Haline

Chapter 2: Part 1

“Our forefathers almost lost all food-bearing crops to the sulfuric acid rains they themselves caused by spraying sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere in an attempt to reduce the effects of climate change. Though these rains continue today, we are fortunate to have negotiated preferred terms with our neighbors to the south who are gifted with better weather and bountiful fields of produce. With these agreements, we expect to comfortably exceed demand in the coming years. I give daily thanks to have such generous partners as we heal as a people and as a country.”

— President Gaven Jemmer, Second State of the State, first term

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SAME DAY


EVENING, GAMMA RING

As his apartment door slid open Joaquin realized Lyla had beaten him home. It had only been two days since he’d authorized her to his apartment, and he instinctively tensed at the unfamiliar sound of someone in his kitchen. In his eight years since graduating from college he’d never had a roommate, and in all his twenty-nine years he’d never had a real girlfriend—let alone one who had access to his apartment—but he needed to get past that. Joaquin relaxed and smiled at the prospect of Lyla in his apartment before he got home every evening. It felt good.

“Hi, honey,” he jingled as he walked into the kitchen. Joaquin lifted the mesh bag of groceries over his head andplaced it onto the table, setting the water canister down next to it. He came up behind her at the sink where she was sanitizing the dishes, humming quietly yet cheerily along with the pop tune playing softly on the panel radio. At his touch on her waist she jumped, and for a split second the glass in her hand was lost to gravity before she caught it and whipped around.

“Joaquin! I didn’t hear you...for God’s sake, don’t ever do that again. I thought you were...just...”

“C’mon Lyla, really? Like you have to worry about anything. The moment anyone recognized you?” Who would dare mess with the congressional leader’s daughter? Not even the police. Not yet, anyway.

“Yeah well, I worry. Not everyone likes my broadcasts.” She sighed and turned her eyes to the table. “Ah, thank you for getting the groceries.” She put the glass down and gave Joaquin a quick want-to-be-angry-at-you-but-I’m-not-really glance before making her way over to the mesh bag.

“You know how much I hate the store. What’s that on your wrist?”

“Huh? Oh.” Joaquin looked down, again forgetting he was wearing it. “It’s called a watch. It tells time, and people used to wear it outside their wrist. Fascinating, right?”

Lyla unfastened the bag and began carefully taking out each item for inspection.

“Yeah, but not as fascinating as these vegmos. I swear, beta-carrots are getting smaller every day. And this c-bellpepper...it’s the size of a tangberry.” Her mildly disgruntled tone matched her bent eyebrows and frowning lips.

“Well, at least we have carrots and bells, Lyla.” Joaquin turned his head to stare out the window of his kitchen into his neighbor’s window in the adjacent building. The older, fatigued woman he often saw there this time of evening stood sanitizing dishes as he’d expected.

“I saw a girl today at the store. She couldn’t have been more than five, all skin and bones. Her mother was grazing...” His voice trailed off, and he turned to Lyla. “I wonder how she’ll grow up, you know?”

“That’s not our problem, Joaquin.” Lyla’s mild frustration became mildly more severe as she evaluated the petite, genetically modified vegetables laid out in front of her. “Right now, our problem is how you and I are going to grow up. This’ll barely be enough for a proper dinner, and I know they charged you more than last time.” She shook her head. “We’ll have to place a bigger order next time. Again.”

Joaquin heard her, but his eyes turned back out the window to the woman, and his thoughts strayed back to the girl at the store.