Grandfather (8 page)

“So nobody knows about
this place you’re taking me?”

“Nope,” Marley said. “I
don’t think so. Only me and Ashton.”

I still hadn’t seen who
this Ashton kid was. I didn’t even see him during lunch or dinner.
What was he like?

“You’ll meet him
tomorrow,” Marley said, as if reading my mind.

I hate when people do
that.

“
He went with Dr. Mac to
get some more medicine. About once a month, Dr. Mac meets some
friend of his outside the wall. Ashton likes to go. ” Marley opened
the door, which caused a loud screeching noise to echo throughout
the entire hall.

I glanced around,
wondering if anybody would be able to hear it. She didn’t seem
worried. “Come on,” she said, shining the flashlight inside. I
followed her.

Once inside, Marley shined
the flashlight all around, allowing me to get a look at the entire
place. It wasn’t a large room at all . . . probably half the size
of my room. Mold grew on the walls, which couldn’t be safe. The air
had a musky smell, which wasn’t pleasant. Was this the big
surprise? Wow, this girl had been stuck underground for way too
long.

That’s when I noticed a
ladder in one corner leading straight up to the ceiling.

Great. I was already tired
of ladders.

Marley walked to it. I
took a closer look at the ceiling where the ladder ended. I saw a
small crack forming a square. I knew at once that it had to be
another trap door. Maybe the room wasn’t the finale.

“
You hold this,” Marley
said, handing me the flashlight. “I’ll go up first to open the door
since I’ve been here before.”

I stood still, shining the
flashlight at the door. Marley climbed the ladder slowly. She
reached the top, and with one hand, she pushed the trap door open.
Sunlight burst through the hole, lighting up the entire
room.

I turned away to keep my
eyes from burning too badly. Once they adjusted, I turned around
and looked up, seeing blue skies. Sunlight. I turned the flashlight
off as Marley crawled out of the room.

“Hurry up,” She said.
“You’re going to love this.”

Was it safe? Marley had
been up there before, so I trusted her, which was weird since I
didn’t know her that well. I put the flashlight in my pocket and
slowly climbed the ladder. It may have taken me longer to get to
the top than Marley, but I eventually made it. I pulled myself out
of the ground to find myself at the edge of a small grass area
surrounded by trees. It was like a perfect circle.

“You’ve never really seen
the city, right?” Marley asked. She stood at the edge of a
cliff.

What I saw past her was
absolutely astonishing. I had never seen anything like it. In the
far distance was a skyline made up of hundreds of tall buildings
behind the tall wall, each ranging from fifty to over a hundred
stories high. The tallest one seemed to be directly in the middle.
The city had to be a several miles wide. And hugging it tightly, of
course, was the gray wall. I had lived right outside of the wall my
entire life and never really knew how big it was. I knew it was
extremely tall. But seeing it from a distance was
amazing.

I didn’t even think there
were that many skyscrapers left in the United Regions. I had read
about them and how most of them were destroyed during the
2
^nd
civil war.

The site was just
spectacular. Until I remembered what it all stood for. I’d heard
protests about the separation and those inside all the time. None
of my kind liked them.

I walked to Marley’s side
and looked down. The ledge wasn’t too high up, but high enough to
break several bones if one was to fall off. I made a mental note to
not get too close.

“Bet you didn’t know we
were this high up, did you?” Marley asked.

I shook my ahead. We were
actually very high up. From the orphanage, the mountain was always
visible in the distance. There I was on that very landmark. I gazed
at the city and the wall completely circling it. Wow.

“I was bored one day,”
Marley said. “People were arguing about what we should all do about
Grandfather. You’ll learn to get tired of hearing about that
here.”

“It seemed to me that you
felt strongly about Grandfather and everything,” I told her,
remembering her reaction earlier.

“I believe they’re
secretly gaining power, but I still get tired of it.” I watched as
a square aircraft glided over the city. I would see them sometimes
fly above the orphanage. I never knew what they were
doing.

“So they mention it that
often?” I asked as the aircraft lowered out of site.

“Yeah,” Marley said. “I
believe they exist, but I don’t want to hear about it constantly.
Sometimes, I just want me and momma to live normal
lives.”

I nodded, actually
understanding. I wished for a normal life too. But I never had one
and wasn’t getting one.

Marley continued. “I guess
normal is too much to ask for when you’re living inside of a
mountain.”

I snickered. “That
would
make it
difficult,” I said. “But hey, at least you have your
mom.”

She somehow took that the
wrong way. “Oh,” she said quickly. “I’m sorry . . . I didn’t mean
to . . .”

“It’s okay,” I told her,
knowing exactly why she was freaking out. “I accept that I’m an
orphan. I was just saying, it’s cool that during all of this, you
and your mom are together.”

Marley still had an
apologetic look on her face.
She looked
back at the city. She sat down on the edge of the cliff and let her
feet dangle over. I, slowly and cautiously, did the same. “And all
of that is controlled by Grandfather,” she said. “People just don’t
know it yet.”

I didn’t say
anything.

Marley noticed my silence
and said, “Well, at least that’s what us ‘believers’
think.”

“
I’m not judging,” I said,
smiling. “Just need some time to get things straight.”

“
Yeah, and I understand.”
She said. Once again, I wasn’t sure if she actually did or was just
saying that.

I imagined what it would
be like to live within the wall. I pictured all the men dressed in
suits like Robert’s, and beautiful women like Belladonna. Again, my
eye caught the tallest building in the center. “Is that where the
president stays?” I asked. “The tallest one?”

“
I don’t know,” Marley
said. “But if I was the president, I’d want to live far away from
the city but still be close enough to get to it pretty
quickly.”

