Chapter Two
CHAPTER TWO
(THE UNPLANNED JOURNEY)
It was five days after she had received the lecture over her misconduct and the way she ought to portrait herself like a lady and today makes it the eighteenth year that she had been living with them. Unknown to her, today was actually her birthday and not the next day as she had calculated previously (which she has always been doing every year without being corrected); if not, she wouldn't be sleeping comfortably while the couple were making a ruckus around her in her room.
By the time she woke up at 5am and did her morning routine, she went to their room but didn't find the couple inside but rather they were outside at the front yard with three travelling boxes near them, she was surprised. They weren't planning on traveling today, why was it like it seems so.
"See who finally decided to join us," Gideon said jokily.
"Good morning," she greeted both of them. "What's with the boxes? Are you all leaving the house to me? Don't worry, it will be in a good condition when you both come back to it," Pyopey quickly said thinking of the snail that she will finally get to eat.
Gideon rolled his eyes while Victoria shook her head, making a sound, "Pf! - you wish!" Victoria responded.
"What's the occasion?" Pyopey asked getting serious.
"Your eighteenth birthday is today, we have to get your card of identification from the capital if you want to be able to travel around freely," Victoria replied.
"Are you both mistaken?" Chuckling as she asked in disbelief. "I am not a year older until tomorrow and it sounded like you guys want a free ride from Benson dad, right? Is that why you want us to go earlier? You could have said so, instead of beating around the bush, you know, I wouldn't mind," Pyopey ranted and stated righteously.
Both couple looked at each other; a look of disbelief across their face after hearing her rant. "Are you indirectly calling us a loafer?" Victoria asked.
"No, no - that wasn't what I meant. I mean, everyone knows that today is Thursday and only one person in this community has a car that leaves here every Thursday. We all know that Benson dad works partially in the next town," Pyopey justified her speech.
"Well, why don't you find out who we are going with before drawing up a conclusion," Gideon said as he took hold of a black travelling box. "Come on, take the blue one, it is lighter and contains most of your stuffs," Gideon turned around as he walked up the path. Pyopey took hold of the blue box, and discovered that it was lighter, she followed after him; Victoria took the last box and was right behind her on the path.
"You know, I never knew the reason why we'd never eaten snail meal in the house?" Pyopey suddenly started a conversation.
"Because you are allergic to it," Victoria answered.
"Well, I don't remember eating it."
"That was because you were still a toddler," Gideon said.
"What kind of allergy do I have?"
"The normal reaction your body can show off," Gideon answered.
"Well, that didn't list out the symptoms," Pyopey said bitterly.
There was no response from the two and she didn't ask any more question after that, but secretly in a corner of her mind, she wondered whether that snail was even a normal snail, it seems to never want to leave their house.
Following behind Gideon silently, she remembered most of what Victoria had always told her every time that she was a year older. She used to say that on her eighteenth birthday, she will get to meet her real parents and claim her real position and live a peaceful life. But, she had a strange premonition in her heart that her days of living peacefully was about to come to an end. What more could living a peaceful life be? If not wrestling, singing, fishing, and, breaking the rules. She was going to miss all those activities, as she didn't have any friend in the village because of her reckless attitude; there was no one she said goodbye to before her departure.
She was still in a deep thought when they reached the end of the path which opened directly into the broad road, totally different from the one that she'd passed through days ago. A black, smooth looking car was packed by the side of the road not far away from them as it will only take a few steps to get to it. She lagged behind as she was surprised at the sight; it was her first time seeing such a luxurious car apart from the rickety car that Benson's dad drove around which needed a repair every two days and make the body sore just by sitting in it.
"Walk quickly Pyopey, we have to make it on time to the capital," Victoria urged her.
It is not even six; she almost blurted out but kept her mouth in check. Pyopey quicken her pace as she finally arrived beside the car. There was no one to welcome them as the boot suddenly popped open and she watched as Gideon loaded the boxes into the boot before banging it shut.
She followed behind him as he went to the right side of the car and opened it, soon, she found herself, for the first time, inside a car that smell so nice.
It was all black, she thought. But when the couple joined her in the car and the inside light bulb switched on, she realized that she was mistaken, the car seat were light gray and had some random spotted white on it. She relaxed into the seat and found herself sinking into the seat; it seems to want to absorb her in.
Done with familiarizing herself with the new feeling, she realized that up till now, there was nobody apart from the three of them in the car. Looking out to the front, she couldn't see who was occupying the driver seat as a black tinted glass separated them; she wondered who the owner was.
Moving slightly closer towards Victoria's right ear, as she was in the middle and Victoria was on her left, she asked a question quietly.
