I did because I had done almost the same thing.
“They’re so beautiful.”
“I promised,” I said.
“I know,” Desiree said and finally looked at me. She gently rested a hand on mine, didn’t squeeze it, but just rested it there. “I would never ask you to break a promise.”
“Kiss me,” I said.
Her eyes widened and she removed her hand from atop mine. “What?”
“You heard me. Kiss me. I can’t stop thinking about—”
“I shouldn’t,” Desiree said. “I’m still with Eli. What happened in—”
“And I shouldn’t go with you back to Provex City,” I said, smugly.
“So you’ll come?”
“I’ll let you know afterward.”
“You drive a hard bargain, Oliver Lorne,” Desiree said and leaned in to kiss me.
And just like that, I was transported back to the observation deck of Lorne Tower, Kafka’s blood still spilling out onto the ground, Jeremy rocking in the corner, and Desiree kissing me like we were the only two people in the world. Her lips were moist and tasted of raspberry and a pinch of salt. They were reluctant to part, but they finally did and allowed her tongue to gloriously massage mine. I angled my body toward her and brought a hand to her cheek. My fingers lightly brushed her wavy hair. My head swam. Adrenaline surged through my body.
When she pulled away, it was deliberate and agonizing. It was a calculated move. She gazed at me hopefully. “So you’ll come?”
I nodded, licking my lips to savor every last taste of her. I knew from the start that this was a bad idea, but all better judgment eluded me when I stared into those emerald eyes.
She gave me one more peck on the cheek before she rose to leave. “What are you doing tomorrow?”
There was only one acceptable answer.
2
Bright City Lights
Desiree and I returned to Provex City the next day. I told Mom I was going to Disneyland with Anna, Desiree, and Eli. That way, Desiree and I could make a day of our adventure without raising unwanted suspicion. We crossed over from her house and found ourselves just a little farther down the highway.
The hover cars flashed by and Provex City sat luminously in the distance. It was the warmest day in weeks, making it hard to believe it was actually winter. I wore a light jacket, more out of cautiousness than necessity. I looked out at the towering high-rises, which were probably a good forty miles away.
“Now what?” I asked. Last time I was in the city, I’d been airlifted in after the car accident. And I didn’t remember a bit of it since I was out cold. I had never thought to ask Desiree how she had made it into the city. All I knew was that she had gotten help from TJ. I had also learned that they’d been more than just friends—he had been her first love, and their relationship didn’t exactly end amicably.
“Just up ahead,” she said, pointing out into the distance.
For the first time I noticed what looked like a large telephone booth, without the metal framing, positioned at the edge of the freeway.
“That glass booth? That’s where we’re headed?” I asked as she started walking ahead of me. “What is it?”
“You’ll see.”
As we got closer, it definitely wasn’t getting any clearer. There was simply a glass box sitting on the edge of the freeway. It looked maybe big enough for four people. The hover cars whizzed past us at deafening speeds and made it feel like we were walking through a hurricane.
When we had almost reached the glass capsule, I noticed another one in the distance, maybe a half-mile away. I turned around as Desiree continued forward and saw another one just before the freeway took a curve and disappeared. Why had I not noticed these things before? It made me even more self-conscious of my budding abilities.
“It’s like you don’t even want to get there,” Desiree teased, and then stepped through the glass, into the capsule. She waved to me once inside.
Tempted to close my eyes as I had done the first time I walked through semi-permeable glass, I joined Desiree in the box, and suddenly the environment was transformed. As with the glass elevators in the city, there were no buttons, but it was temperature controlled, astoundingly soundproof, and even had classical music playing from somewhere. I looked over at Desiree, and our private room suddenly felt very intimate.
“Going up,” Desiree said nonchalantly.
“It’s like you’ve done this before.”
“TJ was a big help. Without him, I never would have gotten into the city, let alone find you.”
And with feeling only the slightest movement, we were rising into the air in our magical glass capsule. As we rose, I saw what looked like a line drawn into the air above us, tracing the length and curves of the freeway. As we reached its altitude, the line became a platform, floating in the air and extending into the distance directly above the freeway. Running down the center of the glass-like platform was a single metal track.
“You can’t see any of this from the ground,” I said, hands pressed up against the glass, hoping I didn’t just suddenly fall through.
“I know. Pretty cool, right?”
“Now, all we need is a—” And before I could finish, I saw a monorail rocketing toward us.
“A free train to take us into the city? Exactly!”
The monorail slowed and stopped, with the third car pulling up to our glass capsule. The glass of our booth and the glass of the monorail car door were practically touching.
“P.C. South Line is safe to board,” an automated female voice said. “Please enter.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Desiree said with a curtsy and passed into the monorail car.
I went in after her, and the monorail accelerated after a whole split-second delay. Yet I wasn’t thrown to the ground or even off-balance. We found an available bench seat in the middle of the car. There weren’t many to choose from. The monorail seemed like a popular public transportation system.
