Blue (9 page)

“Hi, Tabitha. I’m Dr. Hance,” the man said with a smile.

Tabitha looked at him and nodded.

“I just wanted to stop in  and talk to all the residents before they leave today and let you know that you will be using your new number, the one on that card, to receive a cup of vitamins every morning with your breakfast. If you experience any weird side effects, please let a nurse know as soon as possible. They will help us get a better harvest from each of you, but they are perfectly safe, and very good for you. You will just need to give your number to the nurse every morning with your breakfast, and she will be sure that you are getting the correct dosage for your age, gender, height and weight. Do you understand?” Dr. Hance asked.

“Sure,” Tabitha replied. “I understand.”

“One more question, Tabitha, have you started your monthly cycle yet?” Dr. Hance asked frankly.

“No,” Tabitha replied, shaking her head.

“Okay, well please let us know when you do. We might need to change your vitamins at that point,” Dr. Hance stated.

Tabitha nodded her head.

“Betsy, how are we coming along here? We almost done with this poor girl for the month?” Dr. Hance asked after an awkward silence.

“Well, we’re close, but we obviously haven’t done her head yet,” Betsy replied.

Dr. Hance turned to Tabitha and slowly ran his fingers through her hair. He let his hand fall back to his side as he turned the knob on the door to leave, and looked at Betsy.

“Leave it,” he said, winking at Tabitha with a half-smile, and letting the door close behind him.

C h a p t e r 
7

Anytha pulled a sharp knife out of the drawer in her kitchen. She had been waiting all month for this letter from Pretoria University, and it had finally arrived. Her hands shook as she ripped it open, slicing the edge cleanly with the knife.

“Congratulations!” Anytha read out loud as she jumped up and down with joy. She didn’t feel the need to read any further. She had made it in.

“Honey, what’s happening?” Delah shouted from the living room.

“I got in!” Anytha said, handing the letter to her mother, who smiled widely as she took the letter from her hand.

Chester reached over and took the letter from Delah’s hand and studied it, as Delah got up from the couch to congratulate her daughter and hug her tightly.

“Looks like you also got that scholarship, sweetie. Did you even read the rest of the letter?” Chester asked. “Congratulations, honey.”

“What? No, I basically stopped reading at ‘congratulations’! This is amazing. I’m so excited!” Anytha said, grabbing the letter from her father’s hand to read the rest that she had skipped over.

“You’ve worked hard for this. We’re so proud of you, honey,” Delah said to her, wrapping her arm around her shoulders.

“We’ll have to tell Inali to announce it at your activation party next week! Even more for us to celebrate!” Chester said. “I can’t believe my baby is an activee. You have grown up so fast!”

“Aw, Dad, don’t make me all emotional. It will make it even harder to go shopping for stuff for my new dorm,” Anytha said, looking at her mom. She dipped at her knees and with an inquiring grin on her face asked, “Maybe I can go today and get started?”

“I know you’re excited, but right now we are focused on your activation party. We still have to hire the DJ and your father hasn’t even bought a suit yet. And the bar is going to be so pricey now that Inali will be there. Let’s wait on going dorm shopping for a few more weeks, after the party. That way we can see how much we can afford,” Delah said.

Anytha looked blankly at her parents, then turned and went into the kitchen to grab a soda from the refrigerator. If only she could tell them how unimportant the activation party was to her. But she couldn’t without breaking their hearts.

She walked back into the living room and sat down across from them on the window seat, looking out over their front yard.

“I know that you have your heart set on Pretoria, but have you ever thought about living at home? The commute wouldn’t be bad, and it would save us so much money,” Chester said to her.

“I’ll think about it,” Anytha said, getting up and giving her father a weak smile, then running upstairs to change clothes. “I’m going to run down to the coffee shop for a while.”

“Of course, honey. Go out and celebrate,” Delah said.

Anytha picked up her acceptance letter off the table, walked out to the garage, and pulled out her bike. She sighed as she hopped onto the seat, thinking only about how little her parents really cared about her thoughts and feelings. She rode down the street and pulled her bike up to the rack in front of the coffee shop.

She went inside and approached the counter. Looking around the tables she saw Ari sitting in her favorite corner.

To say that she wasn’t secretly hoping that Ari would be there would be a stretch. She had enjoyed talking with him, and now that her exams were over and she actually had some time on her hands, she thought about how nice it would be to see him again. She ordered a drink, and walked in his direction. She couldn’t help wondering if he had sat in her corner for a reason.

