The Golden Rule

Ch 3: Something is Off

When Angeline woke up the next day, she was glad to discover that she no longer had any more head pains. She turned on her bed mat and saw her mother was still wrapped comfortably in her thin covers. Certain that her mother’s internal clock was infallible, she knew that she had not overslept again and rose from her bed mat feeling exceptionally satisfied that she would not have an another peculiar incident. She decided that after changing into her clothes, she would bring back their meals from the Rationing Center to make up for yesterday’s idleness. She put on her daily attire and went towards the mirror to adjust her hair.

            She rarely had a reason to pay much attention to her reflection, but she could not ignore the peculiar black streak that appeared on the top left corner. She quickly to tried to remove the smudge with hem of her shirt, but it became clear when she took a closer look that smudge was not on the mirror but on a front lock on her hair. She took a quick step back from the mirror and examined it. Even the pencils and inks from the Learning Center and the darkest fertilizers from the Farm did not have as dark of a pigment as she saw coated her hair from the tip to the root. She tried to rubbing it fiercely between her fingers to remove the streak, but it proved futile as nothing was smeared off in her hand. Irritation slowly started building inside her and she would have made more of an effort to investigate the cause of the color change if she had not heard her mother roll around in her sleep. She quickly braided her hair and tucked the dark lock out of view, deciding that it was probably a stubborn smudge of dirt that she did not need to worry about. Grabbing her satchel with their ration cards inside and two smaller grey tube-like bags, she snuck quietly out of the dwelling to avoid waking her mother.

            Though the black hair made her slightly on edge, she was in a much better mood since her headache had disappeared in the night. She was able to put more energy into her obligatory conversations with her neighbors and in return, they seemed to enjoy her company much more than they did yesterday. After passing a few more neighbors, she saw a young man wearing the customary thick brown overalls or an engineer tapping the side of a residence.

“Hello sir. I hope you are having a wonderful morning,” she said briskly to avoid pulling him too much out of his work, but he swiveled his head around quickly, and she instantly recognized him.

“Hello Angeline, It has been such a long time since I have seen you last. How have you been?”

“I have been well, Nathaniel. I see that your body has become much more apt to your occupation.”

            Even though Nathaniel still went to Learning Center to finish his engineering training, she had not come across him for at least half a year. In that time, he had grown much taller and his skin was taut over his bulky arms, but he still had that same wide gap toothed smile from his youth that he quickly covered up with his lips.

            “It seems I have,” he chuckled carefully to hide his teeth, “The engineers have advanced my occupation to shelter inspector, and I have been doing more energetic work.

“I hope I have not disturbed your work.”

            “There is no trouble, Angeline. I have just finished inspecting this shelter, and I am about to move on.”

“I hope there was no trouble.”

“No, there was not any trouble. I have been lucky that I have not inspected any shelter with trouble for at least a month now.”

“I should not keep you from your work. Your work is very important to the safety of our community.”

“Thank you, but it is not as important as your instructing occupation. I should not keep you from destination.”