Chapter Two: The Travelled

[the_siobhan]

When I was a very small girl my parents had once had some errands that they had needed to run in the city, so they had decided to align their trip with the Santa Claus Parade. We had Christmas parties in our local town but nothing like the experience of thousands of people lining up to watch an hour long procession of floats, clowns and marching bands. By the time Santa Claus himself appeared, waving at everybody in the crowd and giving his deep belly laugh, I was so excited I almost peed my pants.

I remember walking back to the car with my parents afterwards. It was snowing fat slow flakes and I spun around until I was dizzy, catching snowflakes on my tongue or dancing my way along the sidewalk. Exhausted by the aftermath of adrenaline and overwhelmed by the late hour, I fell asleep in the car on the trip home. My parents later told me the drive in the blizzard was absolutely hellish. That was the first, last, and only time I had ever visited the city. Until now.

The station I now found myself in was enormous, with rows of tracks stretching off on either side and swarms of people marching purposefully or clustered in knots chattering at each other or piling luggage on and off carts. It was more humans than I remember ever seeing in one place in my life, and the noise echoed off the carvernous ceilings. I was instantly overwhelmed.

There were signs everywhere pointing to the main station body and I started carting my suitcase in the direction of the arrows. There I spotted a desk with a sign above it with big friendly text in a multitude of languages. The English words said, "Services for Newcomers".

I appeared to be their only newcomer that day. There were four people sitting behind the desk looking bored and they perked up visibly when I approached them.

A young blonde woman stepped up to the counter. "Hello there! Is this your first time in New Toronto?"

None of them looked any older than 20. I thought about the Santa Claus Parade and decided that probably didn't count. "Um. Yes it is. And I don't know anybody here, so..."

The blonde extended her hand and I took it, mostly out of reflex. "My name is Katie," she told me. "I'll help you get settled." She bustled around the counter to my side and lifted her tablet. "I'm guessing the first thing you'll need is a place to live, right? Do you have an ID card?"

It took me a second to register her question, then I flushed. Cards had shown up in the mail many years ago and my father had tossed them in the trash as some crazy city plot. "I don't," I mumbled.

"No problem, we'll set you up with one."

Getting me an ID card ended up being the work of minutes. Katie took my name and date of birth and printed me a small card with a number on it. "This will get you six months of services before you have to top it up," she said brightly.

I took the card from her hand. She hadn't asked for any proof for the information I had given her. "Do people ever just fake these to get another six months?" I wondered.

"Oh probably," she said, completely unconcerned. "Let's start by finding you an apartment."

She hoisted her tablet and started walking. She seemed to have a supernatural sense of where openings were about to appear in the crowds and I had to hustle to keep up with her. She led me through a door that led to a series of train platforms, smaller than the one I had left. I chased her onto a waiting train and sat down next to her, breathless.

"You know, if you walked slower, I could watch where you're going, and it would help me find my way around by myself later," I offered.

Katie laughed gayly. "Everybody says that," she said.

I was still trying to figure out how to respond to that when she popped out of her seat.

"Our first stop," she announced. The train was gliding into the station and I hurridly stood up. I was just fast enough to chase her out the door. I made a mental note that navigating crowds of strangers at the speed that Katie seemed able to do was going to be on my list of skills to aquire while I was here.

She led me through a series of corridors to an elevator. She made me punch in my ID number "for practice". The doors opened and closed as various people got on and off, and then I saw my ID numbers appear on the screen. Together we stepped off the elevator into the first apartment on my list of potential residences.

I stopped dead. I heard the elevator doors close behind me. Katie walked past me into the room.

The first floor extended 40 feet ahead of me and ended at a wall that was made completely of window. Outside I could see multi-level layers of highways packed with vehicles. The apartment wrapped around to my left and there was a staircase beside me that climbed up to the upper floors. A wall of greenery tumbled down the wall and I could pick out the smells of sage and basil. When I looked up I could see lemons, tomatoes and climbing beans on the terrace just above me. I could hear the sound of water, and when I stepped forward into the room I couls see a waterfall tumbling from teh top floor down into a pool beside me.

"The kitchen is through that door," said Katie, pointing to the opposite end of the room, "and the bedrooms are upstairs. Most people reject this one because it's overlooks the highway. So when you're ready we'll go to the next place on the list which is..."

"I'll take it."

"What?" Katie spun around. "This is the first place you've seen!" she protested.

"I know," I said. "But I grew up in a small town where the highway ran right through town. And that conforts me." I waved at the bright lights outside my window. She looked at the view and then turned to eye me dubiously.

"Well... Are you sure...?"

"When I'm ready to move on I'll call you," I said brightly. "Do you have a card?"

It took some pursuading but eventuallyu Katie did soemthing to my ID card that basically meant that I would be her contact if I started looking at apartments. She insisted on showing me how the kitchen worked. Once I had managed to get rid of her I sat for a long time staring out the window. She had showed me how to dial up requests for food and drink in the kitchen when I didn't feel like cooking, so I requesteed sandwiches and beers. I sat for a long time, drinking adn staring at the lights of the highway while hte waterfall in my living room churned a rhythmic backbeat to my thoughts.

This was my new life.

Holy shit.

Comments

[cincinnatus_c]

I grew up in a small town where the highway ran right through town

Ha! The bright lights of a small town. True enough, that.