Shades of Grey (15 page)

“What’s it like?” piped up the youngest of the group, a short girl with pigtails and a birthmark on her cheek.

“Well, y’know, kind of . . . rabbitlike.”

“Will you draw me a picture?”

“I could do you a shadow puppet.”

“Chairs, rabbits and scruples, eh?” cooed the tall one, taking a step closer and tugging at my tie in a playful manner. “That sounds like a
combustible
mix.”

She was being almost intolerably forward. The girls in Jade-under-Lime were all demure and polite, and I felt myself grow hot.

“Tommo is wholly mistaken,” I said, trying to sound sophisticated.

“Then you have
no
scruples?” asked the girl called Melanie in a low voice as she touched my cheek with the back of her hand. Her companions let loose a volley of sniggering. It was embarrassing, but not without a tinge of pleasure—Melanie’s touch was warm and almost tender. Constance had held my hand six and a half times, if you don’t count the tea dancing, but never once touched me on the cheek—unless you include the time she slapped me for suggesting that her mother “had politeness issues.”

“Yes,” I stammered, feeling awkward and seriously out of my depth, “that is to say—”

“Let us know when he makes up his mind as to whether he has scruples or not, Tommo,” sang Melanie as she stepped back, my humiliation complete, and they all dissolved into peals of laughter.

Although I felt hopelessly ill at ease, the girls’ free and easy laughter was one of the most wonderful sounds I had ever heard. But I was no longer of interest, and they all started to chatter again and moved off toward the Greyzone.

“If you want to meet any of those delightful ladies in private, I can arrange things for a five percent fixer’s fee,” said Tommo as we watched them walk off. “Do you want to see their
unofficial
feedback ratings?”

I stared at him, unsure of what to do or say. That an illicit market in youknow existed in Jade-under-Lime, despite Old Man Magenta’s watchful eye, I was pretty sure. In fact, it was entirely possible that everyone indulged quite happily. But I’d been unprepared for the fact that someone like Tommo—it would
have
to be someone like Tommo—would not only be able to arrange things but do it so openly, and seemingly without fear of punishment. It explained his cash merits, too.

“But
not
to a complementary color,” he added, in case I was a deviant or something. “I may live in a partial Rule vacuum, but even I have standards of decency. If you’re not up for a bit of youknow,” he continued, doubtless reading the look of shocked disapproval that had crossed my face, “they’re all game for a cheeky bundle or a lambada in private. But,” he added after a moment’s thought, “I can’t help you with Jane. And don’t even
think
of tall Melanie—she’s on a promise from Courtland.”

“Courtland doesn’t strike me as the sort of Yellow to do such a decent thing—bring a Grey up—what with Bunty McMustard waiting in the wings.”

Tommo laughed.

“He’s not going to actually go through with it, dummy. Courtland tells me Melanie will do anything for him.
Anything
. And it doesn’t cost him a bean. He knows Bunty will hang on for him indefinitely, so he’ll just dump Mel when the Council decides they need some more Yellows.”

“No!” I muttered.

“Daring, isn’t it?” Tommo agreed. “Thinking of trying it yourself?”

“Never! I mean, that’s the most dishonest and cruel thing anyone can do to someone, not to mention contravening at least eight Rules—including Fundamental Number One. What’s he going to say when this gets out?”

Tommo shrugged. “Deny it, I guess. Who are they going to believe? Melanie-Nobody-at-All or Alpha-Yellow-Prefect-in-Waiting Courtland ‘Big Banana’ Gamboge?”

“
I’ll
tell them.”

“You heard him promise her?”

“No—”

“Then wake up, pinhead. Forget fundamentals. Rule one as far as Courtland is concerned is Don’t get involved.
Courtland will one day be the Yellow prefect
. Just keep that in your mind and fix on it. It will make your life a lot easier, I can tell you. Now, can I fix you up with someone?”

“No, thanks.”

“If you change your—”

“I won’t. What would the prefects say if they knew you were brokering youknow?”

Tommo stared at me, oblivious to the implied threat. He leaned closer and whispered, “I simply bring the buyer to the market, and I have a broad client base. A
very
broad client base. Why do you think a loser like me is the junior Red monitor? You need to loosen up. If you can get the poker out of your hoo-ha, you’re going to enjoy it here.”

