Empty Streets (19 page)

One by one they stepped off the shuttle, eyes narrowing at the May sunshine. Eri took a deep breath, trying not to let the smell of the outside break the dam of emotions she was holding back. Her lungs appreciated the air, the free air, however dense with polluted particles it may have been. Her pores absorbed the sunshine in small gulps through the few exposed pieces of flesh the gown allowed. Bodhi should be here with her. She worked to only let Bodhi into her mind in snippets; a flash of his smile or the feel of his hand on her back. She feared that dwelling on him for too long would be an abyss from which she would never emerge.

Eri looked around. Groups of people were being shepherded to different areas. Eri's parents hugged her in silence and moved toward audience seating. A small congregation of gowned kids stood silently near a long white table, a line forming next to them to sign in. Eri stood in the line, watching faces and listening for conversation. As she neared the table, she heard several kids asking each other what their names were, what their personas looked like. The conversations were forced and awkward.

Eri sighed her name and moving towards the crowd. To avoid any conversation, she stood a couple yards away from the group and allowed herself to get lost in her thoughts. She felt a light tap on her shoulder and turned around, startled.

A tall boy stood near her, the sun behind him, shadowing his face. Eri put her hand up to shield her eyes, her heart beating furiously. As her pupils adjusted to the light, she saw the boy had blonde hair and dark eyebrows, with brown eyes and a long thin nose. He was not unattractive, but the look on his face was too intense for Eri's comfort. She recognized the look of desire on his face; not lustful desire, but a general look of dissatisfaction and need. His countenance reminded her that some people are continuously insatiate, seeking more power and more things and more knowledge until it ruins them and they die from the inside out.

"Zander," she said. It was not a question.

He smiled a wide smile, his teeth perfect and white. "Eri, I wasn't sure you would recognize me."

She did not return his smile. He was taller and thicker than his persona, but his face still looked boyish. She was not surprised that he recognized her. "What do you want?" she asked, warily.

"Just to say hi, of course. I wondered how your paperwork went, what your plans were." He raised his eyebrows in curiosity. When she didn't answer, he punched her shoulder playfully and followed up with, "Come on, it isn't like we aren't friends."

Eri tried to control the shudder that rippled through her body. Disgusting. "Um, the paperwork. Right. It looks like I did okay on the achievement exam. I got placed as a packager at the warehouse on the outskirts of town. I am going to live at my parents' house for the next year and shuttle in to work." Eri peered at him, wondering where he was going with this.

"So, you and Bodhi broke up then?" Zander asked lightly.

Eri's stomach lurched as she thought of Bodhi. Zander's mouth twisted into a smile. She raised her eyes to his, unsure how to address her certainty that it was him who had gotten Bodhi caught. Somehow.

"Yeah, I guess he must have tested early and gotten placed because he hasn't been at school. We just lost touch, I guess." She tried to shrug convincingly, but talking about Bodhi made her feel sick.

"Yeah, that happens sometimes. You lose touch." Zander sneered the words at her, his lips curling in a cold half-smile. "Well, then, I guess that means you are free now, right?" He emphasized the word free, stepping a little bit closer to her.

Eri nodded a small nod. "I guess it means something." She avoided making eye contact, straightening her gown to distract herself. She didn't want to cry. "Why haven't I seen you at school?"

Zander studied her for a second. "How do you know you haven't?"

Blinking at his response, Eri thought of the few friends she had made in her classes second semester. Could one of them have been him? Could he have bought voice software? Could he have altered his log in to change his name? She wasn't certain what he couldn't do. She chose to not respond.

Zander laughed a quiet laugh. "So, let's get together. Tonight. We could go out and have some fun, celebrate the end of the Sims." He winked at her.

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean? Like, IP time? I didn't think we could do that anymore." She stared at him, her eyes narrowed with curiosity.

"Eri, where I come from, I can go out whenever I want. We could go places and see things, have fun doing lots of different things." He smiled at her again, the implications of what he said sinking in slowly.

"I…I think there is a curfew, where I live, even though I am not in school anymore. I'm not sure I'm allowed outside after work." She spoke quietly, unsure of the rules, unsure what he would reveal to her.

"If you are with me, there is no curfew. The world is ours. Yeah, you would have a curfew if you stay with your parents. People who live in that part of town need one to control the crime rate. But there are people, other people, who have the sensibility and resources to live upstanding lives outside of their work hours." He reached out a long, cold index finger to touch her jaw line, drawing it up to her chin. He tilted her chin up so he could look her in the eye. "I think you would be a great addition to my community."

Eri understood him, as he looked at her, reading the story his eyes told in flashes of hunger and privilege. She was a conquest. She was forbidden to him, untouchable, someone who made him feel more powerful. She wasn't sure how to answer him, recognizing a strong volatility in him. She didn't want to agree with him or encourage him, but she didn't want to anger him and make a scene, or, worse, reject him and make herself an even more desirable object. Mostly she needed an easy escape.

Zander continued, "I am sort of committed already, of course, as my people are. I am supposed to be dating some girl who lives on the lake. Her parents are really wealthy and see the two of us as a perfect alliance of power, wealth and, of course, good looks," to which he laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "But…I like you." He lifted one part of his mouth into what should have been a smile, but instead rippled with abuse and power, ways that he would assert himself on her with no repercussions.

