Immortalys

Chapter Sixteen: On Floor 245

The next couple of days seemed like a dream come true for both Friction and Willow. After two hours in the morning of lounging around in their pajamas in front of their second-storey Capitol window, Willow and Friction were invited to attend a meeting on the fourth floor with some members of the Home and Business Construction Board. For three consecutive days, the architecture experts would kindly and enthusiastically help the Withouts plan the structure of their new home.

They had picked out a lot near the edge of town, in the areas nearer sea level where Friction had expected all of the poorer people to be living. Nothing could have prepared him to see exactly the opposite: the homes down in the "suburbs" of Immortalys were huge. Most of them had three floors, seamless glass windows, and swimming pools or ball courts in the backyards. If anything, the beautiful houses nearer the Capitol were the dwellings of those people with lesser incomes. Friction, at this point, finally concluded that whatever great ideas the Immortalys government had, they were working; there were absolutely no poor people in the city.

As soon as she saw these gigantic homes, Willow's mental catalogue of house necessities tripled. "I'd also love a walk-in closet in the master bedroom," she said to Officer Harper of the Construction Board, tapping her finger on the screen where they had laid out a long checklist of essential facilities, "and a hot tub. In the house. So we don't have to go outside when it's the middle of February."

"Can we have a theater room where we can just watch movies?" Friction added as Officer Harper scribbled down Willow's requests.

"Why would we need a whole theater room?" asked Willow, raising an eyebrow.

"Why would we need a whole walk-in closet?" Friction countered.

She scowled at him.

Once they had gotten all of the necessities, the Construction Board officers advised them on how to put together a floorplan. They described the most common floorplans used in the city, bringing up the blueprints on a vast hologram image which showed the three-dimensional structure of each room. Willow preferred a more open floorplan, making the kitchen indistinguishable from the living room and allowing easy visibility to all of the main parts of the house. Friction didn't care so much how the front rooms were laid out; anyway, he knew if he did care, his argument would not last long contending with Willow's.

Finally, after three days' worth of planning, Friction and Willow were satisfied and excited with the sketch they had come up with. The officers, who were just as eager as they were, promised that their home would be finished in less than three weeks, and meanwhile Willow and Friction would continue living in their Capitol bedroom.

Another event that Friction found exciting about that week was that after the third day of planning their house, he and Willow took a much-needed break to go hiking with Blainey. Energized and talkative as always, Blainey, treating them to a monologue of everything she learned in school that week, led them up a winding trail on the mountain behind the Capitol, where they got an increasingly good view of the surrounding tundra and lake. The top of the mountain was windy and colder than anywhere else in the city, but it was so enjoyable for all three of them that they hardly noticed.

"Lookie," said Blainey, pointing to patches of snow at the summit, "winter already! You're going to love winters here— if you love snow, anyway. We get so much snow in January and February; it's awesome. Once I built a snow fort in my yard that was super big, and it was fun. I want to do it again this year, and you guys can help me if you want!"

"Sounds great, Blainey," said Willow, who seemed like she just wanted to get Blainey to stop talking. Friction snorted in amusement.

Yet Friction could tell that Willow and Blainey had become fast friends. Often he'd see her texting on her Surface, and when he'd ask who it was, the answer would be Blainey (as if Willow had anyone else to text). Whenever the three of them went shopping, Friction would see the two of them discussing outfits that they liked. After all these years of just hanging out with a boy, Friction concluded, it must be a relief to have someone of the same gender to laugh and talk about things with. Blainey seemed to be doing a good job at pulling Willow out of her comfort zone a little bit— which was something that Friction had tried but failed at doing many times.