“But what about the Rules?”

He leaned closer and smiled. “You’re living in the Fringes now, Eddie. Out here, the Rulebook is printed on rubber paper. Will you excuse me until later? I have to fetch some sandwiches for Ulrika.”

“Ulrika?”

“Of the flak,” he replied, as though it were obvious.

I
t was half past five by then, and most Chromatics were either returning home, about to indulge in hobbies or just socializing. For the Greys, it was time to move on to their third job. I wouldn’t be able to try to quiz Jane any more until she came around to make supper, and I was still intrigued about her. But try as I might, I couldn’t help thinking about Jabez asking her for a date, and how painful it must be to lose an eyebrow.

Dad’s Colorium was two doors down from the town hall, sandwiched between the post office and the co-op. The bell tinkled as I opened the door. I found myself in a largish waiting room full of villagers who were either reading well-thumbed back issues of
Spectrum
or staring vacantly at the posters on the walls, which were mostly public information banners. One explained how malingering was a waste of one’s Civil Obligation, and was also village time theft. Another suggested that you wash your hands after touching something that Riffraff might have touched, and a third explained how premarital youknow might lead to a fall in personal standards that would lead ultimately to disharmony and, with continued persistence, Reboot.

My father’s consulting room was partitioned by frosted-glass panels, through which I could see the vague outlines of people moving. I waited until a patient walked out, and before Dad could call “Next!” I knocked on his door and entered.

The consulting room was pretty much the same as at Jade-under-Lime, only larger. There was a couch under a glazed ceiling, and to one side an X-ray machine, the swatch safe and several glass-fronted cupboards packed with bandages and a few instruments. I noticed that there was even an arc light, on a wheeled stand, that was plugged into the wall.

“What a relief!” he said as I entered. “It’s only you.”

He got up and walked across to the filing cabinet, placed a file back into its slot and then closed the drawer.

“I can give you five minutes,” he said, rummaging through a mountain of treatment-request forms that all needed his backdated signature. “Ochre has left the practice in an appalling state. I’ve got five women to time correctly for Chromovulation by the end of the month, the sniffles is definitely getting worse and get this: Ochre’s been stealing and selling the village’s swatches!”

“The village is buzzing with it,” I replied, giving the impression of a lad with his finger on the pulse. “How many have gone?”

He sat back in his swivel chair and shook his head sadly.

“I haven’t inventoried them all, but certainly five hundred or so, stolen over a period of several years—in clear contravention of about twenty-seven different Rules
and
the Chromaticologist’s oath!”

“Wow,” I exclaimed, overwhelmed by Ochre’s audacity. Adherence to the strict rule of Rule was maintained not just by the severity of the punishment, but by the certainty of being caught.

“We’ve still got a few hundred,” said Dad, walking across to the swatch safe and flicking through the six-inch-square envelopes that protected the hues, “but mostly the ones he couldn’t sell on the Beigemarket. The sort that deal with athlete’s foot, male-pattern baldness and excessive wrinkling of the scrotum.”

“It wasn’t a fatal self-misdiagnosis, was it?”

“I think not. DeMauve believes he’d been indulging in the palette rather heavily.
Beyond
lime—perhaps even beyond Lincoln.”

“You think he was Chasing the Frog?”

Dad shrugged. “I don’t know. If he
was
, then it’s little wonder the Council returned an accidental- death verdict at the inquest. They were doing Ochre’s family and the rest of the village a favor.”

It explained the “misdiagnosis.” “Chasing the Frog” was what hardened greeners did when their cortex was too burned for even Lincoln to have an effect. They would go into the Green Room and partake of the color painted within—the shade of green that you saw only once in your life, when it was time to go. The color painted within the Green Room was known as “sweetdream” and would render you unconscious in twelve minutes and dead in sixteen, but during those twelve minutes every synapse in your brain would fire in a sparkling fountain of pleasure. The cries from the Green Room were never of pain or fear. They were of ecstasy. Chasing the Frog was a dangerous game. Time it right and you were sitting on a cloud. Time it wrong and you’d be good only for the renderers.