"Who owns the car?" she silently asked.
"Don't know, ask Gideon," Victoria answered back.
Pyopey shifted over to Gideon, whispering the same question.
When Gideon replied, she only saw his lips moving but no words came out. She gave up on her quest to get an answer and relaxed on her seat. It was so comfortable that she slept throughout the ride but was woken up from her sweet dream when they arrived at the capital.
Pyopey opened her drowsy eyes, blinked a couple of times before two faces came to her view, then she blinked and blinked again in confusion but they didn't disperse from her view. Yawning with her mouth wide open and stretching her body like a lazy cat, she suddenly spoke out, "Are we there yet? I'm famished, didn't you cook?"
"I didn't, but if you hurry up, we might be able to get some dishes at the restaurant before the office will be opened and will soon be filled up," Victoria said hurriedly.
She got down from the car, remembering something; she turned to the driver window and peeped through it but found nobody. Hmm, I will take a look later, she concluded as she dragged her feet behind the couple.
"That is unladylike," it was the first time that Gideon reprimanded her.
"Sorry," she quickly adjusted her posture and walked properly. Looking around the exterior view of the restaurant, it was so ordinary looking, there was hardly any other vehicle apart from theirs and the place was just - quiet. A slight beeping sound dragged her attention back to the couple as they stood at the doorstep waiting for her to catch up.
Meeting up with them, they moved forward and stepped on a raised circular floating step entirely different to the others which surprisingly accommodated their weight. They were soon bathed in revolving neon light before it disappeared and the door opened after.
A man was waiting for them, dressed in metallic neon clothes, his id was pegged to his breast pocket and there was a slight shake of his body as he led them through the compartments until they got to theirs, leaving soon after.
As they took their respective seats, Pyopey could see that the walls were plastered with drawing and she knew that they weren't the cheap ones either. On the table, three cards lies with one directly in each person front. A small golden-like, dome-shaped object was at the center of the table and she didn't know what it was for.
After some minutes, Gideon spoke out, picking up the menu card.
"Should we order now or what till you are done starring?" the question was directed towards Pyopey.
"Do we have the money for this? I mean this looks expensive," she replied.
"Don't worry, it can't be more expensive than starving without a choice right?" Gideon asked.
With that sentence, Gideon put his right hand on the dome-shaped object and not too long after he took his hand off it, the door to their compartment opened, a line of waitress came in and they were served. After the group left, Gideon spoke out.
"Don't bother asking me why no one came to take our orders," Gideon said, stopping the barrel of questions that Pyopey might come up with.
"The thing is, this dome shaped object …" Victoria pointed at it, "… It is an order sender that allows you to pick what you want just by pressing it."
After eating a plate of somewhat looking greenish rice which tasted weird but wasn't bad accomplished with a big fried meat that was the biggest meat she had ever eaten in her whole life, she drank a glass of water to push it down. She didn't touch the drinks, they were brightly colored and she dreaded how they will taste like.
The group bundled themselves back into the car and they were set to arrive at the Indexing office in less than five minutes. Watching in awe as the gate opened automatically and the car passed through it, she looked back and saw no one at the gate as it closes back.
Alighting from the car, she looked around, it was freaking huge, like literally unbelievably huge, she couldn't see the end of the building and looking upward, the building seems to extend into the heaven. There were many species of flowers planted around the place that they stood that made the place look more like a garden and less like an office building. The ground was paved with transparent stones and not a single weed could be seen. It was also clean and free of debris, from where they were, she estimated that it will take like ten to fifteen minutes to walk to the big door at the entrance, since the car couldn't go any further. Although, she wanted nothing more than to be dropped at the entrance but a warning note has been displayed beside her and the couple had glanced at it once as they silently chuckled to themselves.
On the pavement was another thing that stood entirely out of the picture which was a small sized, square shaped mirror interconnected together and running from their side to the other end. Pyopey looked at herself in the mirror, stopping to adjust some of her hair that seems to have fallen out of the hair band, she pouted her mouth and made some strange and funny faces at the mirror, her personal fun time was cut short when the couple came back to drag her.
"I was enjoying myself," she protested.
"I bet you were but those monitoring aren't," Victoria replied.
"Monitoring, aren't those mirrors ordinary mirrors? Who could be monitoring me?" she asked, looking around but found nobody.
"There are security officers in charge of recording any unusual activities through the mirror. If I am one, I will certainly have detained you to check if you were normal," Gideon stated.
"Thank God, you aren't," she responded.
As they got to the door, it opened automatically. Why does it seem that everything here in the capital can think and behavior like human? She thought. If those two could hear her thought or the people operation the door, they would have had her head checked.