Sondranos: The Narrative of Leon Bishop (14 page)

“
I’m going to
run into my bedroom and pick up a couple bags,” she started. Take a
look at these while I’m gone. You might get a kick out of
them.”

I stammered, about to ask why,
but she left before I could. I opened the first envelope, dated a
couple weeks prior.

Dear Annalise,

With your record, we would
appreciate that you do not attempt to interact with our children in
any way, shape or form. If you feel the need to lecture them about
your property, contact us first and we will deal with it
ourselves.

Your neighbours,

Chase and Ashleigh Tennant

I held back a nervous
laugh.

What had she done? I pictured
her in a bathrobe standing on the threshold of her garage with a
gun, yelling for the neighbouring kids to get off her lawn. I
rolled my eyes and looked at the second. A seal stamped in green
ink had faded to unrecognizability. As I read, the attempt at
looking not-as-serious as government letters was laughable.

Annalisa Davenport,

We, the Homeowners Association
of Covenant Street, would first like to thank you for your service
in last week’s picnic. We are sure everyone enjoyed listening to
you talk about your job and status as a citizen of Sondranos in a
different light. I personally enjoyed the strawberry rhubarb pie
you brought, and was disappointed to see that there was only
one.

This letter, however, is to
inform you – again – that the maintenance on your garage door is
lacking. Your neighbours can hear the squealing and scratching from
inside their own homes. As you might expect, this can be a problem
due to the ever increasingly pleasant weather we have been
experiencing this fall. While this may be a trivial concern, we
believe that it would be the first step in declining maintenance.
This letter is in no way a formal inquisition; however, I did feel
it my personal duty to contact you before it had to come to that. I
am certain you recall the incident of Miss Erikson three years ago.
There is no excuse. We appreciate your presence here. If you fail
to comply, we cannot allow your home to fall victim to lazy
maintenance.

If the situation is not
rectified within two weeks, the Association will be forced to fine
you 2500.00 for negligence, per the code of the Homeowners
Association, clause 18B.

Thank you,

Abilene Crawford

“
That one was
sent to me over a year ago. They never did get their money,”
Annalise said. She’d walked in carrying two large bags made from a
fabric I didn’t recognize. I laughed, but part of me felt sad to
see such a notion spelled out on paper. It was an obvious attempt
at trying to hurt her, and Abilene Crawford seemed to have written
it guilt free. I hoped I didn’t have to meet that woman. She
reminded me of Daniel’s mother.

“
Look at this
one,” Annalise said, pointing to a small notecard at the bottom of
the pile she’d given me. It had been mailed in an envelope twice
its size. “It’s my favourite.”

We don’t want convicts here.
Leave.

There was no signature with
that last one. Annalise knew who it belonged to all the same.
“Rachel Sell – the most bigoted, homophobic, racist woman I’ve ever
met. She’ll tell you anything to avoid confrontation and then do
anything to make sure you know what she really thinks. God, this
must be driving her crazy.” She leaned in to look at the note. “I
hope you never have to meet a woman like her.”

“
Why is
that?” I grinned.

“
Well, unless
you like hearing about Alpha Xi Delta and her frat boy exploits for
hours and never getting deeper in subject than how cold it is
outside, then go for it. But really, it took her months to discover
her cat had a penis. Still not as bad as the Fuson family
though.”

“
Why is that
important?”

“
She’s a
biology teacher at the local high school.” Annalise balanced on the
balls of her heels, as if touting some unknown victory. “She left
it thinking I wouldn’t know who it was. I watched her put it in the
mailbox. But that’s not the point. Rachel Sell might be a worthless
human being, but that’s because she has nothing to think with. No
redeeming qualities. Abilene had the courage to at least sign
hers.”

“
Who is she
again?”

Her face twisted into mock
horror and fear, “The head of the Homeowner’s Association.”

“
What did
they hope to accomplish with this?”

