Blue (10 page)

The boys rattled off their names to her, and Anytha shook their hands through the fence.

“Ari, she’s pretty!” one of the little boys whispered to Ari, winking, purposefully loud enough to let Anytha hear him.

Ari looked over at Anytha and grinned.

“Yes, she certainly is,” Ari said, smiling at Anytha as her cheeks flushed, and then turning his attention back to the boys. “So, what’s new with you guys? Your hair is getting so long I think I might start calling you Rapunzel!” Ari said to the crowd of boys, who all started talking at once.

Anytha stood with her arms crossed, watching Ari talking and loving on this group of little boys, and she felt her heart breaking for these children. They seemed to be starving for attention, and they seemed to be in love with Ari, just from the time that he spent talking with them through this heavy metal fence. Her heart felt deeply for these kids.

“Look, Sarah, look at the pretty lady!” said the voice of a young girl from across the courtyard.

Two young girls ran up to the fence and grabbed onto it with both hands, gazing at Anytha with wide eyes.

“Well, hi there. What are your names? I’m Anytha.”

“I’m Sarah, and this is Dorothy,” the little girl said, reaching her hand through the fence to shake Anytha’s hand.

“It is nice to meet you,” Anytha said, shaking their small hands through the fence.

“Can I touch your hair? It is so pretty!” Sarah said sweetly. “I’ve never seen hair this long before.” 

“Sure, sweetie,” Anytha said flipping her hair over her shoulder to let her touch it.

The little girls wiped their hands hard on their clothes as if to clean them of all of their germs, and reached them through the fence to run their fingers through her thick, dark curls.

Anytha looked up at Ari with tears in her eyes. Ari smiled at her and blinked slowly, reassuring her that everything she was feeling, he had felt before.

C h a p t e r 
8

Tabitha was awakened again by the sound of thunder outside her window. She couldn’t remember a time in recent years where the sky was so loud and the ground was so drenched. She lay in bed for a while, watching the drops flow down the window beside her bed and listening to the rain on the metal roof of her dormitory.

After a moment, she reached her hand over her head to flip the pillow over, and saw that there were small spots of blood on the case where her hand had been resting during the night. She wrinkled her brow at the sight and lifted her hand into her line of vision, inspecting her fingers and noticing dark red lines under the edge of what was left of her fingernails. She shifted her legs under the sheets and noticed the irritated, hot flesh of her inner thigh. She had obviously been attempting to scratch all night in her sleep, with what little bit of success she could have with nails cut so close to the skin.

Tabitha pushed herself out of bed, resisting the urge to scratch the raw skin on her legs, and reached for a small tube of medicine that she kept on her dresser for days like today, when the razor burn became too much to handle on its own. She squeezed a generous amount into her hands and rubbed it on the raw patches, sighing at the cool relief it brought to the heat of the rash.

She made her way over to the sink in the bathroom and cleaned the streaks of blood off of her hands, cleaning the underside of her fingernails as well. The friction of her rubbing caused a few of the nails to start bleeding again, so she reached into the medicine cabinet to pull out some Band-Aids from the first aid kit to close the wounds, and pushed her nails down to heal with the skin underneath.

As she shut the medicine cabinet door, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror again, and was reminded by her reflection that she still had her hair. Though most girls would probably sneer at the appearance their hair took in the mornings, she found a grin coming across her face at its unkempt nature this morning—sticking out from the sides and reaching in every direction. She ran her head under the sink, letting her hair get soaked. She flung her head back and dried her hair with a towel. Running her fingers through it, she parted it down the side again, smoothing down the sides.

Patting her hair dry, she looked over at her dressing table and saw her identification card sitting alone on the tabletop.

She pulled on her clothes for the day, slid her identification card into her pocket, and walked out of her room to find Alyssa waiting for her in the hallway.

“Oh my gosh, they let you keep your hair too!” Alyssa said enthusiastically.

“Yeah. I don’t know why, but they did!” Tabitha replied, with a half-smile. “How was your first harvest at Humanity?”

