United, page 6
part #4 of Protectorate Series
“Do you think when all is said and done you’ll end up here?” I asked Jessica as we sat on our beds facing each other.
We were the only two left in the room. Soon we would be joining Jake and a few others who were invited to the Perkins home for a big welcome dinner. For the moment I was enjoying just the two of us, without the eyesore of Jake and the anger that seemed to brew within me every time I heard him speak.
“I don’t know, probably,” Jessica said with a noncommittal shrug.
“I just mean, you and Greg seem like good friends, and you know a lot of other people here,” I added, remembering Greg and Jessica’s good long talk comparing notes on who knew who during the tour. “Maybe even your mom might come here someday, you know, when we are all united again.”
“Well, if that actually happens, you mean,” Jessica corrected.
“You don’t think it will?”
She shrugged again before propping her pillow up and relaxing back on to it. Without realizing it, she started to twist a dirty blonde hair between her fingers.
“I hope it does. I don’t know though. I guess I am the kind of person who plans for the worst and hopes for the best. I don’t know what that is called.”
“Pessimistic?” I interjected helpfully.
“Yeah, I guess,” she said with a little smile. She crossed her booted feet at the other end of the bed. “Even if we always stay separate. If the Protectorate has their Communities and we have our places here in the outskirts, it’s still a win. That means no more people slowly dying with storms and Defectives always at their heels. But President Reynolds will never let it happen. It’s all about keeping control of the resources for the Protectorate,” she added with determination and malice.
“I agree, but I don’t think Ursula would be willing to accept a separate but equal mentality either. I think for Ursula and Reynolds it’s all or nothing.”
“You think?” Jessica asked, letting her hair fall from her twirling finger and catching me with her brown eyes. For the most part, Jessica was carefree and fun-loving. She may have been a realist, but she was also one to have a smile always on to brighten the room and a good bit of gossip to pass along.
I shrugged my shoulders while she seemed to mull over the notion in her head.
“You’re probably right about her,” Jessica said as if she considered the comparison of Reynolds and Ursula for the first time at that moment. “Her reasons and motives are all coming from the right place. But sometimes I think she does get blinded by her desire for the end result. I don’t doubt she would go to any lengths to take the Protectorate down.”
She went back to twirling. I realized I needed to be better at keeping my opinions of Ursula more to myself. Sometimes I forget how much her followers saw her as a literal maternal figure. She placed herself in a position of protecting them and saving them from the big bad Protectorate.
Don’t get me wrong, it was an overreaching, power-hungry, tyrannical machine. They ruled and controlled through fear. Ursula was using the exact same tactics only instead of fear, she inspired rage and hatred. It had a different mask, but it was the same type of machine in my eyes.
I didn’t think Jessica was stupid to not see such a clear mirror between the two, nor was anyone else who found themselves mesmerized by Ursula. It was hard to see the big picture when you were in the thick of it.
I was glad when we finally left that subject and moved on to lighter topics. Jessica told me how she knew Greg. It was actually his younger sister who Jessica knew better. Heidi Perkins was in the year group just above Jess in Primary school.
Unlike the First Generations that had their own schools they attended, with a far superior quality than the one provided for Second Generations, all Second Generation citizens went to the same primary school system. It didn’t matter if you were a Half, Chosen, or Regular; we all were given an equal opportunity at an education. That being one just slightly less than a Cream.
Just as I had found there was a social ranking within the Cream class upon entering it, I knew there was one with the Seconds as well. Halves were relations, cousins, and even original Cream’s sibling’s descendants. Not being the firstborns in any of those situations, they were put in a lesser level of society. Still, in many of their eyes, they were far superior to the rest of the Seconds.
If the Primary School Jessica attended was anything like the one I went to, the Halves tended to separate themselves from the rest of the seconds and band together.
Jessica knew Heidi Perkins relatively well. Unlike Jessica who was an only child born in her family, Heidi didn’t have the prospect of taking over the family business with two older siblings.
It was no surprise that she opted to follow her parents and brother outside of the Protectorate’s reach. The only other option for her would have been an assignment to an open Half job—if such a thing could be found—or resignation to regular work. Nobody would take a step down if they didn’t have to.
Jessica, of course, had always planned to take over her mother’s trade: stylist to First Generation families in the Community.
As Jessica put it, she had only really known Heidi in passing because they didn’t have a lot in common. What I knew that meant was that Jessica was on the track of a Half life and Heidi was practically left with no choice but a regular one.
Ironically, here they both were in this settlement having foregone any allegiance they once had to the Protectorate. For Heidi, it had been a natural move. For Jessica, the choice had been made for her when a Cream decided the best place for one of his siblings was the spot reserved for Jessica. Any Cream’s decision always overruled any hope for passing on a position to one’s child.
