The Tattooed | Completed | ✔

Chapter 12 - Hello Baby

It's been a month since we moved to Central, we've fallen into a routine. Eddy has school all week and is gone to another house one Saturday. Dimitri works everyday except Sunday but last week he was called to work in the middle of the night and has been gone every time I wake in the middle of the night. We don't speak often, Eddy keeps to herself and Dimitri is to far gone with work and sleep to carry on a conversation. When he's home he is either in his office or sleeping, we barely see him even for meals and I silently tell myself this mission will be over soon, that we can go home and every thing will be normal between us. I haven't spoken to anyone from Fuga since we left them behind in a cloud of dust at dawn. Ella won't even take my rings, she's either gone or to busy to talk.

I'm left to gossip with the other wives, though it repeats every day. Same rumor, different person speaking. Same rumor, different details. I nod and laugh along with the women, speaking in hushed tones whenever the victim of our words is near. They don't celebrate Holiday here, it's a lost time for them. No one opens gifts or gathers with family. The weather has begun to warm little by little and it no longer snows. The wives have taken me shopping for spring wear, the money I have set aside for such thing, leaves my pocket quickly. I have more clothes now than I will be able to wear in a single season but if it allows me into the minds and homes of these people than so be it. Dimitri hasn't said anything about my spending and I intend to spend as much as I can until he speaks up about it.

Ester is eight, almost nine, months along and she is beginning to have labor pains. She's worried because this hasn't happened before and she's bigger than she should be. Her husband wants her to go to a hospital but she continues to refuse. I've spend the last week in her home, tending to her and her two children. Ester's ankles have swollen to the point where she can no longer walk or stand for long. Her children are quiet, minding themselves and playing in their bedroom. I take my time, whenever Ester falls asleep, to search their room. Nothing has come up yet but then again I have stayed away from her husbands office. the door seems to stay closed all day and when her husband returns, he stays in there for hours.

Today I will try to go there and open the door, if it is locked then I know that he is hiding something. Tomorrow I'm bringing Ester and the children to visit her mother, her father is out of town and her mother wants to thank me. Dimitri left me a note to make sure I check the office for hidden compartments, there might be one in the floor just behind the desk. I am searching for documents, anything to do with the Government.

It's five in the morning and I'm due at Ester's in two hours, Eddy is due for school the same time. Today I will be late, today I am driving Eddy to school and meeting with her teacher. She has been doing well in her after school lessons and the teacher wants to talk about her future in music, if she has one that is. She will be asking about the up coming music show, if Eddy can play in it, I will say yes and move the meeting onto more Government related things with small talk. Her teacher is married to the a head government official, he along with three others, run this world. They run the Tattoo-less world, they ask for the children and will take them if I do not help my cities in figuring out why.

My stomach lurches, I'm going to vomit. My feet tangle in the sheets as I leap from them. The bathroom door is open as I leave it every night before bed, I must have eaten something raw last night. We had chicken, I cooked, I must have left some of it uncooked. Eddy might be sick too, I'll have to check on her later. The toilet is cold, my hands are pressed to it's sides. The contents of my stomach leave my mouth violently, I keep my eyes closed. The smell is terrible and I know if I look, it will make me even sicker. Vomit comes out my nose and drips down my chin, my head is now laying on the side of the toilet. My stomach is hurting and I know I should find something to calm it but I know if I move, I will vomit again.