Chapter 7 – A Failed Delivery...
Sal languished in the small apartment he rented in the housing stack rising in the heart of the decayed city. His lungs had become accustomed to the filtered, dry air of the Klondike, and the humidity against which the window air-conditioned popped and strained choked him. Sal's ankles and knees swelled as his body struggled to readjust to Earth's natural gravity. All the physical discomforts those who hopped between the stars experienced upon their return home isolated Sal in his apartment, where the footfalls of unsupervised children darting through the halls, the hundred thumps and creaks of an overpopulated housing stack, where the sirens and the traffic that spilled into his window made Sal feel more confined and crowded than he felt aboard the Klondike.
The Company kept Sal waiting to exchange his red, plastic token for a glowing firedrop blossom for over a week. Calling each morning on one of the stack's public phones to inform Sal that they did not yet have a firedrop to give him, the Company apologized and explained that firedrop supplies were low due to the electrical storms continuing to rage around Glazkov IV that made harvesting so difficult. Supplying the tent vendors took priority. But the Company assured Sal that a fresh, pulsating firedrop would be reserved for him at the earliest opportunity, that he would likely need to wait no more than a few more days before he could exchange his plastic token for a lovely, alien blossom.
His days of waiting had not been entirely unpleasant. Sal was surprised how his red-dyed hair marked him as a hero to the children who ran throughout his housing stack. Children pounded on his door at all hours of the day to listen to Sal describe to them the sight of the firedrops glowing upon the landscape of AU803. Sal hoped that the children's imagination might find a way to overcome the limitations of the ineffective language Sal was forced to rely on to attempt to capture any sense of the splendor. Sal's surroundings turned quiet whenever he spoke to visiting children of firedrop, and Sal suspected that the building's new mothers soothed their babes so that they too might hear his words through the housing stack's thin walls. He promised the children that he would bring his firedrop back to the housing stack, so that those who never harbored any hope to purchase a blossom of their own might see through their own eyes the glow that throbbed from such an incredible treasure.
The old men and women who congregated in the housing stack's first-floor, vandalized courtyard told Sal, after his shaking legs used the staircase for exercise, that he did a good thing to tell the children his tales of the firedrop. They reminded Sal that it would be wicked to break those youths' hearts if he failed to keep such a promise. And they also warned Sal that not all the ears who heard his stories of Glazkov IV and AU803 belonged to good souls.
Sal sat on his old couch and smiled on the ninth morning following his return from the stars. The Company informed him his firedrop was waiting.
At the same time it had for the last seven mornings, the door to Sal's apartment chimed.
"It's me, Sal! It's Rose! Open the door and let me see your flaming, red hair!"
Sal winced as he rose from the couch. It took him longer to regain his strength after his third hop. He wondered how difficult it must be for the veteran harvesters to readjust to home.
"Hang on, Rose! Still have my space legs. I'm hurrying."
Sal flung open his apartment door and again smiled to see Rose standing in the hall. Sal thought she looked more alluring at each of their encounters. Her family were refugees from the East Asian war that lay waste and ruin to a land that once supported the planet's densest populations. Rose was second generation, with dark eyes and dark skin, with ebony hair that glistened upon her shoulders in even the dimmest of light. Sal thought Rose could hardly be twenty years old, but Sal knew as did any other man who called the stacks home that Rose had already been the beauty of the tower for a handful of years. Sal had always noticed her, but she had never noticed him before he had returned a firedrop harvester, with his head dyed red, telling stories to the children of what it meant to see the firedrop blossom upon its native moon.
Sal was no longer a rookie member of a starship's crew, and he did not consider himself naive. He suspected Rose felt that the idea of getting near to a glowing firedrop to be more attractive than any characteristic Sal had to offer. But Sal could live with that if the firedrop was the thing that gave him the chance to get closer to Rose. Sal had big plans for the night when he brought the firedrop home, and Sal thought Rose would be very happy to spend the night with him if his apartment gave her the luxury of sleeping in a room bathed in the firedop's crimson glow.
"Have you heard anything yet Sal? Have they called you?"
Rose rushed into Sal's apartment and flung her handbag upon a chair. Sal's heart raced. Rose wore a swaying, crimson skirt trimmed in golden sequins that lifted well above her knees, and her blouse's cut heated Sal's blood.
