you. I shouldn’t have used it, though. It’s very potent, and not everybody likes it. Here, wait.” At that, Quinn got up and walked to the kitchen. When she came back, she had a vibrant green leaf on the plate. “Try this; it’s just a cilantro leaf.”

  Davis picked up the sprig and examined the look of it for a moment. She twirled the delicate stem in her fingers before biting it. Quinn felt terrible about Davis’s look after she tasted it, but it also cracked her up. Davis looked like she had licked a dirty shoe, spitting out the cilantro into her napkin and grabbing her water glass, drinking fast. She also picked up a strawberry with her free hand and popped it into her mouth the second she finished with the water. After, as if she needed to explain, looking at Quinn, she said, “I did NOT like that!!!!”

  “I’m sorry; I’m sorry…” Quinn said, trying not to laugh. “I didn’t think you’d hate it that much.” Everyone else at the table was trying to stifle their laughs, but the kids laughed hysterically and with abandon.