Blemished, The (7 page)

S
chool finished in a blur. The other Blemished carried on in silence, some quietly weeping. Later, the Enforcers came back for Billie. They took her away for questioning.

After school Angela and I walked to her house. It was supposed to be the night of our first slumber party. Before the Enforcers took Emily I’d imagined us planning our night on the walk home, telling stories under the duvet and sharing secrets. But now we were numb.

It took a while for Angela to say the words we were both thinking, and what the entire school must have been thinking, including the GEMs – who’d watched the scene unfold with their noses pressed up against the glass of the school windows. She said, “What will they do with the baby?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. It was the truth. “I’ve never known anyone be taken away. I’ve never even seen a pregnant woman before.”

Angela blinked away tears. We both had faces puffed out from crying. “Will they kill it?”

“I don’t know,” I said, trying not to think of the pregnant girl on Twitching Sunday and how her body danced, “maybe.”

“What about Emily? Will she come back?”

“Look, I don’t know, all right? They’ll probably kill them both.” I snapped.

Angela stifled a sob. I stopped walking and grabbed her by the shoulders, holding her close to me. She wrapped her arms around me and cried into my collar bone.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I just feel all hollowed out.”

“It’s okay,” she said between sobs. “I feel like that too.”

“Just, don’t ever end up like that. Okay?” I sighed. “If they did that to you––”

“I won’t,” she said. “But don’t you either. Don’t let Sebastian––”

“I won’t,” I interrupted. “I promise.”

She moved away from me and held out her little finger, hooked at the joint. “When I was little Daniel and me used to swear with like this.”

I laughed.

We joined fingers, my pale skin like milk against her dark skin. “I swear, Angela. I swear that I’ll always look out for you.”

We broke away awkwardly, neither quite sure what to say after something so silly yet so earnest. “What happens now?” I asked. 

“Now it’s time for our slumber party.” She smiled.

*

Theresa busied herself in the kitchen. We didn’t tell her about Emily. Angela worried that depressing news might tip her over the edge. We walked on egg-shells around her. Any mention of Angela’s dad could trigger an old memory and it flipped a switch turning her into a vague zombie. I watched her and thought about what my mum would have been like if she hadn’t run away to London. Sometimes I even thought about her being better off dead. I shivered, that was no way to think.

“I’ve not made you any mint tea,” Theresa said.

“You did, Mum, just a few minutes ago,” said Angela.

Theresa smiled broadly. “Of course I did. I’m so forgetful these days.” She left the room laughing to herself and Angela’s smile tightened.

I leaned over and held her hand. We were in Angela’s lounge, settled into her floral sofa. The TV screen showed a GEM beauty contest. Beautiful, tall, slim girls not much older than us paraded around a stage in bikinis while the audience voted on which of them was the thinnest. The winner received an agent in London, one of the best apparently. The flamboyant TV presenter wrapped a tape measure around a girl’s waist and frowned. The girl started crying.

“What do you think the GEMs get to watch on TV?” I said. “Do you think it’s the same? Or do you think they watch the films? Does anyone watch the films?”

News reports always told us that London made spectacular films, that the talent from the GEMs could not be equalled in the rest of the world. Apparently
their entertainment industry was unrivalled. But we never actually saw any of it.

Angela rested her head against her knees, pulling her feet up underneath her body, as though thinking. “I guess they must. Otherwise what would be the point in it all?”

“Do you think they pay extra for the films?”

“Maybe.”

“Someone has to see them. Unless they don’t even make them.”

Angela looked at me and then back at the television. “But… all the competitions…”

“What if it’s all for pretend? What if they don’t make any films at all?” I leaned in closer, speaking more softly. My dad’s words echoed in my mind about the screens. “When someone is picked for London, do you ever see them again?”

“I dunno,” Angela replied. “There’s never anyone picked for London in Area 14. Most of the GEMs just get jobs in shops or hospitals.”

“Doesn’t it all seem a bit weird to you?”

“I’ve never really thought about it before.” She turned back to the TV screen where a frighteningly thin girl with blonde hair jumped up and down. She’d just been crowned Miss Skinny of Area 7. “Do you think they would really lie to us like that?”

I nodded. “After today? After what they did to Emily? Absolutely.”

“I guess you’re right,” she said with a sigh.

In the kitchen a door opened and closed and I heard Daniel’s voice as he greeted his adoptive mother. Angela heard it too and I saw the smile that spread across her face. Then Theresa’s voice replied, muffled. It sounded wrong, too loud and rushed.

“Angie! Oh, Angie. Your Father is home!” Theresa called. I heard the pad of her bare feet across the tiles of the kitchen. “Come quick. Come quick.”

Angela jumped up. “No, Mum, it’s Daniel.”

“What kind of fool do you think I am,” snapped Theresa. “I know my own husband.”

