prompt: Start your story with the line, “It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same,” and end it with, “[…] and that was all that mattered.”…
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It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. The short, forty-story blocks in a cluster at the head of the inlet. Below, the dock and boat launch, and even the fish farm boats seemed to have been frozen in time.
The wind on the rooftop park blew Jak’s tangled curls of dark blue hair into a halo around her mahogany face and bright brown eyes. She put an arm around Sina. “This is pretty much the same as when I left here.”
“It feels so small,” Sina said. The afternoon sun gave her olive skin a warm glow, her jet hair tied back in a braid shone like silk and her dark green eyes sparkled. “The blocks are so short, and there’s so few of them. This block is really only forty stories?”
“There’s never been a need for full, hundred-story blocks here. Welcome to Maud City, Antarctica.”
“I thought there would be snow,” Sina said. “I mean, yeah, it’s summer and all, but I thought there would be, like, mountains with snow or something.”
“Still excited for the job?”
“Oh, yeah! I don’t know much about the area, but the people I talked to in the interviews were nice, and it seems like a good position. They want me to make murals for them,” she said, barely stopping for a breath. “It’s not like I’ll be climbing up the buildings painting them, but I’m to design them and then the robots will do the painting. They’re neat little things, look kind of like bugs, but not as icky, and they climb up the building and each one paints only one color. Hundreds of them at once, and they say they can do an entire side of a block in just a week. It’s like…,” she blushed and dropped her head. “Sorry, I’m babbling again.”
Jak kissed her forehead. “It’s okay. I like seeing you excited like this.”
“But you didn’t have to come,” she said. “I mean, there’s no construction here, where will you work?” Her eyes shot wide. “I—I’m not saying I don’t want you here, not at all. I’m glad you came, but what will you do?”
Jak pointed at the boats in the harbor. “See all those boats? They go out to the fish farms every day, and there’s never enough mechanics to maintain them all.”
“Oh, you must have checked ahead.” Sina shook her head. “What am I saying? Of course, you checked ahead. And you grew up here? I mean, at first… when you were just little.”
“I didn’t check ahead, but I remember what it was like.” Jak chuckled. “Let’s go back to our flat and change. We’re going to the Cold Cod.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a bar and grill. Heritage site. Been here since before the Federation.” Jak took Sina’s hand and led her to the lift. “The original was built during the end of the water wars.”
“The original?”
“It burned down a few times. At least the insides did. The outside of the building is stone.”
“But it’s still a heritage site?”
“Yeah,” Jak said, “the current interior was built about two hundred years ago. The outside hasn’t changed in over four hundred years.”
“So, is it a museum?”
“Could be,” Jak said, “but it’s a working bar. Ever had real fish?”
“Who can afford that? Besides, fish is bland and mushy, even the lab-grown kind.”
“Promise me you will try real fish, just this once.”
“If it will make you happy.”
#
They stepped out of the taxi in front of a low stone building with a sign bearing a silver suit of armor with a blue crotch sporting icicles. Sina stopped and stared at the sign. “I don’t get it. Why armor? Although, that looks like it would be really uncomfortable to be cold there.”
Jak gave her moment to figure it out.
“Oh! Cod, like codpiece.” Sina laughed. “I thought it was named for the fish.”
“Yeah, when this was built there was no fishing here,” Jak said. “Just the last rush of ice mining.”
“So, what’s that little building over there with all the antennas, behind the big gates?”
“That’s the Federation Defense Force Signals Intelligence base. We always just called it ‘The Cave,’ though. Rumor has it that it’s actually really huge, but all built underground.”
“You believe that?”
“No,” Jak said, “there’s never enough soldiers around to fill anything bigger than what you see.”
The crowd inside was noisy, the holos displaying a football game between two teams from far-flung colony worlds, with some people cheering when others booed and vice-versa. Jak led Sina to a large communal table where there were a few seats left. She selected two real cod and chips meals and a pitcher of beer with two glasses from the tablet menu and scanned her ident to pay.
“Jak,” Sina said, “that’s too expensive! You should’ve gotten one and I could taste it. I’d be okay with a ham-style protein.”
“No,” Jak said, “tonight is a celebration! Your big break in the art world!”
Their food and beer were brought to the table by a small, pale, bald man, sharp blue eyes peering from beneath heavy blonde eyebrows over perpetually pink cheeks.
“Oh gods! Mister Marcus,” Jak said, “you’re still here!”
“I am,” he said. “Your mother told me you were coming today. I’d hoped you would stop in, and it seems my hopes were well-founded.”
“It’s good to see you, Mister Marcus. You haven’t aged a day.”
