Displaced

Wicken - Twenty-Eight

I followed Lilly's advice and went back to my closet to sleep. I had a hard time calling it a room; it just wasn't big enough to be classified as such. The magic pill helped me sleep through the morning alarm. Once again, I woke up groggy, but a little more refreshed than last time. Taped to my head was a note from Justice.

"Don't forget about your meeting with Patriarch. Try not to wander too much."

Deciding to keep things simple, I stayed in bed. I didn't get a chance to feel bored because Patriarch came into the room.

He poked his head into my bunk. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, sore, but managing. I'll be able to do my job soon, don't worry." I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. "If I'm being honest, I'm ready for it even if I will probably still hurt like no other. Doing nothing hasn't done much for me. I'm glad that I've been able to just sleep it all off. If I were awake, I'd probably be doing a lot more thinking than I am."

"And that's kind of a scary thought, huh? Maybe it would lead to that breakdown you still haven't had."

I rolled my eyes. "I don't have mental breakdowns, sorry to disappoint you. It's still hard to wrap my head around the whole thing. Still, I'd stop expecting me to cry like a baby and freak out."

Patriarch arched an eyebrow, shrugging. "If you say so. That's the apprehension I have of putting you in my restaurant. Something could go wrong, you get set off, and then my kitchen is in shambles. I can't have that happening, now can I?"

"Right, because when I have my hypothetical meltdown, I'm going to incinerate and destroy your business." I scoffed at the idea. "Patriarch, chances are, if it happens I'll be curled up into the fetal position, bawling my eyes out and crying for my Mom, even though I'm probably better off without her."

"You don't get along with your mother?"

"When she's sober, we get along fine."

He sighed, giving me a sympathetic smile. "So you're more hard than you let on. I think I understand now. This is why you decided to rebel when the Achlivans came to take you away. You know independence more fully than most people your age."

"Gee, you're pretty insightful. Were you a shrink in another life?"

"I was a teacher before I came to the ship. My wife and I were taken around fifteen years ago. I taught at a university, she was a housewife. We were on our last family vacation together. My youngest was going to college, and my oldest was going into the army. Now we're all here instead," he said.

I frowned. "All in the Pit?"

"No, they live on the Surface with my wife. Actually, if I can confess this to you and not have you get angry with me, that is where I sleep most nights."

Anger isn't the word I would use to describe what filled me. I think the word would be disappointment. I averted my gaze, not wanting to look at him anymore. "Here I thought you related to us and understood what was going on down here."

"I do understand which is why I run my restaurant the way I do," he said. "The way things work here on Salvation, is that choice jobs like restaurants are considered a luxury. The Achlivans would never let Undesirables work in one. At least, they wouldn't until I explained to them my second chance program for guys like you."

It was nice to know someone cared about the Undesirables who wasn't one of them. I hadn't been on the ship for long, but I could see how it made everyone rough. If I had to work in the Pit all of the time, I'd probably shut down and stop caring about life altogether. The fact that there were people on the Surface who wanted to make things better for everyone on the ship and not just themselves, gave me some hope that things might not completely suck for me.