03-24-2021, 10:25 PM
Apartment Block, Eastern District, Grapevale, Kerlile
Emma Woodward hurried along the street clutching her umbrella against the falling rain. She ignored the three separate pairs of women sitting in parked cars pretending not to watch the building she was heading for. Upon arrival she scanned the names attached to the buzzers and pressed the one she was looking for. She waited, receiving no answer, before someone opened the door in front of her, leaving the building.
“It’s broken,” the man leaving told her. “Just go in and knock.”
“Thanks,” she said, folding her umbrella and stepping inside. The staircase was dirty and steep, built with cheap materials even when it was new. The walls were covered in posters reminding residents of male loitering laws, curfews from 2006 and criminals wanted who’d long since been executed. Dust that was as old as Emma herself coated the corners of the steps as she climbed upwards.
Reaching the door that she was looking for, she knocked hesitantly, somewhat reluctant to have to actually touch part of the building she was in. It was a government-sponsored apartment block for single males. A few years ago, there would have been a security guard at the door, watching the inhabitants, but the Reformists had scrapped that particular policy, and now it looked just like any other tattered apartment block in the poorest district of the Kerlian capital.
“Yeah?” a man poked his head around the door in front of her. He looked as if he was of either Serrielan or Iskirami descent and had a scar across his cheek that Emma recognised as the result of a punishment in an Alt-Ed centre. She winced.
“Sorry to bother you,” she began politely. “I’m looking for Finlay Hale. Is this his address?”
“Hah!” the man in front of her scoffed. “He hasn’t lived here for years. Nah, he’s still the legal tenant here, but only cause I’m not eligible for government support – long story. He lives in the southern district, hang on and I’ll give you the address… come in if you like.”
He left the door wide open as he darted around a corner looking for something. Tentatively, she entered behind him looking around. To her left was a door to a tiny bedroom where she could see an en-suite shower room past a cheap-looking single bed. On her right was a blank wall on which hung a noticeboard containing leaflets about bin collections, local laws and fire evacuation rules. Ahead of her was a small kitchen and living area, which the man had entered, which looked old but clean.
“Here we are!” he grinned, holding a scrap of paper out to her. “I’ve seen you on TV, you know. I really admire what Councillor Hale is doing. Is she sick? Only, she has the real address so if you’re here she mustn’t be able to tell you.”
“Councillor Hale is… presently on vacation from her duties,” Emma replied cautiously, taking the paper from the man. “Thank you for the information. Are you aware this building is under surveillance from three separate parties?”
“Three? I’d only noticed two. It’s okay, if they send me back to prison your Councillor will get me out, Finlay said she would,” he shrugged, still smiling.
Emma bit her lip as she thanked him and quickly left the building. She did not share his confidence in her employer’s ability to save random people from imprisonment for living under false pretences in an apartment registered in her cousin’s name. It was hardly his fault, of course – clearly some conviction had made him ineligible for support and he couldn’t find employment – but that wouldn’t matter to the Kerlian courts.
Returning to where she’d parked her car, Emma drove to the new address she’d been given, arriving on a suburban-style street despite the area still legally being in the city. The address on the scrap of paper corresponded to the end house of a terrace with a thick covering of plants in the garden almost hiding the front door from view. Emma pushed past vines and rang the doorbell.
Tricks of light flashed through the peephole in the door, indicating someone was peering through, and then the door opened a crack and a hand gestured for Emma to come inside. The occupant was hiding behind the half-open door, meaning she couldn’t see who it was. She wasn’t particularly happy with this scenario at all, but this looked like the kind of area where someone would call the cops if she loitered (in such areas, even people in democracies called the cops). She entered, and Finlay closed the door behind her.
“Is Jennifer okay?” he asked hurriedly. “She hasn’t contacted me or returned my calls for a month. Something seems wrong.”
“Something is wrong,” Emma confirmed, relieved to see him. He led her through into a cosy living room whose windows overlooked a tangle of tall flowering bushes. “She needs your help. I can’t get through to her.”
“Tea, coffee?” Finlay offered.
“Tea would be lovely,” she replied.
He got to work making them both cups of tea, gesturing for her to explain what was happening as he did so. They’d met before, but never alone together, and Emma found herself suddenly feeling flustered about this. She swallowed whatever she was feeling and began the story.
“At the end of February Kerlile and LOM took part in a prisoner exchange. Who we gave them isn’t important, but in return we got an Aurora. She was… broken. More than normal, the kind of thing we usually only see after someone’s been a year in the RR. Councillor Hale was there when the Aurora got back. It upset her deeply. She began doubting her work with the Council, regretting her position in Kerlian society.”
