Anna had tears in her eyes as she returned the hug. “See you soon, okay?”
“Yep, in around a week. You always know where to find me . . .”
Anna forced an awkward laugh and stepped back. “I’m alright, Nory. . .”
Simon helped Tilly in the hover as Nora climbed in after. Anna waved as they soared away, watching them leave, putting her hand on her stomach.
Nora kept her eyes on her in the rearview mirror. Once they were out of sight, she sighed. “Other than that last part with Paul, that went . . . better than I thought. I almost thought the cover was blown when Tilly said where we found you though.”
Tilly chirped from the backseat, “It was the truth. You always say tell the truth.”
Nora winced, tapping her hands on the steering wheel. “I know, I know. I’ll let Anna know next time if Paul isn’t around.” She muttered under her breath, “That man is such an oaf.”
Simon’s eyebrows contracted, his gaze on her. “Paul makes you really nervous. Your temperature dropped when he came near. Has he hurt you in some way before?” His eyes turned flinty on the words, and Nora saw his hand ball into a fist on his lap.
Nora shook her head. “No. Not me but, yeah . . . he . . . let’s just say he is not nice.”
She looked over to Tilly, who was distracted by holding the doll on the side of the hover as the town passed by. After leaning in close, Nora whispered, “Paul scares me. Heard he did all sorts of favors for people to get where he is now.”
“Favors?” Simon’s lip flattened.
“Yeah . . . and not the nice ones. He worked as a hit man for the Tyra gang. Made a lot of money, enough to buy the bakery.”
“Why is Anna with him?”
Nora shrugged, sitting back up. “She lived at the same place I did . . . before. And that was . . .” She hedged.Don’t want to get into all of that. “Just some shops here in town, closer by where Max is. That’s how I got to know him.” She adjusted her position in the driver’s seat. “That’s how Anna and I got to know each other too. Paul was nice to her then. She said he changed after getting the bakery.”
“Is she in danger?” Simon asked.
Nora just shook her head. “No. Only because Anna is too sweet to make waves with him. She’s more . . . agreeable than I am. But she’s not really living either. I just keep my distance from him when I go in.”
She saw Simon open his mouth to ask more but headed him off with something else.Don’t want to talk about Paul anymore.“My nerves are just shot today for too much more.” She cleared her throat. “Simon, where did you go on your adventure?”
Simon was slow to respond. “Nowhere important. I believe I understand better now why you live outside of town. It is a soulless place here.” He picked up the bag Anna gave them, pulling from inside three circular objects. Cookies. “Outside of Anna.”
At that, Nora had to agree. “Yeah, well, there’s one other spot that is okay. I’ll take us there. I’ll also show you the place where Mars drops items before we leave.”
Chapter twenty-three
Simon
Simonknewthemomentthey pulled up that this was what he had been looking for. The bulletin board from Mars was lit up, and he could tell from just a brief glance it was connected to something more than just local networks. This felt similar to the drone, but was a connection he believed he could access.
“Can you explain more about this?” He tilted his head, processing the images rapidly.
The board’s bright lighting reflected off Nora’s eyes and face. She waved her hand over the cracked hover’s front glass. “The Mars information board. It’s big, right? They put stuff on here about what they’re dropping off. See? It’s a moving picture. Pretty neat. I wonder if it really looks that pretty over there.” At his confused look, she elaborated, “On Mars. That’s what they say it looks like.”
Simon watched the video feed for a moment as it switched to a depiction of grass and nature. The pictures were familiar to him, flooding him with a sense of nostalgia. “It looks like how Earth used to.”
Leaning on the steering wheel, Nora chuckled. “Well that’s something, then. Glad I can see a bit of what it was. Kinda feels like they’re teasing us though, with how often they show these nature clips. Sometimes some animals too, funny looking ones.”
Simon kept his eyes on the board as Nora palmed the controls of the hover. “Here, I’ll get us closer. There’s no shipment we can get today, but I wasn’t kidding when I talked with Anna. We’ll come back next week and maybe there will be one then. Sometimes they’re announced, other times there’s an extra.”
All of this didn’t make sense. Simon drummed his fingers on the cracked dash. “How do you know?”
Tilly climbed forward, toward the front seats. “Radio tells us!”
The radio?Simon's jaw clenched. It was hard for him to comprehend that this was truly the only communication available.