By the time we walked up the small path leading to the Perkins home, I felt like I already knew them through all the gossip Jess had fed me. Their house wasn’t any different than the others in a neat row on either side of the smooth frozen dirt road. Every home here was made exactly the same and just assigned to families. That was what Greg had explained to us on our tour, anyway.
Each had three bedrooms, a kitchen with a small dining area, a living room, and an area to store something they called a bike.
Greg had shown us some on the tour. Up until he mentioned them, I hadn’t noticed the storage racks made of twisted metal pipes outside of every building. No one used transports. They were saved for carrying goods or people outside of their community. Even then, I couldn’t imagine they were used all that often since the way into the settlement had been so difficult to navigate.
Instead, everyone either walked if they so chose or used this ancient method of transportation. It was made from a bamboo frame with a cushioned seat and two metal wheels.
Almost all I saw had a small woven basket attached to the steering bars and a solar-powered light that could be turned on at night. While we were at one of the small storage silos where they were holding their winter supply of non-perishable food, Greg showed us how they used the bikes to transport larger supplies around the settlement.
A square basket that almost doubles the length of the bike could be attached to the back just below the seat with a bamboo-fiber rope. The basket, too, had solar plates on its rim to catch and store energy from the sun. Instead of producing a light, it powered twin magnetic engines on the bottom of the basket, helping it to hover just as transports did.
In fact, Greg explained that they were the exact same engine only much smaller. It couldn’t hold as much as a transport, or have the high-powered propulsion to get high altitude, but it served to move things around the settlement without the use of transports.
It also was much easier for them to mass produce the smaller engines as well as the crude bikes so that all could equally have access to them, unlike the few transports parked at the central hall. According to Greg, the design of the bike was not yet perfected, and most still chose to walk despite the cold unless they needed to use a supply basket behind the contraption. Nonetheless, it was available to all whether they decided to use it or not.
I was beginning to find that perfect equality was very important in this small settlement that had grown over the last few years. Greg made a point to mention it several times on the tour.
I could tell that we were the last two to arrive at the Perkins home even before the door was open. The noise inside was seeping through the wooden walls. It was the happy chatter of many voices all at once. With the door opening, it was as if corks was unstuffed from my ears and the noise amplified.
As I had thought, the small house was packed to bursting. Not only was there Jessica, Jake, myself, and Hensen the unit supervisor who had arrived with us, but the entire Perkins clan.
Other than Mrs. Perkins the eldest, all of the family looked the spitting image of their father. They all had the same slightly short and very square built. It wasn’t overweight, more just thick. They all had very bright and loud personalities on top of that, making it seem as if each one took up the space of two.
Along with the older Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, there was Greg with his wife, Stephanie. They had two daughters with them. One was just an infant and the other three years old.
I couldn’t help but wonder if they both had been born inside this settlement. They could easily be called the first generation born free of the Protectorate’s grasp.
Heidi was also there, looking almost the exact same as her father and older brother despite how masculine their features were. She did have a slightly feminine look to her. Unlike her father and brother, she had a slender nose and soft honey-brown eyes that matched Mrs. Perkins’s.
Even Greg’s toddler seemed to have the same prominent build of his father, I noticed, as she made a turn around the room weaving in and out of legs.
Close behind her was her cousin, Heidi’s only son. He had to be close to Greg’s little girl in age. They could have been mistaken for twins. They both still had the baby curls in their chestnut brown hair and the square features of their family.
Heidi was very round in her belly with her second child, making her three times the size of an average person.
“I’m just glad this is the last time I have to do this,” she said when Jessica commented on her beautiful gift of a belly.
“Pregnancies are pretty hard on Heidi,” her husband Jeff explained as he patted her back gently.
Jeff was rather thick himself in shape, but more of a round size. He had large round glasses that took up half his face as well and sandy blonde hair. I wasn’t sure if he was unusually shy or just outshined by the rest of the Perkins family.
“Have to?” I asked a little confused.
Even if a pregnancy was a complete misery for her, I didn’t think I had ever met someone who didn’t find it an absolute joy. Most women would walk barefoot over a fire for the chance to have a child.
Often in the Communities, families were small in size only because the marriage was arranged and either husband or wife could only bear to procreate so much with their spouse. Others of Cream or Half born might settle on one to ease the complexity of the societal ramifications of subsequent children.
Heidi had met her husband here in the settlement as she had explained to us. They had married for love from the vibe they were giving off.
“In the settlement, we only allow two children per family. It’s simpler that way,” Greg explained.
“Simpler?” Jake encouraged, just as fascinated by the concept of limiting childbirth as the rest of us.
“Yes, you see we have a council of five that are voted into office every five years by the settlement. In two years we will be electing new officials, but until then we live by the rules as outlined by our present officials.”
“Greg is one of our officials,” Stephanie, Greg’s wife, said with pride.
“We thought it was best if we kept things as simple as possible to keep the equality. With more than two children, a family would cause problems with the housing, among other things.”
