Transparent Color's
Chapter 19

When morning arrives I’m up and ready to start the day. I go down the stairs and into the kitchen to select breakfast for Toby and myself. Before doing so I remember the room off the kitchen, on the wall the blue light is flashing. So I go over to the door and move inside. When I move in front of the screen it turns on and the voice appears.

“Good Morning Magolin. Would you like to receive the daily schedule?” I think to myself ‘great more schedules’, I reply back to the voice, “Yes”.

“Good, here it is!” on the screen it lists off already scheduled appointment times for today. I look down the list and this is what it reads:

8:00am-clinical appointment

8:45am-academic appointment

10:00am-business appointment

12:00pm-Lunch

1:00pm to 3:00pm-Market

3:00pm-Pick up, free time

5:00pm-Home

I look at the time and the clock reads seven o’ five. I rush to the kitchen and yell for Toby to hurry down, we have an appointment for the clinic at eight o’clock. But where’s the clinic?

When I am done eating I place my plate on the counter and the plate flips under to an automatic washer. Toby does the same. I look at the clock again and it says seven-thirty. I don’t know what they do if you’re late here, in my old City they would fine you, I rather not risk it. So I grab Toby’s hand and rush to the door.

I place my hand on the blue screen for the door to open, but it does not open. I place my hand a couple of more times, then in a panic motion, I start banging on the door. I do not like the feeling of being trapped. Toby grabs my arm and I calm myself down.

“Maggie do you need that bag?” Toby points to a tiny orange bag hanging on the wall next to the door. The orange matches my outfit, so it must be for me to use. I grab the bag and the door opens.

Toby gives a little nervous giggle, “Well at least you can never say you forgot something.” We both fall silent and walk out the door.

I do not like the idea of being locked in. What happens after five? I know it’s frowned upon, but could I not go out even if I wanted too? The thought scares me. We had a curfew at the old City, but always had a choice to sneak out if we wanted to. Granted if you were found you were severely punished, but at least you were able to make that decision yourself.

I stand on top of the steps observing all the people moving in fast motion down the side walk. No one on this street seems to have a motor vehicle, maybe only certain people are allowed to, like the rich people from the ball. They all move to the corner of the street, and stand there like statues. I take Toby’s hand and walk down the steps.

As we are walking I see a large flat platform appear in front of the people. All the people get on, and bars wrap around them. It waits; I notice two spots are left, so I start to run now dragging Toby behind me. When we reach the platform, none of the people seem to acknowledge us. I step on and get hooked up, as well as Toby. The platform begins to move. At certain stops people are released and able to get off. More than half the people were off, when the platform stops in front of a small circular building. Toby and I are released from the bars, so we get off.

“Well this must be the clinic, I guess,” I say a little unsure.

I walk up to the door with Toby’s hand in mine and the door opens. All that is inside this tiny building is two long metal chairs, no human being, just the chairs. Toby squeezes my hand a little; I tell him it’s alright. Suddenly a voice appears.

“Please sit on the chairs.” I look up at the ceiling and see two claws with needles. I look at Toby, his eyes are wide.

“I don’t think so, let’s go Toby!” I pull Toby’s arm and walk towards the door. The door does not open and I feel an inch of panic crawling up my body. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FɪndNovᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Ms. Collins you need to sit on the chairs, along with the boy.” The voice demands.

“No! We will not sit on the chairs! Let us out!” I say back in a demanding tone as well.

“I cannot do that. Please don’t make this difficult. Just sit on the chairs.”

“If you won’t let us out, then I want to talk to an actual person.” I say back to the machine.

There is silence then the wall slides open to my right. A woman enters the room.

“Ms. Collins is there some problem?” The woman asks.

“Yes, we would like to go. I don’t feel comfortable sitting in those chairs.” I move closer to the door expecting her to open it.

“Ms. Collins there is nothing to be afraid of, this is just a checkup. No needles are going to be used. Can you please sit down?” She motions me to the chair.

I look at Toby and he shrugs his shoulders, not knowing what to do himself. I look back at the woman and say, “No needles? Then what will be done?”

“Just a scan of your body, eyes, nose, mouth and ears,” she says back.

I think for a moment then say that I will go first after I am done Toby will go. The woman agrees and I sit on the chair. Toby’s face looks stressed but I give him a smile and wink. The chair turns to the back wall, which is now a blue screen. The chair moves up to where my body is at length with the screen. The chair stretches up, causing me to come out of a seated position to a standing position. Like the hand scan that was taken when we first arrived, my body is glued to the used to be metal chair and a bright blue ray goes down my body making it tingle.

