Celista 2077

chapter 5

Aurelia exited the library and walked two blocks east and one block north. The architecture of the buildings wasn't as nice as the library and the city hall only a few blocks away, but it was still nice with all brick walls and nice decorum. She entered what the map labeled Town Thrift Shop.

As soon as she walked in she could smell the familiar smell from the underground store in Seattle. It was a commingling of smells of old books, old clothing, and old toys and things that people had to eventually discard but thought maybe someone else could find useful. Aurelia immediately knew she stumbled into exactly the place she needed to be. It was a relatively nice sized store with only one employee visible, a very old man behind a counter. There were a few other customers in the store but it was quite empty.

Aurelia made her way to the section of women's clothing. It was all used clothing but most of it in fair condition. She started rifling through the t-shirts and found some sizes to fit her. And there it was. As she was sliding hangers with shirts on them across the rack she came across a navy blue shirt that read Ovington across it. Aurelia knew right away she hit the jackpot. Her endless research on Celista taught her that Celista has four schools, one in each of the quadrants. The southeast quadrant's school is named Ovington. The other schools are named McNaughton, Persimmon and Remillard. The schools are all named after mountains in the area, which was done because the people of Celista wanted to always honor the natural beauty of the area.

The shirt was Aurelia's ticket. Once she purchased this and a pair of used jeans, she could perfectly blend in and present herself as a student from Ovington just out walking around. Aurelia managed to find a pair of jeans. They were not in the best shape. There was a rather large hole where the left knee would stick out, but she felt this pair of jeans would fit well. The last piece of her ensemble would be shoes. Her current shoes were alarmingly non-Celistan and torn to hell after walking all those miles in the wilderness. She made her way to the other section of the store. There was no one near her which made her feel comfortable but yet anxious at the same time. She couldn't help but feel she was being watched. There weren't many shoes to choose from. She didn't know what a girl her age in Celista might even wear when it came to shoes. Finally she pulled a pair out of a box that looked about right, a pair of red canvas shoes with a with white rubber soles and a white rubber coating over the toe area. It reminded Aurelia of the shoes worn in the old pictures of punk bands from the 2020s. She loved that music. She looked at the inside of the tongue of the shoes and they were a perfect size 8 with a big C stamped indicating they were made in Celista.

She suddenly felt like things were going her way and walked over to the cash register. The man at the register looked very old. It was hard for Aurelia to guess his age since most people she knew aged so gracefully. Her best guess was that this man was eighty if he was a day. She placed all her items on the counter and he looked at the stickers on each item noting the prices. He counted and looked at Aurelia.

"OK, sweetheart. This will be nine cents."

"Can do." Aurelia pulled out nine cents from her bag. She would have liked to buy a new backpack as well but she was afraid that might look suspicious. She was nervous and her hands were shaking. She mustered the dexterity to give the old man a nickel and four pennies.

"Thank you, sweetie. Say, do you attend Ovington school?"

"Yes." She just blurted it out. She felt he was trapping her. He was on to her. He would call the authorities and she'd be shipped out in no time.

"My daughter graduated from Ovington. And my grandkids go there now. Do you know Walter Wescott?" He looked at her and his smile had an inquisitive twinkle to it. She feared it was a trap. This was her first test. Either this man was making up the name to trap her and have her say yes, or the old man had a grandson at Ovington named Walter. The schools were too small for Aurelia to say no and then claim she didn't know this Walter fellow. Everyone in a Celistan school knows everyone else.

"Yes. Oh, yeah, Walter. He's great." Aurelia went bold and said yes and smiled.

"He is great, our family is so proud of him. Are you in the twelfth grade with him?"

"Yes. Going into twelfth grade this year." Aurelia felt she wasn't being weird or rude by not saying her name.

"Wonderful. I think it's great when young people reuse these old clothes. Still plenty of life in them. Here's a bag, and you're good to go." He placed her items in a paper bag and handed it to her.

Aurelia smiled again and took her bag of new but yet old clothes. She was making progress and now needed to focus on shelter.