“It went well! The razors that your nurses use are much nicer. I still had to rub ointment basically over my entire body last night, but all around it was much better than at my last compound. And I still can’t believe that I got to keep my hair! And they didn’t take my eyebrows either. Do they normally leave those?” Alyssa asked, rubbing her finger over her eyebrows.

“You know, they stopped taking my eyebrows a few months ago, and I guess I hadn’t thought twice about it. They used to take them, and our lashes, but it has been a while since they took those. I had almost forgotten how horrible that part was. Tiny scissors next to your eyes,” Tabitha said, lifting her shoulders and shivering with her whole body. She pushed open the door to the girls’ dorm and held it open for Alyssa to pass through. “Freaked me out every time. I always wondered why they needed to take those anyway. Such a trivial amount of hair.”

“Well, I guess I’m just trying to say—I am very happy with the experience yesterday. I have a feeling that I’m going to like it much better here,” Alyssa said, walking through the door.

The girls sat in the courtyard until the breakfast bell rang, and they made their way through the line. Marguerite was serving oatmeal speckled with raisins in Styrofoam bowls, and the girls collected their breakfast and slid their trays down the metal racks in front of the serving bar.

At the end of the bar, two nurses had been set up with large desks, topped with computers and rows of small plastic cups with numbers on them. As Tabitha and Alyssa approached the end of the bar, they were ushered by another nurse to the desks, trays in tow.

“Number?” the nurse squawked at Tabitha, obviously less than thrilled about the newest aspect of her job.

“Oh, um, let me get my card. I don’t believe I’ve memorized it quite yet,” Tabitha said as she reached into her pocket to pull out her number card and handed it to the nurse. The nurse flipped the card over and scanned a small barcode with what looked like a red laser gun. Tabitha looked at the screen and saw a large number “8” flash quickly across an open window on the monitor. The nurse reached over to grab a cup with the number “8” on it and placed it on Tabitha’s tray.

“Make sure you eat well this morning, and let us know if you have any adverse reactions to the vitamins,” the nurse told Tabitha as she nodded and left the desk to find a seat in the cafeteria.

Tabitha sat down and looked back to see Alyssa still shuffling to find her identification card in her pocket at the nurse’s desk. She looked down into the small, white cup to see three pills staring back at her—three bright blue capsules. She pushed the cup off to the side of her tray and began picking at her breakfast.

“Ugh, I am terrible at swallowing pills,” Alyssa said as she set her tray down beside Tabitha and took the seat next to her. She picked up her cup of vitamins and shook them around in the bottom of the cup, looking down at them before popping them into her mouth. She took a large gulp of orange juice, scrunching up her face as she swallowed them whole.

Near the food line, a tray hit the floor, and the girls turned around to see who had managed to drop their breakfast. Instead their eyes were met by the tails of a white coat as Dr. Hance turned around and began to approach their table.

“I heard you say you’re not great at taking pills. I hope they weren’t too bad,” Dr. Hance said, patting Alyssa on the shoulder. “What was your name again?”

“No, not too bad. I got them down,” Alyssa said, shrugging and giving him a smirk. “And I’m Alyssa.”

“It’s Tabitha, right?” Dr. Hance asked, pointing both hands at her.

“Yes. Good memory!” Tabitha said, quickly looking down at her plate.

“Don’t forget to take your vitamins this morning. You might get a stomachache if you don’t take them with food,” Dr. Hance said, looking her in the eye.

“Oh, I won’t,” Tabitha said as she looked up at him again. He was staring at her, seemingly waiting for her to take the pills right then. Tabitha could see that he probably wouldn’t leave until she had taken them, so she popped them into her mouth and took a sip of water to wash them down before she turned her eyes to meet his gaze for a moment.

Dr. Hance nodded and turned around, walking over to another table of girls.

The morning always passed quickly on Saturday. As the afternoon approached, there was a rare break in the clouds, and the sun began to peek through as patches of blue skies began to be seen. Tabitha and Alyssa spread out a blanket under a tree in the courtyard and chatted about missing the sunshine. It was the first time in weeks that the sun had shown, and some of the residents begged the staff to open the pool. The staff had been working for weeks to try to get the pool in swimming condition, but the torrential rains had made it difficult, and the temperature was still a bit too cold with the perpetual dark sky they had been experiencing. Tabitha lay back on the blanket and placed her hands behind her head, as the intercom let out a loud beep.

