Blue (8 page)

C h a p t e r 
6

Tabitha woke up to the sound of thunder as the sun was just starting to lighten the gray of the sky. The rain hadn’t stopped in days, and the sky hadn’t seen the sun in weeks. Tabitha walked into the bathroom she shared with the four other girls in her section and flipped on the yellow fluorescent lights above the mirror of the bathroom sink, catching a glimpse of herself as her eyes adjusted to the light.

She hadn’t realized that she had fallen asleep with her wrap on her head. She reached up to untie the knot below her ear and slowly unwrapped the fabric exposing her matted, white hair. She turned on the water to the shower and undressed, pulling back the curtain to test out the temperature before stepping in. She noticed that one of the girls had left a small bottle of soap in the corner of the tub that she had never seen before, and she picked it up to smell its contents.

The side of the bottle read “volumizing shampoo,” and Tabitha couldn’t help but smirk, remembering the time that a truck dropped off a huge donation of shampoo at the compound. Even though the man delivering it meant no harm, Marguerite was furious as they unloaded it onto the donation docks.

“Oh, sure, let’s give the poor, little bald kids shampoo! I’m sure that is what they’re really needing,” Marguerite had snarked during their Sunday morning talk that week. Tabitha had attempted to calm her down, while not being able to contain her laughter at the irony of the situation.

Tabitha ran her head under the warm water, washing away the memories, and looking down at the bottle in her hand. Today would be her last day with hair, and though she didn’t want to get too attached to the feeling of running her fingers through it, she knew that this might be the only time that she would be able to use shampoo for a while. She squeezed some of the goop into her hands, rubbed them together, and lathered it through her hair. The smell of lavender and mint filled the shower as she felt the thick layer of bubbles forming on her head. She stood there rubbing her head for a while, unsure of the amount of time she was supposed to leave it in, and then carefully rinsed it out, watching the stream of bubbles flow down the drain.

She stepped out of the shower onto the cold, tile floor, and grabbed a towel to dry off, wrapping it around her body. She wrapped another towel around her head, as she had seen women do in spa ads in magazines, and went back to her room to finish getting ready. She sat down at her dressing table, pulled out a tube of medicated lotion from her drawer and began rubbing it all over her body. She had found that the harvest razor didn’t sting as badly if her skin was well moisturized.

She pulled on her clothes for the day—a pair of shorts and some plastic sandals with a long t-shirt. She stroked the hair on her legs that had grown pretty long since the last harvest and was almost thankful that they would be shaving it off today. She looked at herself in the mirror, put on some mascara and blush, and ran her fingers through her hair a few more times to help it finish drying before reaching for her head wrap. Her hand felt the fabric, and she looked up again into the mirror, letting out a sigh. After a moment, she reached up to smooth down the sides of her hair, and formed a part down the side of her head, pushing the hair down on both sides and smoothing it out as much as possible. Inspecting herself in the mirror one last time, she opened the door to walk to the courtyard, leaving her head wrap on her bed.

She sat again on the bench next to the main building and kicked her feet as she listened to the rain pouring on the awnings overhead, feeling a gentle mist on the backs of her feet behind the bench. The sun had risen, but was still being very shy, casting little light on the courtyard.

“Whoa! How did you ever get them to let you grow your hair so long? Please tell me that it doesn’t grow that much every month!” Alyssa asked, sitting down beside her and reaching out to touch Tabitha’s hair.

“No, no, no—I’m not that lucky. For some reason they’ve let a few of the older girls grow theirs out for the last few months. I think it’s because it’s worth more now if it is a few inches long,” Tabitha replied. “I’m pretty certain that it will be getting shaved today, though, so I figured, why not display it in all of its glory!”

“Well, it is really beautiful! And so soft! They never let anyone keep their hair at the harvest at my last compound. I so hope they let me do this! I would love to see what it looks like when it gets a little longer!” Alyssa said hopefully.

“They might. But don’t get too attached. I think I might actually be sad to see it go today,” Tabitha said, reaching up and touching the front of her hair. “But such is life, right?”

Alyssa had obviously started a tradition of meeting up with Tabitha in the courtyard before breakfast, and Tabitha was happy with it. Tabitha was happy to have made a new friend, especially someone her own age. Everyone on the compound loved Tabitha, but many of the other residents thought her a little quiet, and not many pursued a close friendship with her because of this notion. Alyssa was a good match for Tabitha, and both girls were very happy in their newfound friendship. Tabitha had been tempted on multiple occasions to tell Alyssa about things that she and Marguerite had spoken about, but she had refrained, knowing that Alyssa would wonder how she had heard the things that she was being told. Tabitha wondered if she would ever tell Alyssa about her relationship with Marguerite, but she knew that if she told her about their weekly outings, Alyssa might want to join them, and Tabitha couldn’t risk having another set of footprints in the sand leading out to the dam.

