Marie's Journey (Ginecean Chronicles) (16 page)

“Vasurians?” Marie had to ask this time.

“What do you prefer to be called from now on, a
Vasurian
or a
wasted woman
?” the girl asked, for once in a serious tone.

“Well, if you put it that way, I’d like to be a Vasurian.” And finally, for the first time since she had left Redfarm, Marie felt the moment deserved a true smile.

“Exactly.” Nora laughed.

She wasn’t ready for a laugh, but the girl’s enthusiasm was good to her. Her arm sent her a new wave of pain and she grimaced.

“Is it still very painful?” Nora pointed at the gruesome patch of red, mangled skin and sleek ointment Marie had been trying very hard not to get in contact with anything.

“Yes, very.” Her eyes went to the girl’s branded arm, the name of the waste plant and the three numbers exposed for everybody to see. “What’s this?” Her finger shot for the symbol following the numbers, but stopped before she touched the girl’s arm. Her numbers and letters were of the same length as hers. She had noticed earlier. The only difference was the symbol.

“My tribe’s symbol, of course.” Nora looked at her with big eyes. “I told you.”

“Your tribe?” Marie tilted her head to better look at the sign resembling a circle cut in half by a barrette.

“Yes, the tribe I was born in has a ‘theta’ as its symbol. You’ll have one too.” The girl turned her forearm to better show it.

“I’ll have one?” Suddenly, Mala’s words about seeing her again echoed in her mind and she shivered.

“As soon as a tribe decides to adopt you, of course. But don’t worry. You’ll be part of a tribe in no time. You don’t seem a loner at all.” The girl smiled in reassurance, misunderstanding Marie’s reaction.

“Vasura is divided in tribes?” Slowly, several pieces started clicking into their rightful place.

“Yes.” Nora’s head bobbed in assent.

“And you were born here.” She hesitated, not sure how to ask what she meant to ask without offending her by being crude. But then she realized she had nothing to ask.

Still, when Nora said it, she inwardly gasped at the girl’s nonchalance. “Yes, my mom and dad belong to the same tribe. Maybe you’ll be accepted in my tribe!” She took Marie’s hands in hers and started dancing around in circles.

All the while, Marie’s mind churned with all the questions she had but couldn’t utter for fear of being indecent. But first and foremost,
Mom and dad? Did she just call a man… dad?
One last circle and her branded arm accidentally made contact with something. Unwanted tears sprung to her eyes.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Nora let go of her immediately, her hands covering her mouth.

“I know. It isn’t your fault.” She wiped her tears and tried to even her ragged breathing. “Do you think my shift can be cut a little bit shorter?” The desire to be alone was more demanding than the physical pain.

“Yeah, sure. Valery only barks. She isn’t going to check on you anyway. Let’s go to the communal dormitories.” The girl switched off the main light but left on the ones warming some of the pots, then gestured for Marie to follow her outside.

They walked for a good fifteen minutes in the warm night, nocturnal animals crying far away and storms of mosquitoes flying under the lamps.

“It is always so warm here?” Marie finally asked when the silence had become uncomfortable.

Nora, who had said nothing the whole time, smiled broadly, two delightful dimples coloring her face. “It’s cold now.”

“Oh—” Marie was going to say she liked some heat, but the girl interrupted her.

“Wait! I’m sure you must be hungry.”

Her stomach growled and reminded her she hadn’t eaten anything in a while.

“Let’s go grab something.” The girl made a U-turn on her heel and directed her to the opposite direction. “The closest cafeteria is around that block.” She pointed her chin ahead where several pink barracks stood in the middle of what looked like a well-manicured garden, complete with benches and a central area with a structure that resembled a fountain.

In a matter of minutes, they went in and out of the cafeteria, which inside just looked like any other cafeterias she had seen. Nora had ordered for her a big sandwich and a bottle of water and slowed her pace to permit Marie to eat on the go.

A few minutes later, dinner already a thing of the past, Nora stopped by a light-blue building and pointed at the place with a grand gesture of her hands. “You’ll sleep at the communal dormitory until you’re accepted in a tribe, then you’ll move there.” She saw Marie’s hesitation and paused on the stoop before knocking at the door. “Yes?”

