How do you think this is going? I just finished chapter 15 today, so I'll post it in a few days once I've read through and check for grammar/typo errors.
Chapter Fourteen
Three seconds. That's how long the kiss between myself and Henry lasted. Three measly seconds. It was short enough to be polite, but long enough to leave an impression. Long enough to make me question everything I'd ever known about guys and relationships. Long enough for me to realize it was my first kiss.
I opened my eyes when he moved his lips away from mine, looking into his eyes. He looked back at me, appearing to be equally confused as to what happened. Our faces were inches apart as he held my face. And then, in an instant, he took his hands off my face and backed a few feet away, looking down at the ground.
"I…I'm sorry," he told me, touching the back of his neck awkwardly in embarrassment.
"It's…okay," I said, still in surprise.
"That wasn't right of me…that was completely out of line. It wasn't-"
"It's okay, Henry." I cut in. He looked up at me.
"Really? You're okay with that?" he asked. I nodded in response.
"Yeah, it's fine. Sometimes you just can control yourself and you act before your brain can tell you to stop." I told him.
"Yeah…I guess you're right…but I still am sorry." We stood there silently for a while, awkwardly waiting for the other person to pick up the conversation.
"So…" I began after a while, "look at that Sun of ours…sure is bright." Henry laughed, breaking the tension.
"Really, Adriana? You're talking about the weather?" he asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. I couldn't help but smile. His humor was the type I gravitated towards; similar to my own in its often sarcastic nature.
"Yup…come on, now; we should get going so we can get to the orchard before the day's over!" I told him.
"You're right," he said, walking away. I caught up to him, and we walked on, talking and chatting like nothing happened. My mind wanted me to linger on that kiss and take it apart and understand it, but I refused to. Today was a day to be happy and enjoy, not a day to stew on unsavory topics.
Approaching the orchard, I took in the area. The orchard was a large section that was placed smoothly behind a row of houses. The trees went further than I could see, curving along the fence line. I could sense there was a vastness to the orchard; the trees seemed to go on forever, a never-ending sea of green foliage. Brown dirt walkways crisscrossed neatly between the trees, each path three to five feet wide. Each tree sat in a square patch of scraggly green grass. The occasional stray root poked through the pathway, causing wheelbarrows full of dirt or wagons full of apples to jump up a little as the person brought them over the roots. Most of the trees were six to eight feet tall, placing blots of shade in the otherwise continuous sun-covered ground. Tall patches of grass and plants poked up, occasionally breaking up the never-ending myriad of trees. It was peculiar to imagine such a thing; rows upon rows upon rows of trees that look nearly the same, stretching as far as one could see. It struck me that most people in Terra Nova had likely never seen such a thing before coming to this new world. Henry's laugh broke me out of my pondering.
"It's a lot to take in, huh?" he commented. I nodded unconsciously.
"How are these trees so big? …I know that they're not that big for trees, but doesn't it take ten to fifteen years before a tree begins to produce fruit?" I asked, observing a few very busy gardeners tending meticulously to various trees.
"These trees had been growing for seven or eight years before they came through the portal," Henry told me.
"They brought trees through the portal?" I asked, not sure that was possible. He laughed again.
"Adriana, they were less than half the size they are now," he told me.
"But what about the roots and stuff? Wouldn't there be lots of roots?" I asked, glancing at him. He looked at me.
"When you plant a tree in a small enough pot, the roots will only grow so big. Once they were planted, the roots will spread out and grow more." He explained.
"That makes sense, sort of," I murmured. It was hard to understand how plants worked, seeing as I had only seen trees a handful of times in my life in person.
"Here, do you want to see how they control mold and pests?" he asked. I nodded, and he led me into the maze of trees. I followed him to a mound of earth that had been patted around the base of a tall block of wood my height. It was about 4 ½ inches wide, and seven inches long. Atop the wood was a platform about a foot wide, and atop that platform was a wooden box approximately a foot & a half tall and eight or nine inches wide. It had a sloped roof, making it roughly resemble a little house. It had mesh screens in 2-inch squares letting air pass through, hinting that there was something alive inside. There was a small door latched shut on one side with a little peg in the middle. The whole thing- post, platform, and house- was painted light blue, or at least appeared to be light blue. With the all the sunlight, it wouldn't have surprised me if its original color had been a more vibrant blue, dulled down from exposure. I looked at Henry, unsure of what it was, exactly.
