He waited for something terrible to happen. He waited about an hour in abject fear, then someone knocked on the door. He jumped at the noise.
When he realized she wasn’t coming in he became cautious; people had tried the “nice” technique on him before. He hated people who pretended to be kind; they were the cruelest of all.
He looked down and noticed for the first time that he wasn’t wearing his usual outfit. He was wearing a different outfit. He thought for a second.
Then he noticed he was clean, she had cleaned him up. He decided quickly he didn’t want to think about that, so he got out of the bed, and walked over to the windowsill. The blinds were closed. What little light there was in the room came from between the slits of the closed venetian blinds, preventing him from seeing outside. He looked at the blinds confused. Most people he knew didn’t even bother with blinds. It was usual dark in the colonies even during the so-called daytime. He decided to open them, the thought that the person didn’t want him to see the outside not coming to mind. He found the string that opened it and pulled it. Light came pouring through. It was so bright that he let go of the string, and covered his eyes.
The blinds fell back down. He waited until his eyes readjusted to the gloom, then his mind cleared enough for him to think.
From what he had heard from when he eavesdropped in when OZ soldiers talking was that even on Earth, the day was no longer as bright as it had been before, except in the desert.
He stopped suddenly. From what he had heard the desert was extremely hot, yet it wasn’t hot here, in fact it was a bit cooler than it was on the colony.
He still didn’t know what her intentions were.
He slammed his fist on the windowsill, and hit something soft. He looked down; there on the windowsill were his clothes. She had cleaned them also.
Even they did not bother cleaning his clothes. They’d believed water was too precious to waste on trivial things like his clothes. Again he realized that the only way he could answer his questions was to go to that girl. He looked at his clothes, then checked them for any danger like poison or an explosive. When he found none he took off the pajamas and put on his clothes. He tossed them onto the floor, then turned towards the door. He really didn’t want to go, he was afraid of what she would do to him. He went anyway, in fear that whatever she did to him would be worse if he waited. He opened the door slowly and looked through. The light in the hallway was bright, but nowhere near as bright as outside. He waited until his eyes adjusted and went into the hallway. It was a simple white hallway, but it was different from any that he had seen. These walls were new, and the paint was fresh. All the walls he had ever seen had been old, with the paint peeling off, and damaged from fights and vandalism. These walls weren’t like those. He put his hand on the smooth, clean surface of the wall facing the door in amazement.
It was then he heard someone singing. It was the girl. He had heard singing before, but never had he heard someone singing so happily. He followed the sound down the hallway, curious. The hallway opened into a small kitchen/dining room. It was then that he saw her taking some silverware out of a drawer. She was a small young girl probably about his age with short brown hair. He noticed that her clothes as well as herself and everything around her was neat, clean and new. The strangest part was she looked new too. Even in a darkened colony humans weren’t as pale as she was. She turned around and stopped singing. For a moment he was panic-stricken then he noticed that her face seemed more accustomed to smiling than any he could remember, even more so than his mother.
She indicated the table that was all set for breakfast for two. He looked at the table dumbfounded. He asked cautiously:
He decided to do what she said, because he had no idea what she would do if he refused. She pulled out a chair for him to sit on and he sat down.
She pointed to the 3 boxes on the table. Duo looked at them. They were brightly colored boxes. He looked at the words. His mother had told him that it was important to read and write, so he tried his best. While he couldn’t read really big words and could barely write he could read the writing on the cereal boxes: Cheerios, Corn Flakes, Rice Crispies, even though he couldn’t understand them. He sat wondering which to chose when she picked up one of the boxes, opened it, and poured some into the bowl before her. Then she picked up a carton of milk and poured some in also. He watched her as she made her breakfast and then he repeated her actions, then he looked at her again. She was eating with a spoon, and occasionally drinking some of the orange juice from the glass next to her. He copied her moves to try and keep on her good side. The rest of the meal continued in much the same fashion. When they were done she asked politely:
She took his dishes and put them in the sink along with hers. He watched her as she did this. Then she walked back to her seat and put on a serious expression.
“Okay. Down to business. You are probably wondering why you are here. Well… that is a bit complicated. Ok… Let’s start at the beginning…”
