Authors: Veronica Melan
“Change to what?”
“I want you to start translating two books you saw in my office. You see, I find them very interesting and I'm pretty certain that they contain some valuable information about how to improve many working areas on the ranch, but I don’t have time to do it myself. Therefore I thought that you might prefer it to the hard work in the yard.”
I was taken aback by his words. On one hand the idea of living here doing something enjoyable was very tempting but on the other ... who would take the food to the stone-pit? If it was someone else then the workers would starve again. And if I stop wandering around the infirmary doing different tasks, I won’t find a way to steal those bloody patches and medications because my presence there will be too noticeable. And then Greg will certainly find a reason to ask me a couple of questions.
Lost in my thoughts over this dilemma, I didn’t notice that Hulk was watching me all this time.
Not understanding the reasons for my heavy silence or perhaps understanding them very well, he continued.
“I'll pay you and I’ll pay you well. For each translated sheet you will receive one point.”
I gawped at him.
“No, no...” he corrected himself right away,” we’ll split this… I'll pay you one point per sheet, but it won’t be your usual points. I'll give you another bracelet, which they will be credited on to...”
My joy darkened and I shivered, imagining that instead of one bracelet, I will now have two. What a happy life! Why would I need points which are not counted as “freedom” points?
“Hear me out first.” gently smiled Hulk, watching my face reflect a whirlpool of various emotions, “You can spend these points in Tally totally at your discretion. For food, clothes or whatever else you want. I just can’t allow them to be your “freedom” points, I hope you understand.”
I nodded feeling puzzled and trying to understand how I could benefit from such a deal. Then my heart jumped from the understanding and sudden burst of hope, and my head began creating an amazing idea.
“For each page.”
“What?”
“One point per page?” I explained, “If I can’t use them to get my freedom, then you are not really bothered how many you give me, right?”
I know how to get a good bargain, if I want to, I thought pondering about how many pages there were in those two books. I hoped at least three hundred- four hundred in each.
Hulk's eyes narrowed. For a split second it seemed that he’d refuse. But then he relaxed and just said,
“OK. But you’ll have to do me a favour.”
Not having time to get excited properly, I tensed up again.
“What kind of a favour?”
“You’ll have to tell me why you were brought to Tally. For what? The truth.”
I nearly swore out loud. And then suddenly realised - why am I so worried about that? If he wants to know, I’ll tell him; anyway, he knows now I’m not a hacker and I didn’t swear to the Commission to keep this a secret. I even felt relieved after my conclusion. How many times did I want to share the true story with someone? But there weren’t any true friends around or anyone who’d listen to me. If he doesn’t believe me - he wouldn’t be the first or the last, so I stopped worrying.
“OK. I’ll tell you.”
It was now Hulk’s turn to display his surprise, but this quickly changed to an expression of satisfaction, and then to his usual inscrutable look. So far, our negotiation was going well. I was afraid to take another breath, in order not to scare the luck away.
“And what about...” I paused, not willing to touch the nasty subject, but it was necessary, “what about... those whips?”
To my relief, Hulk just shrugged.
“What about them? The old ones were thrown away and new ones ordered.”
I was staring at his face, waiting for the words about the twenty points I could lose, to come, but Hulk, oddly enough, just smiled again.
“We have now come to a mutual beneficial cooperation. Isn’t that right? Why would I want to spoil it?”
He looked right through me and I got a sense of comfort because everything’s just suddenly became clear - he won’t be punishing me and everyone on the ranch will keep their points, including me. If someone had told me that such an outcome could even be possible last night when I was standing in the yard, listening to Greg’s threats, I would have just laughed or I’d get upset because such a beautiful fantasy had no chances of coming true. And now I was almost flying! What a change!
I still could not believe my luck - who knew that my knowledge of the Tueric language would become handy one day! In the “Area 33”! Such absurdities made me giggle; just as well Hulk didn’t seem to pay any attention to that.
Once again we turned left and walked along the field; on the opposite side of the road there was some kind of a woodland belt. The crowns of the rare trees were faintly rustling; I’d never walked that far on my own before. The mansion as well as the fields with the workers’ naked backs was now out of sight and only the wind was playing with withered leaves and bowing the stalks of the cobs down to the ground along with the chirring crickets. At some point our whole trip began to seem like an abstract dream which I didn’t mind. Ever since I arrived at Tally there hasn’t been that many pleasant experiences in my life and each positive emotion that accidentally visited me here was appreciated as much as gold. And this walk felt good, even if it was passing by in silence.
“Where will I be doing the translating?”
“In your room” Hulk was surprised by my question.
“But there is no electricity.”
He looked at me and his eyes stared heavily at me. Somehow I knew that I wasn’t the reason for such intensity and it was about someone else, who seemingly forgot to mention to Hulk about such a small detail as the lack of electricity in my room.
“It will get sorted.” He said in a plain voice.
I happily inhaled the hot air saturated with a scent of different plants. Wow, this really is the day of the miracles!
“Hulk ...” unexpectedly even for myself I said, trying to recall if I’d ever called him by his name.
“Yes?”
I wasn’t sure how to proceed, but for some reason this exact little favour I was about to ask him was particularly important for me.