“How so?” I asked, seeing this house packed with far more than its allotted four people.
“If someone were to have many children, five or six, they would also want a larger house with rooms enough to accommodate them. Instead, to make it easy, we just simply say each family may have two children if able.”
“And if not?” I continued.
“Then they are treated as equals. We have no distinguishing benefits to having children. Businesses are not passed down to offspring like in the Communities. We found this to be the basis for much of the Protectorate’s injustices. All employment will be assigned by ability and skills, except for the officials, of course,” Greg added quickly.
“But officials are not a form of employment, but a volunteer service. In that way, only those who truly seek the best for all of us will choose to be an official. As you know, I still maintain my position as unit leader for the regiment of fighters here while holding my official seat.”
“And you all just came up with this on your own?” Jake asked, more fascinated than accusatory.
“We frame as much as we can after the constitutional government spoken of in the textbooks.”
“Well, the Protectorate claims the same thing with their assemblymen and such,” Mr. Perkins scoffed as he listened to his son.
“Yes, they do. But we practice a more pure form, in our opinion. One in which we ensure that all are perfectly equal in every way.”
“Naturally, Ursula has been very interested in the structuring process as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is utilized through the nation when the time comes.”
“You seem very sure of that fact,” Jake said with a light laugh to soften his accusatory comment.
I was sure that he would have much rather been at his mother’s side as they came up with their own brand of governmental system together. I had a good idea that his opinions wouldn’t include temporary and volunteer government positions or decisions made by skill set alone. Both of those would seriously diminish his standing as his mother's right-hand man and subsequent successor.
“I don’t mean to sound like we are perfect here,” Greg quickly corrected himself. “I am sure there is much that we can learn from Ursula just as she has found interest in us. I don’t want you to think I am overly prideful, just very happy to be here and a part of the start of this movement.”
“I understood your meaning perfectly,” I said before Jake could talk.
Maybe it was because I was still pretty mad at him, but I rather enjoyed the added jab it caused him.
“And I think you should be proud. This settlement is more than just functioning, it’s prosperous, happy, and balanced. I don’t know what more someone could ask for.”
CHAPTER NINE
I HAD TO admit, as I sat and ate dinner with the Perkins family, that they all seemed a picture-perfect image of what our future could be. Not just them, but everyone I had met so far inside this settlement had a contentment that I had never seen before. It gave me hope that this was actually possible. We could find a way to live in peace and equality all at the same time.
It wasn’t until the meal was over, Heidi and her husband had left to put their youngster to bed, and the elder Perkins had bid us goodnight that we finally got down to the business that we had traveled all this way for.
At first I had considered this to be a reasonably quick mission. We were merely meeting some mystery contact and listening to whatever information he held to determine its validity against his demands. At the most, I would have thought we would stay one night. I was beginning to see that, in this Settlement, things were done in a lot slower fashion.
“I suppose we should get down to business,” Greg said after his wife got up to put the baby to bed.
It was just Jessica, Jake, the unit leader Hansen, and me sitting around the table with him. It was odd to see it so suddenly empty.
For the last several hours the room had been so packed we had to open the windows to let some of the body heat out. Now it was littered with used plates and empty chairs were squished up around the bamboo round table.
“Are you the point of contact, than?” I asked, eager to know this mystery news he had to give us.
“No,” Greg said with a firm finality. “In fact, she isn’t even in the Settlement.”
“She?” Jake said with surprise, sitting back in his chair. It wasn’t what he was expecting.
“Yes. She. Well, my point of contact is a she. She is who I have talked with to transfer the package over. And she will only speak to one person. It’s for safety reasons, you understand. She is within the Northwest Community and doesn’t want to jeopardize her standing there. She plans to return to it.”
I noticed that as he spoke of this ‘she’ his eyes continued to flicker to Jessica. I looked over at her. Her own eyes were planted firmly on her hands resting on the table.
“You are the person she will talk to?” I deduced.
Jessica looked up in surprise.
“Do you know who it is?” Jake half asked half demanded.
All his charm had faded with his golden brows knit in an expression of concern and disappointment that he wasn’t the chosen one.
“I have an idea,” she said softly. “But if it is who I think it is, I will respect her desire for secrecy. If this impending takeover goes sour for us, she still wants her standing in the Protectorate. I can’t take that from her,” Jessica said with kindness.
I had a pretty good idea of who it would be meeting her. There was only one person she could care about that much that still lived within the Northwest walls: her mother.
“You said package. What is this package she will be handing over? Is it information? Is it a physical item? Is this person, whoever she may be, sending us defectors? I suppose sanctuary is the price they are asking for their information.” Jake continued, hoping to get whatever he could out of Jessica or Greg.
“I don’t know much about the information or their intentions. She is just the buffer to ensure a smooth transition between the actual informant and Ursula, and I know nothing else about it,” Greg tried to explain.
