by Rowan Massey
My app said that I’d be walking for over an hour, but I’d be taking breaks. Once in a while, I sat next to a tree or up against a wall and look around. I’d been on alien planets that felt less foreign. I tried to take breaks in interesting spots, like in front of a big, old church, or just next to an electronics shop that I wished I could buy stuff from. The skyscraper in the distance got closer and closer until I was standing right under it on the corner of Park Avenue and 60th Street. It wasn’t the only one there. Another one was behind me, more ahead of me.
My head kept tilting back to look up at the tallest buildings. They made me dizzy and excited. I hoped I’d be going up inside one, but fuck it if I had to go up flights of stairs.
The bags were heavy, and I was getting tired fast, but I didn’t mind because I was enjoying myself. There were trees all the way down the streets. We only had one street like that back home, besides where Doc lived. I spotted flowers in front of some of the buildings, and went over to check them out. It wasn’t easy for plants to grow without as much sunlight as they’d had in the old days, and they were too expensive for most people. I touched the petals and smelled them, feeling silly since there were flowers in Doc’s neighborhood, but now I looked like I fit in, so I wasn’t worried about anybody complaining.
When I got to the spot on the app, I stood staring up at the skyscraper for a while, completely impressed. Covered in glass, it was reflecting the gray sky. It was a huge monster surrounded by huge monsters.
My feet hurt like hell, even with my new boots, and my legs and shoulders weren’t happy either. I went through the front doors, which had Doc’s last name on them, and looked around the big lobby. There were couches and chairs everywhere and everything looked new, but there was only one man around. He was sitting and looking at his tablet. Nobody was behind the front desk. I went to it anyway, and stood there feeling like a dope.
“Is that Atul’s delivery?”
I turned around to the man, and he stood up to walk towards me, looking at the duffle bag like it was full of candy. He had long, blond hair like a girl. It was even done in wide French braids on the side in a style I knew Fiona would like. He was attractive like a movie star. Other guys would look like idiots with their hair like that.
“Um, who are you?” I asked, and held tighter onto the bag’s strap.
“Sorry, I’m London Hines.” He held out his hand, and I shook it, noticing that his nails were painted to be shiny like a girl’s. I wouldn’t have minded learning to do my nails like that. “I’m Dr. Avi Sardana’s head nurse in the labs, but I fill a lot of roles depending on what’s needed. I don’t know why Atul didn’t arrange for someone to drive you here. You must be exhausted.”
“Yeah,” I said, letting myself slump and sigh, “I’ve been walking for a few hours.”
“Let me take that for you,” he said, and tried to take the duffle bag, but I backed up.
“I think I’m supposed to give it to Doc’s brother…”
He smiled and tilted his head. “Well, aren’t you a responsible one,” he said. “Let me take you up to the lab, then. I’ll show you around the place. Come on.”
Walking toward the elevators, he didn’t look behind him to see if I was following. I wasn’t nervous about him. It was the building. I could feel the massive weight of it over my head. I couldn’t remember the last time I was in an elevator. Maybe when I was a little kid.
I followed him to the elevators. When the doors opened, we got in. He pushed the floor button, and it lit up. Like a little kid, I wished I could have pushed it.
My stomach jumped in my gut, and the feeling of the floor moving threw me off balance. I stumbled backward into the wall.
“Oh god, are you okay?” London grabbed my shoulder and put out his other hand for me to take if I was going to fall. But I was alright.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been on an elevator,” I said, looking down at my feet, knowing I was hundreds of feet in the fucking air. Then I looked up. That was almost worse.
I expected to get a laugh, but he frowned and rubbed my shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “This thing is strong as an ox. Sardana Tower is like the palace of a king. Everything is very well maintained.”
I nodded and started to get my head together, standing up straight. My stomach jumped again when we stopped on the fiftieth floor.