“In my room there is a door which leads to the same place as the kitchen - to the backyard with a fence.”
Hulk was looking at me blankly.
“This door is always shut. Can I please get a key? This is not because I want to escape or anything, I just... I’d just like to sit on my own sometimes on a little porch and get some fresh air since the windows in my room cannot be opened.”
It seemed that Hulk was surprised by something yet again, although it was not easy to read your everyday human emotions on his face.
“You'll get the key tonight when you come to pick up the book and the dictionary.” these were the only words he said.
Now I was taking my every step very carefully, so that he wouldn’t notice that instead of walking I was flying above the ground with happiness.
The same evening I went to Hulk’s office to pick up two heavy books, dictionary, new thick notebook, some pens, some other stationary and received the second bracelet which was now attached to my wrist right next to the first one - the one that’s not only given me blisters on my skin, but on my heart as well. However I was quite happy about having the second bracelet knowing that all the future points - though I won’t be able to use them for my freedom, will bring some joy into my life.
As it turned out, while I was busy outside doing my tasks, electricity had already came on in my room, and not just the electricity but also unpretentious round chandelier on the ceiling as well as a desk lamp with a beige shade on the table. I clicked the switch several times, turning the light on and off, watching how this uncomplicated movement completely changes the look of my pathetic room. Then I checked that the chandelier was functioning properly and stood in the doorway for a little bit, savouring the change and gently stroking the books. I’d never ever expected that my student whim would bring so much into my life, but it did and much more than I ever dared to receive. Eventually I shut the door and went to the kitchen to get my supper.
I can say that from that very moment my life in Tally began to feel if not enjoyable, but at least acceptable. For days I was carefully copying the translated text in the notebook; Hulk had decided that my handwriting was readable, and the dictionary I was provided with was a considerable help. It turned out that by then I’d managed to forget about a half of what I had once known. But the endless turning of pages was not burdening, the routine was not frightening and perseverance has always been one of my best qualities. The first thing I did when I got the book was to check how many pages in total there was and then I became very happy. The first volume consisted of five hundred and ninety pages and the second one as much as seven hundred and thirty pages! After that it became obvious why Hulk refused to put anything on my ordinary bracelet, because if he did – I’d fly out of Tally at the speed of light.
Though to say so would be an exaggeration, especially considering the fact that each page was not particularly easy to translate and I had to make tremendous efforts so that the words extracted from my memory or from the dictionary would build into meaningful sentences. And in some section there was a talk about buildings, machines or units, of which I’d never heard of before then it would become very tricky. But Hulk was reading everything with great interest even if I was bringing him only half a page a day. He also never hurried me and I was grateful for that.
So I was taking my time in the tiny room, drawing the words with the blue ink in my thick notebook, sometimes I would sit there and pondering, lost in my thoughts about something irrelevant and then I return back to work. Considering the fact that I didn’t even need to go in the dining room - a warm spot in the Tabitha’s kitchen was always at my disposal, it soon began to feel that I lived in a almost normal world and there is no ranch, no workers around and nothing at all. If it wasn’t for my clothes shop that I’d usually check up on once a day in my life before Tally and for the shabby interior which was very different to my apartment I left on West Barton Avenue, I could think that I’m living an ordinary life. Of course, it was a rough comparison, but still...
I also received a key to the front door, as promised and was now able to enjoy the evening breeze, which would become cooler by night time, providing a nice break after a hot day which I kind of got used to. Sometimes I would sit on the porch for an hour in the silence of the night, looking at the dark empty backyard and the moon rising above the trees – its huge white disk would illuminate the hushed mansion, lost somewhere in the red desert. The shadows in this hour would become long and distinct as if from the floodlight, and I could clearly see every swaying blade of the grass growing by the porch. I’d usually spend some time observing all this until I’d feel the sleepiness creeping up on me and then I’d start to nod off, right there, sitting on the warm porch boards.
There were only two rumours about someone dying on the ranch during this time that reached my ears and the news made me feel sad and uneasy. I tried as hard as I could not to dwell on it, trying to keep a fragile and serene atmosphere in my tiny room insulated from the external shocks, realizing that I would have hardly been able to do something about those workers. Just a brief thought about it, even though they were hastily pushed out of my mind, would still leave a big hole somewhere in the depths of my heart, no matter how hard I tried to remain indifferent.
Another meeting with Hulk that happened two days after I’d started translating deserved a special mention. He actually had not forgotten about my promise to share the true story of me entering Tally, so I spent about an hour telling him everything from the beginning right until the moment I’d arrived at his ranch. Hulk listened in silence, frowning and seemed intense at times; whilst I felt a cold lack of feeling reciting the story. I guess I really started to adapt to the idea that life sometimes makes unexpected turns that even a fortune-teller would have troubles to predict and perhaps destiny has its own reasons to throw these ordeals at us. As for me - I just had to deal with the consequences of where I was living now and learn how to make my life tolerable, instead of feeling constant sorrow or wasting time on thinking about the eternal injustice.
In fact I was surprised that Hulk noted down names of Alex, Elmer and a few other people that I mentioned in connection with my tale of kidnapping, also, he marked the date of the happening, the amount issued to me by the Corporation, all the addresses which I could recall and a few more meaningless, in my opinion, details.