“To celebrate the break in the clouds and a successful harvest day yesterday, at the request of many of our residents, we have decided to open the compound pool at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon,” said a voice over the intercom, as applause erupted across the courtyard.

“Yes! You wanna go?” Alyssa asked, grinning widely at Tabitha.

“Sure. Should be fun,” Tabitha answered, closing her eyes.

Tabitha did enjoy the pool, but a day at the pool for a person with albinism looked much different than what it would for people without it. She had seen pictures in magazines of women lying out on the beach in their bikinis, soaking up the sun, or working on their tan by the pool. It all seemed so surreal, because spending even a few moments in the sun could mean days in pain for her and most of the other residents.

Tabitha and Alyssa lay under the tree until it was almost time for the pool to open. Then they headed back to their rooms to change into their swimsuits, so they could go enjoy the sun before the rains started again.

Tabitha reached into the bottom drawer of her dresser and pulled out a red, one-piece, polka-dotted bathing suit. She slipped out of her clothes and pulled it on, grabbing her beach towel from the linen closet. She walked over to her dressing table, rustled through the top drawer, and pulled out a large tube of sunscreen. Squirting some into her palm, she began rubbing it on all the exposed parts of her body.

As she slathered the white lotion on her shoulders, her fingers found the sharpness of her collarbone. The bones in her body just seemed to stick out too far in every direction. She stood inspecting her body carefully in the mirror as she coated her arms, unable to avoid thinking that the bathing suit did nothing to hide the fact that her chest was completely flat. Gazing at her tiny, child-like frame, she couldn’t help but wonder if her body would ever match the maturity she felt in her mind.

Alyssa knocked on Tabitha’s door as she was wrapping her yellow beach towel around her body, and the girls began to walk to the pool together.

Every walkway around campus was covered with metal awnings to protect the residents from sun exposure, and the concrete area around the pool was no different. The pool was surrounded by concrete, and metal awnings encircled the entire perimeter. Only the area right over the pool, and about a foot of space on each side, was uncovered to the sunlight.

By the time they reached the poolside, it was already full to capacity. The rains had really put a damper on summer activities for the children this year, and it was evident by the noise level at the pool. Children were running around on wet concrete and jumping into the deep end as whistles rang out from the lifeguard stands in protest of their actions.

Tabitha unwrapped her beach towel, placed it on a metal chair, and headed for the water. One of the teachers approached her to let her know that the pool was full, but rotation would happen soon so that the children in the pool could get a break from the sun. Residents with albinism were only allowed to be in direct sunlight for thirty minutes at a time, with thirty minute breaks in between to re-apply sunscreen and allow the other children to have a chance to swim. Tabitha went back to her chair and waited under the shade of the metal awning.

The whistle blew to let the children know it was time to switch, and Tabitha and Alyssa walked down the steps slowly into the shallow end of the pool, walking deep enough to hang their feet while holding themselves up by their upper arms on the side of the pool. The water was cold and smelled strongly of chemicals and rainwater. They held on to the side of the pool, kicking their legs behind them.

“I never got to ask you how your visit with your mom went,” Tabitha said. “How was it?”

“It was great. It’s always exciting to see her.” Alyssa said. “She was concerned for me, though, being in a new place. Wanted to make sure I had made friends, and all. I told her about you, and she was relieved. She said that she had heard about changes to the harvest laws and asked if we had noticed a change. I guess I’ll have to tell her about the vitamins next month.”

The girls spent the rest of the afternoon rotating in and out of the pool, coating themselves with more sunscreen than anyone would think necessary for one human being. As the sun was beginning to set, dark clouds began to roll in, and thunder could be heard in the distance. Just as the staff members closed the pool and the residents began to file back to their rooms for the evening, the raindrops began to fall. Tabitha reached for the knob of her door, but turned back and looked over her shoulder into the courtyard. The rains had begun to pour again and lightning lit the prematurely dark sky. Tonight, she would turn in early, to be ready to wake up before dawn and meet Marguerite at the dam.