To Escape From Gravity

Chapter Eleven

When Normar was a child, riding the transit cars down to Wardor held a certain level of adventure. Due to Mother's various roles in the political realm, the family would venture down once or twice a year. Sometimes it was to accomplish a task in the ground city, or to travel to other sky cities, which led to even more excitement. But over the years, the charm was lost and Normar didn't find it exhilarating. She could no longer see grungy streets and depressive buildings down there as a captivating new world. She saw the squalor and the hardship. The overarching sky and the ever-expanding landscape swallowed her up. The dust and the wind teamed up in stifling her breaths. Normar had her grievances with Miasten and the social climate of the sky cities, but she found the actual climate of the earth suffocating.

"Two silver, if you please," the transit operator said with an extended hand.

Dropping the fare in his palm, Normar shuffled into the transit car with the remaining twenty-some passengers.

The transit car was a glorified steel box. There weren't any windows, the only thing it contained were six rows of seats, ten across. All of the seats faced forward towards the front of the car, where the door was.

While the interior was sterile in feel, the deep blue seats were rather comfy. Well-cushioned and soft, it made for a pleasant eight-minute trip down the transit tube. Normar ended up being seated between a middle-aged woman who was dressed a bit too nicely for a casual visit to Wardor, and a businessman who seemed disgruntled at being on the journey.

Most times when she was around strangers, Normar enjoyed making small talk. Conversing with a new person came naturally to her, and she'd manage to gracefully avoid the awkwardness that usually occurs. On this trip though, her mind was too occupied to initiate anything with the strangers surrounding her.

Some of the other passengers made such chatter, and the transit car was filled with a low volume of casual conversations. From the small speaker in the upper corners of the car, the operator announced the descent would begin in a few moments.

Normar rested her head against the back of her seat, waiting for the journey to begin and trying to focus on settling her racing thoughts. She had just begun to near something like calmness when a voice to her left snapped her out of her quietude.

"You look like you've been down there quite often," the woman next to her stated, though the end hung more like a question.

Normar turned slightly to look at her. "Not often, but a few times." She might have been inclined to be irritated at the interruption, but something about the woman's demeanor intrigued her. Normar noticed that her hands slightly twitched, and her expression held a note of apprehension or worry.

"It's just the way that you're dressed, you seem to know what to be prepared for. I didn't really know how to dress, it rather overwhelmed me to think about."

That explained it. It was her first time going to a ground city. That was also intriguing. At initial glance, she didn't appear wealthy enough to exclusively travel by air shuttle, which were small, hovering transit cars that could make the miles-long journey directly between sky cities. For the poorer citizens of sky cities, although poor was not a word that should be used for them, it would be too much of an expense. The more affordable transportation between sky cities was going down to a ground city then taking a bus, truck, or sand rider across the desert, then ascending up to the desired sky city through its ground counterpart.

It seemed odd to Normar that this woman was in her forties, yet didn't know what it was like down below. But some lady's lack of experience was none of her concerns.

"You'll be fine, I'm sure. It's quite windy down there, but once you're inside a building, it'll be pleasant," she offered a little reassurance.

The woman's hands continued to flutter and tremble. Her clothing of choice was a burgundy wrap that covered her almost like a tunic. It looked flattering, but would not at all have been Normar's recommendation for a visit to Wardor. It wouldn't do the nervous lady any good to know that.