The breakfast bell rang and the residents started stumbling out of their rooms into the courtyard. Everyone seemed to move a little slower on harvest day.

Tabitha and Alyssa made their way through the breakfast line where Marguerite was serving oatmeal and sausage links, smiling as the residents came past her station. Marguerite noticed Tabitha’s lack of head-covering as she approached her, and Marguerite made sure to give her a noticeable disapproving look with a half-smile as she came by. Tabitha just smiled back at her.

“Who is the lady who was serving the oatmeal, and why did she give you that look?” Alyssa asked Tabitha as she slid her tray onto the table and sat down.

“That’s Marguerite. She used to be a resident here up until a couple of years ago when she was given a job on campus as a cook. We used to be good friends back in the day,” Tabitha replied. “And as for the look, I’m guessing she doesn’t approve of my lack of head-scarf today.”

The girls finished eating and the bell rang, signaling the end of the breakfast period. Over the intercom came the voice of the headmaster addressing the residents as they began to shuffle.

“We will begin today with grades eleven and twelve. All grade eleven and twelve residents please report to the harvesting hall at the tone of the first school bell of the day. At the tone of the next bell, all grade nine and ten residents please report to the harvesting hall. Thank you,” came from the intercom system, ending in an ear-piercing screech.

“So, exactly how does it work here? Harvest, I mean. I just want to be prepared,” Alyssa said as she and Tabitha walked to their first class together.

“Well, the bell will ring, we’ll get lined up, and the nurses will come and bring us into the harvest room. They usually just shave our entire bodies down bald, clip our nails to the quick, and scrape our feet with what I call the ‘cheese grater.’ If you make it out without bleeding, it was a successful harvest!” Tabitha said nonchalantly, smiling sarcastically.

“Yeah, sounds about like what I’m used to. I’m hoping there are no surprises,” Alyssa said as they sat down in their seats in their first period class.

As the students came in, many of the kids were staring at Tabitha, and telling her how different she looked without her headscarf on. Even some of the girls that had been allowed to grow their own hair out over the last few months were running over to her desk to inspect her head of hair, seemingly longer than any hair that they had ever been allowed to see before in their lives outside of movies and magazines.

“Isn’t it a shame that it has to go today?” one of the girls asked Tabitha, taking off her headscarf to reveal her thin layer of hair, and rubbing her fingers through it. “I’ve become sort of attached to it, honestly.”

“I totally understand. I have, too,” Tabitha replied. “It will be hard to see it go.”

A few of the boys in the class couldn’t help but stare at Tabitha. She was already beautiful, but somehow today with her hair proudly on display, uncovered for the world to see, she exuded a bit of a rebellious confidence that made her even more attractive to them.

Class was wrapping up, and the bell rang. Tabitha looked at Alyssa and curled the corner of her lip upward showing distaste for what they were now going to have to do. Alyssa grabbed Tabitha’s arm, and they walked out of the classroom together and headed to the harvesting hall.

A small line had already formed outside of the hall, and Tabitha and Alyssa filed into it. A nurse at the front of the line opened the door to usher in one of the residents from the front of the line into the harvesting room, and an unfamiliar man’s voice could be heard on the inside.

“Who is that?” Tabitha whispered under her breath, trying to look through the curtains to see to whom the voice belonged.

The nurses kept coming out one-by-one, taking the residents out of the hall. Alyssa and Tabitha approached the door, and as they got closer, they could hear the man’s voice a little clearer. Tabitha was certain that something about harvest today was different than normal. Through the window of the door she saw a young man in a white coat leaning against the wall, pointing toward different rooms off of the main harvest room and delegating where every resident was to be sent.

One of the nurses came out and gently took Tabitha’s arm, ushering her into the main harvest room, where another small line had formed in front of a nurse seated at a table. The room had white cinderblock walls with royal blue paint on the moldings and doorframes. Off of the main room were small “patient” rooms with wooden doors, similar to those you would see at a doctor’s office, where nurses took the residents for harvest. Tabitha looked back toward the door to see a nurse ushering Alyssa into the room, and into line behind her.

“Name?” the nurse at the table asked the boy at the front of the line.

“Howie,” the boy replied.

