Transparent Color's
Chapter 20

I sit on a bench under a tree waiting for Toby to get out of class. As I sit, I watch the swaying of the leaves of the tree hanging above me. There is a slight cooling breeze that helps drown out the heat of the sun.

I start to feel a presence near me, like someone is moving close behind me. I slowly turn my head around and I see the back of an old man sitting on the bench directly behind me. I slide myself to the left some, but not out of the shade of the tree.

I start to feel awkward sitting there, with this strange man near me. I can hear him breathing a little heavier and feel a slight shake from his leg going up and down. He seems nervous about something. I try to look at him to see if he would turn his head to look at me, but all he does is sit looking straight in front of him. So I do as well, but at the clock mounted on top of the school building. I bring my legs up slanted on the bench and my arms cross over my stomach.

The shaking stops and I see him from the corner of my right eye. He seems to be bending over to fix his shoe, when he gets back up he has moved closer to me. My heart starts to move a little quicker. I start to think maybe I should move somewhere else. He’s definitely giving me the creeps.

As soon as I decide to get up and leave, I hear a faint voice.

“Maliki says to meet him in front of the factories. Don’t go inside your house, hide outside until dark.” He starts to get up, but stops and quickly leans back, “Oh just you, don’t bring the boy, it’s too dangerous.” He then gets up and hurries away.

I turn on the bench and see the man, practically running, down the side walk, until I can’t see him anymore. I turn back around on the bench but with my legs still up. Why would Maliki what to meet me in front of the factories? And why is it too dangerous? My nerves start to build up with fear. I then see Toby coming out of the door.

I stand up from the bench and when I catch his eye I wave at him. I can see a huge smile on his face and he is now running to me.

“Maggie!” he says, giving me a big hug.

“Hey Freckles, how was your day?” I fix the collar of his shirt.

“Ah, it was okay. I got my own watch.” He puts out his left hand and shows me the gold watch, while rubbing the back of his neck with his right.

“Wow, it’s very shiny.” I try to say in an impressed tone, but frankly I don’t trust anything freely given here. I observe him rubbing the back of his neck like he did after getting up from the clinic chair.

“Toby is your neck still bothering you?” I grab his shoulder and turn his body to look. I move his head down and lift up the collar. The back of his neck is all red.

“What happened? Why is your neck so red?”

Toby moves his body so my hands will leave his neck alone. Then says, “I don’t know? Isn’t yours? It started itching after the clinic visit.”

“No. Why didn’t you say something? It looks infected!”

Despite him trying to move away out of embarrassment, I take hold of him and move his head down again to take a closer look. I replace, in the mist of the red patch, in the middle is a red dot. I think back to the red dot I received on my middle finger, but this one is much bigger.

“Did they take your blood again?” I say out loud, but really in a whisper to myself.

“Take my blood again, when did they take it the first time?” He looks at me wide eyed.

“You know, when we first got our hand scanned. Didn’t you get pinched on your middle finger then?” As I say this I bring my middle finger up and notice the red dot is still there. That’s odd, it should be gone by now, I think to myself.

“No, I don’t remember being pinched then. Maybe they just did you.” He says rubbing his neck.

I slap his hand away and tell him to stop rubbing it; it could be an allergic reaction to the needle he was poked with or something.

“When we get home I’ll treat it, but until then keep your hands off.” I then grab his hand and we walk down the stairs.

As we hit the bottom step, I hear a young girl’s voice, “Good-bye Toby!” I look back and it’s that girl who befriended him in class.

I look down at Toby and his whole face is red. He makes sure his collar is covering the red on his neck and waves back and says, “Good-bye Leanna!”

He looks up at me, I give him a smile. He quickly looks away and pulls on my arm for us to keep moving. A platform is on the street, so we get on it to head home. When we reach the yellow house, I remember what the strange man said to me, and now I don’t know if I should go in the house or not.

“Toby what time is it?” I ask before going up the steps.

“Um, three-forty. Why?” He asks with a curious facial expression.

“Hm. I was just wondering if we go in, will the door lock?” I say back.

“I don’t know, it usually locks by five, right? But I guess we’ll just have to replace out.” He then puts his hand on the blue screen and the door opens.

He walks inside, but I hesitate. Then think I have to treat Toby’s neck anyways, so I walk in the house. The door closes behind me. I turn and place my hand on the blue circle and the door opens back up. Okay good, now I know it only locks after five. I meet Toby in the kitchen; he is already sitting on one of the steel chairs with his shirt off.

