One Hundred

Chapter Five

Back inside, the house feels quiet. I put away the dirty dishes and settle in my room to read a novel, but I can’t help lapsing into daydreams. I imagine getting my results back with my career prospectus attached to the front. I have already seen my brother’s. For him, it was a cream piece of paper with type calligraphy on it:

‘This is to confirm that the education board of the New City has considered and reviewed the aptitude examinations for Tom Daley and have hereby determined that he is suitable to pursue the prospect of ‘dairy farmer’.  

In my daydream it says ‘teacher’ and I imagine the party that we would have at our house afterwards. Pop would make a special roast. We would invite Bill and Robin and their families. I would invite Lisa and Tom would be there of course. On special occasions we have iced lemonade and double chocolate cake for desert.

The next week moves slowly and begrudgingly at half pace. I struggle to push through each day but end up counting the minutes. My fantasy about becoming a schoolteacher keeps creeping into my day. Titus keeps to himself at school and barely acknowledges me. Meanwhile, Lisa is struggling to recover from the trauma of the aptitudes and continues to look vacant eyed. Miss Tinkler tries to keep our minds off the inevitable by giving us no homework and having an encouraging smile permanently fixed to her face.

Tuesday afternoon, I go out riding on our horses with Tom. We have two ten year old horses that we keep because we don’t know what else to do with them.  

“Who’s going to look after old Mary for you become a teacher and leave the farm?” asks Tom as his mare trots along.

“I’m sure that you’ll find someone Tom” I reply, giving Mary a gentle stroke. “Anyway, I’m sure to come back and visit” I say without much reassurance. I know that if I become a teacher, I will leave this place and possibly never come back. The teaching academy is four hours’ away by sky commute and travel restrictions are getting tighter and tighter.

“Will you though? I’ll bet you’ll get too caught up in your new life. And with the restrictions…”. Tom looks upset. “It’s just, we hardly have anyone left in this family. It’ll just be me and Pop and then…just me.”

“Tom, this is about more than just me leaving to go to a more interesting place to live. I want to see…I want to try to continue on the work that mum and dad did and I can’t do that from here.”

“You know very well what happened at the last uprising.”

I did know, because that’s when our parents had died.  The uprising had protested the segregation of the New City and the Old World. Mum and dad had both been teachers living in a town called Mapleton, when an infection broke out in the Old World and swept through the towns and the villages. People were ill and hospitals were understaffed. Eventually medication began to run out, but no further supply came from the New City. At this point, the citizens who were well began to protest.

They journeyed to the wall and marched in their hundreds, demanding additional supplies of drugs, which the New City with its advanced technology would have no trouble producing. Citizens of the Old World were sure that by with-holding further supply, the New City was in fact trying to kill our kind. Our parents were at the rally and were part of a pro-integration group that had managed to steal through the wall and entered one of the alpha hospitals in disguise. There, the group broke into the pharmacy and were making their way out with cartons of the drug, when they were caught. The entire group was arrested and jailed but infection was rife in the prison and both of our parents died from the disease. I believe that they weren’t given treatment, although this was not the official story. After that, Tom and I were sent to live with our grandparents on the dairy farm.

“ So, Aida, how do you fancy inspiring the world towards integration?

“I don’t know. I want to go to the teaching academy and see what other people are thinking. I know I can’t be the only one.”

Our horses trot along comfortably. The surrounding landscape is honeyed in the mellow afternoon sunlight. It is still and silent, save for the sound of the occasional bird calling. Can I truly bear to leave this part of the world? Something inside me tells me I must.