Marie bit her bottom lip and looked up at the girl.

“What is it?” Nora’s hand hovered a few inches away from the door.

“Is it…? Are there any…?” She blushed.

“Are there any what?”

“Men?” Her voice came out as a choked, unintelligible whisper, but the girl must have understood her because she smiled and shook her head.

“Communal dormitories are never mixed, silly Marie. And they’re for the people who have just arrived and don’t belong to any tribe, yet.” Nora’s voice had a singsong quality as if she were talking to a little kid who needed to be explained everything. At the same time, she rapped on the door—which Marie noticed was orange. “We’ve got private housing for the families. And every tribe has both dormitories for the singles and houses for the couples.”

A moment later, two girls, a few years older than Nora and with a much more subdued disposition, came to welcome them.

“Carine and Trisha, this is Marie. Marie, Carine and Trisha.” Introductions aside, Nora stormed inside, bringing her along by the hand.

Another petite brunette, Carine, and a slightly taller auburn-haired, Trisha, to remember. Marie was already dizzy. Deep inside, she didn’t want to know the girls’ names. She gave the place a distracted look, which, despite corrugated metal walls and the small windows dotting them, reminded her too much of her dormitory back at the Institute. Longing and regret washed over her, but she steeled her heart and held back the tears. Nevertheless, they stung.

“I like what you did with the place. Nice shade of lilac,” she heard Nora say to the two girls and then went on asking if they had decided to apply for any tribe yet. Marie wasn’t interested in knowing their answer, so she looked around to get a feel for her new home. Several layers of paint had been applied to the walls. The latest incarnation showed the previous palette where the lilac had peeled. Beds were oriented infirmary-style, heads to the walls. She counted at least twenty on one side, so there must be around forty women sleeping there.
So much for privacy.
Funny how her brief staying at Redfarm had accustomed her to the luxury of having to share sleeping quarters just with one person. Or maybe she just longed for Verena’s placid temper and quiet friendship. She closed her eyes and kept them shut for a long moment.

“Are you okay?” one of the two girls asked, her voice too close to Marie for her liking.

When she was sure she was beyond making a scene, she opened her eyes and looked at the girl. The petite brunette with a worried expression was waiting for her answer. “My arm.”

Three sets of eyes zeroed on her offended appendage and that was when the fussing started.

“You should do this—”

“You should do that—”

“No, it’s better if you—”

“When it was my turn, I did this and—”

They all talked at the same time. She brought a hand to her right temple and at the same time looked for a bed to sit on. “My head’s killing me.”

Silence dropped on the room. Then Nora timidly opened her mouth to apologize. Marie waved the girl’s worries away. “It’s okay. I just need to be by myself for a moment.” She hoped the trio would understand and was rewarded by three nods.

“Of course. Come to your bed.” The auburn-haired Trisha pointed at a bed at the faraway corner of the room. “We’ll find a better spot, but we’re full right now.”

Marie eyed the shadowy corner and saw that her assigned bed was the last of the row and it stood against the wall and under a window. “No, it’s perfect. Thank you.” Then the girl’s words prompted her to ask, “Where’s everybody?”

Trisha’s eyes went automatically to the door. “It’s dance night. The girls are out having fun.”

It’s dance night
, she repeated in her mind, disbelief coloring her thoughts. She looked at the girls, wasted young women, preparing to go to a dance. Zena’s warning to keep her mind opened came back to her loud and clear.

“I heard it’s going to be so nice…” Carine played with a lock of her hair, lips turned down in a childlike frown.

From her wishful tone, Marie understood they had drawn the short straw. She smiled at the girls. “No need to stay here on my behalf. I’m fine.”

“We thought you needed company… first day at Vasura and all…” Carine couldn’t help a glance at her arm. “Sorry.”

She attempted a smile. Those girls were trying hard to be nice to her. “I’m very tired and once I take care of cleaning the wound, I’ll sleep like a rock.” She walked to her new bed and sighed. Yet another place to call her own.

“Are you sure?” This time, Nora was the one asking.

Marie turned on her way to her corner and reassured her with a better version of the smile she had already tried to use. “Yes. See you tomorrow morning?”

