by Elin Peer
“What can I say, some men aren’t in favor of democracy. Just stay inside!”
“Yes, Dad.”
I walked my parents to the drone and together my mom and I supported Magni from the hoverchair into the drone.
Magni drummed his hand on the panel in front of him “This is it, time to become a fucking cyborg.”
“I’ll see you soon, Dad.”
He pointed at the house. “Stay inside.”
My mom waved and got in the drone too. “Love you.”
“I love you too.” I waved as long as I could see the drone.
“Mila sweetie, why are you outside by yourself?”
I turned to see Pearl with four security guards come out from the manor.
“I just sent off my parents.”
“That’s odd. I said goodbye to them more than an hour ago; I thought they’d already left.”
“Where are you going?” I asked and noticed that she had double the normal security.
“I’m going to the school. I want to involve the children in the first election and give them a deeper understanding of what it will mean for them as adults.”
“That’s nice.”
“Also, I just spoke to Jonah. He asked me to tell you that he misses you, although I’m sure he’s told you that himself.”
I didn’t confirm or deny it. Jonah had called several times, but I was on a detox and trying to clear my mind, so I hadn’t answered. Once again, my hand found my wristband and a strong urge to call him came over me. If I could just hear his voice for a few minutes.
“We worked on his speech for the Council. It’s good.”
“That’s great. I know he’s nervous about it. I’m sure he appreciates your help.”
“It’s a strange situation with his sister, Anne. Did you know he will have a mediation meeting with her today?”
The fact that Pearl knew more than I, left a sadness in me. It was proof that Jonah and I were drifting apart. “No, I didn’t know that.”
“Their family have been granted a mediation meeting and he is hoping to get answers from Anne.”
A sound close to a low snicker came from two of the guards behind Pearl and it made her turn her head with a frown. “What was that?”
The four guards exchanged looks but none of them spoke.
“You’re behaving funny, what is going on?”
Neptune, answered her. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s something when you’re making faces to your colleagues. What’s going on?”
“It’s just because you were talking about Jonah’s sister, Anne, Madam Pearl.”
Pearl arched a brow. “Neptune, how long have you been with us?”
“Almost seven months, Madam.”
“And how many times have I told you that my name is Pearl? Just Pearl. Not Madam.”
“Understood, but Lord Khan and Commander Magni don’t want us to use your first name only.”
Pearl sighed. “Not this again. I thought they had removed that silly rule long ago. But either way, what is it about Anne that has you two snickering?”
Neptune shifted his weight and looked away.
“Just spit it out, soldier.”
"Ehhh," the large young guard began, “It’s just that you were talking about Anne."
"Yes, I’m aware. What about her?"
"Umm, she has a lot of admirers.”
Pearl inhaled through her nose. “Are you talking about yourself?”
“Yes, but not just me.” He looked down when he confessed. "We’ve been trading pictures of her.”
“Have you?” Pearl spoke in a calm voice but because I knew her so well, I detected a bit of annoyance. "How would you men like it if single women in the Motherlands traded pictures of you in nothing but your underwear?”
The four guards lit up, and Jules, one of our more seasoned guards, answered, “I think I speak for all of us when I say we would be flattered.”
Pearl sighed. “Never mind then. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear about it.” Turning to me, she asked, “Would you like to come with me to the school? I’m hoping to brainstorm with the children to get new ideas on how to campaign.”
“I can’t today. I promised my dad I’d stay home and I have some things I need to follow up on.”
“All right. If I’m not home by seven, will you swing by Khan and make sure he eats something? He’s working way too hard.”
“I’ll check in on him. But you know he’ll just brush me off.”
Pearl moved to the drone. “Only if you don’t stand your ground with him. You can do that, can’t you?”
I thought about all my practice in front of my mirror a little while ago. “I can be firm. I promise!”
Pearl gave me a long glance. "I know you can, Mila."
Her words meant a lot to me. Pearl was graceful and kind, but also persuasive and strong-minded.
As I watched her take off with the four guards, I felt empowered by her trust in me.
CHAPTER 14
Answers from Anne
Jonah
My mother was visibly nervous and kept fiddling with her pocket when I met up with my family in the House of Mediation.
Cole had been allowed to be present and stood against the wall chewing on something.
“Good to see you.” I took both his hands. “Peace.”
“Yeah, peace to you too. What do you think of this place?” Cole threw a nod to the walls, which were decorated with happy colors and inspirational quotes.
Being right isn’t nearly as satisfying as being together.
Few can be kind to people who aren’t kind to them. Can you?
Grow as a person and you’ll rise above insults and hurt.
Being kind beats being right.
I brought my focus back to Cole. “It’s kind of fitting in a place like this, wouldn’t you say?”
“Hmm…”
“Did I tell you that I once came here on a fieldtrip with my school? We sat for a whole day and listened to the mediators work. It’s fascinating to watch, really.”
Cole raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything because in that moment Anne came through the door. She slowed down the moment she saw our group and complete silence fell upon us. She was as feminine, curvy, and beautiful as in her modeling pictures.
