An Inch Of Infinity (Short Version)

CHAPTER 69- Settling in

Our next room will have a bunk bed and an elevated bed. I wonder if Faith will make them take out a bed to make room for her mat, or if she will sleep on a bed like a normal human. Either way, I'm sure she'll make it work.

I go to sleep for the last time in my room that night as the days slowly drag by in a never ending process as slow, or maybe slower then how long I would have to wait for fresh bread at churches back in the block, just to be turned away when they run out. I guess that's life. Stale bread makes the fresh bread taste better, just like bad days make the good days better in comparison. Bad makes good. Maybe I should be in the asylum, I hardly make it to myself!

When I wake up Faith is pulling art supplies out of a cavity in the wall. I toss her a tote bag on the floor next to Emily's bed. She doesn't even flinch when it hits her in the side. I mumble an apology and drag myself out of bed. I've never been a morning person but I usually can power through it. Not today.

I step into my shoes and pull my jacket over myself, not because I'm cold but I don't want to look lazy walking around in my pajamas. I brush my hair swiftly and I stumble out of the room, through the hallway and to the cafeteria. I mumble a good morning to Coral who looks tired to, but answers me with a cheery hello.

I eat a bowl of oatmeal and grab an apple. I munch on my apple as I walk back to pack my stuff. It won't be as hard as Faith's job. She has at least six boxes worth of art supplies, and nobody knows where it comes from. I only took three bites out of the apple, all on the same side, by the time I reached the room.

"Hey, did you bring me breakfast?" asked Faith as I walked in. I shake my head and show her the bites. She doesn't look impressed.

"Do I look like I care? Don't be a douche bag. Unless you want me to bite you, I suggest that you give me something else to bite." I take a juicy bite out of the other side of the apple and toss it to her. She catches it and bites into it, juice dribbling down her slightly rounded chin. I shove all my stuff that I can into my backpack, then I wrap the rest in my quilt and sling it over my shoulder. The new room is empty. They already moved out. I climb up the bunk bed, just to find Corals blanket and book resting on it.

I climb the elevated bed , and on top is faith art supplies. I claim the bed under Corals. I am disappointed to get the last pick. I set my MP3 player and speakers on the bedside table next to my bed. This will be my room until, until we reach Australia, or if a boat sinks, unlikely though because we lined the walls with more wood and water proof paint and we have even more safety devices all over the place. I play My MP3 player. It still hasn't repeated, but I deleted all songs about The Royals, inappropriate stuff, and with bad words. I like most of the music, but I don't care for rap. I still have about five hours of unplayed music left. Then I can listen to the rest of the 249.3 hours I already listened to. I really need to get a life.

I will be leaving with the boats, but I guess that's no surprise. I have no reason to stay here. We made an armory and stocked it with, well, weapons. We finished all of the houses and buildings except for the mall, which still needs a roof which has plans already drawn up. That's not a problem.

The biggest concern is whether or not the Keepers and royals will find us, or the people we will leave behind. Maybe they won't find either. I hope that's the case, but it's never that easy, it's never simple.

I leave the room to see if there is anything to do. From the deck I can see Faith coming out of the jungle with maybe thirty sticks. Some are sticks and some are more like branches, and a few are basically logs. I watch, bewildered as she lugs them back onto our boat. I follow her. She dumps them on the floor and runs into me on her way back for more.

"What the heck are you doing? You're getting leaves and bark all over the place!" I exclaim. She looks into my eyes.

"I need them and I can't explain what for, you just have to see. I swear I will clean up!" she offers. I sigh and help her carry back three more loads, until she has enough wood to surely make a bed or desk. She leaves and returns with a small blue gun.

"OH MY GOSH! WHY DO YOU HAVE A GUN? PUT THAT DOWN!" I cried out. She raises an eyebrow and pulls the trigger. A clean gooey substance comes out. Now I can see its a cordless hot glue gun. I face burns with embarrassment. She snickers. You can't blame me. She isn't exactly tame.

She sets to work on her sticks. She has a gallon bag of refills for the glue gun. I don't want to ask where she got it.

I know this will take a while and go into the hall and pick up leaves and bark pieces off the ground. I help Coral stock the armory. We put everything from slingshots to fancy tech stuff I don't even recognize. We eat lunch and go for a walk in the jungle. We pass a giant tree with vines crawling up the side. Coral stops to look it over.

"Race you to the top!" Coral challenges.

"You're on!" I say and race to the tree. I grab the nearest vine and pull myself up the trunk. We scramble up the branches, until we reach a point where the branches are too thin to hold our weight alone. We step carefully, holding the trunk as we go. The tree starts to sway as we get higher up. I reach the last branch first and jump for the tip of the tree. I don't know what I was thinking.

I grab it and the entire tree begins to bend over. Fast at first, then slower and slower. I don't let go and I pass Coral a few feet below me. She looks like she doesn't know if she should be laughing at me or helping me out. I keep holding on and the branch keeps on bending slowing down until the thin trunk snaps and I fall. I can barely gasp. I swear I hit all of the branches on my way down and I get scratched and a little bruised. I thankfully get stuck in a fork between two of the branches instead of hitting the ground. I wheeze as I hit and the wind is knocked out of me. Coral is at my side in a minute. She doesn't seem to know what to do. Nothing feels broken. Once I find my breath I smile.

"I won, I got to the top first." I giggle and soon we are both laughing our heads off. It is almost dark by the time we finally climb down the tree. We get back to camp. All of the houses have a glow inside and have curtains hanging in the windows. Every house has a door and all of the houses are complete. Some are even painting their houses.

We get back to our boat and go to our room. I see what Faith had been doing with all of those sticks and branches. She wove them into a nest around her bed and secured them with, apparently, hot glue. I can see several places where she obviously is hiding art supplies but I only know they are there because I know to look.

I crawl under my covers and drift into a dreamless sleep. It was nice to have an uneventful day for once. Nobody died, nothing extremely bad or good happened. It was nice. The next morning I am getting ready to take off. All of the beds and furniture must be nailed down.

Coral visits me just as I finish. We go to her room. We finished the book we were reading and she went to the bookstore to trade it out for its sequel. We read part of that then went outside. We help Emma build a plant container for her room. We build it to be exactly the width of her room and we make it two feet long. We help her plant the plants and she leaves for a few minutes. When she comes back she has three tubes. We help her bury them in the soil. The tubes have holes so small that you can barely even see them and when she pours water into one end, that is sticking out, the water will be spread out to the plants roots. We help her plant some more seeds until she is out. That took almost the whole day. Then she grabs a jug of brown liquid with floating chunks and bubbles out from under her bed. She pours it into the tubes. It smells like dead fish, which she confirms it is. Fish oil, full of vitamins for the plants. I can't handle the smell and I leave.