“
They don’t
want me here,” she said. “All registered criminals are supposed to
identify themselves within forty-eight hours of moving in. I had to
go door to door telling them what I’d done, and who I was.
Fortunately, I’d recorded it for the parole chip – so when some of
the neighbours tried to lie and say I’d never informed them, the
records were right there.”

“
Why didn’t
you move?”

“
And start it
all over again?” Annalise scoffed. “Why would I let someone else
dictate my own life? I’ve done that more than anyone ever should. I
don’t plan on doing it again.”

“
Were you
innocent?”

“
God,
no.”

“
I don’t
understand you, Lise,” I said.

“
Judgment. We
are bonded in pre-judgment, Leon. I could spot you a mile away,”
Annalise sighed. “People hear about Beaumaris and I get the
equivalent of a pink slip for life. People look at you and think
you’re meek and quiet. If I had to, I would guess you weren’t
exactly truthful about why you came. We’re better than that. We can
be better than that.”

“
Daniel would
say ‘we
have
to be
better than that.’”

“
Which is why
we have to stick together – just because I’ve been judged doesn’t
mean I don’t care about the same things you care about,” she said,
taking my hand. “And don’t think I didn’t hear you say the name
Daniel. I’ll want to know more about him later. But right
now…”

A loud clattering from the
garage made us turn our heads. Melanie’s voice could be heard
through the door – she yelled, “Stop telling me what I can’t and
can’t do, I’m not your daughter!” We listened for a moment, trying
to hear what was said afterwards, but all we could make out was
that she wasn’t angry – at least, not as passionately angry as
she’d been when I’d first seen her in the Abbey. Davion’s low voice
hummed below comprehension.

Annalise tossed the first bag
at me. “Go into the cupboard. Grab anything dry that won’t spoil if
it has to sit in a car for a while.”

“
What are you
getting?”

“
Dinner,” she
smiled, and turned to the island. She placed her hands on top of
the counter, her thumbs below the seam to where the marble met the
wooden frame. She pressed and the wooden frame hummed. A sudden
click and Annalise stepped back. The bottom opened up like a large
drawer. It pushed out of the island and once it extruded at least
two feet out, a second drawer a foot up followed suit. It only
expanded to a foot. Inside were various meats, cheeses, and maybe a
dozen drinks. The lights inside weren’t on, but the cold had still
remained. I could feel it bleed out into the room.

Annalise pulled out a large
chuck of something wrapped in clear, viscous sheeting. She shook it
a bit, and set it into the bag. Her hand hovered over the second
drawer before she picked out two more packets – these were no
larger than my fist – and tossed them in as well. After claiming a
couple bottles of water, she pushed the top drawer closed and,
before she returned to the bottom, caught me staring. She opened
her eyes wide and motioned her bag at me, and nudged towards the
cupboard. “It’s not like we have all day, Leon.”

Inside the cupboard, I found
what could only have been described as Annalise’s stash of sweets.
Everything was loaded with processed sweetener, as Sondranos didn’t
seem to have very much room in the way of sugarcane fields. Most of
the sugar on the colony came from the fruit industry. I pulled out
pack of chocolate and cream cookies, two boxes of lightly salted
crackers, a bag of half-eaten pretzels, and three small packets of
something I couldn’t recognize by the symbol on the front. Just
before I grabbed a tin of nuts, I stopped. Each item weighed down
my stomach as a sort of passive aggressive way of reminding myself
that I was incredibly hungry.

I tried to shake off the
feeling, and found it replaced by another concer - I couldn’t
resist it anymore, and casual information wasn’t cutting in.

Those three letters she’d had
me read vanished for only a second, but they came back with a kind
of power I hadn’t felt in a long time. I dropped the bag and walked
up to Annalise. I took her bag – politely, I’d like to think – and
set it on the ground.

She furrowed her brow and took
a deep breath. “It’s that time, isn’t it?”

“
How did you
know?”

“
Things have
been chugging along – we’re still alive, and right now we aren’t in
the best of situations. It would only make sense that now is the
time you ask me why I was incarcerated.”

“
It seems
like all the time is a bad time,” I said.