I took a step forward. “Hi, Anne.”
All I got was a small nod before she hurried into the mediation hall.
“You ready?” Cole asked behind me.
“I guess so.”
The mediation room was bright with lots of daylight streaming in. Relaxing music played and there was a pleasant aroma of sandalwood and apple from the large air diffuser in the corner.
“Welcome.” A voluptuous woman with a big afro gestured for us to come closer.
“My name is Melissa Meek, but you can just call me Missy.” Making a quick head count of our group, she instructed. “We’re not having Anne face ten of you at one time. There can only be two of you and to make it fair, we’ll let Anne pick one and you’ll pick the other.”
Cole was quick to raise his hand. “Me.”
“Are the rest of you okay with that?” Missy asked us and no one disagreed.
“All right, as promised, you may pick the other representative from your family, Anne.” Missy waved her hand toward our group and right away, Anne’s eyes fell on me.
“I pick Jonah.”
“Good. Then the rest of you will sit over there as observers.” Missy pointed to the wall where two rows of chairs were placed. “And now, let me just place these four chairs and then we can get started.”
The atmosphere was tense when we sat down in a small circle with Anne between me and Missy.
“Oh, Mother Nature. I can hardly squeeze my behind into these chairs anymore,” Missy laughed. “I’m a fat-donor you see.”
“That’s very generous of you.”
Missy had a beautiful and warm smile. “I figure we all have to contribute with what we do well and
I’m a great eater. It’s one of my favorite things to do, so why not help the ones who need to recover from disease or simply can’t gain weight. I’ve donated five times already.” Her pride made me smile.
“That’s great.”
“Right, enough about me. First, let me begin by saying thank you for agreeing to sit down and talk about what happened between you. Only through communication can we bridge the misunderstandings that occur between people.”
Turning in her chair, Missy addressed Emanuela, Lilly, Gunnar, and the other family members by the wall. “Thank you for accepting a role as observers for now. I want to make sure you feel heard, so let’s make this deal. Should you have unresolved questions or feelings after this meeting, you can have your chance to speak.”
Anne sat on the edge of her seat, her pretty features serious with her eyebrows drawn close and her lips in one straight line.
“Now, Anne, you have made some hard accusations in the media about your family. I understand that it’s doubtful that your sister Emanuela and her husband Hunter Hercules can play for the Dolphins in the next season. Jonah is facing potential exclusion from the Council, and your brother Cole left the family to do some serious soul searching and reflect on his poor choices.
Cole narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t leave by choice. It was that or losing the park.”
Missy nodded. “And we can all sense how upset that makes you. Yet you admitted that Anne’s claim of your brewing and selling beer was in fact true and later others have confirmed that after-dark activities such as racing have taken place.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” Cole muttered low.
“What was that?” Missy asked and leaned her head toward him.
Cole shook his head signaling that he didn’t wish to repeat, but Anne gave him away.
“He said that there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Missy jerked her head back and sat straight in her chair. “Is that what you said?”
Cole crossed his arms, not speaking.
“Well, for one it’s illegal,” Missy pointed out.
“Legal and right isn’t the same thing.”
“Ahh, so you feel your sense of morality is above the law?” Missy scrunched up her mouth.
Cole’s tone was defensive. “Why don’t you ask Anne how she knew about it? Isn’t it funny to you that Anne had no problem racing and drinking while living at home, but five years later she’s pointing fingers and setting fire to her family’s home?”
Anne gasped and Missy blinked as if projectiles were coming at her.
I hadn’t spoken until now, but sensing that this meeting was off to a bad start, I looked straight at Anne and spoke with a calm voice. “What happened? Why did you set the storage building on fire?”
Anne’s cheeks flamed red and she averted eye contact.
“This is what we know.” In a factual tone of voice, I used my wristband to present the evidence to Missy and Anne. “You ordered a drone and landed close to the family unit at ten past two a.m. Seventeen minutes later you left again. Here’s a picture of you getting into the drone. We also know that you attempted to hide your tracks by editing your name in the traffic registry the next morning.
“We were all sleeping inside the house but woke up to find the storage building in flames. The firefighters concluded it was arson. If the authorities haven’t spoken to you about it already, they will very soon.”
Anne moved in her seat, crossing and uncrossing her legs.
“Why? Please help us understand. Were you trying to kill us?”
“No!” Anne looked genuinely disturbed by my question.
“Then what was your plan?”
“I was going to destroy the brewery, but then things went wrong. I didn’t mean to burn down the whole building. I was just going to melt one of the…” She looked down. “Anyway, when it caught fire, I tried to put it out but I couldn’t find a water hose. The next best thing was the buckets of water bubbles that stood close by, so I poured them on the small fire. Only it didn’t put out the fire, it just made it worse.”
Cole made a sound of annoyance. “Those weren’t water bubbles, they were…” His eyes went to Missy. “Never mind.”