Rose laughed. "I'll consider the look on your face as a compliment, Sal. A girl has to learn when a quiet man appreciates her as much as a boastful boy. But don't think keeping quiet is going to fool me into believing you haven't heard the news."
Sal shrugged his shoulder. "I don't have a computer or digital notebook. I don't even have a television or a phone of my own. I have to wait to listen to the old folks gossip in the courtyard about the day's events."
"I thought someone would call you," Rose arched an eyebrow. "I thought they would at least do that, seeing how you risked your neck on that moon. Another starship has arrived in orbit, and its dropped harvesters to the spaceport. Harvesters brimming with firedrop."
Sal's hands trembled. "What ship? The Earl? The Cisco? Or the Crimson Nugget?"
"What does it matter what the starship's name is, Sal?" Rose's eyes narrowed. "It's been taking longer than usual for the firedrop shipments to arrive home. You can't just sit there waiting for the Company to call you on the stack's public phone. You have to hurry and get to the spaceport and make them honor your token before people less deserving than you grab all the firedop before anyone can think to reach you."
"I don't even have a car, Rose."
Rose winked. "That's taken care of. Tyler has promised to give us a ride to the spaceport. And he's got one of those manually-navigated cars that can escape all the crowded automatic highways to the spaceport in favor of the empty, old roads. He can get us to the merchant tents quick, Sal, while there's still a little time before the lines get too long and you miss out on the firedrop the Company has promised you."
Sal frowned. "Tyler?"
"Don't dare play the jealous card," Rose's eyes burned. "Not now. Not when you're so close to enjoying the glow that you deserve. Please, Sal, don't let being petty get in the way of taking what's yours."
Sal forced a smile. How could he know the nature of Tyler's motivations? He recalled how Tyler and Rose were inseparable before he had taken his first hop into the stars. He remembered how one could then not be seen without the other. Rose promised Sal that she and Tyler remained only Plutonic friends. Sal still wondered. Sal had learned, if little else upon the Klondike, that the most powerful, and dangerous, forces at work throughout the cosmos remained invisible. Let the future expose whatever gravity still existed between Rose and Tyler. Sal only wanted Rose for a single night, only wanted her to serve as a someone with whom he could share the firedop's crimson glow and golden pulse.
"Alright," Sal nodded. "I'll ride in Tyler's car."
"Are you sure?"
"Sure."
Rose leaned towards Sal and delivered a long, wanting kiss. "Give me ten minutes to tell Tyler so he can get the car ready. We'll be waiting for you across the street from the stack's courtyard."
Sal gathered a breath as Rose fluttered from his apartment. He smiled at the scent of her lingering perfume. In only a few more hours, he would claim his very own blossom of firedrop. Later that night, he would share its glow with Rose, and his spirits soared to consider what wonders he would discover when he carried that firedrop home.
Sal grab
bed his Klondike crew jacket and gave his apartment a look before he walked out of his door. He wished he would have taken more pride in his space. He wished he would have kept the tight quarters cleaner. He wished he would have more time to organize his rooms before he and Rose shared the alien glow in such a small space. But Rose was right. The lines were already lengthening at the spaceport. He did not have the time to idle if he hoped to claim the firedrop he had rightfully earned.
"Over here son!"
A whisper shouted at Sal as his shaking legs descended the final step and strode into the stack's courtyard.
"Listen to an old, blind woman before you go, son!"
Lucinda Charles beckoned Sal to her with a wave of her ring-laden fingers. She was on of the housing stack's oldest of great dames. Lucinda woke before dawn each morning and hobbled down the stairs to be the first seated in the stack's courtyard. Many did not know better and believed that Lucinda slept in her favorite wicker chair in the courtyard, a blind and homeless woman who had little business to congregate in the stacks. Sal knew better. He knew that Lucinda had called an apartment four floors above the courtyard home for over three decades. And Sal knew better than to allow the cataracts clouding Lucinda's eyes fool him, knew that no one was more attuned to what transpired in the housing stacks than Lucinda Charles. Though Sal hurried to meet Rose and Tyler across the street, and though he felt rushed to reach the spaceport before the vendor lines stretched too long, Sal stopped to hear what Lucinda had to tell him.