Tabitha saw the woman flipping through a large stack of papers on the desk, running her finger along the writing. She then checked off a box on the paper with her pen and shuffled through a box of plastic cards on the chair beside her.

“Either memorize that number or have this card on you at all times from now on,” she said to Howie, handing him the plastic card.

Alyssa looked over and caught Tabitha’s gaze, pulling her eyebrows down as if to ask, “What is this all about?”

Tabitha shrugged her shoulders and raised her eyebrows to show her confusion as well.

A nurse stepped out of one of the patient rooms, grabbed Howie by the arm, and took him into the room. Tabitha couldn’t help looking at the man leaning against the wall and wonder who he was. He was a young man, relatively thin, with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. Though his face was covered in dark stubble, Tabitha couldn’t help but think that it was intentional, and quite attractive. He wore khaki pants and a light-blue, button-down shirt under his knee-length crisp white coat. He leaned against the wall, seeming to inspect everyone as they came into the room.

“Name?” the nurse squawked at Tabitha, who wasn’t exactly paying attention to the fact that she was now at the front of the line.

“Oh, sorry. Tabitha,” she replied, looking over at the man against the wall, who was now looking right at her.

The nurse filed through the papers and the plastic cards beside her, pulling one out with Tabitha’s name on it.

“Memorize that number or have the card on you at all times from now on,” said the nurse.

“Yes, ma’am,” Tabitha replied.

Another nurse came and escorted her into one of the patient rooms, guiding her by the arm.

The nurse pushed a small scale into the middle of the floor and told Tabitha to step on it. It read 52 kilograms. Tabitha had never been weighed before, but made sure to remember what it said, because she had always been curious as to how much she weighed.

The nurse then had Tabitha stand against the wall, and she measured her height. “You’re 173 centimeters and only 52 kilos. You are a skinny little thing, aren’t you?” the nurse remarked. “Okay, now that’s done. You know the drill. Strip down and put on this gown. Your harvest nurse will be here in a moment.”

Tabitha pulled off her clothes, put the gown on, and sat down on the table. She sat there inspecting the plastic card that she had been given, and began trying to memorize the number, 89734567, repeating it over and over again.

The door opened and Tabitha was pleased to see Nurse Betsy coming in with her harvest kit. Betsy was known for being the most gentle of all of the nurses.

“Well hello there. Are you ready to get started today?” Betsy asked.

“As ready as I’m going to be, I guess,” Tabitha replied.

Betsy pulled out her nail clippers and got to work on Tabitha’s hands and feet, being careful to collect every piece and place it in a clear plastic specimen cup.

“Betsy, do you mind me asking what is going on with these number cards?” Tabitha asked her as she snipped her toenails.

“Well, the number cards are for your identification. Since nobody goes by their last names in the compound, they just wanted a way to be able to identify everyone, especially with so many new residents filing in from other compounds,” Betsy replied, grabbing Tabitha’s right hand. “You definitely need to memorize that number, because it is going to be an important part of your everyday life pretty soon.”

“Do you know why they took my height and weight today? They’ve never done that before,” Tabitha said.

“Well, I don’t know how much you have heard, but the harvest laws have been slightly modified, and the compounds are about to start implementing the new limits. I don’t exactly know what that means, but all I know is that we have to record everyone’s height and weight today in order for us to implement the new modifications,” Betsy replied.

Betsy finished clipping Tabitha’s nails, pulled the “cheese grater” out of her bag, and scraped all the dead skin off of Tabitha’s feet onto a tray on her lap. She then collected all the pieces, and placed them in another specimen cup.

“Can we do the uncomfortable parts first and get them over with?” Tabitha asked as Betsy pulled out the electric razor from her bag.

“Of course. Lie on your back. I’ll be gentle, I swear,” Betsy replied, pulling up the bottom of Tabitha’s gown.

Tabitha lay still as Betsy took the hair off of her entire body with the different razors designed for different body parts. The razors had been specially designed for harvest. After the skin was shaved, a small vacuum would pull all of the hair into a collection bin on the lower part of the razor, so that they wouldn’t lose one follicle. The razors were supposed to be the gentlest dry form of removing hair without skin irritation, but shaving skin without moisture is never exactly gentle.

“Okay, can you flip over for me?” Betsy asked.

Tabitha flipped over onto her stomach, and Betsy finished up the backs of her legs and arms.

“Well, your body is done. You can sit up now,” Betsy said.

As Tabitha turned to sit up, the door of the room suddenly opened. Tabitha turned her head to see who had entered as her open-backed gown uncovered her backside; she pulled it back quickly to cover herself. In walked the young man in the lab coat.