Chapter 7

Tale as old as time

"Ugh!" Ana exclaimed after seeing herself in the mirror. The collar looked especially out of place over her sky blue shirt, and she took it off with a smirk to go and put it away until she would use it again for going to PoHA.
On her way to her bedroom she crossed paths with Syrup, who was having a day off, like her, for the holidays and looked more awake than she had ever known her. Ana did all that she could to hide the collar from her roommate, but she reacted too late.
"What is that!" Syrup snapped, stopping dead and making her slippers squeak in the floor.
"Oh, just a piece of junk that I…"
"Wow, where'd you get that? It's real pretty!" Syrup said.
Ana had to double check to make sure she had heard fine. Syrup was the first non-PoHA person that had told her this.
"You think so?"
"Yeah, did you make it?" Syrup took the collar and turned it around in her fingers.
"No, not me."
"Who gave it to you?"
Ana hesitated.
"Just a friend."
Then something occurred to her.
"Say, Syrup, you wouldn't happen to have some clothing that could go well with this, right?"
"Lemme see."
That day Ana wore Kyler's gift proudly over a moss green sweater. After that, Syrup gained a place in Ana's soul, so she only wished they could hang out together more, and oftentimes she wondered what her reaction would be if she ever told her about the Poleepkwa.
Christmas time for the Poleepkwa was just like other times, only hotter. They only got Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off because all their bosses were gone. So until that day, which sadly Ana would spend with their parents at her home town, Kyler and the rest of the Poleepkwa still had to work.
Soon Ana would leave Johannesburg for the holidays and chances were the association wouldn't meet at all that Sunday, which was a real bummer. Ana had nothing to do but to stay at home and study, since she barely went out with her old friends anymore, so much so that they sometimes asked her about her new friends that she now liked so much better than them. Ana couldn't blame them for hating her, after all she had ditched them shamefully for no apparent reason. But strange though it was, Ana did not feel at home anymore among them. They seemed a thing of the past, and even their trivial conversations about the latest pop star appeared dull and uninteresting. Ana was hanging out with aliens, what did she care for some new cheesy pop singer and his love life?
Something caught her eye on her way home from downtown Johannesburg, where she had been shopping restlessly for Christmas presents.
Inside a bookstore's display was a new edition of "Where the wild things are". Ana took her hand to her neck and played with the collar's pendants, considering the situation.
Glenda had said not to give presents to the Poleepkwa because they could feel the need to repay the favor. Either that or just take advantage of your hospitality. In any case, Ana thought, she sort of owed Kyler for the collar, even though it was made from pieces of her own clock.
She had a look at her watch. It was quarter to eight. If she hurried up maybe she could catch Kyler at the district's gates before he got there from work.
So she bought the book, but didn't wrap it up -somehow that seemed a tad superficial and rather worthless- and headed for District 9.
She had never actually been so close to the gates. It was pretty intimidating. Every now and then a MNU car was let in and in the few seconds that the gates stayed open, Ana could see inside the district, feeling worse every time she did.
A slum. Litter everywhere, Poleepkwa scavenging for food, or fighting for it, like animals. It was hard to think of Kyler, and Jasper, and Sam, and all of the others as belonging to the same race as those insectoid hyenas.
In the time that she was waiting for Kyler's bus, other unknown Poleepkwa came and went, and some stopped to look at her, perhaps wondering what the hell would a puny human female like her be doing there at those hours. There were times when Ana thought she was actually in danger.
So when the bus from the mines arrived at last, she ran towards it with renewed hope. Kyler was already stepping out and heading for the gates with his bag over his shoulder and limping on his crutch.
"Ky!" she called out before he could get away any further.
Kyler looked around in confusion, thinking he had heard someone call his name. His nickname. When he saw Ana, he still looked confused, like he was seeing things. But by the time she had reached him he already seemed happy to see her.
He had been walking with another Poleepkwa, who was blatantly staring at her through untrusting eyes. Kyler told him to keep going so he and Ana could talk.
" What are you doing here?" he said gleefully.
"I was leaving tomorrow, so I thought I'd stop by and… you know."
"Leaving?" Kyler repeated with a hint of fear.
"Only for the holidays. But here" she said, taking out the book from inside the bag and handing it out to him. "Happy holidays."
Kyler watched the book in disbelief, like he wondered why Ana had brought him Glenda's book.
"Come on, take it, it's for you" Ana needed to clarify.
The Poleepkwa kept looking back and forth to both Ana and the book before actually taking it from her hand.
" For me?" he repeated yet once again, apparently unable to comprehend what the real deal was. " Did you buy this for me?"
"What was that word?"
" Buy?"
"Yeah."
" Get something for money."
Ana nodded.
"I bought it" she said proudly. "I knew how much you liked it, Glenda says you've borrowed it several times. So now you won't have to!"
There was a short silence in which Kyler only stared at the book. Then he looked up and mumbled "Thank you."
She nodded again in acknowledgement.
"But don't think you need to repay me, please. It's a gift. I got this because I can afford it, so please don't try to return the favor."
Kyler hesitated.
"Ok?"
"Ok…"
Ana smiled at the Poleepkwa pronunciation.
"It's too bad we can't read it now, though. It's almost nine."
Kyler was thoughtful for a moment, and then started looking around so that Ana began to feel nervous. After that, he shoved the book inside his bad, grabbed Ana's hand and pulled her out of the road. They kept going, Kyler limping hurriedly, until they were out of the guards' sight, then turned a corner of the wall and continued walking.
"Kyler, where are we going?" Ana asked in anguish. He only gave her a significant look for lack of free hands, which she understood as "be quiet".
After a couple of minutes of limping, finally Kyler brought them both to a halt. They were standing in a deserted area of the outskirts, covered in tall grass. The cement wall was gone and now there was only a metal fence which separated them from the inside of District 9. Ana noticed an opening in the metal plate.
"Are we going in there?" she asked agitatedly.
" No, no, you can't" Kyler said, making plain that it was absolutely out of the question. However, he now seemed at ease and had no trouble speaking out loud, so she took it like it was a safe place. "Now we can read" he said happily, taking out the book.
Ana laughed out of relief.
"Is that what this was all about?"
Kyler seemed amused by her laugh.
"But it's nine o'clock! Aren't you supposed to be in there?"
He huffed loudly.
" I can risk it for tonight."
Ana did not understand all of the words, but who needed to, with those two big round eyes looking so cheerfully at her? They both sat down against the fence and opened the book.
"I think I could learn a thing or two if you read this in Poleepkwa" she suggested and Kyler agreed, so very slowly he passed the tip of his finger along the writing, hearing the sounds in his head, and then translated to Poleepkwa. It was an arduous task, but well worth it. Many times, Ana also had to tell Kyler the meaning of a word, and then Kyler would say that word in Poleepkwa. Occasionally now, she even attempted speaking it. Didn't go so bad, considering Kyler didn't laugh at her as much as she did herself.
"It's those muted clicks!" she protested.
Kyler instructed her.
" 'A" he kept repeating " 'A, 'a."
"Kah?"
He puffed in amusement.
"Not kah. 'A."
"Kah! Gka! I sound like a drunken bird."
Time flew and they had only reached the half of the book. That called for a rest. Ana's throat felt dry from all the clicking. So they just sat there for a few more minutes before each having to definitely go to their respective places. Looking at her watch, she noted almost an hour and a half had passed, which made her a little uneasy.
"Aren't you worried they might catch you?"
"I've been out late before" he shrugged, then turned his head forward. That's when Ana saw the white paint on his head. She rarely got to see it up close, him being so much taller than her, but every time she saw it she felt unbearably guilty.
She turned to see beyond the opening in the metal fence, which hopefully hid them well enough. Inside the district, a group of Poleepkwa was sharing a fire, sitting around it, and every one of them had that white paint on their heads. The night was strangely at peace, even on that side of the fence.
"What do you think of humans?" she asked Kyler.
He faced her, a surprised expression in his eyes.
" What do I think?"
"I mean… we do all these awful things to you. We stuff you in there…" she pointed a thumb behind her back, to the fence "we paint those things on your heads… we kill you sometimes."
Kyler listened in silence.
"We neglect you. And then we blame you for doing things that… now seem logical to me. So how do you feel about humans?" she repeated, knowing what the obvious answer would be, and feeling miserable for it.
The Poleepkwa frowned at her and seemed at a loss for words Ana could understand.
"Some humans do those things" he said finally " but you don't."
He seemed so certain. He almost convinced her.
"I've neglected you too. For a long time."
Kyler shook his head, smiling in his Poleepkwa way, and grabbed "Where the wild things are" and shook it in the air in front of her.
" I don't care" he said simply.
What Ana did next was completely irrational, illogical and impulsive as she saw it. She hugged him. She leaned her head on his shoulder plates and embraced his chest with her arm. How else could she have replied to that? It felt like hugging a big, spiky piece of wood. And she almost flinched when she felt the chunks of shell on Kyler's sides move with his lungs. She got the strange feeling she was obstructing his breathing.
Luckily, though, he hugged back without a hint of a doubt, so that she didn't have time to retrieve.