“
Like here?” I
asked.

“
Yeah,” Marley answered.
“Like here.”

“
This is the first time
I’ve been to a place like this,” I said, looking up. “Even the sky
looks different.” In the distance, behind the city, the sun began
to disappear behind the skyscrapers.

“
I think so too,” Marley
said. “I figured you would like to see this more than the other
things below. There’s not really anything down there. Momma made it
sound like it was heaven on Earth.”

I laughed. “She seems
nice.”

“
Oh she’s great,” Marley
said. “She’s my mom and my best friend. I don’t know what I’d do
without her.”

“
She seems to get along
with Edgar really good, too,” I said.

Marley snickered. “Yeah,
they get along really well.” Marley looked at the sun and stood up.
“I wish we could stay longer,” she said. “But the new president
should be making his address soon. We should probably find Edgar
and Momma.”

I stood and followed
Marley back to the hole in the ground. I glanced at the city once
more.

“Don’t worry, I’ll bring
you back,” Marley said. “Tomorrow, Ashton gets back. We can all
come here. Just please don’t tell anybody. Not even Momma or Edgar.
They’d say it was dangerous.”

Well, Marley certainly
didn’t have to worry about that. I didn’t plan on having a
conversation with many people. I definitely wasn’t going to confide
in Edgar about anything.

“Just curious,” I said as
I found a step on the ladder with my feet. “You barely know me. Why
did you bring me here? Why do you trust
me
?”

Marley looked at me and
back at the city skyline. “I don’t know,” she said, looking back at
me. That’s all she said.

“I won’t tell,” I told her
again, climbing down the ladder. When I reached the bottom, I took
out the flashlight and turned it on before Marley slammed the trap
door shut, leaving us in darkness again.

I definitely didn’t
remember the way back, so I just followed Marley again. I tried
remembering the turns in case I wanted to come back alone, but
after a while I realized it was impossible. I supposed it would
just take a little time and a few more trips. A few more trips
meant that I’d have to go with Marley again, which I guessed was
okay. While I still wanted to be left alone, she didn’t annoy me…
yet. As long as she wasn’t knocking on my door every day, I was
good.

Chapter Four

M
arley and I eventually found ourselves in the dining room
sitting with Mae and Edgar. Everybody was there for President
Cornelius’s address. Mae asked how I liked the place after touring
it. I told her it was pretty cool, sure not to mention the place on
the hill, just as Marley had asked.

Belladonna walked in
carrying what seemed to be an old radio. Edgar at once stood up and
joined her at the front of the room.

“This could be big,” Mae
exclaimed. “I sure hope it doesn’t pass, but who knows what
Cornelius’s councilmen will do.”

“It’s going to happen at
some point,” Marley said. “Might as well be now.”

Mae didn’t seem too happy.
“Perhaps,” she said. “It would be nice to have more time to plan
what we’re going to do. But I trust everything will work out in the
end.”

Music suddenly sounded
throughout the dining hall. “I love this song!” Mae yelled so
loudly I nearly fell out of my chair. Her fingers snapped to the
beat. I had never heard the song, so I assumed it was quite old.
Mae seemed disappointed when Belladonna changed the station with a
turn of a knob.

Belladonna stopped at a
particular station where two newscasters were discussing the
upcoming address. “We can expect it to go either way,” she was
saying. “Many feel that the
Bill of Border
Control
will not be considered after
President Marx’s death.”

“
It all depends if
President Cornelius wishes to follow in those footsteps,” the man
added.

The lady reporter went on
talking about how people were still iffy with the ‘tracking law.’
It was all pretty boring, but everybody in the room seemed
interested. I kind of just wanted to go to my room. But I’m sure
Edgar would never let me hear the end of it. And I admit, I was a
bit curious as to what was going on.

The woman was talking
about how the family was mourning the president’s death when she
stopped in mid-sentence. “And it seems like the president is ready.
Let’s see what he has to say.”

There was a pause. Not one
sound came from the radio but a steady buzzing noise. The entire
dining hall was silent. People were fidgeting and others were
leaning out of their seats toward the radio, as if getting a few
inches closer was going to speed everything up. Finally, after a
few moments passed, a strong, deep voice spoke.

“Good evening,” President
Cornelius said slowly. I tried picturing what he looked like. I
imagined a pretty stout guy because of the deep tone of his voice.
Everybody’s eyes were glued to the radio, as if waiting for it to
actually jump up and do something. These people knew President
Cornelius as the Grand Imperial. For all I knew, he was just a
normal man.

“My friend’s death – your
president’s – has affected us all,” he started, still speaking
slowly, as if searching for the right words. “We all knew him as a
man – a citizen – just like each and every one of us. He would do
anything in his power to make this country a better place. And he
has not disappointed. I’d say he very was successful.” The voice
paused.

Mae and Marley were just
like everybody else, watching the radio closely. Marley did glance
at me, grin, and quickly turned her attention back to the
radio.

“I understand that
The Bill of Border Control
is not popular among many of you. President Marx understood
this as well. I want to use my time today to reassure everyone that
the bill will, indeed, help this country move forward – something
President Marx would have wanted.”

“Yeah right,” A man
sitting at the next table said. Everyone ignored him. I looked back
at the radio.

“The good news is that
we’ve caught the killer. He will be tried, and he will receive an
appropriate punishment.” Cornelius paused again, as if allowing his
audience to take in the information. “This killer was from a
different region! This is another example in which somebody has
traveled from one region to another to commit a crime. Usually they
aren’t caught. But under these extreme circumstances, we were able
to use more resources than usual in order to find the
murderer.”