"Tell me what I'm looking at,"
"It's eco-friendly pesticide," said a new voice. Climbing off a small stepladder from a nearby tree, a woman approached us. Her chocolate-colored hair barely brushed her shoulders, her bangs braided off to the side of her head and out of her face. She was wearing brown shorts that came to mid-thigh, along with a pinkish-red tank top that was very low on the sides, allowing the side of her torso and blue bra to be clearly seen. Around her neck, she had a necklace of twine with a creamy shell as the only thing strung on the necklace. She was barefoot, and creased cheeks told me she smiled a lot.
"Sorry, I couldn't help overhearing your conversation." She explained.
"Uh…" I said, lost for words.
"Oh, sorry! I'm Maggie." She said, introducing herself.
"Okay…but what is it?" I asked. She nodded to the pedestal.
"Open it up and find out," she told me.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yeah, go ahead. I was going to release them today, anyways." She told me.
"Them?" I asked hesitantly. She smiled and laughed.
"Just open it already, you goof!" she replied. Shrugging, I approached the pedestal. Grasping the little blue knob, I carefully pulled at it until it popped open. Carefully, I pulled the door open all the way, letting sun shine into it. Almost immediately, beetles began to crawl out of the square house. Each one was about two inches long and an inch wide. They had six legs, along with a set of antennae and two shiny black eyes. The wings and back were vertical stripes of gold, red, green, and orange, while the head was a vibrant green color. As more and more poured out of the house, they began to take to the sky, flying off in every direction.
"They won't hurt you; just keep holding the door open," Maggie instructed me. I was holding the door open with just the tips of my fingers, but these bugs were simply incredible. My eyes told me to get away from these foreign creatures, but my brain told me they were safe. I watched each one clamber out and take flight to the sky. One made its way out of the house and crawled over my fingers, making me squeal. Henry laughed. The beetle began to crawl over my fingers, past my wrist, and up over my elbow before taking flight into the air. A few more trickled out of the house, and then they were all gone.
"What do they do?" I asked, stepping away from the pedestal. Maggie approached the pedestal and gingerly picked up a beetle that was making its way out of the house. She let it walk across her hands.
"They eat the mold that harms the fruit," she told us.
"Are they dangerous to people?" I asked. She looked at me and grinned.
"Of course not, silly! If they were, why would we use them?" she asked rhetorically. I smiled, a light blush of embarrassment blooming on my face.
"What are they called?" Henry asked, taking the bug from Maggie.
"Honestly, I'm not sure. Most of us regulars in the orchard call 'em buggers or chompers, but I don't know the technical term." She told us. Henry shrugged.
"I'm sure someone knows," he replied.
"Yeah, but, um…I've got to get back to work. It's was lovely meeting you two, though." Maggie said. She waved and went back to her stepladder, climbing it so her head was eaten by the foliage of a tree. We turned on our heels and headed out of the orchard. Along the way, Henry carefully placed the beetle on the branch of a tree. We stopped briefly to watch it scuttle up to a patch of white mold, which it promptly began to devour. We left the workers in the orchard to be, heading towards a market Henry claimed was the biggest in the colony.
Henry had been right; the market was the largest in the colony. A sign greeting us even proclaimed so. Welcome to the largest market in Terra Nova! The market was insane; people buzzed around us, shopping, talking, laughing, and haggling. I was most surprised that this many people were out about, even in the stifling heat. An old-fashioned mercury thermometer hung from one vendor's stall, proclaiming that it was 98° Fahrenheit. I stopped to admire the antiquity of the thermometer for only a moment, and almost ran into a woman carrying a handsome wooden chair as I moved away from the thermometer. She shoved past me, knocking me to the ground. Cursing under my breath, I began to climb to my feet, but stopped as an amused laugh came from a stall across the walkway. A girl about my age was standing behind a thin curtain of beads, her face only visible from the nose up, the rest hidden behind an old, worn red book with the title The Lord of the Flies printed in yellow vinyl letters. The book was small; her fingers reaching more than halfway up the cover.
"You think you're funny, huh? Making fun of the girl who just got knocked on her ass." I said, trying to keep a straight face. She laughed and placed the book in her bag, a small brown cross-body bag. She pushed her way through the bead curtain and came over, stretching out a hand. I gratefully took it and pulled myself to my feet. I brushed some dirt off my pants, but then looked at the girl.
