Chapter 13

After eating dinner alone and falling asleep alone I awoke to my communication device ringing. It was my sister Roberta.

“Hi I haven’t talked to you in a while, how are you?” She sounded a little frazzled. 

"I'm fine, I'm just realizing I overslept. I must have been tired".

Roberta lived in colony 4 with her husband and two young sons. She was not a fan of Carl and frequently reminded me that I should be reminding him about how he’s a jerk. She calls him a "red fingered rock handler" which is about the worst thing you can say about someone. It's an insult that was originally designed for the miners, who despite the protective gear always somehow ended up turning red. We have better protections and more robots, so this is no longer an issue, but the insult continues to live in modern day Mars. 

“Have you seen Carl? Or heard from him?”

“Not since yesterday. He was working on a big project, the underground dome in colony-6”

She was silent for a minute. “They just finished that last night. I went to the grand opening ceremony and Selectors Pollination Event. It was actually really nice. I was surprised you weren’t there. I tried communicating with you yesterday, but your device said, ‘do not disturb’ all day.”

I forgot about the ceremony. It was yesterday. Carl told me about it 3 weeks ago. I marked it on my digital calendar. I have to admit I am a terrible wife. But also, I did not set my phone to DND, maybe the Elders do that when they select for the reckoning. It would make sense to let the person picked process it. My mood would have been obvious to spot at the event. 

“The boys missed you. They kept looking for Aunt Sarah. We saw Carl. Ugly as ever. How mom and dad let you marry that guy I’ll never understand.”

“He told me about that event 3 weeks ago and I wrote it on the calendar. I can’t believe I forgot, or didn’t see it last night. I feel awful.” I really did. I wouldn't have even opened that message had I remembered about colony 6. 

“You should call him and clear it up. He did look a little sad to not see you there. He kept telling people you were ill.”

She shared all the news about the boys and the robobees. It was nice to hear from her and nice to know Edgar stood up for the boys. 

After we disconnected, I sat in my living room and looked out the portal. There was a dust storm rising in the east and someone driving a truck out to the mines. Our apartment was small but had a good view of Colony -3 in the distance. I watered our plants, picked a couple of strawberries, and went for a walk.

The tunnels are always nice for walking, they have skylights and frequently grow moss from any built-up moisture in the tunnels. I usually like walking between 2 to 3, then taking the sky walk to 4, then back home through the underground again. The underground between 4 to two is littered with graffiti, but it's beautifully done. 

Mostly this walk was in the hopes to run into Edgar. I wanted to talk to him about the event and hear more about the Robobees and the Orchid. Then I saw him. He was walking through the tunnel on his way into colony 3 from colony 4. His face lit up when he saw me and I got a little flutter. 

“Hello! Good to see you! What brings you over here?” 

I smiled and felt genuinely happy to see him.

“You know me, always on the lookout for cashews!” I said with a little laugh, considering I saw him yesterday and there were none we both knew this was silly, “actually just out for a morning walk before sitting at my desk all day and reviewing reports on satellite communications”. That’s usually what I do, make sure the satellites are communicating and sending out info, like that spontaneous dust storm I saw this morning.

“Oh. I thought maybe you were off and would like to get lunch”

“I can probably finish up early and meet you at the Canteen around noon if you’d like?”

“Sounds perfect. I want to show you some new things I’m growing that I didn’t get around to yesterday.”

We said our goodbyes and I felt really happy to have a friend like him and relieved he wanted to talk to me too. I wondered if I could tell him about how I got picked, maybe we could discuss it.