I see you with flowers in your hair...Julia...
Running around without a care...your days were numbered, yeah...
Two: Escape from Perdition
She would have liked to tell anyone who asked the truth about her upbringing without throwing in a lie here or there. But that was damn near impossible, because she didn't have the same sort of childhood one would think a syndicate member had. She hadn't witnessed her father's death at the hands of the enemy. Her mother wasn't an assassin. None of her uncles or aunts or grandparents claimed to be carrying on traditions of syndicate greatness. No, she was the only one of her kind. She always was and would be.
"Where did you say you grew up again?" Countless men would ask her as they bought her drinks in bars all over the solar system. She would look at them with a small smile that she supposed could appear whimsical to anyone who didn't know her, take a sip from whatever drink she happened to be holding, and sigh.
"Venus. Isn't that where all woman come from?" Depending on who she was talking to, she may or may not add the little detail of the dilapidated area of the second largest city on Venus: Devil's Cauldron. Or at least, that's what it was called by its residents. She didn't exactly know its real name. It sounded like a place someone such as herself would be born and raised. The truth was, she'd only been to Venus twice, both times to visit her sister, who lived in a nice neighborhood with her two children and husband. She'd heard of Devil's Cauldron during one of her trips, and the name stuck with her since.
Actually, Julia was a born and bred Ganymedean; a fisherman and a seamstress' daughter. The world of the syndicates was only something she learned about from the chilling news reports of suspicious deaths or explosions. She never thought of it to be the life she would choose. But she fell into it, like so many other things in her life.
When she was sixteen she decided that, after living the comfortable suburban existance her parents worked hard to provide for her, she wanted to go out into the world. Ganymede was not where she wanted to make a name for herself. Ganymede was not where she could make a name for herself. She left her parents without one word of goodbye, with hardly any money in her pocket, and a backpack slung over her shoulders. Her goal was the spaceport. How she would get there and how she would get on a ship was a matter she could work out once she was gone. Going was the only thing of importance, the destination was anywhere.
"Shouldn't you be in school, young lady?" Her unknown path was the little problem with Julia's ambition and was the one little thing that could ruin everything. She was the perfect target for cops patrolling random neighborhoods. She was old enough not to have to be in school, but she obviously didn't want to be sent back home.
"No," she replied simply, staring at the youngish looking officer that had stopped her. She squinted to see the name on the badge. "Officer Black."
"Where are you off to?"
"The spaceport."
"No family?" Julia looked at him, gauging his personality against what she could say. The ideal scheme popped into her head and it was all she could do to stop herself from laughing at the sheer brillance of it. She sighed and lowered her head. Forced tears began flowing freely from her eyes.
"N-no. They left without me," she sobbed, covering her face with her hands. The officer looked surprised at her sudden show of emotion. He scratched his beard slightly, looking around nervously. He gently, yet awkwardly, patted her on the shoulder.
"Don't cry, little lady. I'm sure they didn't leave without you."
"B-but the ship is gone!" The officer raised an eyebrow, scratching his beard again. He now went from nervous to confused. Julia hoped this continued going the way it was. She seemed to have been spotted by the perfect law enforcer. "The lady said it left a half hour ago!"
"Do you have any family on Ganymede?"
"N-no. We were on vacation." Officer Black frowned. She could tell he was wondering how anyone could possibly forget their child in a place where they had no family. She scrutinized him inconspicuously, trying to quickly assess his gulibility ratio. After a second or two, she had a little mental biography of him that she knewgiven the size of Ganymede and the fact that she had lived there all her life, among other thingshad to be accurate. The tough ISSP officer wasn't married, had no children or pets, lived in an apartment, most likely with his girlfriend. And, when he wasn't busy protecting society, he fished, as was the favorite pastime of all adult males she knew. "I have seven other brothers and sisters. They must have been distracted."
"That seems a little irresponsible to me, regardless of how many kids they have to look after. Maybe you shouldn't go back to them." Oh no, that's not the way to go, sir. I'll have to steer you in a different direction somehow.
"It was my fault officer, I swear it. Don't blame them!" She started a fresh wave of tears, hoping the officer would get so distraught by her that he would agree to anything to make her stop. He was her ticket off this satallite. Better yet, he was her ticket off this satallite for free. She prayed that, as he looked at her with a mixture of concern and weariness, he didn't suddenly notice that the sorrow she was expressing, with excess tears and exaggerated sobs, did not touch her eyes. She, of course, was not sad in the slightest, and never would be, at the prospect of leaving the only home she ever knew to persue a new path. It was time for something else. She was tired of living each day as though it was the same as the last. She was beginning to feel detached, like she was merely a spectator and at any moment, the show that she was watching would end and she would be thrown back into whatever she was going before the show began. She wasn't leaving to find something more, she was leaving to find her life. The show was boring, she wanted to go to a different one. These were deep thoughts for a mere sixteen year old girl, yet they were thoughts that would grow deeper and feel truer as she grew older.