“Daddy?” Angela said, her voice tinged with hope.

“No, Angela
––” I began, reaching out to catch Angela’s arm but she was gone before I could stop her.

She darted into the kitchen and I followed. In front of me Angela stopped dead and her shoulders slumped. It was Daniel.

“I’m sorry, I’m not your husband,” he said. “You know me.” Theresa had him gripped in a bear hug. She leaned forward to kiss him but Daniel squirmed. There were tears in his eyes. “Please, no. You’ve got it wrong! You know me. I’m Daniel.”

“Oh, Paul! Paul I’ve missed you so much,” she crooned.

Angela stood transfixed, staring at the scene in front of her. I had to do something.

“Theresa,” I said. I moved slowly towards her and placed a tentative arm around her shoulder. She was a short woman, and when hunched over in confusion she was even shorter. The recognition in her eyes faded and became vague again. “Why don’t I make you a nice cup of tea?” I manoeuvred her across to the table.

“Paul?” Her fingers trembled inside mine as I took her hand. I was afraid to turn away and make the tea. “Oh. I so thought it was him. Oh! I am so confused these days.” She burst into tears, a deep hacking, throaty cry. I paused, unsure of what to do or say.

“Mummy,” Angela whimpered. “Please don’t cry!” She collapsed into a chair and the two of them cried together, heads pressed against each other like just hours ago as Billie and Emily said goodbye.

Daniel moved over to me and said, “Maybe we should give them some time.”

I nodded. As we left the room I placed the tea down on the table, feeling useless. Theresa was deteriorating. The Operation had slowly been eating away at her mind, stripping her away, and she had been my own hope that there was a chance for a normal life after. I took a deep breath before I followed Daniel into the lounge but it was at that moment I knew for certain that I would never have the Operation, and neither would Angela. I would get us both out somehow. I’d find a way. 

In the lounge I told Daniel about Emily at school and watched his blue eyes intensify. Shades of anger flickered across his face as though someone held a candle beneath his chin. At the end he shook his head.

“I didn’t see this.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “If only I’d seen this we could have saved her.”

“No,” I murmured. “It wasn’t your responsibility.”

He stood up and paced the room. “I don’t care whose responsibility it was. Why didn’t the visions let me see? I could have helped.”

“I don’t think it was possible. Where would we take her? I know nothing about getting someone out of Area 14.”

“I do,” he said.

I searched Daniel’s face for some sort of hint that he was joking. “You’re serious?” I lowered my voice to little more than a whisper and he leaned in towards me. We were stood facing each other in front of the sofa. “You’re part of the Resistance?”

A
fter Theresa went to sleep we all crowded together in Angela’s tiny room. The three of us sat cross legged on her bed. It was small and wooden and designed for a child, with pink floral bedding and a large crocheted pillow. Angela leaned against the headboard chewing her finger nails and I sat to her right playing with strands of my hair, the headscarf still wrapped loosely around my neck like a scarf. Daniel sat at the foot of the bed facing us both. He had just finished explaining to Angela what he told me, at my request.

“So what is it you know?” I asked impatiently.

“I can’t believe you kept this from me,” Angela added. “I mean I knew you were aware of them. But getting people out? Are you
in
the Resistance?”

He sighed and rolled his eyes. “No, of course not. Do you think they’re stupid enough to let some sixteen year old kid join them?”

“Maybe if they knew about your gift––” I began

“They don’t,” he interrupted.

I clamped my mouth shut and glared at him. I was seeing a different Daniel tonight. There were so many sides to him: the Daniel who was never still, the talented artist, the tortured soul who had seen too much, the vulnerable orphan and now the Daniel who was involved in a dangerous rebel group. As he spoke about the Resistance he seemed to grow up. There was an authority about him that I had never noticed before.

“Do you actually
want
me to be part of the Resistance? Is this some way for you to get in and fight?” he said. “Because that would be ridiculous. It isn’t a joke, Mina. It’s serious.”

“My mum
died
because of the Resistance. Don’t patronise me,” I snapped. My face flushed and my fingers tingled. A glass on Angela’s bedside table wobbled.

Dani
el’s eyes softened. “I’m sorry. It’s just you seem really keen on this whole idea, and… I don’t want to tell you what I know and then you end up getting hurt.”

“Isn’t that my decision?” I replied. I raised my eyebrows and held his eye contact, challenging him to respond. Daniel ran his fingers through his hair and looked away.

“If Daniel doesn’t want to tell us about it, then he shouldn’t have to,” said Angela. “We can’t bully him into this.”

“You’re right,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

He stared me down, making me feel like a child to be chastised. I didn’t look away and eventually he sighed. “There’s not much to tell. I can show you but it’s dangerous and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I can handle it,” I insisted.

Daniel paused. He glanced at Angela and then focussed hard eyes on me. He said slowly, “If I take you with me, you have to do exactly what I say. All right?”

