Separate

Chapter 10 - The Seed

I spent the next few weeks in my room, not saying a word to anyone who stopped by to check up on me. My father would bring the meals directly to my bed, and everyday he would ask me if I wanted to return to school. I said nothing to him. He started to get desperate, believing that he had broken me for good. I wanted to ask him, beg him to release Julia, but I knew he would never reverse what he had already done.

"Rules are rules," he would say in his proper accent that I had grown to hate. He needed to keep his reputation, and that meant never changing his mind.

One day he stopped cold before he left the room and turned back towards me. He sat on the foot of my bed and looked at me with tears in his eyes. I hadn't seen him cry since the time mother had vanished. There was something strange about seeing him cry. He was a tall, strong man and watching him cry made him look tiny and weak.

"What do you want from me Ashley? You know I can't bring her back. Rules are rules and people need to abide by them," he lectured.

"I want you to leave me alone. I want Thompson to leave me alone. Let me go back to the way it was before my bonding. I want to be with my friends again. Just my friends," I demanded, not knowing what else to say to him. He seemed to take the request into deep thought and consideration.

"Ok." He replied, letting out a deep sigh. "But on Fridays I want you back here so you can spend time with us, ok?"

"Sure, fine." I said bluntly. He patted me on the knee and then got up to leave the room. It worked.

* * *

The following week I returned to the usual second sessions with Grace and McKenzie. They both had their bonds with them now, but I didn't care much. I was just happy to be with them again. Their bonds were both nice and even chimed into our conversations every now and then. With the bonding ceremony in the past, they had resorted to other conversations such as visits to the Outstanding Works Library or what outrageous thing Miss Alco had to say that day. It was better that way, and I was just happy to finally be with them again. I still missed Julia though, and I could tell they missed her too. We weren't allowed to talk about the people who were sent away, but I could tell they were thinking about her constantly.

What I really looked forward to was finally seeing Matthew again. During the first sixth session that week I bolted through the hallways down to C level and walked into the auditorium where I knew I could find him. As soon as he locked eyes with me, he instantly quit his game and ran over to greet me.

"What are you doing back down here?" he asked, happy to finally see me again after nearly a year. His voice had gotten deeper from the last time we talked, and his jaw had become more defined. He had grown a lot in such a short time, but he was still the same boy I knew from before.

"I found the time," I remarked wittingly. We both laughed and I found myself reaching for his arm. I stopped cold and immediately withdrew my hand back. He seemed to notice this but didn't say anything about it.

"Hey! I want to show you something!" he cheered, bouncing in his step. We wound through the hallways and eventually back to the airlock that led outside. I had nearly forgotten what it felt like and walking back outside felt like I had never done it before. Matthew found it amusing that I would act the same way every time we went out, as if I was stopping to smell the sweetest apple pie ever cooked.

He led me to the old knotted tree that sat in a valley not far from a hill that looked over Tritus district. He helped me up into it with the thick leather gloves he always seemed to carry around, presumably from his father's work and soon to be his. He then pointed over up above our heads at something that immediately caught my eye. It was green and lush, swaying ever so slightly in the breeze. It stood out vibrantly against the dark brown branches of the tree. I sat staring at it until I realized what it was. They were leaves.

"You were right! The tree is still alive!" He exclaimed. We both admired the beauty of it in awe for almost an hour. It was nothing like what we had seen before. The leaves on the plants in the hydro farm were a dull green and they all were more rounded. The ones we saw were a bright green with a jagged pattern that I followed with my eyes repeatedly. I analyzed the intricacy of the design until something else caught my eye.

"Wait, what's that?" I commented, pointing up to a small capsule that hung from one of the leaves. He noticed it too and reached up to pick it off.

"Wait! What if you kill it!" I exclaimed, baffled that he would do something so foolish. He didn't seem worried at all and sat mesmerized by the object he was holding.

It was small, around the size of his thumb, and it was capped at the top with something that resembled a lumpy hat. The bottom of the capsule was smooth to the touch, and we took turns holding it. Before we even knew it, it was time to head back.

"Here, I'll keep it safe." He comforted, putting the capsule into his breast pocket. "I'll hold onto it for us, ok?"

"Sure." I replied. Whatever it was, it had to be important.