“Look how pretty she is!” The girl stepped down the stairs as Mother adorned her with a slew of compliments. All of them just as disingenuous as the next. The man came around the corner and immediately locked eyes with the girl again. His blue eyes lit up more than when he first saw her. But this time looking less at her body, even though it was clean now. Offering his arm, he helped the girl descend the last two stairs.
“Doesn’t she clean up well, Mr. Deely?”
“You are quite beautiful, Abigail.” Almost on cue, the girl feigned embarrassment and thanked the compliment with a curtsy smile.
“Be sure to bring her back in one piece.” It was merely a joke, but Mother said this with such a stern glare that Abby knew exactly how serious she was.
“Of course. I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he reassured her.
Mother walked to the front door and grabbed a thin bracelet and strapped it on the girl’s thin wrist making sure to have the small light face toward the inside of it. A bracelet that doubled as a tracker as well as a disciplinary device. Probably not suitable for even a dog to be subjected to.
How fashionable, the girl thought to herself.
Mr. Deely was visibly uneasy with this sudden show of control over the tiny girl. He wasn’t dense. He could surmise what went on in this house when he wasn’t around. Mr. Deely seemed to quickly let the feeling subside, looking as if he’d come to terms with the darkness of the service with which he decided to engage.
Nearly pushing the pair out the door, Mother appeared to be the only one in a rush. She handed the girl a light, black jacket, and sent the pair on their way.
“Have fun, dearie.” She directed this comment toward the girl with a sinister sneer, spreading across her face, before slamming the front door on both of them, leaving Abigail to wonder about her ants one last time before setting her focus on the mysterious man beside her.
Chapter 2
Deely reached his hand out to help the girl down the front porch. Abby hesitated as she descended. She had forgotten about the rain. Without taking another second to think, she threw her jacket over her head and stepped down, letting her shoes sink into the muddy ground. Abby’s fingers were frigid and small against Deely’s plump hands. Just another reminder of the dark world that she lived in.
Checking his watch, Deely suddenly seemed pressed for time.
Deely called his ride, a 2091 StarGlider Hover Car. It wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world. But it was surely the prettiest thing in the middle of nowhere. The headlights were dim and fogged over, the once shiny red paint job was now dull and chipped showing the rusted exterior, and the automated driving system malfunctioned years ago. More often than not, Deely would be the only one steering his vehicle manually. But even with all its faults, it stuck out singularly amongst the diesel-fueled, land bound trucks littering the countryside. You didn’t have to make much of yourself to own such outdated models. Diesel was severely inconvenient to find, let alone buy and no one wanted a vehicle that couldn’t get access to the city domes anyway.
If his glider wasn’t an indication of his economic standings, past the black top hat and the seemingly well-made suit, Mr. Deely was merely a commoner hiding amongst the wealthy. No one needed to know about his financial shortcomings, it was certainly more than what he expected Abby was used to, even given her line of work. Sitting in the passenger seat of his glider, her hands noticeably trailed over the door and her eyes pressed the buttons she was too timid to reach on his side of the vehicle. Suddenly, she froze feeling Deely’s eyes on her.
“So… where are we going?” she inquired.
“I was thinking that we could go into the city. New Atlanta, it isn’t too far from here. I know a great place in Section Four, nestled between two buildings and right under the public tubes. I’m sure you could use a bite to eat. What do you say?” The girl felt her small stomach grumble, and couldn’t, in good conscience, pass up this offer.
“Sounds nice.” A smile grew across Deely’s face as he started up the glider and headed down the road.
Abby could tell Deely was attempting to pull off some kind of act. One look at his clothing and his hover car, it was already apparent he was hiding behind his clothes. That’s one lie that the girl could count at the moment. But something as apparent as that, couldn’t be the only thing that he was attempting to hide. She’d spent enough nights accompanying various strange men, to know when one might’ve been up to something. Though she couldn’t quite figure out his intentions yet, she did get a kick out of trying to solve this mystery.
Attempting to break the silence between them, Deely began rambling. Mr. Deely talked almost like Mother, but a bit more refined. Abby wasn’t very interested in what he was saying. She was more interested in how he said it. He undoubtedly adorned a decidedly less harsh vocabulary than Mother, and his dialect almost blended into her own in some places. Sometimes dropping the “r” after some words and then seemingly forgetting to do so other times. “...it’s really quite a nice place. One time I bet my brother that …” He used my and stressed the y a bit oddly, but then went on to pronounce the “er” in “brother.”
It was like he’d just gotten used to saying certain words one way and other words another way. Quickly, Deely ran out of things to say once again leaving them both in silence. There were hardly any people that could intrigue the girl, but Deely’s odd accent really made her want to know more about him. As they hovered down the long dirt road, they passed acres of brown grass and dead and starving cattle. The girl let herself get lost in the flat terrain before beginning her interrogation, wanting to appear not as interested as she really was.
“You must not be from around here, huh?” Deely jumped as if he was torn away from his thoughts.
“I am, actually,” the man continued, seeming awfully careful with his words, “Me mum moved here from England when I was just a little bean swimming around in her belly. I grew up in the city.”