“This has happened before, though, hasn’t it?” Finlay said, putting down the teas alongside a jug of milk and a small box of sugar cubes. Emma stuck a lump of sugar in her cup, sighed and continued.
“Not to this extent. When she first returned to Kerlile she didn’t want to join the Council, but upon seeing the good she could do for only a few, she reconciled it. After the TRC verdicts there was a lot of… I guess it was homesickness for Lauchenoiria. But this is something different entirely. She’s taken to bed and gets up only to shower about once a week. She won’t do anything, she says she’s going to stay there until 2023 and then move back to Lauchenoiria.”
“That doesn’t sound healthy,” Finlay said grimly. “What about Council votes?”
“She refuses. And she throws a fit if anyone addresses her as Councillor which is making the staff very nervous. I don’t know what to do, I wondered if you might have some insights. Or, better yet, if you could come and try to talk her out of this.”
“You’ve spent as much time as I have in my cousin’s company,” he pointed out.
“Yes, but you’re not her employee and you are… well, to put it bluntly, with these EUCDA amendments about to pass, you are of a higher social status to me.”
Finlay almost spit out his tea in response to her statement. “A Kerlian woman, calling a Kerlian man of a higher social status than her… have the oceans turned to ice, have the skies fallen, have Mascalin and Feminea descended to the mortal plane once more!?”
“No need to be so dramatic,” Emma replied wryly, sipping her tea. “All I’m saying is, you and Amelia are her only living relatives and Amelia is not yet two. I think that perhaps she might react better to you than to me right now.”
“I am definitely a test subject for some odd psychological brainwashing, this simply cannot be real,” he noted, then sighed. “Very well, shall I come with you now? People talk; Carmen Robinson is supposedly sending her daughters to Zongongia for unknown reasons, and there’s a sense of foreboding among those of us working for reform. We’ll need my cousin’s vote more than ever in the coming weeks, I fear.”
“Robinson? I haven’t heard anything,” Emma shrugged. “I think you’re paranoid but regardless, there’s no time like the present. I’ll let you get anything you need.”
Emma sat in the living room as Finlay bustled about the house packing a bag for an overnight stay or two at the official Hale residence. She didn’t know if this was the right thing to do, or if it would somehow make things worse, but she was desperate. It had been a month since Councillor Jennifer Hale had bothered to leave her bedroom. This couldn’t continue much longer, or her political rivals would take advantage of it.
Emma Woodward hurried along the street clutching her umbrella against the falling rain. She ignored the three separate pairs of women sitting in parked cars pretending not to watch the building she was heading for. Upon arrival she scanned the names attached to the buzzers and pressed the one she was looking for. She waited, receiving no answer, before someone opened the door in front of her, leaving the building.
“It’s broken,” the man leaving told her. “Just go in and knock.”
“Thanks,” she said, folding her umbrella and stepping inside. The staircase was dirty and steep, built with cheap materials even when it was new. The walls were covered in posters reminding residents of male loitering laws, curfews from 2006 and criminals wanted who’d long since been executed. Dust that was as old as Emma herself coated the corners of the steps as she climbed upwards.
Reaching the door that she was looking for, she knocked hesitantly, somewhat reluctant to have to actually touch part of the building she was in. It was a government-sponsored apartment block for single males. A few years ago, there would have been a security guard at the door, watching the inhabitants, but the Reformists had scrapped that particular policy, and now it looked just like any other tattered apartment block in the poorest district of the Kerlian capital.
“Yeah?” a man poked his head around the door in front of her. He looked as if he was of either Serrielan or Iskirami descent and had a scar across his cheek that Emma recognised as the result of a punishment in an Alt-Ed centre. She winced.
“Sorry to bother you,” she began politely. “I’m looking for Finlay Hale. Is this his address?”
“Hah!” the man in front of her scoffed. “He hasn’t lived here for years. Nah, he’s still the legal tenant here, but only cause I’m not eligible for government support – long story. He lives in the southern district, hang on and I’ll give you the address… come in if you like.”
He left the door wide open as he darted around a corner looking for something. Tentatively, she entered behind him looking around. To her left was a door to a tiny bedroom where she could see an en-suite shower room past a cheap-looking single bed. On her right was a blank wall on which hung a noticeboard containing leaflets about bin collections, local laws and fire evacuation rules. Ahead of her was a small kitchen and living area, which the man had entered, which looked old but clean.
“Here we are!” he grinned, holding a scrap of paper out to her. “I’ve seen you on TV, you know. I really admire what Councillor Hale is doing. Is she sick? Only, she has the real address so if you’re here she mustn’t be able to tell you.”
“Councillor Hale is… presently on vacation from her duties,” Emma replied cautiously, taking the paper from the man. “Thank you for the information. Are you aware this building is under surveillance from three separate parties?”