Desiree took the window seat, but I leaned over her to get a view of the city we were rocketing toward and the outer suburbs surrounding it. From 100 feet in the air, we could see for miles; there were other pockets of high-rises in different areas, but nothing compared to the metropolitan hub that was Provex City.
“What should we do today?” Desiree asked, her nose almost touching the glass.
“I have no idea. From this view, it looks like the biggest city in the world. Granted, I’ve only seen pictures of New York City, but it just doesn’t hold a candle to this. And Los Angeles?”
“L.A. is a dump anyway.”
“What is there to do in a city like this?” I said, fixated on the metropolitan expanse outside the window.
“I suppose anything you want. The question is: What do you want?”
“You’re beginning to sound like Mr. Gordon,” I said.
Desiree laughed and then said, “What kind of music do you think they have here? It would be awesome to find a show somewhere.”
“Or a museum. Think about it. Their museums would have art and history and discoveries completely separate from what we have back home. Completely different masterpieces. A whole new history we’ve never learned about in school.”
“And the food!” Desiree exclaimed. “Their food’s gotta be amazing.” She rubbed her hands together and licked her lips. “I’ll try one of everything, please.”
“Let’s not get too carried away. I didn’t bring that much money.” I moved back to my side of the bench and looked around at some of the other passengers, talking, listening to cordless earpieces, and reading from electronic tablets, much like passengers did back home. Except the earpieces looked a little fancier and the tablets looked a little sleeker. “Do you think we can even use our money here?”
“I hadn’t thought about that. But if they don’t take cash, I’ve got a credit card my mom opened for me. It’s supposed to be only for emergencies, but—”
“Where’s the credit going to come fr
om? A bank back home? How’s that going to work?”
“I don’t know,” Desiree said, sounding exasperated. “Hopefully, they take cash.”
I wasn’t convinced this was going to work, but as usual, I trusted in Desiree. Luckily, the monorail was free; otherwise we might not have been able to do anything at all.
As we approached the edge of the city, we sat glued to the window and watched the buildings grow larger and larger. We seemed to be the only ones on the monorail impressed by the absolute sublime nature of the city. Then I noticed other floating monorails coming in from different directions, all being pulled into the city like electronic pulses traveling along a wire, attracted to the energy’s central source. People seemed to be coming in from everywhere. We could barely contain our excitement for the urban adventure that lay ahead.
“I bet Provex City is like a cultural mecca in this plane,” Desiree said.
“I bet the people here have no idea what Mecca is.”
“It’s just an expression.”
Soon we were flying between the buildings, as if we were being swallowed up by the monstrous city. The glass of the glowing skyscrapers was reflective so all we saw was ourselves passing by. I began to get curious about where the monorail was going to let us off, but we just traveled further into the heart of the city. We must have been over a main road. It had no breaks in it, continuing all the way through the city.
I leaned over Desiree more and tried to look as close to straight down as I could. Even in Provex City, the downtown traffic sucked. Nearly bumper-to-bumper cars hovered below us. We were in the fastest-moving vehicle in the city.
“Look at that,” Desiree said, pointing ahead.
I tried to focus on where she was pointing and saw the end of the line. We were headed toward a floating circular platform with a railing around all but where the monorail tracks were attached. I counted eight tracks, all leading to the platform and disappearing into a black sphere in the center. The sphere was bisected by the platform, with the outer ring lined with a string of red lights.
The monorail slowed as we approached the platform, and by the time we stopped I noticed that the radius of the platform was the exact length of each monorail. The automated voice came over the loudspeaker again, telling us it was safe to depart, and everyone quickly disembarked. Once stepping foot on the platform, the bedlam of city noise exploded around us.
All eight monorails had arrived at the platform at the exact same time, and passengers from each one poured out onto the platform. The female automated voice spoke again over some unseen loudspeaker, telling us to proceed down the escalators. The monorail engines hummed as waiting passengers boarded. While following the exodus of passengers to the escalators, I watched the monorails start to accelerate and disappear into the large black sphere.
“Where do they go?” I asked, hoping she had asked the same question the last time she was here.
“Back to the other end of the line.”
“So they never have to turn around. That’s pretty cool.”
There were even more escalators than monorails to keep the flow of people moving. We followed the passengers from our car to the nearest escalator and drifted slowly down to street level, dropping us into a little oasis in the nexus of the city. All the main streets seemed to lead to this point and circled around the oasis. We continued following the other passengers along the dirt paths through gardens of beautifully blossoming trees and foliage. At the end of the path and the edge of the oasis was a glass tube crosswalk that led into the city itself.
I’d had so much fun going through the crosswalk tubes the first time I was here with Jeremy. And this time was no different. I grabbed Desiree’s hand and pulled her into the tube and stopped in the center to watch the cars pass right through us.
“I could stand here all day,” I said, putting one hand up to the glass, and the other still holding tightly to Desiree’s. I could feel her pulse through her warm hand. It seemed steady while mine was increasing with my excitement.
Desiree tucked her hair behind her ear with her free hand. “I hope this isn’t the highlight of our trip.”
