Antumbra - A Lost Cause

Well Enough Alone - Chapter Four

Arva laid in her bed, the covers over her head just enough to leave a window for her to stare at her newfound treasure. She had it propped up in the only bare space in the room, almost making it look like a weird chair given how it bent when pressed up to the wall. She had, in her frustration, thrown all of Hannah's things off the floor and onto her bed in protest of her sister's lack of organization to make room for this addition to the decor. Hannah, in turn, simply pushed everything off when it was time for bed, though at least this left the clutter mostly off of Arva's side of the room. The little girl was fast asleep, but Arva's mind was too cluttered. She was as disorganized with her thoughts as Hannah was with her stuff, resorting to just pushing it out of the way whenever she needed something, but it was finally catching up to Arva as she lay in bed at midnight. Several things nagged her, not the least of which were the lack of calls from any of her job prospects. Disappointing, but not unexpected. Then there was the five dollars she'd earned, which she grew to feel undeserving of yet still accepted. She didn't like obsessing over money, but as Hannah grew up she found they had less of it to go around. She didn't blame her sister, at least not for things as out of her control as that, but the reality was things were getting tight. Tighter than Gramma would ever admit, or Hannah would understand, as they survived off a dwindling nest egg despite rising living costs for three. Arva didn't have aspirations of wealth, she just wanted her family to be comfortable and secure. Finally, near the back of her mind, there was that man she'd met, the one who was so nice to her. It felt childish to say out loud, but inside she thought about how he was handsome and kind, and those were two things not often found together. Especially in humans, and certainly not in the city. As Arva remembered him, the disparity between them, and the size of his hands compared to her own, she recalled what he'd asked about.

"Unusual debris," Arva muttered to herself. That was too much of a coincidence. Not a day after he asked, she finds this giant metal caterpillar, as Hannah had definitively dubbed it, in a neighbour's yard. Now a new conflict boiled inside of her: whether or not she'd report it. He was with the military, which meant she could be dealing with something serious or life-threatening. Maybe he'd offer her a reward for finding it? Yet something like this could also be worth a lot, more than five dollars at least. Then again, if she tried to sell it, she could get in trouble if it was reported. Then she'd have nothing. It wasn't usable for anything, it was just junk. How valuable could junk really be? The thought of potentially seeing the man again also wasn't so bad.

Arva groaned, stuffing her head under the blankets and into her pillow. She just wanted to sleep right now, to turn her brain off completely. She'd have to make more résumés tomorrow, then head back to the city, which meant lots of walking. She couldn't stay around the house all day and stew. Her knees were tired from all the lifting, and Elia had offered her to go over to a friend's house. Apparently someone in the slums got a pool, much to her disbelief. It was, in her opinion, a waste of money. Plus unless it was indoors it could very well be trashed during the next Umbra. That said, the closest she'd ever seen to a pool was a bathtub, so the offer was tantalizing if only for the novelty. These more mundane thoughts helped divert her attention, and eventually she was able to fall asleep without worry of what her next life decision had to be.

*******

The following day Arva found herself sitting outside a boutique, crossing one foot over her knee to take the pressure off. She was running out of options close to home, and found herself looking for job opportunities deeper and deeper into the city. A nervous shiver ran up her neck as she considered the folly in looking for work so far from home without transportation. In her desperation she'd traveled so far into the metropolis that she didn't even recognize her surroundings, which only added to her nerves, but she could at least mentally retrace her path by remembering the order of stores she'd applied to. Not that any seemed interested, of course. Not in her. She pulled out a copy of her résumé. Gramma had helped her write it, but it was only two pages. She had no references, no actual workplace experience, just a list of jobs she'd done around the community and a broad set of skills that were highly embellished. Hardly comparable to actual employment, but someone, somewhere, had to have an opening for her. She re-read her cover letter, which was almost as bare-bones as the rest. All it did was remind her how little she actually knew, which chipped away at the confidence she'd worked so hard to build. She looked up, trying to gauge the time of day by the sky, but this deep into the city it was hard to make out the direction of the sun from what little was visible through the perpetual veil of cloud cover. For all Arva knew it could be either noon or dinner time, and as she saw a man walking by, staring at his phone, she stood up to meet him.