The System

Maxine stood up and smoothed out her dress. Then she walked calmly over to Lucy and leaned close. She was so close that Lucy could feel her hot breath like a punctuation mark against her face. “As your mother, who loves you and lost her mind waiting for your return, I am begging you to shut up. Shut up. Please, please,” Maxine was near tears, her eyes pleading. “We are here for a brunch. I had to make some trades and deals to get us in the Sky Room today…because I needed it to be special. I want something to be special for you. Do not make a scene. Please, listen, do not do this.” Lucy had seen her mother angry, worried, frustrated, and irate. She had followed her mother’s moods like star signs in a book. But if there was one emotion Maxine banished from her life it was panic. And yet, behind her eyes, just below the surface of calm, cool, and collected, there was an undercurrent of that banished emotion.

“What happens here?” Lucy asked in a whisper. She looked at her mother’s skin, soft and creamy without a stitch of makeup; then she looked down at the green tiled floor. “Why are you afraid?”

“I will not lose you again,” Maxine said softly and she tried to place her hand on Lucy’s shoulder, but she shied away.

“Why are you afraid?” Lucy repeated.

“I’m not afraid,” Maxine sighed. “I’m cautious and I’m not careless. I know who I’m dealing with, and I’m being smart. And you should be too. This is our entire future.”

Then she stepped backward and stretched, crossing her arms over her body. She had fortified herself against anything else Lucy was going to lob at her—her eyes narrowed, her body was grounded—but there were just enough cracks showing that Lucy felt all her fight leave her.

When her mother’s emotions were already heightened, it didn’t take much to trigger an even greater storm. Whatever her mother felt about this place, she wasn’t going to divulge it to Lucy in the middle of the Sky Room.

Without comment, Lucy grabbed the paper menu and sca

The young waiter returned. And they ordered. Just like they would have a few months ago, at a real restaurant, above ground.

“Thank you,” the boy replied without making eye contact and Lucy watched as he flitted about to the other tables. Maybe he had been a waiter before the Release; was he just continuing his role in a new place? A new world? Same life, new place. Something about that notion depressed Lucy.

What was the point of surviving if everyone kept falling back into the ruts of their old life?

A murmur spread among the diners and Lucy looked up and saw Huck, with Gordy and Blair, enter the Sky Room. Her eyes followed as the trio was led to a table in the corner. They sat and arranged themselves, and like a wave, the others in the room began to take note of their presence—chatting in more hushed tones, leaning into the tables, nodding in their direction. The shift in energy was clear.

Blair held her body straight and tall, holding herself up with perfect posture. It was as if she was a marionette and the puppeteer from above was pulling her string taut and rigid. At any moment a string could break and Blair’s body would tumble into a heap. The young woman brushed a piece of hair off her forehead and smiled at her brother and her father, then leaned in and laughed.

It was like she knew she was being watched. Every action was for show.

The sight of her made Lucy’s skin crawl, her heart rate increase, and her breath become shallower. She instantly felt a pain in her chest; without thinking about it, she brought her hands up to her chest and monitored the rise and fall of her breathing. Her mind wanted to put her back in the tank with the waters rising, submerging her, but Lucy pushed it away—Blair was irrevocably tied to her memories of drowning. That pain was stamped on her brain and Lucy tried to push away the growing anxiety.

Huck sca

Hoping that everyone would look away, Lucy bent her head downward and counted to ten before gaining enough confidence to resume normalcy. She wrung her hands in her lap and wished she could just disappear from this place.

A hush passed over the room.

“Why is everyone looking at me?” Lucy asked her mother without looking up.

“Because Huck Truman made a display that he knows you personally. Because you’re important.”

Lucy wanted to cry. “Important?” her voice cracked. She braved the embarrassment and looked up at her mother, whose own face mirrored Lucy’s uncomfortable demeanor.

“Shortly after we arrived, Huck put the System on lockdown. Either you’re in here and you’re safe or you’re out there and you are on your own. There were a few people who missed their planes or families, like ours, who were separated. Huck made a big show that he would deny them entrance. Now, no one ever showed up…that we know of. Until you. And then people found out about the tanks,” Maxine grimaced at the vague reference to Blair’s attempted murder. “The circumstances surrounding your arrival are causing a stir. And Huck doesn’t like unknown variables. Dissent isn’t acceptable.”

Maxine looked weary and sad.

Lucy could only think of one thing, her mind wandering to the person she had left behind. “But Ethan—” Lucy started and her mother silenced her by reaching across the table and giving her hand a squeeze.

“Your father told me that...” her mother’s chin wobbled. She steeled herself and took a sip of coffee. Maxine cleared her throat, “Huck’s plan—” She shook her head, too overcome with emotion to say the words.

“He’s not going back for Ethan?” Lucy asked plainly.

Her mother shook her head.

“But we have to go back!” she snapped, her voice rose above the din. A few heads turned in her direction, their eyes lingering before returning to their meals.

“Be quiet,” her mother warned.

Lucy leaned her head close and whispered. “How can anyone like it here? My friend is gone…maybe dead. My brother wouldn’t be allowed to rejoin his family?”

“It’s worse than that, Lucy,” Maxine lowered her voice too and matched Lucy’s whisper. “No variables. Huck,” she thumbed her finger over her shoulder, “wants no variables.”

Lucy didn’t understand. Then she felt afraid. Maxine was brazen, it was true; before the Release, Lucy would think her mother was a total embarrassment—her outspoken opinions seeped into every facet of their existence. But how could her mother openly discuss the man who held their fate in his hands without fear or worry? Lucy looked at Huck and his family, ordering their meals, and the people at the other tables a few feet away. She gulped. Their discussion felt dangerous.

“Should we talk about this here?” Lucy asked her mother.

Maxine smiled and reached across the table. She took Lucy’s hand in her own and gave it a squeeze. “Your father isn’t entirely certain that our apartment is safe. The Sky Room is loud and busy. Public. And safe.”

“Mom—” Lucy continued to hold her mother’s hand in her own. “What did you mean? No variables.”

She drew in a sharp breath and grimaced. “Grant isn’t supposed to be alive. He had exposure to the virus…he isn’t supposed to be here…he’s an unknown variable.”

Lucy had never known her mother to have trouble spitting things out. She pulled her hands away and placed them in front of her on the table. “Just tell me.”