“What were they?” Missy asked in a firm voice.
Clearing his throat, he answered, “Alcohol, and you don’t want to mix that with fire.”
“Why, what happens when you mix alcohol and fire?”
With alcohol being illegal we couldn’t blame them for having no experience or understanding of what alcohol could do to a fire.
“Alcohol has an explosive effect on fire,” I explained and turned to Anne. “So, let me get this straight. The fire got out of control and then you fled leaving us to possibly burn up? Is that it?”
“No. I was running toward the house when I saw lights coming on in the guestroom window, and then I panicked.”
“And took off.”
“Yes.” She shrank in her chair, folding her arms around herself.
“But why did you want to destroy the brewery in the first place? After all these years, why now?”
Tears ran down Anne’s cheeks and she brushed them away with annoyance. “Because of Cole.”
“Me? What did I do? You were always ungrateful and dramatic. I didn’t do anything to you.”
“You burned my clothes.”
Cole gave a grimace of confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m just going to stop things for a second.” Missy held up a hand. “The tone got a little high-pitched there so we’re all just going to take a deep breath and release it slowly, like we’re letting go of our anger. Come on, do it with me.” She waited until the three of us were all taking deep breaths. “Good, now continue, Anne. Explain what you meant when you said Cole burned your clothes.”
“I was a teenager and nothing I did was ever good enough for him. And then one morning he took my favorite outfit and burned it right outside the house.”
Missy moved to the edge of her seat. “Do you want to comment on that, Cole?”
Cole chewed on his lips like he was trying to hold back his words. “I’m the oldest in a family unit with ten kids, okay?”
Missy gave a nod. “Yes, I understand that.”
“Right. Our whole family has worked tirelessly to create a sensational park and much of that work was hard and no fun.” Pointing with his chin to Anne, he continued. “Little Miss Anne over there didn’t like the concept of work. Every day I would get complaints from guests because of her. I had my reasons for burning her clothes.”
“And what would those reasons be?”
Cole pushed his jaw out. “Every job we gave her was too hard and boring, so we came up with the perfect role just for her. All she had to do was sit on a throne and play a princess in the Renaissance part of the park. Little girls stood in line to see her be the beautiful princess. All she had to do was smile, and talk to them about her life as a princess, but even that was too tiresome for Miss Anne. Half the time no one could find her and then one day, she showed up but refused to put on the costume. Instead she sat on the throne in her modern clothes and destroyed the whole illusion for the guests. I demanded that she put on the beautiful Renaissance dress that we’d had made just for her. But instead of doing her part, she ignored me, making me look like a complete fool as I stood right next to her. So yeah, that night, I took some of her modern clothing and burned it. I figured it would get her to put on the costume.”
Missy’s eyes were large. “Wow, that sounds very dramatic.”
“Oh, it got way more dramatic after that.” With a sarcastic smile, Cole nodded to Anne. “Why don’t you tell her how you reacted?”
Anne sighed and kept her face down-turned. “I was seventeen and everyone treated me like the baby in the family. All my siblings were doing the cool stuff like welding iron or rappelling with guests while I had to sit on my butt and smile. Cole got to boss people around, but he wouldn’t share any responsibility with me. So, w
hen he burned my clothes I complained to the rest of the family and they all took his side. Every single one of them.” Anne looked at me and to the others by the wall. “That’s when I knew they didn’t love me.” Anne paused and my pulse raced as I waited to hear a traumatic part of our family’s history told from her side.
“I wrote them a letter and left.”
“Left where?”
“To a friend’s house.” Anne used a nail to scratch on the armrest of her chair.
“Okay, you took a break, so to speak.”
Cole’s tone was vibrating with suppressed anger. “What she’s not telling you is that she left us a suicide letter blaming us for pushing her to kill herself.”
Missy swallowed hard and exhaled noisily. “Well, that wasn’t very nice, Anne.”
Anne finally met my eyes, but only briefly. “I only did it because I wanted them to see how hurt I was, but everyone got furious with me and I was sent to Happy Souls as a punishment.”
“I’m sure they only meant to help you,” Missy said with a sympathetic look on her face. “And did some time in reflection make things better?”
Anne looked away. “Not really, but with all their disappointment in me, I didn’t want to go back.”
“Where did you go then?”
“I got a job in a nursing home. The old people were kind to me and they taught me a lot.”
Missy leaned her elbows on the armrest and weaved her fingers together. “I thought you were a model.”
“Yes, I have been for the last three years.”
I spoke up again. “You still haven’t explained why you came back that night. After almost five years of refusing our attempts of contacting you, why did you decide to sabotage us now?”
She was still hugging herself. “Because Cole wouldn’t let me come home.”
My face turned to Cole, but he remained impassive.
“I’d been traveling a lot and I missed my family, so I reached out to talk to Lilly, but Cole answered. When I asked if I could speak to Mom, he told me that he preferred for me to stay away if I was going to be dramatic.”
“That’s right.” Cole didn’t look apologetic.