“
Unless
you’re drunk or high,” she smiled. “I told the neighbours I was in
for assault and battery. Which is true. That’s what they would have
seen if they looked me up. However, the truth remains that I was in
prison because I didn’t want to play in the traditional
rape-survivor story. I’m not that kind of woman.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
About three
days after my nineteenth birthday, I was walking home from a
friend’s house. I was alone, and the sun had just gone past the
crater. I assumed, since it wasn’t second sunset yet, that it would
be fine. Three guys came up behind me while I was passing through
the Meadows.”

“
Meadows? We
have something like that where I’m from,” I interrupted.

“
And do you
also have grass, and roads, and air? Do you want me to tell you
this or not?” She put her hand on her hip and feigned a placating,
patronizing expression – her eyes were wide and she puckered her
lips ever-so slightly. I could see she wanted to tell the story,
only she also wanted to seem like it was nothing. I nodded, and
motioned for her to continue. “Anyway, guy number one grabs at my
pants; I turn around and kick him in the crotch. Guys number two
and three grab my arms, so I pull loose and beat the shit out of
them. One already had his dick out. Just flapping there in the
wind. It was pretty obvious what they were trying to do – they were
also drunk enough to give me a contact buzz. One even yelled out
that I was asking for it and should just open my legs instead of
playing coy. That was the guy with the flopping thing going on. So,
I grabbed it, yanked – which, you have to admit is what he was
looking for – and continued to beat the tar out of the rest when
they tried attacking me. The whole thing was caught on security
camera.”

“
Then why did
you go to jail?”

“
Technicality. They never raped me. Their defense lawyers
played up that they were drunk hooligans, and that I was a danger
to society. Way the world works for women, who do you think got the
blame? Case should have been thrown out then and there. But you
know how I yanked on that guy’s dick? I kind of broke it. Doctors
said I severed the muscle mass. They would have let me get off – no
pun intended – if that hadn’t happened. As it stands, they
successfully claimed self-defence after that move. Judge gave me a
choice. Apologize and pay the medical bills for that potential
rapist, or go to jail for three counts of assault with bodily
injury.”

“
And you took
the jail time,” I concluded.

“
Damn
straight,” she said. “Nobody in their right mind asks to be raped,
and nobody in their right mind would ever assume that rape is
something you should just slag off.”

Annalise then picked up the bag
I’d taken from her hand and closed the bottom drawer of her
refrigerator. She smiled at me. Wetness circled around the corners
of her eyes, and she looked at me without a smile. “You know, I was
joking about this being an appropriate time. You’re actually the
only person to ask me what I did in a couple years. Nobody in this
neighbourhood even knows. I’m not ashamed for standing up for
myself – nobody should be that afraid of life. I just don’t much
care for people who judge before they know the whole story.”

“
You’d tell
them if they asked?”

“
The
stupidest people I’ve ever had the misfortune of knowing once
thought that my body had a way of shutting down rape, and they
tried to testify against me – even after they had all the evidence.
They’ve never been in that kind of situation, so their comments
were rightly ignored. But some people shouldn’t be allowed to talk
in public. So, yeah, I’d tell them if they asked - that doesn’t
mean they’re smart enough to get it.”

“
Never ignore
the uninformed, only ignore the ones who refuse to
learn.”

“
Damn
straight.”

The Belovores
advanced just after
four in the afternoon.
I couldn’t remember when I’d landed, and yet the day was already
starting to burn off. The horizon, where the clouds of Sondranos
didn’t yet reach, had been a sudden blue, charged with pencil-lines
of green on the distance. The neighbourhood – from an aerial view –
looked like the number eight splayed out on a digital interface.
The northernmost line – heading west – connected to a longer
highway strip with more gridlocked suburbs, strip malls, and
highway-signs leading towards Sondranos. Annalise’s home was on the
centre of the bottom line, and the Belovores had landed their pods
just outside the north-eastern segment. When they started their
advance, they went south, where eight homes lined the outside, and
two were laid within the centre of each block. There were five on
the lower end, Annalise’s included, and three on the
inside.