INKWELL

Chapter Eight

June 1, 2081

The sound of a horn blew, breaking through the noise in the air. The continuity of the horn caused a frown to spread on my face.

"Everyone please get out of the pool and follow the officers," a loud voice said. It was loud so I guessed it was said with a microphone.

I looked around to see a few officers standing around the pool waiting. Caroline, the female officer I met in the rocket, was waving at me. I moved through the water towards her direction.

"What's happening?"

She had an excited smile on her face. "We are going to have our first world meeting. It's so unreal. For the first time, the world will have a common meeting."

I walked out of the water and stared at my cloth. It was yellow. It had been so long since it was covered with ink, I had forgotten what colour it was. Although there were still traces of the ink imbedded in it, I couldn't take my eyes off it.

"It's beautiful."

I looked up at Caroline and then turned to the direction she was looking at. "What?"

"The people. It's been so long I saw anyone without the ink on their body. I never thought I'll see other colours, the beautiful skin colours of humans."

I turned and watched the people moving out of the water before turning back to her. "Don't you want to join and wash up in the water?"

"Later. Right now, I have to perform my duty. After that, I can splash around the water as much as I want."

I turned back to the water. "It really is beautiful," I said after a few seconds.
The people were moving towards the shore and ink trailed behind them towards the white rock. It had an artistic feel to it that I wished I had a camera to capture the moment.

A click behind me took my attention and I turned to see Caleb holding a camera.

"Isn't it dangerous to use that here? What if it causes more pollution?"

"You mean this?" He raised the camera. "It's something from the old times. It's about 20 years old, my dad's camera. I found someone to fix it up while we were on earth. Besides," he gestured to the pool, "that is one shot I would've regretted missing."

I smiled. "True."

He took a look at me, raised his camera and took a shot.

"What was that for?" I asked, giggling.

He looked at his camera. "Another shot I would have regretted missing."

I turned away when I felt my cheeks burning up.

"Anyway, mum wants you to come with me."

I frowned. "What's happening?"

"She wants to talk to you, I guess."

"Okay." I turned to look for Mrs. Abimbola and the girls. They were moving out of the water but they were taking their time to do it.
"Caroline, please can you tell them I've gone to meet Angela?"

I raised a brow when she didn't reply, and chuckled as I realized she was drooling over Caleb.

Caleb smiled at her. "Hi."

"Hey." She waved at him.

He turned to me, still smiling. "How about I wait for you over there? Maybe I can find more pictures to take."

I nodded and watched as he left.

"That's Caleb, Angela's son."

I rolled my eyes. "I know."