She was taller than me- likely 5'9"- and very slim. Her skin was tanner than mine, and her thin blonde hair barely grazed past her shoulders. Her eyes were a blue-hazel color, and she had long, dark eyelashes that had been coated with mascara. A brown freckle sat on her right cheek. She was wearing an airy, light blue button-up shirt that was tucked into a pair of jean shorts that must've had an inseam of barely two inches, along with brown flip-flops. Underneath the nearly transparent shirt, she was wearing a string bikini.
"Thanks," I said to her, smiling. She smiled back.
"No problem…you must be new, or else you'd have had the sense to watch out when you turned away from that thermometer." She told me.
"You're right, actually. I am new." I replied, surprised that she'd been able to guess so accurately. She smiled at my reply.
"Sorry if that seems weird that I watching you, but your friend caught my eye," she told me.
"Oh, that guy? That's my friend, Henry." I replied.
"Yeah, he's pretty easy on the eyes, huh?" she asked. I shrugged. I had never been much of one to tell people about these kinds of things, so it felt strange talking to stranger about this, of all people.
"Yeah, but he's…" I turned around to Henry, but was surprised to not find him anywhere near me, "not here." I finished flatly. She laughed and pointed with her thumb down the way. I followed her point and found Henry picking through wooden pots and pans.
"You don't need him with you at your side every second, do you?" she asked. It was a strange question to hear, and not just from her. It was just strange.
"What are you insinuating?" I asked suspiciously.
"Nothing…when I saw you two walking into the market…you were, like, right next to him, like he was protecting you… or something." She replied. I immediately felt bad about my previous comment; I could see plainly that she was merely being honest. She was just as naïve and teenager-ish as myself, and was making an observation, nothing more.
"Oh," I whispered softly, slightly embarrassed. She smiled.
"But, uh, yeah," she replied. I changed the subject.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"I'm Jenna," she told me, stretching out her hand. I shook it with a flash of a smile.
"I'm Adriana," I introduced myself, shaking her hand.
"Is this your first time to any of the markets?" she asked, meandering over to a table of fruit. She began to pick through the items, examining each one as we talked. I examined strings of dried peppers that hung from pegs on the post to the canopy of the stall.
"The only other one I've been to is the one near the gate," I told her. She glanced up at me.
"Lots of people go to that one, especially the newbies, because it's the first one they see."
"My dad has a stall there," I told her.
"What's he sell?" she asked.
"Oh, fruit and stuff. He owns trees in the orchard and some land in the fields." I replied.
"Cool. I wish that either of my moms were that dedicated to something like that." She told me. What?
"Moms?" I clarified. She stopped looking at the fruit, straightening her posture as she looked at me. There was a look of uncertainty on her face.
"Yeah, moms…I have lesbian parents." She told me. It occurred to me that I had never met someone who had lesbian parents.
"Oh," I said softly.
"…do you have something against gay people?" she asked. Now was her turn to be suspicious. I shook my head.
"Of course not. I am an ally to the GLBT community," I told her. Her shoulders dropped a few inches in relief as I said that golden word, 'ally'.
"That's good. Because I really like you, and I want to be your friend…but I don't want to be your friend if you don't like gay people." She told me, surprising me with her bluntness. I laughed anyways.
"No, I think gay people are wonderful." I told her. She smiled.
"That's good to know. I've met so many people during my lifetime that think being gay is a bad thing. That bothers me a lot, actually, because it's not. You don't really get to choose that kind of thing, you know? You're just born the way you are."
There was a certain fire in her eyes as she spoke about the topic. It was refreshing to see someone with a clear opinion after an entire lifetime of the same spineless, wishy-washy girls from school in 2149 that only cared about fitting in with the majority. At that moment, I allowed myself to wonder if maybe, just maybe, I had finally escaped the oppressive social jungle of high school in 2149. It was then that I realized I might be able to find people here I could actually relate to. People like Jenna, or Henry, or Ally.