The very next morning Ana was packing her bags when someone knocked on their door. The bags were full of her pastel colored tops. She was hoping to find different colors in her old wardrobe at home, maybe dig up a few things she never wore fearful of her friends' opinions. It was about time she got herself a new look.
The knocking repeated itself.
"Syrup, you gonna get that?" she yelled, but no answer came. Then Ana heard Keith's voice coming from outside.
"Ana?"
She wondered what he would be doing there, she hadn't seen him in ages, and now he comes looking for her at her doorstep? "This should be interesting" she thought, making sure the collar that Kyler gave her was well visible on her neck and running to get the door.
And there was Keith, looking like he'd never broken a vase in his life.
"Hi" he said with the dreamiest voice.
"Hello" Ana said simply.
She noticed Keith's eyes stopped for a moment on Ana's neck.
"How's everything?" he continued.
"Great! How are you?"
"Good, well… I've missed you."
"Really?"
"Ohh, you have no idea, baby."
"So what brings you here?"
"Well, see, I was gonna go home for the holidays, but then I thought of you and… well, I thought you'd like to go have some coffee, or something."
"No, thanks."
Keith looked somewhat stunned by her direct response.
"Maybe some other time?" he tried.
"No" Ana said. "You can forget about me, Keith. I've… moved on."
Now Keith looked a little less docile. He sighed a couple of times and then asked "So who's the lucky guy?"
"No one, I just don't want to be with you anymore."
"Why the hell not? Everything was great when you were with me. You even dressed better."
That did it. Ana waited a few seconds before allowing a malicious smile to slowly form in her lips, the last smile he would ever get from her.
"Fuck you" she said as calmly and sweetly as if she were speaking to a toddler and then slammed the door in Keith's face before walking away from the door feeling strangely euphoric.
She realized Syrup had, at some point, come out to watch, and now she was standing there with amazement and reverence. Keith's voice could still be heard faintly along with the continued knocking.
"Ana, I'm really sorry. Come on, I didn't mean that, I've been a jerk!"
Surprisingly, without warning, Syrup stepped up to the door, opened it, growled "she said fuck you!" and slammed it again. Ana stared as Syrup turned on her heels to face her.
"That was inspiring" she sighed.