An image of me appears on the screen when finished. Then each body part on the screen is lit up individually, along with the metal behind me. After that is complete, a small camera looking thing pops out and quickly scans my eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. The camera leaves and I am unglued. The flat metal forms into a chair again and I am sitting. As it goes down I look at my image on the screen and the word COMPLETE is across my body. I feel, for some reason, that’s a false statement. I get off the chair and see the woman already helping Toby on the other seat. She seems a little annoyed for having to do so.

I can tell from Toby’s facial expression, he is scared out of his mind. He grips the handles as it goes up, but like a tough little man, he keeps his head up and holds his composure. When it is about over I see a wince in his face then the chair moves done. He quickly gets off the chair.

“You were very brave. Are you okay?” I ask while shaking the top of his head.

“Yes, let’s just get out of here.” He says rubbing the back of his neck. I look with wonder, but get distracted by the woman standing next to me.

“Yes you both may leave now, it’s been a thrill.” She says sarcastically then leaves in between the walls.

I give an obnoxious smile to her as the wall closes. Then take Toby’s hand and exit. A smaller platform is already waiting, we get on and it is off to our next appointment.

We arrive at a large rectangular building, three stories high. I take Toby’s hand and we go up the steps to the door. The door opens for us to enter and when we do I look at a huge clock hanging in the middle of the room, from the ceiling. Nine o’ two. Shoot we are late! I see a big desk ahead of me and walk to it. There is a lady swiftly typing away, with no acknowledgement of me or Toby.

“Excuse me…Ma’am!” I say with a raised voice, trying to go over the clicks of the typing.

The lady stops and looks up at me. “You are late Ms. Collins.”

“Sorry we had some trouble at the clinic…” she cuts me off.

“Well because of your tardiness you have caused Toby to miss his orientation. He needs to go straight to class.” I really don’t like her tone. She grabs a folder out of a slot and hands it to Toby.

“Well can I walk with him to his class at least?” I ask.

She looks coldly at me, sighs and says, “I suppose, follow the guide.” She points to a floating blue light behind us. The light gives me chills; it reminds me of the light that put me in a trance at the waterfall.

Toby takes my hand this time and we follow the light down a wide hallway, passing multiple different rooms. I force myself not to look at the light directly, so instead I look at the different classrooms in passing, and Toby leads me. When Toby stops, I stop. We stand in front of a glass door that has the number eighteen on it. The glass slides open and the teacher comes to the opening way.

“Hello, I am Mrs. Wens, you must be Toby?” she says with a smile, her motions are very mechanical.

“Hi”, Toby says in a discreet voice. Then looks up at me, I look in his eyes and I know he is saying ‘get me out of here!’

“Great! Well come on in and sit down, I’m sure you’ll make a ton of new friends.” Her hand motions for him to go in. He does not budge.

I bend down and whisper in Toby’s ear, “Everything will be fine; I’ll be back at three to pick you up. Go ahead in freckles.” He nods his head and enters.

I watch him from the glass walking to his seat and sitting down. His head is down, until the girl next to him puts out her hand to say hello. Good, a friend, a grin crosses my face.

“Ms. Collins, follow me you have to fill out some paper work.” The voice comes so suddenly it causes me to jump. I look around and see no one there. “This way Ms. Collins.” I jump again realizing it’s the blue light that is talking to me.

I hesitate but get my nerves together and follow. The light leads me to a room then disappears. A lady in the room hands me a stack of papers to fill out and encourages me to do them fast or I’ll be late for my next appointment. I look at the clock on the wall and it reads nine-twenty. I wonder how they know my schedule. I sit at a table and look for a pen. I don’t see one so I go to ask for one, when the lady signals for me to use my fingers. She puts her thumb and pointer finger together, like holding a pen. This shocks me but I do what she shows and I see writing on the paper. This place doesn’t cease to amaze me. Another add-on to my list.

After filling out four pages of questions about Toby’s personality, three about medical problems, and three about our old City, I am finally done. I hand them to the lady, she points to the clock. I look and gasp “nine-fifty-eight!” I bolt out the door.

A platform is waiting, I climb on and I’m off again, this time to my Career appointment. I wonder what career I will get and if the testing is the same as my old City. I’ve already been through those tests there and was hoping to become a medical assistant. I didn’t get the chance to find out for sure but maybe I can become one here.