London led me into another lobby, this one smaller, and we went past the lady at the front desk to a hallway to the side. All the walls were perfectly white, the glass perfectly clean, and the floors spotless, just like the lab in Doc’s basement. We went past a few doors and rooms, each with open windows that let you see inside. There were people working everywhere in lab coats, doing things with machines and equipment that I was clueless about.
“You’ll stay in a bunk down on the first floor,” London was saying. “I’m not sure who else is staying there right now, but it has everything you’ll need. I’ll show you after you drop off the samples. I take it you’re carrying around your own blood?” He looked over his shoulder and smiled. “That almost seems cruel. You look exhausted.”
“Yeah, some of it is mine. Some of it from other fielder kids,” I told him. “I’m not sure who, but I guess it’s labeled or whatever? There’s a box of some kind of ingredient too.”
He spun around in front of me, his movement so much like a girl’s that I almost laughed from surprise.
“What ingredient?” he asked, his fingers in the air, making a pinching motion. “Do you know?”
I shook my head and shrugged.
“Well, let’s go find out.”
London took me to a lab bigger than Doc’s, and it had higher ceilings. We walked through rows of cabinets, counters, and shelves. As we passed a bunch of tall, black machines, I noticed they hummed and made the air warm. Stopping next to a short row of refrigerators with clear glass doors, he patted a tabletop and motioned for the bag.
“Is this good enough, or do you still want to meet Dr. Sardana? He’s a busy man.”
“This is fine,” I said, and lifted the bag onto the table.
The relief on my shoulder was instant, and I rubbed at the ache. My back pack was still pulling on it, but it was a ton better.
London unzipped the bag and wiggled his fingers over the boxes with a smile.
“Things can get a little routine around here,” he said. “I’m always excited to get my hands on a project from Atul. Fielders interest me too, but Avi thinks the whole thing is pointless and wants him to come live here instead. Those two get annoyed with each other. It’s kind of adorable to hear them argue.”
“Well, it is pointless,” I said. “I think I side with Doc’s brother on that one.”
He chuckled and took out the cardboard box, then started looking around for something to cut it open with. “I guess you would. Do you spend a lot of time with Atul?”
“Six hours a day sometimes.”
He whistled and laughed again. “I don’t envy you. That man is too serious. Then again, everything is a joke to Avi. He makes me just as crazy.”
When the box had been opened with a pair of scissors, he reached inside and pulled out a medicine bottle like the one Doc had given me my fielders in. It had a blue label on it with writing I wouldn’t even try to understand, but when London saw what it was, his mouth came open and he stared at it, turning it in his hand. He looked at me with raised eyebrows.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Something, um…something I thought was only theoretical,” he said.
He put it aside and took out three plastic bottles of green liquid that I remembered doing inventory on. After putting them in one of the fridges, he started going through the blood vials.
I looked around for somewhere to sit, but there was no empty spot on the tables like at Doc’s, and the only chair I saw was far across the big, open room.
“So,” I said, trying to think of something to talk about, “is it true that Doc’s dad inv
ented alphabet drugs?”
“Yup. Quite a guy. I only met him once. It was intimidating to say the least. Avi tells me he used to be different, but power and money change people.”
When he seemed satisfied with the blood samples, he cleared a spot for them in the fridge. I picked up a tray of them and helped him put them away.
“Do you help your doc out a lot?” he asked. “What do you two do?”
I started to explain that there wasn’t usually much to do, but I was interrupted.
“What do we have?” said a loud, growling voice behind me, and I turned to see a big, burly man walking towards us with his hands in his suit pockets. He didn’t look a lot like Doc, but he was Indian and looked important, so I figured he was Avi.
I stepped out of the way so that London could talk to him, but Avi didn’t seem interested in what he was saying. He was looking at me instead.
“Christ,” he said with a big grin, “you must be my new nephew!”
He reached out and pushed my beanie back so he could see my scars. I caught it before it fell off, then he tugged on my scarf to get a look at my tattoo. It was annoying, and I stepped to the side to get away from him, which made him laugh.
