The Tides That Bind Us [AfroFuturism]

Where The Heart Is

Life is just a simulation.

Most crazy conspiracy theories had died off, but that one remained—an ugly wound reopened over and over. A spam email about it out had landed in Zaharah's inbox a month ago during a slow day at the lab. And she'd read the attached article out of shear boredom. By the end she'd wanted to find the author and beat them for the full twenty minutes of her life she'd wasted reading that hog wash. We're all at the mercy of predetermined programming, it had boasted. A bunch of garbage, yet she thought back to that article every time it rained in Denden. 

Well... "rained." 

The sprinklers in the ceiling doused the pine trees of the south shore arboretum, a simulation of a natural phenomenon, controlled by an automated system. It produced the same earthy smell that everyone else loved but she loathed.

But it wasn't rain. Just water that was probably someone's piss this morning. How à propos. Zaharah sighed. At least piss was warm. She'd grown so numb that she couldn't feel the droplets pelting her back anymore.

Markus had told her to take an umbrella that morning but she'd rushed out of the house like usual, left most of her things behind like usual. Her hood protected her head from the downpour as she walked along a path through the trees.

The neon sign marking the south shore residence block beckoned her onward, into its cozy warmth. The linoleum floors and plain grey walls looked like the vestibule of a palace after her trudge through the rain. Lockers lined the walls of the foyer, one for each apartment. Zaharah swiped her keycard on the box labeled 2F and stuffed her longboard between Jade's skates and Markus' bike.

Her boots squished with every step as she drifted past open doors, with music, news and home-cooked meals wafting into the hall. Almost seven hundred people lived in the south shore complex, closer to five hundred without the android caretakers, some new arrivals, some who'd been there their whole lives. She took the stairwell up to the second floor, and the scent of mutton curry hit her long before she reached the open door of apartment 2F.

Zaharah slipped off her soggy socks and shoes, slow as not to alert anyone. She left them by the door and snuck past the couch and TV stand. The door to her room shined like a lighthouse guiding her to safe harbor.

"Is that you, Zaharah?"

Shit.

Demarkus ambled in from the kitchen, an oven mitt over one hand and a pair of tongs in the other, dark yellow curry splotches staining his Best Android Ever apron. His eyes drifted to the puddle growing at her feet, then to the basket of umbrellas beside the door, and finally to her face.

"Zaharah..." Her name rode a long exhale, disappointment laced between each syllable. "Did I not tell you to take an umbrella? And why weren't you answering your phone? I've been trying to call you for hours."

She toyed with the end of a braid strung through with neon purple chord, so she wouldn't have to look at him. Even though he was an android, he'd mastered the disappointed father stare, potent enough to invoke the highest levels of shame. "Yeah. I forgot... everything."

"Just get out of those wet clothes." He turned on his heel and disappeared into the kitchen, while Zaharah took the walk of shame to her room.

Jade lounged on her bunk, EDM music blasting through her bright blue headphones. Skorpi, their mechpet and another thing Zaharah had forgotten at home, laid on the bed next to her. A scorpion as his name suggested, complete with pincers and a stinger, but no venom. The holo finish on his body ran the rainbow gambit as he rolled over to greet Zaharah with a few melodic beeps.

Jade looked up from her phone and arched her brows at her sister's sorry state. Bad day? She signed.

Zaharah didn't answer. A chewing out from Markus was enough; she didn't need Jade on her case too. She found her phone where she'd left it, on the charging dock on her desk. The indicator lights blinked with demands for her attention in the form of emails and texts. She ignored their luminescent pleas and fished in her drawers for some dry clothes.