“You took my spot,” Anytha said, pulling up a chair to the table next to the leather chair Ari was sitting in.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware that you had staked claim to it at all times. I apologize,” Ari replied sarcastically.

“No, it’s okay. But don’t let it happen again,” Anytha said, setting her coffee down on the table. “How’s the catering business?”

“Um, it’s pretty good right now, actually. I’m kinda ready to be done for the summer though,” Ari said. “How’s high school?”

“Oh, when you say it like that it makes it sound like you didn’t just graduate from high school yourself. But it’s good. Almost over, thank God,” Anytha said, pulling her letter out of her back pocket. “But, I actually might officially be considered a college student now. I got my acceptance letter to Pretoria today,” Anytha said, waving the envelope in the air.

“Well, congratulations! Big day for you!” Ari said.

“Yeah, I’m pretty excited about it. When are you going to be headed back to school?” Anytha asked.

“Two and a half weeks,” Ari replied.

Anytha took a sip of her coffee, nodding her head.

“So, what kind of visual arts do you do?” Ari asked.

“Oh, I draw, mostly,” Anytha replied. “I don’t know if I will actually be majoring in art, though. I’ll probably start off in basic studies and figure it out later. What made you want to get into social work?”

“I volunteer with a few different organizations around town, mostly with children. And I just felt like it sounded like something I could want to do with the rest of my life,” Ari said.

“Wow,” Anytha said, officially impressed. “Where do you volunteer?”

Ari shifted in his chair and set the newspaper that was in his lap down on the table.

“Well, I’m actually headed out to one of the places that I volunteer this afternoon. Do you have plans this afternoon? I hope this isn’t too direct, but would you want to join me?” Ari asked, looking up at Anytha hopefully.

“Um, actually, yeah. I think I would really like that,” Anytha replied, smiling at him.

“Yeah? Great,” Ari said, hopping up from his chair. “You wanna follow me there?”

“Sure. Wait. Now?” Anytha asked.

“Why not?” Ari said, throwing his paper coffee cup away in a nearby trashcan and walking toward the door.

“Wait. How far is it? I rode my bike here,” Anytha said, taking her cup and following Ari out the door.

“Oh. I forgot you don’t have your driver’s license yet because you’re so much younger than me. It’s too far for a bike,” Ari said, turning around and pausing. “Would you be okay riding with me?”

“Sure. Why not?” Anytha asked, following close behind him. Ari walked up beside the passenger side of a black sedan, unlocked, and opened the door for her. Anytha smiled at him and ducked inside the car as he gently closed it behind her. She pulled down the sun visor and checked her hair in the mirror as Ari walked around the car and got into the driver’s seat, making sure to close the visor before he saw her looking in the mirror.

They talked casually as they drove outside of the city, into the suburbs of Pretoria, and eventually into a more rural part of town where she had never been before. They pulled onto a two-way street that lead out into a dry, desert-like area outside of town, full of dry-looking plants and brambles. Ari turned onto a limestone driveway off of the main road that seemed to lead to nothing. As he turned onto the road, he looked over at her, and she met his gaze.

“Where the heck are you taking me?” Anytha asked, laughing.

Ari just shook his head. They traveled on the driveway for about a mile, which took them over a large hill. On the other side of the hill, Anytha saw a huge concrete wall with barbed wire wrapped around the top. As they approached what looked like a fortress, she saw a sign that said “Safety House of Pretoria.”

Ari pulled into a dirt patch that looked like a parking spot, and got out of the car, pulling the lever to pop open his trunk. He got out of the car, and walked around to the other side to open Anytha’s door for her.

“I didn’t know that they took volunteers at the compounds,” Anytha said.

“They don’t just take anyone. I’ve been bringing donations from my church up here every week since we moved here, and I think that they are starting to know who I am. I used to go and play with the kids at the compound near our old house in Johannesburg all the time, but here it’s kinda hard to get in to be with the kids at all. I’m hoping that if I just keep showing up, eventually they’ll let me in to spend some time with the kids. Many of them don’t get many visitors. Breaks my heart. Have you ever been inside one?” Ari asked, opening up the trunk of his car.

“No, I honestly haven’t. They show shots of them in movies at school sometimes, and I’ve learned about them in history class, but I’ve never actually seen one in person before. Are we actually able to go inside?” Anytha asked.