“If it is, then it’ll still be worth it,” I said with a sly smirk.
Desiree dragged me out of the crosswalk tube since we were starting to get in the way of the pedestrians actually trying to get through. I was an interruption to their everyday routines.
My neck began to hurt from the constant craning and gazing up at the shimmering skyscrapers. We followed the sidewalk, curious to where we were being led. I paid attention to the electronic street signs, which changed colors with the traffic signals, so I could hopefully remember the way back to the monorail platform. The main street we started from, before zigzagging into neighboring districts, was Alexandria Boulevard. That was the main name I needed to remember. If we could find our way back to that street, we could follow it to the platform.
“Why are you wasting time with your friend when you could be searching for your father?” a familiar voice whispered into my ear. I could have gone without its devious tone for a little while longer. I knew it would be back even though I didn’t know why.
“Why can’t I do both?” I asked softly, as to not alarm Desiree.
“When your focus is divided, you accomplish next to nothing. Quit wasting your time with this girl and come with me.” The invisible voice hovered just beyond my ears—the voice mirroring mine almost exactly.
That was when I began focusing on not listening to the voice just outside my head. Desiree didn’t seem to notice, which was just as well. I watched her as we walked to see if she was battling a similar tormentor. And to my relief, she looked absolutely overjoyed.
In time, the voice became quiet and it was back to just Desiree and me. We finally stopped at a little café on the bottom floor of a high-rise with a quaint, outside seating area. There was only a line of four groups of customers ahead of us. We patiently waited and surveyed the hand-drawn menu boards against the back wall.
“$12 for a cup of coffee?” Desiree said with disgust. “My cash is gonna go real quick.”
“What’s a cinnamon apple grapple?”
“I don’t know, but it’s like 15 bucks.”
“So is everything else on the menu,” I said, watching the couple ordering at the register.
They ordered a few things I couldn’t begin to pronounce, and then the man extended his left arm through a circular device that looked like a small bladeless fan. As soon as his hand was through the center of the device, it was bathed in rays of royal-blue light. The couple thanked the barista, picked up two drinks, and left the line. I never saw money exchanged. I didn’t see a credit card presented.
“Umm…Desiree? I think we may have a problem.”
A man in a dark business suit was at the head of the line.
“God, I just have no idea what I’m going to order. What’s an orange hydrangea? Isn’t that a flower or something?” Desiree asked. She crossed her arms over her chest.
“I don’t know.” I watched the man at the head of the line as he extended his left arm through the circular device, too, but palm up. I noticed he had some sort of tattoo on his inner wrist. He took his coffee and walked away. “Have you noticed that no one’s paying for anything?”
“Do I want a $12 full city roast coffee or a $17 chocolate sunset? How can I decide when I have no idea what it is? This is so frustrating!” Desiree’s eyes were scanning the menu boards.
“Didn’t you know that coming in? We knew this place would be totally different.”
“They should at least have pictures.”
“They do. Look over there,” I said pointing to a poster to the side of the menu boards. “A coconut Julius. But more importantly, how about this lack-of-paying issue we have awaiting us?”
“I’m not really feeling coconut right now. That’s more of a summer flavor. Coconut in December is just stupid.”
An olive-skinned guy with perfectly disheveled hair and
looked about our age turned around, seemingly intrigued by our confusion. “Try the butterscotch javatwist. It’s totally exos.”
“That sounds delicious!” Desiree said and thanked the guy for his suggestion. “What’s in it?”
“What’s exos?” I asked.
The guy looked at me like I was from another planet—which in some respect, I was. “You know, the opposite of tropos?”
“Of course…”
“I guess if you don’t know exos, then I shouldn’t expect you to know tropos. You guys must really be from the plains. Exos means ‘really good,’” the guy said matter-of-factly.
“Oh, like awesome,” Desiree said.
“If you say so.”
“You haven’t heard of awesome?”
The guy turned around without answering, mumbled something under his breath, and was next to order.
After placing his electronic tablet on the counter, he stuck his left arm through the circular device. He wore a lime-green wristband, which had some kind of engraving on it, but I was too far away to see it clearly. After thanking the clean-cut barista, he left with his coffee and gave Desiree a nod. “Hope you like it.”
“It sounds exos,” Desiree said as we stepped up to the counter, and the guy laughed as he left.
We ordered two drinks and two unknown food items, which came to a costly $57. Desiree removed her wallet from her purse and handed the barista exact change. Instead of taking the cash, he looked at her completely bewildered.
“What? You don’t take cash?” Desiree asked, more forcefully offering him the money.
“No one’s used paper money in more than 100 years. What’s that from, a board game or something?” The barista alternated his gaze between Desiree and me.
I was sure he thought we were pulling a prank on him, and I didn’t know how to make him think otherwise.
“Hey, this is real money,” Desiree snapped.
“That’s fine, but I still can’t accept it. Now will you please stick your hand in the scanner like everyone else? There’re people waiting behind you.”
SUSY Asylum Page 2
