Chapter 22: Dabbling in the Perfume trade

Edgar knew it was expressly forbidden, but he couldn't help it. Almost like it was an addiction, a desire which burned inside of him to make sure that he could spread the word. Maybe this was what he read about religious zealots; he didn't understand the concept. Mars only had one religion: the book of continuance, staying alive. 

He had been working for months, in his lab in his greenhouses, bioengineering plants no one on Mars had seen before, plants his grandfather brought in the hopes that one day Mars would be terraformed. Bioluminescent plants, flowers bringing him smells he had never experienced and neither had anyone else alive on Mars today. 

He sat in a chair, with his dark, warm robe, as people walked by, it was a market, he had vegetables and herbs on his table, with a tent over his booth, in the dome the Martian sun beat down, but it was still cold. It was always cold. 

It was fine to sell these vegetables, people were selling all sorts of random things, the market was established in the 25th year of the colony and had been going ever since. The founders decided that everyone should have a little bit of an open market to exchange items, metals, clothes, food sources, many people had their own indoor gardens but it's impossible to grow everything and sometimes recipes are missing things, like basil. 

"Do you have any more of it?" A woman approached timidly. She had been to Edgar before, he was still weary of her. 

"What exactly would that be? Rutabaga? Zucchini?" He knew exactly what she wanted. She still worried him though. Any mess up and his life could be over. It wouldn't matter that he was a descendant of Robert Metzger or that he runs the greenhouses. They would replace him, it would take time, but they would. 

"The flower. The kind that makes a person want to cry it smells so good. It's heavenly and I need more." She looked around to see if anyone could see her as she whispered this.... he had given her plumeria. He had diluted it with hibiscus, because hibiscus is not forbidden, as it is edible. Plumeria is not. 

"I'm not good at this... I got this scent and it's so wonderful. But now I'm all out. The dust storm brought me here" The magic words. Edgar's safe words. Only he was supposed to ask, "What brought you here?". None of this seemed right. 

She pulled her dull yellow scarf around her neck and bit her lip, looking around. All Edgar could think about was this woman was probably back so she could turn him.  The smell in Dome 2 was the same as always. People, mixing with the ozone and burnt smell of the generators. His brain churning with thoughts about the "forgettings", people thrown out into the harsh Martian soil to die for their crimes. A fate worse than death as the bodies of them stared back at everyone for eternity. Edgar couldn't remember if they brought back this punishment, but it was still recent enough for everyone to fear it. 

"I do not. It takes too much water." he whispered the lie to her. Terrified to be caught. 

"My name is Jill. I will take one rutabaga. I have credits. I will keep visiting. I am safe. I promise."

Her red hair and brown eyes startled him. She was so direct and not completely in the know on the secret words. He was baffled, where did she come from? She slipped him a small piece of a purple cloth as he handed her a rutabaga.  

This was a color no one had. It barely had a name because it was so difficult to make, and it must have been 60 years old from the original colonists. It took Edgar's breath away to see such a thing, he remembered this color from his childhood. 

"It's from your grandfather" she said quietly. Then she left, as mysteriously as she came.