“He’s a nice kid,” London said. “Don’t tease him too much.”
“Or what? Atul will frown at me?” He made a face, imitating Doc’s serious face. I would have laughed if I didn’t feel like defending Doc.
“His name is Wally,” London said.
“Wally what?”
“Just Wally,” I told him.
He rolled his eyes. “Why do you kids do that? Just to stick it to your parents for kicking you out?”
I didn’t think Doc would want me to say what I was thinking, so I looked at my boots.
“Nevermind, kid. I’m just messing with you.” He patted my arm, but my shoulder hurt, and I cringed. “Let’s you and me go talk about my crazy brother, shall we?”
I looked at London, and he gave me a sympathetic smile.
“He walked for hours all the way from the border,” London said. “Maybe he could use a nap. I’ll take him down to the bunk rooms.”
“What? No!” Avi waved him away. “He’s staying with family. I’ll take him up to the loft.”
I didn’t know what that meant, but London jerked his head back and widened his eyes.
“I don’t think Atul actually…” London said, but then glanced at me and stopped before looking back at Avi. “Do you think?”
“I know my brother,” Avi said. “Trust me.”
I’d thought Doc lived like a king, but sitting in the loft with his brother, I knew Doc was slumming it. Even in movies, I’d never seen a place like it. The living room was gigantic, with a big piano in one corner, surrounded by windows that covered two whole walls. Everything was shiny, including the ceiling. I was looking down at the city from the clouds. There was a huge park out there that I must have missed because I’d taken a street two blocks away from it. I stood as close to the windows as I could without feeling panicky, then went and sat on a big, black sofa that felt softer than anything I’d ever touched. It was as soft as a baby’s skin.
Avi was telling a lady in a red uniform what food to bring us. She had been standing at the elevator to take orders from him when the doors opened. When he left her and walked over to me, I thought he would sit in one of the chairs, but he sat right next to me and put his arm across the sofa behind me.
“When did Atul take you in, little man? About a week ago?”
I nodded.
“And what do you do for him over there?”
I explained everything I’d done so far, and everything I said made him smile bigger until he was laughing and patting my head. It made me feel like an little kid. What was so funny?
“Where is he keeping you? In that awful bunker?”
“Bunker? No, what do you mean?” Keeping me how?
“Well, where do you live now? Has he gotten you an apartment or something?”
I was confused. “Apartment? No. I’m homeless. All fielders are homeless.”
Just like that, he was serious. He stared at me a long time, and I could tell he was thinking hard. I started to feel like running off and finding London, but the lady showed up with a tray of cookies and juice. I was starving, but I waited to make sure I was supposed to eat it.
“Go ahead,” Avi said. “I don’t snack.”
I grabbed the glass of juice first. I didn’t even think about what flavor it was until I’d drank a whole glass. It was white grape. Avi picked up the pitcher and refilled it for me. I dug into the cookies like a pig, not thinking to keep crumbs off his fancy carpet, which looked old and new at the same time. The cookie tasted like butter and cinnamon.
“Did you know that my brother and I are notorious spies?” he said, smiling again while he watched me eat. “We spy on everyone, especially each other. I know everything that goes on in that little hobbit hole of his. We got tired of getting information out of each other’s security teams, so we started using the same one.” He burst out laughing, holding his belly. “Our family is ridiculous! You’ll find out!”
I couldn’t help smiling back. His laughter was infectious.
“So that means you’ve spied on me?” I asked. “Then you already knew what I do in the lab.”
He waved a finger like I was a naughty little kid. “You’re a smart one, aren’t you? Yes, that’s why you’re up here with me and not down in the bunks. I believe my brother is creating family for himself again. He does that. I’m usually for it, but I’m curious why he’s letting you stay on the streets. Interesting. I mean, look at you. He’s got you all fixed up, but you still sleep among the rats? I’ve seen him feeding you like a little prince. He usually eats junk for himself, you know.”