"What kind of person would I be if I let people like that keep their" Officer Black's remark was cut off by a call on him comm. She waited, patiently, wiping the tear streaks from her cheeks. He'll ask if I have a comm. Then he'll ask for a number to reach them by. Then it could go two ways: he'll call them and tell them to come get me while I wait at the station, or he'll call them and tell them that he's sending me. Julia's incredible knack for predicting a person's reaction was something she had picked up during years of manipulation. She usually knew more about someone before they said hello than they would ever know about her. It was useful, in more ways than one, to be able to know which method was right to get what she wanted without making it look like she did anything at all. It became more useful with age.
Officer spoke for a few minutes on his comm. becoming surlier the more he spoke. Finally, he cut off the conversation. His jaw worked as though he had some scathing reply that just couldn't quite come out. Suddenly he looked at Julia like he hadn't realized she was still there.
"All right. I'm going to send you back to Mars. Let the Martian government deal with your unfit parents. Give me your number so I can tell them to at least meet you at the spaceport." Julia supressed the complete joy she felt at having her plan go the way she wanted. Instead she rattled off a number she had dialed more times than she had dialed her own number. The officer wrote down the number, anger still radiating from him, then he told her to follow him to the spaceport, which was where she was ambling toward when he stopped her. She wondered, distantly, what had been said over the comm. to make him so angry, but she didn't ask, for that might have changed the current outcome.
By the time they reached the port, he had calmed down a bit. "I'm going to call your folks then buy your ticket. You go sit down over there." He pointed at a nearby bench.
"Can I go to the bathroom first?" She asked sweetly. He looked irked for a moment, then nodded curtly. She thanked him and hurried off to the restroom. She did a quick check of the stalls before ducking into one, pulling out her own comm. She pressed the redial button. There was a slight pause before she saw her friend's face.
"Hey, Jul. Did you leave yet?" Her friend smirked slyly. She had told Julia the night before that she didn't think Julia's plan would work, and that she would get caught the moment she left the house. Julia had shrugged at the comment, remarking that if she did get caught, she would try again when the time was right.
"No. Listen, Cat. A police officer is about to call you, asking if you're my mother. Try to make it sound like you are, okay?" Cat raised an eyebrow.
"You're not in trouble, are you?"
"Would it change your answer if I was?"
"Well, no, I guess not. I'm going to need an explanation of this later."
"No problem." She disconnected the call and left the bathroom, not before wetting her hands and grabbing a paper towel to walk out with as a prop. She had to make it look like she actually went to the bathroom, after all.
She spotted the officer talking to one of the ticket people so she sat down on the bench he had pointed out before. Julia looked around. The port was pretty empty; kind of depressing if the cloudy weather was factored into the mood. The only people there were maintenance workers and a few tourists waiting for the next ship off the tiny water world. Everyone looked bored, no one looked familiar, and none of them looked at her. As she sat there, she thought about what she was going to be leaving behind. She knew she wasn't going to miss anything or anyone, but she considered the fact that there was a possiblity that she would be missed. Her father, especially would, for she was the first mate on his boat. He had taught her everything he knew about fishing and boating, bringing her on his boat before she was old enough to walk. It excited him that she showed an interest in fishing, however vague that interest might have been. She had no brothers, so she figured that he subsituted her in as the son he never had. Julia's sister paid more attention to their mother's seamstressing, something Julia had dabbled in as well, thinking the talent could be used in anything in any form. When her sister left, Julia's mother had started focusing on Julia entirelly, hoping that one day Julia would get off the "smelly fish boat" and join her in their shop. They're going to be wondering where I am soon. Then they'll call the police and this guy might show up. If he's pissed now, he's going to be furious when he finds out that I tricked him.
As though summoned by her thoughts, Officer Black walked over to her, ticket in hand. He gave it to her with a sigh, adjusting his cap.
"The ship leaves in ten minutes. I can't wait with you, so I'm going to have to trust that you won't miss it this time. I talked to your mother and she said someone will be there waiting for you." Julia gave him her best sweet smile. He deserved at least that for all his trouble, considering that he'd find out that she had been lying to him the entire time in before the day was out. He attempted a smile in return, but it looked a little strained.
"Thank you, sir. This was very kind of you," she said, nodding at the ticket.
"Just doing my job, little lady. Stay out of trouble." Julia smiled again, this time some of the mischief she had been trying to hide slipped into it.
"I will, Officer Black, I will."
Lyrics from "Julia" by Fefe Dobson