“Hurry up Maggie, the itching is killing me!” he says in urgency.

I go over to a flat steel cabinet on the wall next to the refrigerator. Shortly after discovering the refrigerator the first night, we discovered this as well. In this cabinet are medical and craft supplies. I scroll through the screen and replace alcohol wipes, itching ointment, and gauze wraps to cover it up.

I clean the area then apply the ointment. Toby smiles and says the cooling of the ointment makes it feel much better. I cover the area up telling him I’m done.

“Thanks Maggie!” he puts his shirt back on and then gets up and goes to the room with the huge screen.

I go upstairs to wash off my hands, and then go back down the stairs into the room with Toby. I sit on the couch next to him, and say, “I have to go somewhere tonight, will you be okay by yourself?”

Toby looks at me with a confused expression, “Where are you going?”

I tell him about the strange man on the bench and what he had said to me. “Do you think I should go?” I ask.

“Yes! It’s Maliki, so it must be something important. Where are you going to hide until dark?” he says back.

“I’m not sure. But I was thinking about sneaking in between the houses, maybe I can hide somewhere in the back.” I look out the side window and all I can see is the side of the house next to us.

“Yeah that sounds like a good enough plan. How are you going to get back in?” Toby turns his body on the couch and crosses his legs.

“Hm, I didn’t think of that. Hopefully I will be able to open the door from the outside. Or I’ll just have to wait until morning.” I start fiddling nervously with my fingers.

I look up at the clock on the screen and it says four-fourteen. I look at Toby and he gives me an encouraging smile.

“I guess I should get ready. Maybe put a jacket on just in case it gets cold.” I stand up and leave the room.

I go into my room and get a jacket out of my closet. Then go down the stairs and go into the kitchen. I get some bagged up foods and a water bottle, and then put it in my orange bag. There’s plenty of room since there’s nothing really in it. I unloosen the straps of the bag and put it across my shoulders, like Maliki’s bag when we were travelling.

I give Toby a kiss on the head; he tells me be safe and to do any homework he might have, and I go out the door. Most of the street is empty, I see a few people out in the yard and some are walking home from work. But none of them even look my way, it seems everyone here is too absorbed with themselves, they don’t see anyone else. I make my way down the steps to the side of the house. On the side there is a little crevice. I sit down behind the part of the wall that sticks out a bit and wait for night to come.

The sun goes down and the air is crisp. I wonder why Maliki wants to meet me, and why it may be dangerous. Surely he wouldn’t put me in any danger, would he? I feel like I haven’t seen Maliki in months, I wonder if I still have those feelings or have they passed. I begin to smile thinking about seeing him and I know they haven’t.

I take a sip of my water and eat some of my food. A couple of hours go by and it is finally pitched black, the only light is a couple of burning poles and the moon. I look up at the moon and it looks extremely large tonight. I stand up, curiously look around. When I see or hear nothing in sight, I make my way down the sidewalk.

The ride home from the factories was about ten minutes, so the walk there I estimate about twenty minutes. My pace is swift and I make sure to stay in the shadows. Fifteen minutes go by and I start to lessen in my pace, my mouth starts to go dry. So I stop behind a small tree planted in the sidewalk and take a sip of water. I look up and can see the reflection of the moon on the glass of a large building. I look at the building and notice it’s the one I found beautiful, but now taunting.

I start moving fast pass the glass building, but I slow to a walk, and watch my reflection as I move. The reflection looks somewhat distorted, which gives me a sudden fear; but for some reason I cannot stop looking. As I reach the end of the building, I hear a faint sound what appears to be coming from within the building. I stop and move closer to the glass to listen.

“Help” is what I hear from a sound of a whisper. I jerk back with fear and look from side to side, maybe there is someone around, but I see nobody.

My eyes fixate on the reflection of myself, but it doesn’t quite look like me, something is off. I move back close to the glass, and look deep into my own self. Suddenly I notice that my eyes are not brown but gray. I move my hand up to the eyes that are reflecting from the glass and in my surprise when my fingers hit the glass they go through. I quickly yank them out with shock. I look around again. I look at my fingers and notice the middle finger that was pricked has a bluish glow to it. How can that be I wonder? Then out of curiosity I stick my fingers in through the glass again. Soon my whole hand is through. I wiggle my fingers in hopes to sense something from inside this mysterious glass. When suddenly I feel someone else’s fingers slipping through mine. I try to yank my hand out, but the grip is too strong and I am pulled in.