“I keep forgetting that.”
Though not knowing exactly where they were going, Jim managed to make his way out of the winding neighborhoods to downtown Aspen, where the streets were arranged in a grid pattern. Other vehicles were parked along the sides of the road, but no one seemed to be driving. Instead, people were either walking or riding bikes.
Andy suggested that perhaps they should also park and walk around. “Maybe we can check out some of these stores,” she added as they got out of the truck. “See if they’re all empty or not.”
“Sure, and maybe there’s someplace to get food. I’m starving,” said Ben.
“Me too,” both Andy and Jim said simultaneously.
As they began wandering around, Andy was struck by how clean the streets were. The people looked clean as well, wearing clothes that appeared crisp and new. It was a stark contrast to the raggedy jeans and threadbare T-shirt she was wearing. Her current wardrobe was sparse in quantity and variety, and although nearly everything she owned was at least a couple years old, she’d never noticed it until now. Another detail was the sense of purpose everyone seemed to possess. Nobody was loitering or watching time pass out of boredom. People were bustling about as though they had things to do.
After leaving the truck behind, they approached a grocery store and were shocked to find that people were inside buying food. Instead of money, people used gold tokens similar to those once used at fairs for buying rides on Ferris wheels and playing games like Skee-Ball.
“Too bad I haven’t been to a carnival lately,” Ben commented as they watched others picking out fruit, vegetables, meat, and milk—all of it was for sale. Andy could hardly believe her eyes.
“Where do they get all this?” she mumbled under her breath.
“From my brother and me.”
“Huh?” Andy looked around to find the source of the voice. “Who said that?”
“I did.”
Sensing that the voice had originated from somewhere below her waist, Andy looked down to her right. Kneeling on the floor, tying her shoelaces, was a slight girl with bright blue eyes and shoulder-length hair that was as light as Andy’s. When she stood up, she stood a few inches shorter and appeared to be in her early teens.
“Hi, I’m Susan.” She politely extended her hand to Andy, who shook it.
“Andy.”
Susan then shook hands with both Ben and Jim, who introduced themselves in return. “You must be new here, huh? My brother told me that some new people came in this morning.”
“Your brother?” Ben asked.
“Yeah, his friend is one of the regular guards working at the north gate on Route 82. Brian and I—that’s my brother—we live on a farm right off of 82, about ten miles north of here. We raise everything: horses, bulls, cows, sheep, and chickens. Then we sell what we don’t eat here, which is most of it.”
“Just the two of you?” Jim said with surprise. “That’s a lot of work for just two people.”
Susan laughed and shook her head. “It would be, but no. We have help from a few people who live here in town.”
“What exactly do you sell?” Ben asked.
“The sheep are for meat only. We keep the cows and bulls alive for milk and breeding. Same with the chickens. We keep them for their eggs until they stop laying them, and then we kill them for meat. Well, I don’t kill them. Brian and a couple of the others do all the killing. I’m too scared to do it. I take care of feeding all the animals instead, which is a whole other job. Harvesting hay is a pain, you know?”
Andy nodded as if she did know. Fishing and growing vegetables was much simpler.
“And what do you get in exchange for the food?” asked Jim.
“We get what everyone else gets: electricity, running water, clothes, other food. It works out pretty well for everyone.”
Andy smiled at the girl. She had a genuine and friendly demeanor.
“So are you guys going to stay here or what?”
“Well, we aren’t sure yet.” Andy glanced back and forth between Ben and Jim. “But we’ll know more tonight after we have dinner with Nataliya. I guess it’s up to her.”
Susan made a face. “Yeah, I know.”
Her expression and tone gave Andy pause, but before she could press further, a tall and lanky young man with scruffy blond hair approached Susan. She assumed this was her brother, Brian, which was confirmed after Susan introduced him to everyone.
“Nice to meet you guys,” Brian said. He then handed some tokens to Andy so they could buy food. “It’s not much but it’ll tide you over for a few days.”
She smiled gratefully, and Ben and Jim both thanked him.
“I hear Nataliya is having you over for dinner. Don’t worry about her. She’ll let you stay for a month. She just gives the impression that Aspen is super-exclusive or something. The fact is we need all the extra hands we can get.” Brian looked at his watch and told his sister it was time to go.
“If you want, I’ll come by your house tomorrow afternoon. Help you get settled and tell you all the things Nataliya won’t.”
“That’d be great,” Andy replied.
As Brian was leaving the store, he gave her a long look that escaped her notice.
***
Morgan was awake and sitting in the living room downstairs when Andy and the cousins returned. It was after five o’clock and the angle of sunlight had shifted considerably throughout the house. “Where did you all go? I was worried when I woke up and you were all gone.”
Andy shot both Jim and Ben an irritated look. She had assumed that one of them had mentioned something to either Morgan or Charlie before they left.
“Sorry, we didn’t want to wake you,” Jim quickly apologized and took a seat next to Morgan on the sofa.
“It’s okay, I’m just glad you’re back,” Morgan replied as she delicately placed one hand on her lower abdomen, the gesture Andy noticed more often since her discussion with Maria. “Charlie’s still asleep, I think. So where did you go?”
“Just downtown and wandered around a bit,” Andy said. “You won’t believe what we found: an actual grocery store that’s selling food. Fresh food, like steak, chicken, fruit, vegetables…you name it.”
Morgan’s eyes grew wide. “Selling food? Are you serious? But…how? And what do people use to buy the food?”
“Tokens. We met a brother and sister who live on a farm not far from here. They explained the token system to us,” said Jim.
“Were they nice?” Morgan asked. “Nicer than Nataliya, at least?”