“All right,” I said.

“Okay,” he said. “But I warn you, I’m not an expert. I don’t know much. The only thing I do know is where they meet. There is this guy that I work with in the woodwork studio. I had an inkling that he was part of the Resistance––”

“How did you know?” I interrupted.

“Small things that he said.” Daniel paused. “It’s hard to pin-point, but I just got the feeling he wasn’t
happy
about the way things were.”

I nodded. Sometimes people say a lot without really saying anything.

“The thing is,” Daniel continued. “To get there we have to go right through the centre of the Ghettos,” he paused, “and into the Slums.”

I involuntarily shivered. The Enforcers patrolled there. Slum people lived outside normal society. The children did not go to school. They weren’t even official
Blemished; they were just Outsiders who didn’t join in the Society at all. Crime was rife in the Slums, with the Outsiders stealing from each other and prostituting themselves. Rumour had it that the Enforcers hung around the Slums just waiting to hear a prostitute go into labour.

“The Slums?” Angela mumbled. She wrapped her arms around her body.

“You don’t have to go,” Daniel insisted. “You can ignore it and just keep going on with your lives. Or you can come with me and look. We can’t join them, just watch.”

Angela looked at me hesitantly, as though waiting for me to decide for her. I knew that I wanted to go, but I knew that I
shouldn’t
go. I thought about my dad and how angry he would be to see me tempted by the same things as my mum. But how could I go back to my life knowing that I could have witnessed something important? How could I go back to my life after seeing a young girl taken away for having a baby?

“I want to go,” I said.

“Me too,” Angela said.

Daniel’s face fell. “I must be crazy getting you into this.” He pulled at his hair and then sighed. “All right. The first thing we have to do is sneak out.”

*

“She’s fast asleep,” Angela said, creeping back into her bedroom.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Absolutely. When you and Daniel were in the lounge I crushed a sleeping pill and put it in her tea.”

For once I was shocked. “You do that a lot?”

Angela shrugged. “It makes it easier to deal with.”

I decided not to judge. Angela had a crappy time looking after her mum. Anything that helped her was a good thing.

“We need to go then,” said Daniel. “They meet every Friday night in
the heart of the Slums, near a broth...” Daniel glanced over to Angela. “There’s some sort of disused warehouse next to… the place where…”

“Oh for goodness sake Daniel just say brothel or we’ll be here all night,” Angela snapped.

“What time do they meet?” I asked, trying to stop myself wondering how Daniel knew where brothels are in the Slums.

“10pm,” he answered.

“We have two hours,” I noted. “How long does it take to walk there?”

“Perhaps an hour. The problem is getting close enough without being stopped by an Enforcer. We don’t look like Slum children.” He pointed to the symbol of the Blemished on our tunics.

“We could go in jeans,” Angela suggested.

“Then, if you get caught, as well as being out after curfew you would be out after curfew
without
your uniform,” said Daniel.

“Two crimes instead of one,” I said to myself. “What if we disguised ourselves as Slum children? Angela, do you have any old clothes?”

“Not much,” she said. “But there may be some in my Mum’s room.”

“Could we rip them? Smear dirt on our faces? Remove the Symbol?” I suggested, looking at Daniel.

“It could work,” he said.

“We’d just have to be careful,” I said. “At least this way we would blend in.”

He smiled crookedly, his eyes shone just a little bit brighter and he held my eye contact for a little too long. “Okay. You know, you’re really quite clever.”

I grinned back, enjoying the impromptu compliment.

“I’ll go and get the clothes then, shall I?” Angela said. She pushed bumped my shoulder as she stomped towards the bedroom door, almost knocking me over.

I frowned. “Angela? You all right?”

“Fine,” she answered, standing in the doorway, one foot in the room and one out. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“No reason,” I mumbled.

She turned and shut the door behind her. I got the feeling that had we not been trying to sneak around the house that door would have been slammed at full force.

“I think we’re making her feel useless,” I said to Daniel.

He shook his head. “She shouldn’t be coming with us. But I’m worried that if we leave her she’ll just follow us anyway and get herself in trouble.”

He was right. There was no chance she would stay behind. I hadn’t realised until this point just how much we were making her feel left out. Daniel and I shared something personal, something that only we could relate to, that feeling of being different and special. We had these gifts that shouldn’t exist but somehow did. That created a bond between us that went above friendship. I’d seen the way Angela’s face lit up as Daniel walked into the room. I’d also seen the way Daniel looked at Angela protectively, like a big brother. I just didn’t know how to explain all this to her.

“I’ve got them,” Angela said as she walked back into the room. “Mum won’t notice these gone.” Her face fell. “I guess she doesn’t notice much these days. Anyway,” she forced a bright smile on her face, revealing sweet dimples, “let’s get ripping!”