Muted

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

"What are you looking at, bitch?"

The words were said through the clenched teeth of a woman who had just been bought into the Rehabilitation Center by the Patrol. She sat, both arms cuffed to the rails of her bed, snarling at you, topless.

"Miss Tanaka, I am here to clean the wounds on your back," you spoke, ignoring her comment entirely. Being called names was nothing new. Truly, it was one of the milder behaviors you'd faced over the years, which is why you always worked in pairs.

Dr. Eteri stood next to you as you assessed her wound.

It was a long abrasion, caused by, from what you were told, accidentally falling on concrete while trying to escape the Patrol.  Just looking at the open flesh, you knew that cleaning the wound would be what your textbooks described as 'painful', since her Daily Supplement levels were low. 

"This will hurt a bit. There is gravel lodged into your skin from when you fell. I need to remove it," your voice was steady.

"Fell?" The woman sneered. "The Patrol dragged me across the ground!"

Your gloved hands froze mid air, just as you were about to apply antiseptic.

"Of course that was what they told you.  All you told are lies," Miss Tanaka continued, a bitter laughed parting her words. "I was simply existing, minding my own business when the Patrol took me in and dragged me across the pavement.  I wasn't hurting anyone!  I've never hurt no one!"

Suddenly, an image of Mr. Hanyu by the lake flashed through your mind. 

You had replayed that night from a few days ago in your mind a few hundred times since it happened.  That night, Mr. Hanyu displayed the signs of Sense Offense.  Yet, even so, you couldn't deny that he didn't seem like a threat to others, and like Miss Tanaka claimed about herself, he was simply minding his own business and not hurting anyone. 

Yet, you know that if the Patrol had found him, like they had Miss Tanaka, perhaps he would be the one in the bed before you with a gaping wound on his back.

You flinched.

"Something wrong, Dr. Lawson?" Dr. Eteri eyed you.

You shook your head, your fingers quickly pressing antiseptic into the woman's wound with sterile cloth.

Miss Tanaka hissed, but her words kept coming. "I was not hurting anything. I was simply drawing poor, innocent flowers.  Flowers!  Something that used to grow naturally before you all took that away too."

Flowers. Another thing you had only heard about but never seen with your own eyes. It was a plant from the Pre-war era. Considered a luxury, they were eradicated to make way for more 'useful' plants that could feed the population. In fact, growing flowers was illegal now. Well, it was illegal to grow anything without the Regime's permission.

"Have you ever seen one, girl? Do you even know what a flower looks like? You don't, do you?"

You tried to ignore her words, continuing on with your work.

"Open your eyes and look at my lower back. Just above my ass,"  Miss Tanaka continued, craning her neck towards you. When you made no movement to follow her commands, she jerked against her restraints, yelling over her shoulder, "For once in your life, actually open your eyes! Look!"

Startled, you did.

Your eyes moved to the small divots of her pelvis, and then lower. There, just above her buttocks you found intricate patterns of delicate ovals, unfurling in layers, etched in ink.  Flowers.

It was not the first time you had seen a tattoo. You thought it would be the first time you saw a flower too, but it wasn't. Something about this design, this specific flower, tugged at your memory, elusive and familiar.

You paused, searching your mind for the connection. Then, it struck you.

You'd seen it before, framed in the light of Yuzuru Hanyu's apartment. There, within a picture frame, the pastel hues and soft edges of this pattern on his sister's dress had captured your attention. The same delicate flowers, reminiscent of a bygone era, had held your breath then, just as they did now.