“I’m sorry, Tilly.” Nora sighed.Even kids that young can’t act nice.She sat back in her seat and drummed her hands on the steering wheel. “Let’s stop in the little schoolhouse on the way back and see what projects they’re working on. The nice man who works there may have a few sack dolls we can bring home like last time, and some more chalk we can buy.”
“Okay. Can we check the board before we go?” Tilly crossed her hands together in plea.
“Yeah, might as well, we’ll be right there in front of it anyways to get our share of the drop.” Nora huffed in dismay.Nothing good comes from looking though.To Tilly she said, “Let’s not linger.” She turned the hovercraft down the central lane to the main square. “The drop always has good stuff, we can’t miss that.”
Nora drove the hover up carefully to the lit up bulletin area, a technological wonder in comparison to their everyday life. Around the bulletin board was actually the safest part of town. None of the gangs would allow any fighting to come near here, knowing that if they did they might disrupt the shipment drops they depended on.
The board stood tall, erected by the successful Mars colony, and served as the central way for information to be exchanged. The LED screen displayed pictures as clear as real life. It made Nora feel even grubbier to be near, next to the clean Martian sky and nature scenes that showed when an active message was not being broadcasted.
Nora left the hover by the armed guards, close to the drop, to walk up and check. Even with the area more protected, she locked the ignition and kept her gaze on the hover. There, underneath the massive bulletin board, was an automatic dispenser connected to a cargo transport. It was the most modern technology in the town.
It was also the only part of Mars either her or Tilly got to touch.
Both Tilly and Nora scanned their hands at the automated check-in, their fingerprints verifying the numbers they’d been assigned and that they had not received a portion from the drop yet. The scan also took a picture of the both of them for good measure, showing a history of them over the years. The items in her drop box had gotten notably better and started including things like baby supplies once Tilly was born.
After a moment, two parcels ejected down a chute from the large container behind the table. Nora took them from the table and walked away, tucking one under each arm.
“Can I peek?” Tilly asked, pulling on her sleeve, making it hard to balance it all.
Nora shook her head. “Once we get out of town. I don’t want others to see what we got.”
“Okay,” Tilly said after they got back into the hover. “Now let’s look at the board.”
“Alright.” Nora took the hover and moved it across the front of the area slowly, past the gigantic LED screen that showcased the latest lottery winners and their new lives on Mars, where it seemed like they lived in a world as full of luxury as the Earth was devoid of it.
Tilly ooh’d and ahh’d, but Nora didn’t even look at the display, focusing only on the traffic ahead as she drove out of the town.
By the time Nora got home, she was sweaty and tired. Both her and Tilly’s drops from Mars had new fabrics and medicine in them. She turned over the fabric gratefully.I needed to make new clothes. She’d dropped the armful of goods on the counter next to the table, basic pain pills and antiseptic ointment for cuts spilling out of the bag.Anna was right, it was a good one.
Tilly came in a second later, holding a sewn doll that the man at the schoolhouse had given her. Nora was happy he was there; he reminded her so much of her father that it hurt in a bittersweet way. Her own father had passed away long ago. She shook her head to get rid of the nostalgia, her thoughts fuzzy after having stayed up late last night to work on Simon.
Speaking of Simon. . . Nora walked from the counter to the floor and uncovered the android. “Can’t forget about you.” She looked down at him speculatively.
She took out the cables from Max and replaced the connectors to the battery before leaning over to plug Simon back into the solar cell. The red charging dot lit back up, flashing more rapidly than before. Nora watched it blink, transfixed a bit with how tired she was. She shook her head again to wake herself up.At least the new cables should help it go faster. Disappointment still coated her tongue seeing that red light, even though she knew she’d interrupted the charge earlier by unplugging him.
“Should turn on soon, I hope,” she tapped him on the shoulder while she crouched next to him on the floor.
Tatertot wound around her legs, purring, clearly happy she was back as well. Nora scratched him behind his ears. “Hey, Tater.”
Slowly, she got back up to cook the vegetables she got from town, along with some eggs the chickens laid earlier.
Tilly was playing with the battery-operated radio trying to pick up her programs, the sound filtering back to Nora in the kitchen from the next room. Some generous souls, somewhere, still put kids shows on the airwaves. There were still pockets of goodness out there, like the schoolhouse on the edge of town.
And Anna.
Nora walked into the living room carrying the metal plate of food, setting it down on the floor. “Tilly girl, here’s your plate. You can eat in front of the radio while listening. I’m spent and I just want to eat in the kitchen.”
“But they’re gonna rescue the princess tonight.” Tilly’s little face lit up in excitement. She was hugging her new sack doll, the others she loved lined up next to her on the sofa that Nora had restuffed and sewn covers for.
“You can fill me in later. My head is hurting, and I gotta get the solar AC back in place. I don’t want to run the generator again.”
“Aw, alright.” Tilly took her plate.
Nora went back to the kitchen where she stood to eat her meal at the kitchen table. She stared at Simon’s red light as she ate, shifting her feet.So much I still gotta do before I can sit down.
It was after Nora finished fixing the solar AC and connected the battery to it that she finally sat for a minute. Her body felt like a limp noodle in the small wooden chair at the table, watching another red light as the AC charged up.
Tatertot chose that moment to come to the table. He climbed up, circling for pets, and Nora broke off some of her ration bar to give to him as well. She pet him under the chin. “What did you do all day? Sleep? Must be nice.” Tatertot blinked his big amber eyes back. “You missed us, huh?”
