SKY CHILD

Chapter Four - Kali Vitali

"What do we do?" He asks me as if I should know the answer. All I can do is stare at the ever-changing sky in front of me. I look around to see a couch sitting along the wall to my left. On floor one couch's are only in the lounge room. I walk over to it and run my hand over the soft fabric. Past the wall is a door frame to another room and I walk towards it.

There's no door just an entryway into a room with multiple steel appliances and a table in the center of the room. The largest steel machine is as tall as I am with a handle on its double doors. I pull it open and am met with an icy breeze as I look inside. There's fruit and vegetables stocked on every shelf. What the hell is this place?

I shut the door and look at the boy standing in the entry way. He's scanning my features, as if my confusion to the machines is absurd to him.

"Have you never seen a fridge of food before?" He half jokes with a confused smile. I shake my head no and his smile drops and his confusion deepens. His dark eyebrows pull together as he crosses his arms.

"What floor are you from because you're obviously not from 18." My eyes meet his in an instant and we stare into each others eyes for a moment.  I look away and turn back around to the room.

"What floor are you from?" I ask him as I glide my finger across the metal table tops.

"Floor 17. By the way you're amazed by this kitchen you must be on floor five or below. Those are the floors that have two rooms, the bathroom and bedroom." I look back at him in confusion at how much he knows about each floor. "Although floor one only has a bedroom and a shared bathroom area." He continues and I shake my head in disgust.

"What?" He asks and I stop looking around and turn to him.

"Don't you think it's absurd that this housing dorm has all this space and others have one little shared room?" He doesn't say anything at first, he just stares at me as if thinking deeply about that for the first time.

"I mean I'm sure floor ones room has everything the tenant needs. Besides most of those people are single parents or they live alone. They don't need the space families do." I just look at him for a moment in obscurity and shake my head.

"Those people? Like there any less than anybody else?" I spit hatefully and his head jerks back in confusion as he crosses his arms.

"I just meant they don't need as much space as those of us with both parents and a child. Plus they're usually the labor workers so they don't have time to cook so they just go to lunch hall so they wouldn't need a kitchen anyways." He looks me over once again from head to toe and I try not to squirm under his scrutiny.

"You're from floor one aren't you?" He asks and I look away and at the door on the other side of the kitchen. Are you kidding me. How big is this place? I ignore him and walk towards the door and I can hear his footsteps as he follows me.

I open the door to a large room with a large bed in the middle of the room and and two dressers on each side. I can feel the bile in my stomach bubble as I think about the disparity between floors.

"Can you stop wondering around this complex like you've never seen one before and help figure out what's going on!" He demands and I snap my head in his direction and storm towards him. He takes a step back as I stare him down only inches away. I narrow my eyes at him and study his features. His hands are clean and soft looking, no sign of hard work. His clothes are pressed and spotless, freshly washed with a smell of the laundry complex. His hair is neatly pinned back in perfectly groomed braids that I always begged my father to do to mine. Everything about him angers me and I'm not sure why.

"You may have all of this everyday of your spoiled life but this is the first time I've seen one of these complexes so excuse me for not being as custom to it as you." I seethe and he nods his head slowly and takes a deep breath.