He shook his head. “Not true, but look at you, all grown up, a handsome woman. And you don’t need to call me Mister anymore, just Marcus. You look so much like your mother it’s unreal.”
Jak laughed. “Marcus, this is Sina.”
“Nice to meet you, Marcus.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Sina. Take care of Jak now, she likes to get herself into trouble,” he said with a wink.
“A—actually, I think that’s more my thing,” Sina said.
He laughed. “I’ll leave you kids alone. Stop in any time, even if it’s just for a subsidy meal.”
“Thanks, Marcus,” Jak said. “Dig in, Sweets.”
Sina took a hesitant bite of the batter-fried fish and her eyes went wide. “This is… good. It doesn’t taste like fish, though.”
“No, this is fish. ‘Fish-style protein’ doesn’t taste like fish, and neither does the lab-grown stuff.”
They finished their meals and the pitcher of beer. “I like this place,” Sina said. “I can see why you would have fond memories of it.”
“Hey, you showed me your childhood hangouts, now I get to show you mine.”
“Yeah, but a rooftop play yard on Block 214 isn’t as cool as a 400-year-old bar.”
“But my name’s not carved in any walls here.”
Sina leaned her head on Jak’s shoulder. “I think maybe this place carves itself into you, instead.”
“Could be. Let’s get out of here.”
They stepped out into the early evening light and Jak belched, the sound echoing off the buildings.
“Why do you have to be disgusting?” Sina asked.
“At least I didn’t do it inside,” she said.
“Well, you’re learning.” Sina took her hand and led her to the taxi stand. “Maybe Marcus is right, and I’m meant to keep you out of trouble.”
Jak laughed. “Just as soon as I get you domesticated.”
“Why? I’ve got you to pick up after me.” Sina stuck her tongue out and waved her ident at the taxi door to open it up.
“Hey, this was supposed to be my treat.”
“Come on, grumpy. Let’s go spend the rest of the day laying around watching the holo.”
“You do know it’s almost 23:00, right? Your appointment is at 08:00 tomorrow.”
“But the sun…”
“Won’t set any time soon. Land of the midnight sun?”
“Oh,” Sina said, “this is going to be hard to get used to.”
“Not really, unless you get a flat with a window. If you have one, though, the summers aren’t so bad, but the winters get real dark.”
The automated taxi dropped them off in the minus one floor at the lift closest to their flat. They rode up in silence to the 30th floor.
“Can you imagine what it would cost to get a 30th floor flat in Bamako?” Sina asked. “It would take most of our income. I wonder if we can get a third floor flat for that here?”
“I doubt it,” Jak said. “There’s far fewer of the non-subsidy flats. Besides, I think the rent rates are set by the Fed, so they’d be the same everywhere.”
They settled into bed and the long day of travel overtook them. By the time Jak awoke, Sina was already dressed and had coffee waiting. Jak sat up and looked at Sina’s clothes from the previous day, strewn about the one-room flat. She was going to say something but thought better of it.
“Coffee for you,” Sina said. “I ordered from the grocery and had some stuff delivered.”
“You’re a goddess,” Jak said. “Messy, but a goddess.”
“Then you’re my high priestess.” Sina handed Jak her coffee and gave her a quick kiss. “Well, the goddess has a planning meeting to get to, and the high priestess needs her caffeine. I’ll call around lunch.”
“See you later.” Jak watched Sina leave, then jumped out of bed. She put Sina’s clothes in the cleaner with her own, made the bed, showered, cleaned up Sina’s mess in the bathroom, dressed, and finally, sat down to enjoy her now-tepid coffee.
She sent off a quick message to her mother, then checked the grocery situation. “Typical Sina.” The groceries she’d had delivered included instant coffee, ready-meals, chocolate, ice cream, creme cakes, and hard candies. Since she needed to register with the jobs office on floor zero, Jak decided she’d pick up some real groceries on the way home.
At the jobs office she found at least one thing had changed since she’d been here last: there were far too many mechanics for the jobs available. Still, she put her name on the list. They didn’t need the money, as the flat was a subsidy flat, and basic food, health care and clothing were guaranteed to all citizens, but she couldn’t sit around doing nothing, and she couldn’t handle living on subsidy ready-meals.
Jak strolled through the grocery, far more concerned about the remaining credits in her account than she had been just an hour earlier. She bypassed several luxuries that she would have enjoyed, focusing instead on staples and less expensive alternatives. Instead of herbs and spices she selected flavoring packets; instead of lab-grown meat she selected pork-style protein.
As she perused the produce section, looking for the lowest-cost potatoes and onions, a deep red caught her eye. Fresh raspberries; Sina would love them. They were natural raspberries, grown locally outdoors. The year-round, hydroponic variety across the aisle were cheaper, but inferior by a wide margin. With a determined huff she added a tray of the good berries to her bag. She winced internally when her comm showed how much she’d been charged for them but carried on.