“Oh, so that’s why you talk funny.”
“What do you mean I talk funny?!” he said taken aback.
The girl chuckled, which she hadn’t done genuinely in a long time. “I mean you talk funny,” sporting a disastrous English accent she continued, “May I have some tea and crumpets, suh? … Don’t mind if I do … Thank you, suh … Top of the mornin’ to ya … Oh, how are you on this fine British day.”
Deely laughed with her.
“Well, you’re one to talk,” he responded, “You talk funny too.”
“Oh, and what’s that supposed to mean?!”
“Bless your heart,” he continued in an equally as disastrous Southern Belle accent, “Hold ‘yer horses … Don’t go throwin’ a hissy fit around here.”
The girl burst out in laughter. “Touché.”
After a while, the dirt roads disappeared, replaced with nothing but the dry grass that filled the regions surrounding the city. Dark brown clouds came into view and then there it was. A massive dome stretched far up above the clouds, forcing them apart. The skyscrapers enclosed in the city reached nowhere near the top of the dome. It looked extremely oversized for the city itself.
Vents, appearing to be part of the air filtration system, ran along the side of the glass filtering the pollutant-filled air on the outside to provide the millions of occupants with enough air to survive. The bottom of the dome was lined with a large black pipe that went far off into the distance, letting out the tons of waste to a waste management center hours away.
Abby couldn’t fully grasp that hundreds of these things existed all over the country. Some engulfing more than one city and substituting several names for just one. It really made her wonder how big a city had to be in order to be lucky enough to fall under the security one of those glass tops.
Finally, Deely’s glider arrived at the entrance. Right next to it, there was a pedestrian tunnel, covered in dull, faded graffiti
. It had to be from decades ago. Someone would have to be mad to walk in from outside. The air around the dome had been barely breathable since 2085 and it didn’t take them long after to close the tunnel altogether.
The car entrance was closed even earlier than that. The government didn’t want the dome being unnecessarily polluted. And since most people had switched to hover cars, the closure wasn’t much of a problem. At least not for the more well-off individuals. The hover car entrance started a few inches above where the previous entrances were. A scanner washed Deely’s glider in a blue light and then flashed green permitting them to enter.
“What’s wrong? Never seen a rubbish town before?” he laughed.
“Well yeah,” she continued, “don’t you remember picking me up from one?” Humor was her only response to nervousness. Though this time, a little of her bravado broke down as she continued taking in her surroundings. Her eyes finally caught the tall buildings they were headed toward.
“Those buildings over there are in Section Four and there,” he pointed more to the right, toward an area with tall buildings but much better-looking ones. “is Section Five and everything else,” he pointed even farther away beyond the tall buildings farther than Abigail herself could even see, “is pretty much shit.”
“I’m sure that I’d fit right in.”
And the conversation stopped there as they continued even deeper into Section Four, weaving through the scattered air traffic until they got to a spot where no one seemed to be entering or leaving.
“We’re here!” Deely’s restaurant of choice was really quite old school. Places had moved closer to the outskirts of Section Four where most people tended to live but not Ol’ Mike’s. It stayed right in the heart of downtown, almost indiscernible in the modern cityscape. Ol’ Mike’s simply couldn’t afford to move anywhere else. Weak neon lights covered the top of the building, going around each character. Nearly half the lights had been dead for some time now, making the name read O - M - K - S.
“You never said we were eating at a dumpster fire.”
Deely, clearly offended, made a show of how serious Abigail’s blow hit him, planting his hand over his chest like he’d been shot through the heart. “How could you? We haven’t even walked in yet!”
“I guess I just expected more from a gentleman like yourself.” She was clearly teasing Deely, but it didn’t stop him from storming out of his glider and slamming the door on his way out, leaving Abby laughing in the passenger seat. He came around to her side and opened the door.
“Come on. You’ll see, ya bloody ingrate. And I’ll be damned if I let you leave this place without falling on your knees in apology for your insults.”
“Fine, then,” she said leaving the car with a curt smile on her face. “Lead the way.”
They both entered with a bell ring announcing that they were there. But when Abby looked up, she didn’t see any sort of bell there. Just two thin black pieces of metal between the door and the deteriorating door frame.
If the state of Ol’ Mike’s wasn’t obvious from the outside, then it was surely clear from the inside. Cracked tiles covered the walls, some much browner than others. The place sported a retro look even older than most restaurants, mimicking a long-forgotten time that even the oldest generations only learned about in textbooks. Red table stools lined the bar, some cushions were missing, probably stolen by homeless wanderers. Booths littered the restaurant, seemingly the only things in the place that were still in good enough condition, save the one with a chunk ripped out, revealing its puffy yellow insides. Before Abby could decide where to sit, Deely made the decision for her by taking a seat at the bar and tapping the seat next to him. He looked so comfortable sitting there as if that was the seat he always sat in whenever he went.
Looking around, Abby was confused.
“There’s nobody even working right now,” she expressed in an annoyed tone. Suddenly an android popped up in front of her from the other side of the bar, the surprise causing a high-pitched shout to leave her.