"I'm really liberal about basically everything," I told her. She reached out and rested her hand on my shoulder, a sign of relief and happiness. I've never figured out how it came to be, but right then and there, with Jenna resting her hand on my shoulder for only a second, was the beginning of a chapter of my life that would bring on endless hours of laughter, pranks, swearing, debating, and most importantly of all, a lifetime of friendship. That hand on my shoulder was a crystal-clear sign that we understood each other perfectly.
"You'll find school pretty accommodating, then." She told me, squinting up at the sky.
"Oh really? Why's that?" I asked, following her gaze. Overhead, a large bird-like creature, likely a pterodactyl, silently glided over us. All that could be seen was the crisp outline of its body; the bright sunlight darkened its underside so all we saw was a small shadowy figure an inch across flying high in the sky.
"For starters, we only go to school four days a week, and each school day is only three hours long." She said, looking at me.
"Why?" I asked. I wasn't complaining, but it puzzled me why we'd go from 32½ hours of school to only twelve. She let out a silent huff of laughter with a flash of a smile.
"Come on, I'll explain while we shop." She told me, beckoning me with her hand to follow her. We wandered through the market, stopping to smell flowers or drool over adorable clothing. It was so tempting to pick through the wonderful tops for the right size and then hand over a mere terra or two to vendors and walk away with a wonderful new addition to my wardrobe. Jenna guided me through the tricks and turns of the markets as we idly chatted and shopped. She told me that the vendors who sell things like clothing for such cheap prices often have the worst quality products.
"It's much better to buy from vendors who sell more expensive, higher-quality things," she said at one point, "than to have to come by every week to replace brand-new shirts and pants and whatnot from an inexpensive vendor."
"Okay…so where do you recommend I get clothing from, then?" I asked, looking up from a gorgeous display of wooden jewelry to Jenna, whose fingertips were lightly floating over the multitudes of necklaces and bracelets. She glanced at me.
"There are some things I get from markets, but in general, I go to this lady to makes custom clothes. She has a huge database on her Plex of all her customers' measurements and whatnot, organized by last name. She has a special scanner thing that scans over your body and it measures your body in key places…you know; bust, waist, and hips? All the basics that are needed to size clothing." She told me.
"Oh, cool. I always enjoyed getting clothing custom-made, but it was so expensive in 2149." I replied.
"They teach sewing classes at school to us high school-age kids," she said.
"Oh yeah, the school. You never told me- why is there so little school?" I asked. She looked at me.
"This place is so different than 2149; there aren't giant cities and expensive universities and stuff, you know? Because there aren't any universities to go to, you just start your basic job training once you reach high school. You choose an area of expertise -the medical field, or military, or agriculture, or whatever- and then during high school, you take classes that prepare you for post-high school life in that career." She told me.
"So, if I wanted to be a doctor, for example, I would have to take a bunch of medical classes and then when I graduate, I'm a doctor?" I asked. She shook her head.
"No. In high school, you take classes that would prepare you for the medical field, like biology and chemistry. Then when you graduate you would, generally speaking, get put on a waiting list for an internship program at the infirmary. We've got three or four doctors, so people you usually get picked up on an internship pretty fast." She replied.
"Don't lots of people try to get into the medical field?" I asked.
"Not really. A lot of the people who were doctors in 2149 only wanted the money so they could get by. Here, since you can't get evicted or anything, people can do what they really want to do with their life. A lot of people go for agriculture, surprisingly." She replied.
"Usually, how many interns are there at a time in the medical field?" I asked. I felt bad for bombarding her with questions, but I was genuinely curious. Besides, she had a smile on her face, showing that she was glad to answer my questions.
"Usually four or five, only. The classes you take in high school are pretty demanding, and a lot of people have no interest in taking a bunch of intense classes & always doing homework when they could spend their free time out and about doing something fun. It's a major commitment to do the med prep in high school." She replied, picking through fruit at a produce stand.
"What classes are you taking?" I asked.
"A lot of leadership style classes," she told me, handing a terra to woman behind the table. She picked up her purchase, a round, brown thing with wire wisps of brown fiber all over the outside.
"Okay, what in the hell is that?" I asked as she used a rounded metal thing with a sharp point to drill out a hole in the brown thing. When she had a hole made, she pulled the thing out, revealing bright white flesh under the drilled out portion. She held the brown thing to her lips at the hole and tilted it back, drinking a little.
"It's a coconut…haven't you heard of coconuts?" she asked, laughing a little.