Back in the flat, she put the groceries away and straightened up the kitchen. She spent the next hour wandering in circles around the flat, trying to figure out what to do to keep herself sane. Maybe I should’ve stayed in Bamako, she thought, then realized she’d miss Sina too much.
Sina called just after 13:00 and Jak put her on the holo. Sina was beaming, her normally bright smile turned up to the max. “Hey Jak! Hope your day is as good as mine!” she chirped.
Jak tried to force a smile. “Signed up at the jobs office and picked up some groceries.”
Sina’s smile dropped. “You don’t sound good. What happened?”
“There’s more mechanics than jobs.”
Sina winked. “That’s okay, you can be my stay-at-home high priestess. The goddess is making enough to keep you entertained now.”
“It’s not that,” Jak said. “I don’t really care about the money. I just don’t know what to do with myself.”
“Well, we know I’m a slob, so—”
“I had the place clean less than an hour after left,” Jak said, “and now….”
#
The rest of the week played out very much the same. The constant cloud hanging over Jak took all the air out of the flat. Sina tried everything she could think of to cheer her up, but it never lasted to the morning. Jak began to worry that her mood was going to force Sina to send her back to Bamako.
On her sixth straight day of work Sina called, and before Jak could say anything said, “Meet me at the Cold Cod at 17:00. My treat this time, and we’ll figure something out.” Sina looked at Jak with one of her rare, soft moods. “We’ll make it work, promise.”
“I love you, too.” They disconnected and Jak flopped onto the bed. She set an alarm for 16:30 to give herself time to get there. She checked her comm to see how much time had passed… twenty minutes. The next time she tried to wait longer and checked again; only twelve minutes had passed. Jak closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, trying to will the whirling thoughts away.
The alarm jolted her to consciousness, and she jumped up, about to get ready for work, then remembered where she was. She worked out her curls with her fingers the best she could, then headed out. Instead of taking a taxi she hopped on a bus. It would take longer to get there, and wasn’t a direct route, but at least it wasn’t costing any credits.
When she stepped off the bus at the Cod, Sina was talking with Marcus out front. He motioned her over and said, “I hear you’re having trouble keeping busy.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I never would’ve thought there’d be too many mechanics.”
“That only lasts until winter,” he said. “Then it’s more work than you can handle.”
“Can’t come soon enough.”
“In the meantime, Sina tells me you’re a good cook.”
“I’m okay, I guess. For cooking at home, that is.”
“I have an offer: you come in here, cook whatever the two of you want for dinner and it’s on the house. If I like the way you work, and you want to work here, I can give you as many hours as you want… until winter.”
Sina’s eyes were wide, expectation clear on her face. “Well?”
“Did you set this up?” Jak asked.
Sina nodded, a concerned look crossing her face.
“Stop that, you. I’ll take you up on that, Marcus.” Jak smiled. “You have steak, mushrooms, beef stock, and egg noodles?”
“Of course. Lab-grown steak, not steak-style protein.”
“How does beef stroganoff sound?”
“Only if you make three,” Sina said. “Marcus should eat with us.”
“Deal,” Marcus said. “Now, let’s get you in the kitchen and make sure you don’t burn the place down.”
Most of the kitchen was automated, including the fryers and grills. Jak moved away from those to the unoccupied manual section of the kitchen. Marcus watched from a distance as she sliced, sautéed, and made the sauce while a pot of water waited for the noodles. She added the noodles to the water and the beef to the sauce, and in just a few more minutes it was done. Thirty minutes start to finish.
She plated three large servings and looked to Marcus for approval. Cooking at home was fine, but it felt better, somehow, to be cooking in an industrial kitchen. Still, it took her a while, and she didn’t think that would be something that would be okay in a busy place like the Cod.
The three of them sat down to eat. Sina and Jak watched for Marcus’ reaction. He took the first bite and nodded. “I would’ve added a touch more garlic, but this is very good. If you want a job here, you’ve got it.”
“I don’t know the first thing about your fryers or any of that.”
“You can learn,” he said. “You have the basics, and your timing is good.”
“But it takes me so long…”
“That comes with practice. I bet you weren’t a fast mechanic when you first started.”
“No,” Jak said, still unsure about it all. “If you’re just doing this because you know my mother…”
“Hush. I’m doing this because I need help, and Sina needs help keeping you out of trouble.”
Sina grabbed her hand under the table. “Can I start tomorrow?” Jak asked. It wasn’t her first choice for work, but it would keep her busy until the winter, and she wouldn’t have to leave. She could stay here with the woman she loved, and that was all that mattered.