“Holy fuck! Can you announce yourself next time?!”
“Sorry to startle you ma’am. What can I get for you today?” The android’s voice was tinny yet human-like. One certainly couldn’t mistake it for a human, but it didn’t stop Abby from being disturbed by its uncanniness. She hadn’t come from much, she’d only ever seen Mother bring home broken gliders and a few tracking bracelets, never anything as advanced as this. She immediately regretted the fact that she couldn’t go out much. The robot was covered in years of wear and tear, appearing to the girl to be itself, behind its time.
“Oy,” Deely interrupted the robot’s inquiry, clearly ready to eat.
“Welcome back, master. I was hoping you’d be gone for good this time.”
“Oh, shove it, tin head. If it weren’t for me, your face would still be all mucked up.”
Placing a metallic hand to his face, feeling around the area that transitioned from old metal to a brighter, newer metal, he responded. “Oh sir, if I could cry, I’d surely be in tears right now.”
The girl finally felt the dawning realization of who’s place they were in. And she immediately felt guilty, bagging on the restaurant when the owner was sitting right next to her.
“Are you ready to order, sir?”
“Well I wouldn’t be here, if I wasn’t, would I?”
“Well, someone’s a little snippy today.”
Rolling his eyes, Deely gave him their order, “We’ll both have a burger and fries. I’ll also take a coke and she’ll have a...”
“Water,” she interjected.
“Yeah, she’ll have a water.”
“Your orders will be out right away,” turning to the girl, the android warned her. “Don’t let him get too full of himself. He can be a real drag sometimes.”
“Get on with it, Charlie.” The android strolled to a room farther behind the counter leaving them both sitting there.
“So, this is your place, huh?” She asked already knowing the answer, but still needing some type of verbal confirmation.
“Yeah. Bet you feel real bad now, don’t ya?”
Abigail chuckled, now taking back her idea of apologizing for her crude remarks. “Not really, no.”
“Oh, that’s just great, isn’t it? Where’d you get all that heartless from, your mom?”
“Ha… I guess you could say that,” she said trailing off, growing uncomfortable with the topic of her mother.
She was still quite intrigued by how different Deely was from many of her other “admirers,” she’d figured that “admirers” sounded better than “lonely old men that wanted some alone time with a youngish girl.” He was markedly younger than most of them. Much closer to her own age than anyone she’d gotten used to interacting with. His short beard added a few years. Probably grown in an attempt to be taken more seriously. He hadn’t exactly tried to make a move on her. Not yet at least. Most guys tried when they were a good enough distance from the house. Mother wouldn’t allow it in her own proximity, but she didn’t care what the men did with her daughter when they were out of her sight as long as they brought her back the way she had left.
One time, a man had accidentally gotten her dress caught in the door leaving brown dirt spots at the bottom of the hem. When he brought her back home, Mother beat the shit out of the scrawny, old man breaking his wiry glasses in the process. No one could ever say that that lady didn’t at least care for the girl in some way even if it was merely in the interest of keeping her merchandise intact. Abby almost felt bad for him. The old man was one of the nicer “admirers” simply looking for someone to hang onto his arm at a fancy dinner party.
She’d spent too much time thinking about being away from that house and she didn’t want to waste it talking about someone who didn’t think it necessary to feed her a livable amount of food. This was one of the only nights that she eve
r got to have for herself and she wasn’t going to let Mother ruin this for her.
Abigail continued taking notice of Deely’s small actions. The flick of his finger across his nose, the gentle tap of his shoe hitting the metal bottom of the barstool, and his other hand tapping against the table. Each being done almost in sync. And every once in a while, he would lower his wrist to look at the long thin band around it, the virtual analog hands of the clock ticking forward.
“What kind of watch is that?”
“Oh, this old thing? I can’t really remember,” he laughed a bit at how terrible his memory could be sometimes. “It was me dad’s. But I didn’t really know me old man all that well. He passed a bit before I was born.”
“Oh… sorry.” Abby didn’t think that such an innocent question would bring up something as serious as death so quickly.
“Don’t feel sorry. I didn’t know him. My mom left his arse before he kicked the bucket. She never said why. Strange thing is he ended up keeping her in his will. Obviously, oblivious to my existence at the time. The only thing of worth he had to his name was this watch. So my mom gave it to me.” As though he had forgotten what time it was in the last few seconds, he looked at his watch again.
“Why do you keep looking at your watch?” the girl asked genuinely curious, “Got somewhere better to be?” Deely was caught off guard, seemingly surprised that she’d even noticed his distractedness. His foot even stopped clicking against the barstool as she made her watchful eyes more apparent. He was steadily learning to be less surprised by her crassness too. Without answering yet, Deely took another long look at his watch before speaking.
“I’m waiting for someone.”
“Who?” She was too impatient to help herself.
Deely was slowly taking in the girl’s questions. And it looked like he was at war with himself over how much to disclose. And with a determined look, Deely appeared to make up his mind.
Abigail Page 2
