Page 149 of Sparktopia
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The sun is just starting to setwhen I make my way back up the tower steps with bags of fried meat and rice. It was a boring day and I’m glad this job is over tomorrow. I’d quit already, but I don’t like breaking my word to Stayn. Or anyone, actually. It’s kind of a thing with me.
This thought leads directly to the woman currently living in my room. I made that promise to get her home because I was embarrassed that she saw my discharge spectra and all that entails. I thought for sure she’d want to take me up on that offer of a hotel room in the city.
But this morning’s bad mood is an indication that she’s less than enthusiastic about my promise to get her home.
She does like me.
I smile up the last flight of stairs and then make my way to my door. But I pause here because I hear laughter inside.
When I open it up I find Anneeta and Clara sitting on the floor with a coffee table between them—a table that was not here this morning—hovering over a game of HoloHops.
Anneeta sees me first. “Tyse! You’re home!” She jumps up, beaming a wide smile at me. “Look at what Clara can do!” She points to the HoloHops board where the little game pieces—which normally take batteries, and which also normally do not work here in the tower for more than a few minutes—are projecting pictures of animals a couple of inches up into the air.
But that’s not the amazing thing Anneeta is going crazy about. At least, not the only one. The crazy thing is that Clara Birch is lit up with blue spark from her fingertips to her shoulders and little patterns of shapes, or letters, or something are dancing across her skin.
I look over my shoulder just to make sure no one is passing by in the hallway, then kick the door closed with my foot. “Holy fuck, Clara! What are you doing? Put that shit away!”
The smile on Clara’s face drops and immediately the light disappears, her skin back to normal. “Sorry.”
All the holo pics of animals that were projecting above the game board also disappear and this makes Anneeta whine. “Why did you do that? I like HoloHops! And I was winning!”
I’m furious, also wondering how many times today Clara did this, so my tone is less than friendly when I start peppering her with questions. “Did you do that anywhere else but here in the room? Did anyone see it?”
Clara stands up, wiping her hands on her pants like she’s nervous. And these aren’t the pants I bought her, nor are they a pair of mine. “No! I only just did it now because we can’t use batteries here.”
“Where did you get those pants? Where did this table come from?” And as I look round, I realize that there are quite a few things in this room that weren’t here this morning. A yellow rug, which I am standing on. A small wooden chest of drawers. Some curtains hung up over the rusty louvers—also yellow. Andfour throw pillows on my bed with birds embroidered on them. “What have you done to my room?”
When I look at Clara, she wrings her hands a little, then shrugs up one shoulder. “We went shopping at the lost and found. All of this for just nine coins! Can you believe it!”
Anneeta squeals out her contribution to the day’s events. “And we had a tea party!”
But I’m looking at Clara when these words come out and she makes one of those quirky, slanted smiles that indicate things with the tea party might have gone awry.
I laugh just picturing it. And this laugh cools me down a little, even though I am still worried that Clara was displaying her…power, or whatever, when I came in. If anyone finds out what she can do, the government will get involved. And that’s the last thing we need. “Clara, it’s not a good idea to show anyone that light of yours.”
“Did you bring food?” Anneeta rushes over and relieves me of the paper bags. “I’m starving. I can stay, right?”
I say, “Yeah, you can stay.” But Clara and I are still looking at each other.
Clara shakes her head. “I won’t. I promise. I won’t do it again. And no one saw. We only just got back a little while ago, and I only used it to power the game. I swear.”
“She swears.” Anneeta is digging her fingers into a container of fried meat and stuffing it into her mouth. “She won’t do it again.”
“Who taught you to eat?” I grab the container and the bags from Anneeta and point to the sink. “Wash your filthy hands, at least. And get forks for everyone.”
Clara hurriedly cleans up the table, putting the HoloHops game away, then shoves the box under the bed. “See?” She points to the table. “Now we have somewhere to eat.”
I plop the bags down on the new table and then take off my jacket and hang it up. By this time, Anneeta is back with freshly washed hands and she’s pulling soda cans out of the bag with excitement.
Her mouth makes a big o-shape. “Soda! The meal people don’t like to give me soda. They say it makes me hyper. There’s six here, so that means I get two, right?”
I grab the soda, pull one off, and offer it to her. “One.”
“One? But there’s six! That means we each get two.”
“Well, I’m gonna drink three, so you only get one.”