I wasn’t sure what to think, so I kept eating cookies and washing it down with juice. My face got a little bit warm thinking that Doc did all that cooking for me. For the millionth time, I thought about his note. Maybe he did want me to be like family and had sent me to his brother hoping Avi could save me or something.
“I’ll let Atul know he’s being a fucking moron,” Avi went on. “He’s just afraid of getting his fatherly heart broken again. Him and his children. It’s a scourge!” he said with a silly voice and a big, teasing smile. “But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s about his research…”
He stood and walked over to the widows. For a while, I ate while he stared down at the city like a king on a hill, hands behind his back. He gave a big sigh and said, “I’ll have to look into the damn fielder project…”, but it was like he was talking to himself. He turned and came back towards me, scratching his clean-shaven face and looking at the floor. I was done with the cookies, but could have eaten more.
“What sorts of tests has Atul done on you?” he asked.
“You mean the blood tests? I don’t know what any of that stuff is, not really,” I said. “I mean, some of it is for vitamins, I think, and stuff like diseases. He took my spit one time. And my hair.”
“DNA testing?”
I shrugged. He came back to the sofa and sat beside me again. His joking attitude was gone, so I tried to answer right.
“Intelligence tests,” I went on. “He asked me about my parents, my education, and what I eat. He asks me all the usual questions about emotions and all that stuff that he asks everyone on the field. Sometimes I tell him what my trip was like.”
“He’s still fixated on the emotional aspects? I didn’t know that, but I haven’t bothered looking at his work in a long time. I wonder what he’s digging for. Has he ever explained it?”
“He wants to cure me,” I said, smiling because it was so dumb.
“Well,” he said, slapping a hand on my knee and getting to his feet, “let me show you your room. I know you’ve had a long day.”
We headed for a wide hall to the left, and passed an open doorway where the uniformed lady was doing something in a huge kitchen. Avi told me to help myself to the fri
dge if I got hungry. I would definitely do that, so long as the lady didn’t mind. The hall was long, and I could see more giant windows at the end of it, but before we got there, he stopped at a door on the left and led me inside.
The bed that sat in the middle of the room was big enough for three people, and everything was decorated in deep red rich people stuff. I could see a fancy bathroom on the right. One wall was all window, just like the rest of the place. I couldn’t imagine sleeping there. I couldn’t even believe I was there in the first place.
“A lot to take in?” Avi said, and I could only stand there with my mouth open. It was amazing. And so clean!
“I don’t have to stay…up here,” I said. “This is too much. I think Doc would want me to stay in the bunk room.”
He snorted a laugh, tugged the pack off my back, and dropped it on the bench at the end of the bed.
“You’re staying,” he said. “Here’s some spending money for your stay. I’m sure Atul is stingy with you. London will have his results and some deliveries ready in a couple of days.”
Avi took out a thick stack of folded bills from his pocket, sorted out four bills, and handed me two hundred dollars. Shocked, I tried to hand it back to him. No way would Doc be that generous with me. It was way too much, no matter what Avi thought about me being his new nephew or whatever. He wouldn’t take it back and sidestepped me to leave the room.
“Enjoy some rest,” he said before he shut the door. “You can have a nice afternoon nap, or watch TV, or take your fielders and dance. I’ll see you soon.
He winked at me and then was gone.
I stood and stared at a weird painting that looked like nothing but paint splotches, a red vase that was so big, it sat on the floor and came up to my waist, and the insane view outside the glass. Could people down there see me? The bed had an extremely fluffy red blanket and tons of pillows. I was going to jump all over it, but not until I took a piss.
The bathroom was covered in white tiles, and the bathtub looked like you could swim in it. Even the toilet looked weirdly shiny. After I pissed, I ran my hands over the big towels. They were soft like everything else.