“Falsifying a cause of death?” I muttered. “That’s got to be five thousand demerits there and then.”

Dad shrugged and I thought for a moment. “The Rules are pretty malleable out here, aren’t they?”

“In most places, Eddie, if you look—which I don’t recommend.”

“You’re right,” I said, thinking of Jane, and how I should really just drop the whole wrongspot issue.

“Ochre’s wife and daughter can’t be having a great time of it,” he added. “The Council exonerated them of all wrongdoing as regards the swatch theft, but even so—guilt by association and whatnot. Next!”

The door opened, and a Grey man walked in. He was a senior, and bent double by either toil in the fields or toil in the factory—toil, anyway. He had a runny nose and watery eyes. It didn’t take a six-year Chromaticologist’s training to see what the problem was.

“It’s the sniffles, Mr. G-67,” said Dad kindly. “There’s a lot of it about. Unfortunately, we have problems with the Long Swatch, so I don’t have anything I can show you for it—it’ll be a week’s bed rest.”

The Grey seemed very pleased with the outcome, and handed my father his merit book.

“Ah,” said Dad as he flicked through the pages of the man’s employment record and feedback score. “Tell me, Mr. G-67, have you been suffering from heavy legs recently?”

“No, sir.”

“I would strongly suggest that you have.”

“Yes, sir,” replied the Grey obediently. “Awful they’ve been these past few years. So heavy I sometimes can’t get out of bed.”

“Exactly as I thought,” replied my father. “I am giving you three weeks and four days’ additional bed rest. We’ll also remove this.”

Dad took the
MALINGERER
badge off the Grey’s lapel, doubtless placed there by Sally Gamboge.

The man’s worn features cracked into a smile. He thanked Dad profusely and tottered out of the room.

“Heavy legs?” I asked.

“He’s got less than half a percent of his Civil Obligation to complete before retirement,” murmured Dad, filling in a treatment form, “and he looks like he deserves to finish early.”

“That’s not really allowed, is it?”

Dad shrugged. “Not really. But the Greys have been worked half to death by the Gamboges, and if it’s in my power to afford them a break, I’ll do so.”

“Are you giving everyone with the sniffles time off work?”

“No. I’m going to get hold of some 196-34-44 tomorrow—it’ll have the outbreak cured in a twinkling.”

Dad explained that Robin Ochre had been the swatchman for
two
villages and kept a satellite Colorium equipped with a short swatch of about two hundred color-cards. It was in Rusty Hill.

“Next!”

A young Blue girl walked in, holding a bloodied towel to her hand. In the colorless village, the blood looked inordinately bright.

“Hello!” she said brightly. “I seem to have cut my finger off.”

“Actually, you’ve cut two off,” said Dad, examining the wound. “You should be more careful.”

But I wasn’t interested in the Blue’s propensity for clumsiness. I was thinking about Robin Ochre’s second practice. Rusty Hill was firmly etched in my mind, because it was where the Grey wrongspot had lived.

“You’re going to Rusty Hill?” I asked, intrigued by the sudden possibility that had just opened up.

“Yes,” he said, selecting some very fine thread and a needle.

“Wouldn’t Ochre have swiped the swatches from there, too?”

“DeMauve thinks not,” said Dad, placing the offset glasses on the Blue’s nose and showing her some 100-83-71 out of his traveling swatch case to slow the bleeding. “Ochre said Rusty Hill spooked him. In any event, Carlos Fandango is taking me over there early tomorrow morning. I’m going to have to sew these back on,” he remarked to the Blue, who was staring absently out the window.

“I don’t use the pinky,” she said, “and there are a lot of people waiting to see you.”

“They can wait.”

“Dad,” I said, “I’d like to go to Rusty Hill, too.”

“Out of the question,” he replied immediately. “The Council were reluctant to sign a travel order to even allow
me
over there. But they reasoned that if the workforce is laid up with the sniffles, the village will grind to a halt. Fandango is driving me, but he’s under strict instructions not to enter the village.”

“It’s only been four years since the Mildew swept through the village,” added the Blue girl, who had been listening to the conversation with interest. “By rights, no one should go there for at least another sixteen.”