“Three? I’d only noticed two. It’s okay, if they send me back to prison your Councillor will get me out, Finlay said she would,” he shrugged, still smiling.
Emma bit her lip as she thanked him and quickly left the building. She did not share his confidence in her employer’s ability to save random people from imprisonment for living under false pretences in an apartment registered in her cousin’s name. It was hardly his fault, of course – clearly some conviction had made him ineligible for support and he couldn’t find employment – but that wouldn’t matter to the Kerlian courts.
Returning to where she’d parked her car, Emma drove to the new address she’d been given, arriving on a suburban-style street despite the area still legally being in the city. The address on the scrap of paper corresponded to the end house of a terrace with a thick covering of plants in the garden almost hiding the front door from view. Emma pushed past vines and rang the doorbell.
Tricks of light flashed through the peephole in the door, indicating someone was peering through, and then the door opened a crack and a hand gestured for Emma to come inside. The occupant was hiding behind the half-open door, meaning she couldn’t see who it was. She wasn’t particularly happy with this scenario at all, but this looked like the kind of area where someone would call the cops if she loitered (in such areas, even people in democracies called the cops). She entered, and Finlay closed the door behind her.
“Is Jennifer okay?” he asked hurriedly. “She hasn’t contacted me or returned my calls for a month. Something seems wrong.”
“Something is wrong,” Emma confirmed, relieved to see him. He led her through into a cosy living room whose windows overlooked a tangle of tall flowering bushes. “She needs your help. I can’t get through to her.”
“Tea, coffee?” Finlay offered.
“Tea would be lovely,” she replied.
He got to work making them both cups of tea, gesturing for her to explain what was happening as he did so. They’d met before, but never alone together, and Emma found herself suddenly feeling flustered about this. She swallowed whatever she was feeling and began the story.
“At the end of February Kerlile and LOM took part in a prisoner exchange. Who we gave them isn’t important, but in return we got an Aurora. She was… broken. More than normal, the kind of thing we usually only see after someone’s been a year in the RR. Councillor Hale was there when the Aurora got back. It upset her deeply. She began doubting her work with the Council, regretting her position in Kerlian society.”
“This has happened before, though, hasn’t it?” Finlay said, putting down the teas alongside a jug of milk and a small box of sugar cubes. Emma stuck a lump of sugar in her cup, sighed and continued.
“Not to this extent. When she first returned to Kerlile she didn’t want to join the Council, but upon seeing the good she could do for only a few, she reconciled it. After the TRC verdicts there was a lot of… I guess it was homesickness for Lauchenoiria. But this is something different entirely. She’s taken to bed and gets up only to shower about once a week. She won’t do anything, she says she’s going to stay there until 2023 and then move back to Lauchenoiria.”
“That doesn’t sound healthy,” Finlay said grimly. “What about Council votes?”
“She refuses. And she throws a fit if anyone addresses her as Councillor which is making the staff very nervous. I don’t know what to do, I wondered if you might have some insights. Or, better yet, if you could come and try to talk her out of this.”
“You’ve spent as much time as I have in my cousin’s company,” he pointed out.
“Yes, but you’re not her employee and you are… well, to put it bluntly, with these EUCDA amendments about to pass, you are of a higher social status to me.”
Finlay almost spit out his tea in response to her statement. “A Kerlian woman, calling a Kerlian man of a higher social status than her… have the oceans turned to ice, have the skies fallen, have Mascalin and Feminea descended to the mortal plane once more!?”
“No need to be so dramatic,” Emma replied wryly, sipping her tea. “All I’m saying is, you and Amelia are her only living relatives and Amelia is not yet two. I think that perhaps she might react better to you than to me right now.”
“I am definitely a test subject for some odd psychological brainwashing, this simply cannot be real,” he noted, then sighed. “Very well, shall I come with you now? People talk; Carmen Robinson is supposedly sending her daughters to Zongongia for unknown reasons, and there’s a sense of foreboding among those of us working for reform. We’ll need my cousin’s vote more than ever in the coming weeks, I fear.”
“Robinson? I haven’t heard anything,” Emma shrugged. “I think you’re paranoid but regardless, there’s no time like the present. I’ll let you get anything you need.”
Emma sat in the living room as Finlay bustled about the house packing a bag for an overnight stay or two at the official Hale residence. She didn’t know if this was the right thing to do, or if it would somehow make things worse, but she was desperate. It had been a month since Councillor Jennifer Hale had bothered to leave her bedroom. This couldn’t continue much longer, or her political rivals would take advantage of it.
LIDUN President 2024 | she/her | Puppets: Kerlile, Glanainn, Yesteria, Zongongia, Zargothrax