When the platform stops, my mind comes back to the present. I see before me a high building, about ten stories high. I quickly get off the platform and run into the building, I know I must be awfully late. As I enter the metal door my eyes search for a clock. I spot a large one engraved in the huge front desk. Shoot, twelve minutes late. I approach the desk, my head two feet below the top. This is going to be awkward.

“Excuse me; I’m Magolin Collins, here for my appointment. I know I’m late and am so very sor…” the square I am standing on suddenly rises up, causing me to grab on to the hands of the clock. I grab with such force I accidently break off the hour hand. When I can see over the desk and the lady sitting behind it, I catch my breath and finish my sentence, “Sorry.”, ironically with the hour hand in my hand. I give a nervous smile and place the metal hand on top of the desk.

She looks at the hand then me, “Yes, well at least you’re here now. Unfortunately you won’t be able to do your oral part of the test today, they are big on punctuality. But the written will be starting in fifteen minutes. You can go sit in one of those chairs over there, someone will call you.” She tilts her head slightly to the left and smiles.

Confusion crosses my face then I suddenly drop back down to the ground. Still feeling a bit off balance, I walk to the chairs to sit. I sit for about fourteen minutes when my name is called over the speakers. I look up and a ginormous blue arrow is pointing in the direction I need to walk to. So I stand up and proceed in that direction. As I walk down a hall passing different doors, medium sized arrows flash along the walls, until I reach a door at the end of the hall. Big blue letters appear and it says, “Stop”, so I do. The door slides open and all that is inside the tiny box sized room is a small table with one chair. On the table is the written test. I move into the room and the door behind me slides closed. When I sit down on the chair a huge digital clock appears on the wall in front of me, it counts down one and an half hours. I guess I should get started.

As I finish filling out the first of twenty papers, I place it on the table. From the corner of my eye I see the paper moving to the edge of the table and then sucked into a slot. I get done and have fifty seconds to spare. I sit back in my chair counting down to zero. The door opens and I leave the room.

The arrows point back to the direction I came from and I exit the building completely. When I am outside there is no platform waiting for me. I remember next on my schedule is lunch, so I look around and down the city streets. There are numerous shops and restaurants to eat from; I just have to take my pick. “My pick”, this puts a smile to my face.

I walk down the empty sidewalks; everyone must be at work or school. I see a sandwich shop on the corner, it looks appealing, so I go in. I see a young girl, about my age, talking to the wall, which I find quite odd at first until I notice there’s a screen with some man’s face on it.

“Oh!” is all she says before turning off the screen and moving to the counter. She looks at the clock hanging on the wall with some confusion on her face. She looks back at me and says, “Hello Ma’am, may I take your order?”

“Yes, I’m not sure what’s good here, but that sandwich on the board looks delicious. I’ll have that.” I say unsure what to say.

“Ah yes the famous Majestic Burger. Good choice!” she says with a smile, and then holds out her hand.

Ugh, of course I pick the one sandwich that has his name. I look down at her hand in wonderment of what that is supposed to mean. So I reach out to put my hand in hers.

“No silly, your card.” She says, and then gives a little chuckle. She reminds me of Anna.

“Oh sorry, I’ve never done this before.” I give an embarrass smile, then look down and open the orange bag for the first time. Inside are a red lipstick, powder, lotion, and a card. I hand the girl the card.

She slides it, “Oh dear, you cannot use this card until twelve, I’m sorry Miss.” She hands the card back. I take the card and then look at the clock, eleven-fifty-six. I give a smile and go sit down to wait.

“So you’re the new one right? The one that was invited to the Majestic’s home?” She says Majestic with a smile like she is in love. Oh yes, she differently reminds me of Anna.

“Yes that’s me. I’m Magolin, but you can call me Maggie.” I stand up and move to shake her hand, like I’ve seen Maliki do.

She shakes my hand and says, “I’m Lula…Isn’t he ever so dreamy?”

I give a little laugh at her facial expression, and reply back, “His blue eyes are quite dreamy, but he’s not my type.” As soon as I say this her face turns to horror.

“Not your type?!” she dramatically puts her hands on the counter and leans in towards me, “I would die just to be near him.”

I hold back my laughter and say, “Well maybe one day you will meet him. Hey who was that man I saw on the screen? He looked quite handsome.”

“Oh that’s Bo, he’s alright I guess.” She stands up and shrugs her shoulders. “Well its twelve now, would you like your sandwich?”

I nod yes, and give her my card. In seconds the food appears on a metal plate. She hands me my food and says with a genuine smile, “Enjoy”.

Sᴇarch the FindNovel.net website on G𝘰𝘰gle to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.