She looked down, trying to control the bile rising in her throat. "Zander, I am flattered. You do seem to have everything a girl would want, you know, to marry… up. But I …I barely know you. And you barely know me. What if it turns out you don't like me?" She wasn't sure she could rationalize her way out of this, but she thought it might be worth a shot.

"Oh, I know you. I know you more than you think I do." He reached out confidently and grabbed her wrist, holding tightly as he pulled her close enough that she could feel his breath on her face.

Eri tried not to rip her wrist out of his hand, instead thinking through the different ways she could call attention to them, ways that would not embarrass him into a rage or bruise his ego enough to want revenge.

She decided getting him to talk more about himself might distract him. "Why are you here, Zander? Why aren't you a part of the other Sims program, the one for the rich kids?" She squirmed a little, she couldn't help it, trying to loosen his grip on her wrist.

He did not outwardly respond to her squirming, but his face grew soft, and she knew he enjoyed watching her discomfort. She knew him, knew everyone like him, the type of person whose satisfaction came solely from a hierarchy of power, with themselves at the top. She felt herself growing warm with anger, red blotches on her white neck, as Zander looked down at her and laughed.

He leaned down to talk close to her ear, his breath hot on her neck. "I can do anything I want. And I wanted to see what your kind were like." She started to sweat, feeling springs of fear pop up on the back of her neck and the palms of her hands.

For a moment, Eri contemplated faking it. What if she played along? Could she spend enough time with him to find out if he really did know what happened to Bodhi? If they stayed with a group or if she always had a way out, maybe she could get answers from him. Maybe.

"Hey," a voice sounded close to Eri. She turned her head, climbing out of her thoughts.

Eri saw a young man, younger than her, who looked familiar. He approached them, pretending he didn't notice the tension in the air, for which Eri was grateful. She could read him, read that he was coming to talk to them intentionally, regardless of the personal nature of their conversation. Eri turned towards him with a smile, putting the wrist Zander was holding behind her back.

Zander released Eri's wrist slowly, hiding the release behind her body as he lifted his arm to put it around Eri's shoulders, pulling her towards him. The boy approaching continued to smile a thin smile, which wavered only slightly as he reached them.

"Um, hi?" Eri said.

"Yeah, hi. Who are you?" Zander demanded, not bothering to sound friendly. Eri wanted to punch him, and took a step away from him to get out from under his arm. She extended her hand towards the boy, who held his out to shake hers, his smile growing larger.

"Yeah, this might sound weird, but are you Eri?" He shook her hand and didn't let go, appearing genuinely happy at meeting her. When he finally let go of her hand Eri maneuvered so that she was now a body width away from Zander, facing him rather than having her back toward him.

"I am. Do I know you?" She smiled encouragingly.

"Oh, well, I was, uh, a friend of…of Ezra's." The boy looked down at the ground, his nose getting warm with emotion. Eri reached out and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You were?" Eri's eyes pricked with tears at the mention of her brother.

"Yeah, and he said he had a sister and I thought I saw you sign your name …and it was the same last name as his and I…I just wanted to say I am sorry he is gone and I really miss him and just…I don't know." The kid started to turn away, clearly embarrassed, but Eri tightened her grip on his shoulder.

He looked up at her, blinking away tears with long, dark eyelashes. His sandy brown hair looked disheveled and unkempt, the blue eyes under his lashes were warm and sweet. He's still so young, Eri thought.

"That is nice to hear," Eri said softly. "Thank you for finding me. I miss him, too. How did you know him?" It was out of the ordinary for people of one age group to know someone in another unless they were taking remedial or accelerated classes. Eri knew Ezra hadn't taken any accelerated classes

"Oh, I was in his grade, but I wanted to test early and get placed. I am not really that interested in school and if you want to get out, you can test when you turn sixteen." He nodded as he talked, as if this common bit of knowledge could assuage the shame she could see in his eyes regarding his lack of interest in school. "Ez always said he was going to do that with me, get out of school as soon as he could."

Eri nodded. She hadn't known that about her brother. There was a lot she didn't know about her brother. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Bear. My name is Bear." He looked down, shyly.

"Well, Bear, it is nice to meet you. And it looks like we are being summoned." She saw a tall woman all in white gesturing at them from the sign-in table. Students now stood in long lines of blue and red, waiting for the roll call that would parade them in front of a crowd. She walked forward with Bear, his smallness and shyness resettling her unsettled mind.

She looked over her shoulder as she walked, making eye contact with Zander. He looked hard at her, a small hint of fury in his face. She stopped, turned to him, and the world stopped for one second. Bear stopped, unsure what was happening, but waiting for her. Zander and Eri stared at each other, and Eri shook her head, clearly, one time, from side to side. And then, she mouthed the word never before she turned and walked away.

Eri knew this wasn't over, that Zander wasn't done, but she was not afraid. Her chin jutted out just a little as she walked next to Bear, and she let the tension of the moment fall from her shoulders. She did not look back.

Jessica Cotter

Jessica Cotter is a high school teacher who lives in a small corner of a small town. She has three exceptionally witty children, one thoughtfully supportive husband, and one particularly motivated cat.

Her favorite past-times are pulling weeds from the garden, filling blank pages with words, and crossing items off to-do lists. She hopes someday to attain a consistent sleep pattern of 8.5 hours a night.

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