“Actually, today we can. It’s visitation day, which means that they’ll let us go up to the  metal fence that looks into their courtyard. I’ve become friends with a couple of kids through that fence in the past few months. I’m just going to drop off these boxes of clothes, and then we can go in,” Ari replied.

Anytha prepared herself for something that she had never thought she would be able to do. She had always felt a pain in her stomach when she watched the videos in class of the poor children, most of them maimed or disfigured, who were subjected to live in the humane harvest compounds. It was always so hard for her to understand why the government mandated and funded these places, seemingly exploiting their own residents for their bodies. She understood that they were intended to protect these children from the horrible world around them, but she still felt that by creating these places, the government was simply justifying the horrifying acts of the black market harvesters, and making money off of promising safety to a group of people that couldn’t do it themselves.

Ari pulled a large cardboard box out of his truck and handed it to Anytha.

“Can you carry this one in for me?” Ari asked.

Anytha nodded, and Ari set it in her open arms.

Ari picked up another large cardboard box full of clothing out of the trunk and guided Anytha up with him to the compound. At the entrance to the wall was a guard with a large machine gun strapped to his back inside a glass booth next to a large metal gate. The glass of the booth was thick, and Anytha imagined that it must be bullet proof. At the bottom of the glass was a round metal plate with tiny holes in it, like a speaker, for the guard to speak through. Below the glass was a small gap that looked like it was where documents could be passed back and forth.

“Hi, Ari Elizer. Here to drop off a couple of donations and go in for visitation day,” Ari said to the guard, pulling his driver’s license out of his wallet and sliding it under the glass to the guard.

The guard took the ID and ran it through a scanner on the desk next to him, and handed it back to Ari.

“Have you been here before, ma’am?” the guard asked Anytha.

“No, sir,” Anytha replied.

“Okay, I’ll need to see a picture ID, and I’ll have to give you a visitor’s pass,” Anytha pulled her wallet out of her purse, pulled out her ID and handed it to the man, who ran it through the same scanner, and gave her a sticker to place on her shirt that read “visitor.”

“Thanks. I’ll need you to drop off the boxes right inside the second gate so we can run it through the scanners. We’ll get it to the donation center for you,” the guard said. “Go ahead and step in front of the first gate.”

Anytha and Ari stepped in front of the large metal gate, and it opened with a loud hum.

“Step through the first gate,” the guard said.

They stepped through the first gate and were greeted by another large metal gate, as the first gate locked behind them.

“Security is intense here,” Anytha said.

“Yeah, they don’t play around,” Ari said, chuckling.

The second gate opened, they walked through, and Ari set his box on a conveyor belt that took it into the wall. He instructed Anytha to do the same. In front of them was another large metal gate that opened as soon as the second gate locked behind them.

Ari started walking and gestured for Anytha to follow behind him. They walked past a large cinderblock building and went around the corner, down a long outdoor hallway with concrete on both sides and a metal awning over their heads. The sounds of children playing could be heard over the top of the concrete wall. At the end of the hallway was an opening in the concrete filled with a large metal fence that let them see out into the courtyard of the compound.

Anytha wrapped her fingers around the bars of the fence and stared out over the courtyard to see children everywhere. She felt her breath catch in her chest as she watched them playing together, seemingly happy and content with their lives, despite their abnormalities, and their confinement behind these thick walls. She and Ari stood there in silence together for a moment overlooking the courtyard. Anytha watched two young boys with white bald heads, both missing an arm, kicking a soccer ball together; she saw two young girls, no older than six, playing with a tea set under a large tree—one had an eye patch on one eye, and the other had dark skin covered in white patches.

“You okay?” Ari asked her.

“Yeah. It’s just a little overwhelming when you see it in person for the first time,” Anytha said.

“I know. It was hard for me to see the first time. But it helps to know that those terrible people won’t be able to hurt them again. They’re people, just like you and me. Some of them just have a terrible past. Once you talk with them you’ll see right past their afflictions,” Ari said.

“Look, guys, Ari’s here!” said a young boy from across the courtyard.

A group of about a dozen young boys dropped what they were doing and ran over to the fence in a stampede. Ari stuck his hand in through the gate, and the boys one by one gave him high-fives..

“What’s up, guys! Good to see you!” Ari said, slapping a couple of young boys on the shoulder and squeezing their arms.

“Aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend?” one of the smaller boys asked.

“Of course. Guys, this is my friend, Anytha. Anytha, these are the guys. Tell her your names,” Ari said.