"…no." I replied, a little embarrassed. She stared at me blankly for a moment, then shrugged.
"Oh well. It's fine though; you're new…I guess I shouldn't have expected you to know about all the fruits right off the bat." She told me.
"It's true, I hardly know anything." I told her. I was half serious, but the smile on my face made me look unserious. She cracked up in laughter.
"You're such a goof..here, try it!" she chuckled, handing me the coconut. I brought it to my lips and tipped it back, letting the watery liquid flow into my mouth. It tasted alien; something I had never imagined tasting in my entire life. It was a queer flavor, but appealing.
"That's really good. Does it do anything special to your body?" I asked.
"It gives me lots of energy, which I need with my schedule." She replied.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I am studying to become a coach for the soccer team, so I'm always out practicing with kids and people and doing all these activities. I drink a lot of coconut water to stay hydrated and energized…if you ask me, coconut water is better for staying healthy than regular water!" she replied, taking the coconut from me. She took a sip and then handed it back to me.
"So…you're going to be the soccer coach?" I asked, looking around. I realized then that we hand gone some ways away from where we'd met. In all honesty, I had no clue where I was. I was putting all my trust in, essentially, a complete stranger. Jenna shrugged at my question.
"I hope so. I'd like to do that some day when I'm older, but for now, I'm fine with just being on the soccer team as a player." She told me. It struck me that she was someone I truly could admire. She had a demanding schedule, she stayed healthy, she was strong against malicious people, and she was confident with herself.
"I swear, is soccer the only goddamn sport people around here play?" I asked, half serious. She cracked up, doubling over with laughter for a few minutes. When she finally looked up at me, her face was pink.
"That was a good one…but, yeah…basically, it is the only sport…w-we don't really have room for…for much more!" every time she paused her speaking, she giggled like a little girl. I could help but laugh along with it.
"What's so funny?" I asked when she'd finally finished laughing.
"Oh, I dunno. You didn't strike me as the vocal type like that."
"Vocal?" I clarified.
"Yeah, you know, vocal; you just state your opinion without sugarcoating it."
"So kind of blunt?" I replied, amused. She smiled.
"Exactly. You're…blunt." She said, making me laugh. We continued on our way through the market for another hour or so, talking and laughing, getting to know each other better.
Eventually, we wound up at the soccer field, almost all the way across the colony from the market. It wasn't fancy; just a simple, flat field of green grass. We didn't go out on the field, as a group of people were running around on the field playing ultimate frisbee. Jenna pointed out a skinny girl with blonde hair playing the game, identifying her as her little sister, watched for a while, before heading back to Jenna's house to hang out indoors, with air conditioning.
"Hello?" she called out, dropping her bag on the floor as we walked in. A short woman around my mother's height came in from the backyard. She was wearing an apron over her clothes, and had her long dark red hair pulled out of her face with a pink bandana. She was pudgy, but she had sparkling eyes and a kind smile.
"Hi, dear," she greeted her daughter, then turned to me.
"And who might I have the pleasure of meeting?" she asked me with a smile.
"I'm Adriana…nice to meet you, m'am." I held my hand out. She chuckled as she shook it.
"No point in using formalities 'round here…a friend of Jenna's is a friend of mine, and my friends sure as hell don't call me m'am." She replied, laughing. I couldn't help but laugh along with her. Jenna, however, seemed a little embarrassed.
"Oh, okay, uh…" I trailed off, not sure what to call her now.
"Oh, I'm sorry, dear! My name's Dot." She told me. She waddled over to the kitchen and fixed herself a tall glass of lemonade. I knew it was lemonade because I'd had lemonade once before. It had only been a little, but it was delicious. A little sour, but delicious none the less.
"I met Adriana today at the central market," Jenna told her mom, flopping down on a blue couch. I sat down in a wicker chair next to her.
"Out in this heat? Oh, Jenna, that's not…" she trailed off mid-sentence as her eyes landed on Jenna's bag laying on the floor in front of the door. "…the place for your bag to be. Go put it away, please." She finished, pointing to the bag briefly. Jenna rolled her eyes.
"Why? Hailey's not gonna be back for another hour, and mama isn't gonna be home from work until seven thirty." She told her mom.
"Mama?" I blurted out before I could think to hold my tongue. Dot smiled at me.