“Much nicer. You’ll meet Brian, the brother, tomorrow,” said Andy. “He said he’d to come by in the afternoon.”
The food purchased at the store with Brian’s charitable tokens was sitting in a bag at Ben’s feet, and he bent down to pick it up before heading to the kitchen. “Anyone hungry?” he called out. “I could eat a whole cow right now.”
The others agreed.
“Morgan, you better wake your brother,” Ben said as he grabbed a butcher knife. “Otherwise he’ll miss out.”
***
After an incredible meal of fresh steaks, potatoes, and spinach with carrots, they walked down the road to Nataliya’s house for their second dinner.
“You’re a good cook,” Andy said to Ben as they made their way down the curving road lined with tall pines. They were walking behind the others.
He laughed lightly as he kicked at a stone on the ground. “It’s not difficult with a decent kitchen and food that doesn’t come from a can.”
“Makes all the difference, doesn’t it?” She looked up at the sky during its last couple hours of daylight, then took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out while enjoying the crisp scent of the trees. “You know, I could get used to this place. Living like this.”
“I know. But I just have a feeling that it’s not what it seems.”
“Don’t say that,” she urged, despite the fact that she had similar doubts. “You’ll jinx it.”
“Sorry, but when something’s too good to be true, it usually is.”
Charlie reached the front gate first and pushed the button to let them inside. The gate swung open soon after, and then the front door of the house. Making her way up the drive, Andy saw a boy of twelve or thirteen standing in the doorway. She correctly guessed that it was Nataliya’s brother, Mikhail.
“Come in,” he said with a sullen expression on his face. There were no pleasantries or gestures of politeness. He lacked the thick accent of his sister.
They entered the house tentatively, as Mikhail had already scurried off somewhere inside the house. Nataliya entered the foyer moments later and gestured for everyone to come inside.
“You will have to forgive my brother. Manners are something he lacks.”
Andy and Morgan eyed each other after this understatement.
Seven sets of dinnerware and silverware encircled three silver platters of hot food with steam rising upward, and two other plates with food that Andy could not yet identify. In between the platters were two lit candles. If Nataliya’s intention was to impress her guests, she had succeeded, though Andy decided that such efforts were aimed at targeting solely Ben’s attention.
It became glaringly apparent that their host had not lifted a finger to prepare the meal when two young girls emerged from the direction of the kitchen, one of them approaching Nataliya. “Everything’s on the table. Is there anything else you need?”
“No, thank you, Jenny,” Nataliya replied politely to the girl but with an air of authority. “Come back around ten or so. You can clean up then.”
The two girls nodded and quickly left the house. Meanwhile, Morgan and Andy exchanged glances again as they read each other’s minds.
“All right, everyone sit down,” Nataliya said. She had changed out of her clothes from the afternoon and had put on a summer dress that enhanced her slender figure. As hostess, she took a seat at the head of the table and gestured for Ben to sit beside her. Andy sat next to him on the other side. The other end of the table was occupied by Mikhail, who skulked into the room a moment later.
As brother and sister, Nataliya and Mikhail looked very much alike. Their facial features, particularly their eyes, carried a strong resemblance. Though Mikhail was dressed far more casually than his sister, his clothes appeared new, like everyone else’s in town.
Once everyone helped themselves to the food, Nataliya initiated a conversation. “So, how do you like your home?” After chorus of affirmatives from her guests, she smiled, looking pleased with herself. “Yes, this is one of the nicest and most expensive neighborhoods in Aspen,” she continued, as though the monetary value of a home still had meaning. But perhaps here in Aspen, Andy suspected it might.
Nataliya began talking to Ben, asking him if they managed to see any part of the town. He nodded in return and politely described their afternoon outing. Meanwhile, Andy became preoccupied with her potatoes, wondering where the cheese came from. She had no clue how to make cheese, but she knew that squeezing a few udders was merely the first step of many that followed. Later, she began observing the others.
Everyone spoke politely to Nataliya, careful not to offend her, and Nataliya, who controlled the conversation, seemed to enjoy that. Mikhail remained silent, however, his eyes never leaving his plate. Being an amateur student of medicine, Andy began to wonder if he possibly had some kind of developmental disorder, like autism. But after she caught him rolling his eyes and making faces at her friends’ remarks throughout the meal, she decided that he was merely a spoiled brat who didn’t like strangers in his house. When he finished his plate, he pushed his chair back and left the table without a word. His sister didn’t seem to notice or care.
There were only a few comments Nataliya made during dinner that were of any interest to Andy. She learned that nearly eight hundred people currently lived in Aspen, ranging in age from five to nearly twenty. “I am not quite the oldest,” Nataliya added. “But close.” Andy also learned that Brian was one of the ten members of the town council, and then determined by the sudden change in Nataliya’s voice that she wasn’t happy about that, which came as no surprise given what he had said about her that afternoon.
After everyone had eaten more than enough, Andy decided it was time to get to the point of the evening when Morgan beat her to it. “So, Nataliya, you said this afternoon that you would let us know this evening if we could stay here or not. What’s your answer?”
Andy smiled covertly at her friend’s bluntness.
Taken aback, Nataliya blinked once, then twice before responding. “Getting straight to the point, I see.” She then took a long sip of water as though purposely trying to create suspense.
“Well, I have to admit, you have skills that we could use here, so for now, I do not see any problem with you staying for a month. After that, the council and I will decide if you can stay permanently. Sound good?”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Excellent. I hope you all enjoyed dinner.” She pushed herself away from the table and stood up. “Well, I apologize, but I have some things I need to take care of before I go to bed. I believe Brian will be coming over to your house tomorrow to talk to you all about the tasks each of you will be given, along with the rules that we all must live by here, myself included.”