The girl didn’t seem convinced, but stepped back toward the door. “If you really don’t need us…”

She shook her head. “Have fun.”

“Tomorrow, then!” Nora went to the door.

“We’ll ask the other girls to be quiet when we come back later tonight.” Carine followed Nora.

Marie truly smiled at that, but nobody saw her because she was already facing her bed. “That would be great. Thanks.” She waited until the door closed and the dormitory was finally silent. Then she went back to the door where she had seen the main switch for the big light illuminating the room too brightly for her throbbing headache. Once the light was turned off and the only glow showing her the way to her corner came from the outside lamps, she let go and cried. Not sobs or anything loud, just a stream of wet tears washing her face. She sat on her new bed and looked outside. The whooshing sound of the leaves brushing the metal wall was hypnotic and she concentrated on that while her eyes traveled to the building in front.

A pale light came from inside the window facing hers. Something moved in and out of sight and startled her. A glimpse of a blond head came into view; it was just a moment and then was gone again. For reasons unknown, that sight calmed her and that gave her the strength to clean her wounds and smother her arm with the pungent salve. Once down, she lay on the bed, eyes on the ceiling, and tried to relax. Her new roommates came back from the festivities while she was still awake. She immediately turned toward the wall and slowed her breathing to feign deep sleep. It worked. Voices behind her immediately dropped to a pleasant whisper.

“I like her so much, but she never looks at me.”

“The music wasn’t as great as the last dance.”

“You think so?”

“I think it was great. They even played our song.”

“Why doesn’t she look at me?”

“Don’t know. You’re so pretty.”

“Did you see the new recruits?”

“No.”

“A whole cargo of workers came yesterday.”

“Let’s hope the new girl is nice.”

“They said she was in a lot of pain.”

“Poor thing…”

***

First thing the next morning, Zena dropped by for a brief visit. “How’re you holding on?”

“It could be worse, I guess.” Still groggy from having slept maybe the whole of sixty minutes and in several naps, Marie was hopelessly trying to put up a good show. She raised her arm to let the nurse examine it. “Is it supposed to look this way?” What she meant was if her limb was going to detach itself anytime soon. The pain was still excruciating and her head was still throbbing, or maybe it was the arm.

“It’s redder than it should be, but nothing to be worried about. I’m more concerned about your evident lack of sleep.” Zena slowly caressed her head.

As before, Marie sighed at the gesture. She could have fallen asleep to that, but a bouncing Nora appeared behind the nurse’s back.

“Raise and shine, girlfriend!” Her biggest smile yet completed the picture. “Time to go eat breakfast and then chop, chop. Valery woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

Marie wondered how someone living in a waste plant could be so cheerful. The she remembered that Nora had been born there and didn’t know any better.
Poor thing
, she thought, but then she realized her error.
No, poor me who knows better…
“Give me five minutes.”

“Let me help you.” Zena took the ointment jar from her hand and methodically removed the previous layer of what now looked like dirty grease. “It’s actually not as red as I thought. Healing has already started. When it starts itching, that’s a good sign. Your skin is knitting itself.”

Marie was glad for the reassurance because the pain in her arm was making her anxious that it would never go away. She had never had in her life anything that had lasted for so long and with such intensity. It scared her not being able to control what was happening to her body. It made her angry that the pain was driving her to tears at the very moment. But she managed not to cry and that gave her a sense of great satisfaction.

“Done. Rane asked about you.”

“I wanted to ask you about her. Where is she? And why I haven’t been assigned to an infirmary?” Marie had thought about that a lot during the almost sleepless night.

Both Zena and Nora looked at her surprised by her question, but Zena answered her. “She’s at the hospital, of course.” She paused for a moment. “And why should you be in an infirmary?”

“Because I’m training as a nurse.” The reality of her present position dawned on her and she amended, “Until two days ago, I was working with the doctor back at Redfarm.” Or was it three days? She wasn’t sure of how long had passed since the moment Callista had doomed her out there.

The nurse looked at her with suspicion. “Why didn’t you say anything earlier?” Marie didn’t have time to say anything back because Zena pointed a finger at her and asked, “Rane will validate your claim, right?”