"It's our term for…um, Jenna, you told her, right? About our family?" she glanced at Jenna briefly.
"Of course," Jenna replied reassuringly.
"Okay, good. Mama is what the girls call my wife. Instead of us both being 'mom', she's mama, and I'm mom. Just to clear up confusion when talking to each other, you know." She told me. I nodded.
"What's your wife's name?" I asked her.
"Her name's Marie," she replied, "…Jenna, please put away your bag!" she pointed to the bag again, a little annoyed. With an exaggerated eye roll, Jenna climbed off the couch and picked up the bag.
"You want to see my room?" she asked.
"Sure," I replied.
"Here," she said, leading me to the closed door of her room. She slid the door open, hung the bag on a hook in the wall, and flopped down on her bed. I was a little surprised by her room; its appearance made my own room look sterile and lifeless. The comforter on her bed was a wash of bright blue and yellow shapes, while the floor was littered with shoes and clothing. There was jewelry hanging from the knobs of the dresser drawers, a mannequin wearing about thirty scarves, and a green moon chair. All in all, there was a general state of disarray to the room. I closed the door behind us.
"You sure decked out your room," I told her as I settled into the chair. She sat up and laughed dryly.
"I've had plenty of time to get all this stuff." She replied.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yup,"
"What pilgrimage did you come on?"
"Seventh," she told me.
"Were you recruited or did you win through the lottery?" I asked. She twiddled around in the drawer of her bedside table.
"Lottery…here, look." She replied, handing me a small metal device.
"What's this?" I looked to her for an explanation.
"We got it in the mail the day we found out we won through the lottery…actually, this is how we found out. Press the green button." She instructed me. I looked down at the device and found the button she was referring to; a small green button on the side of the device. It made a couple blipping noises and then projected a screen onto the wall of her bedroom. Jenna held up her pillow to the window to block the sunlight from entering the room. On the projection, there was a message:
Lottery Notification:
Congratulations, you have been selected through the USLCTN (United States Lottery Commission for Terra Nova) system to be a part of the Seventh Pilgrimage to Terra Nova.
The Seventh Pilgrimage is set to depart Hope Plaza on Saturday, May 18th, 2147. Please arrive a minimum of two hours before the scheduled departure time of 12:00 pm to be properly processed through security. More information will be sent soon.
Thank you. We look forward to seeing you at Hope Plaza.
Sincerely,
the United States Lottery Commission for Terra Nova
"There's pictures," Jenna told me, "use the arrow buttons to click through them." Searching the device in my hands, I found two grey buttons- one pointing to the left, the other to the right. I pressed the right-facing arrow. The projection on the screen changed to a bright red poster with a black border. The image inside the border was two small arms holding a large, leaf-covered branch out to the large mouth of some sort of dinosaur. The creature had rows of sharp, pointy teeth. Across the top of the page, in yellow letters, it said "DO NOT FEED". Along the bottom in white letters, it said, "DINOSAURS MAY BITE". No shit they may bite. The other photos stored on the device were similar- a warning about deadly insects, warnings to stay in the compound lest you want to be chased by a slasher…I'd seen them all before. They were standard promotional posters about Terra Nova. Many were posted in libraries, shop windows, on street corners, in newspaper advertisements. I had even seen a few plastered to walls in Terra Nova.
"I've seen those posters before," I told her, turning the device off. Jenna moved her pillow from the window, filling the room with sunlight.
"They're everywhere…it's crazy." She told me, sitting on her bed. As she sat down, a photograph fluttered to the floor from her bed. It must've been on her bed, and when she sat down, the impact of her body sent it flying. As I went to pick it up, Jenna lunged for the photo. I managed to snatch it before she could. She had a horrified look on her face as I examined the photo.
The content of the photo was the type that was the most irritating to me, apart from duck-lip photos girls take. It was one of those photos of a couple kissing. Not an artsy, professional one, but one taken with a standard digital camera. I never came to understand why I hated those photos, of couples kissing, with such a passion. However, this wasn't your normal couple; it was two girls. One girl had dark brown hair, while the other had blonde hair. Both looked to be teenagers. It wasn't the fact that they were two girls, kissing, but who they were that bothered me. Well, not really bothered…more surprised. I recognized one of the faces almost instantly, even though her eyes were closed. She was sitting directly across the room from me with a sick look on her face.
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