"You're in danger, Sal." Lucinda gripped Sal's elbow as he stood beside her wicker chair.
Sal's heartbeat quickened. "What are you talking about?"
Lucinda's misty eyes nodded across the street.
"They plan to rob you of your firedrop, son," Lucinda whispered. "That harlot Rose and that terror Tyler have been planning it since the first day they heard you telling the children your stories of gathering the glowing bud. They want to rob you and keep that glow all to themselves. They're used to getting their way, Sal. There's not much they're afraid of doing to get it. You'll be lucky if they don't cut your throat after they steal your firedrop. You be real careful before you bring that firedrop anywhere near the two of them."
Sal glanced across the courtyard to see if anyone eavesdropped.
"Are you sure, Lucinda?"
Lucinda squeezed Sal's arm. "As sure as the winds, Sal. As sure as the winds."
"Thank you, Lucinda."
"You go, Sal, and you don't look back."
Sal's mind raced to recall any sign of Rose's true intentions, if he had missed any indication of Rose's intentions since he had returned from his third hop to the stars. Lucinda claimed she was a sure as the winds, but Sal still hesitated to accept such a warning. His desire to share the firedrop glow with Rose still clutched at him, spoke to him too strongly to be sacrificed at one old woman's warning. Sal had to know for himself. He had to see for himself some sign that Rose would cut his throat if doing so gave her the chance to claim a firedrop.
"Don't just stand in the street, Sal! Hurry on over to my car!"
Sal shook his head as he realized he had paused in the middle of the street outside his housing stack. Tyler waved at him and grinned.
"Man, Sal, you look sharp with that crew coat and that hair. Rose is waiting inside. Get out of the street before you get hit, and let's get that firedrop you deserve."
Sal forced a smile. "Appreciate the ride. Haven't seen one of these old manually-steered cars for years. We can sure use it. Traffic has to already be at a standstill on the automated highways."
Tyler winked. "Stick with me, Sal, and you'll go far."
"I promise to give you a peek at the fresh firedrop."
Tyler's eyes shifted towards the open door of his car, where Sal caught a glimpse of Rose waiting in the backseat. Rose leaned out to smile at him before Sal might recognize something furtive in whatever expression Rose might have bounced back at Tyler.
"Hop on in the backseat with me, Sal," Rose winked. "We'll ride in class while Tyler serves as our chauffeur."
Sal hardly felt the car pull away from the curb as he leaned into the backseat's leather seats. Sal heard the doors lock as the car gained speed. He recognized how Tyler and Rose had confined him. If they harbored such terrible motives as Lucinda claimed, then Sal hoped Tyler and Rose were smart enough to realize that stealing his plastic token would not be enough to claim his firedrop. The Company would demand a scan to make sure Sal's genetic sequencing matched that which the Company had on file. Sal had to claim his firedrop in person if the Company would exchange a blossom for that plastic token. Several minutes passed as the car roared down the city's oldest and emptiest streets, and Tyler and Rose maintained their smiles. They made no move towards concealed blades or guns. Sal thought they would have stolen that token from him only a block or two from the housing stack if they planned to simply rob him before reaching the spaceport. Their hesitance led Sal to believe they realized that only he could accept the promised firedrop. Sal took a breath. Whatever danger they may have planned would be sprung after Sal returned with a glowing blossom, and that gave Sal a little time to prod and to test.
Sal winked at Rose. "Why all the space between us, Rose? This is a big day for us, and we've got all kinds of time before we get to the spaceport. Slide over my way and get close."
Rose hesitated at his confidence, and Sal noticed the pause. Rose meant to reserve the role of charmer for herself. Affection was meant to be dispersed according to her whim. Rose smiled and moved closer, but Sal felt the slightest cringe ripple through her shoulder as Sal leaned against her. He saw how Rose fidgeted with her hair, and he recognized the anxiety. Peeking into the rear view mirror, Sal placed his hand upon Rose's knee and drifted his fingers slightly, slowly, upon her inner leg. Sal saw the quick glare Tyler gave the mirror. Sal saw the grimace that momentarily twisted Tyler's lips. He heard the engine rumble and felt the car speed forward. So many of the dangers around Glazkov IV had been invisible. The dangers of harvesting firedrop upon that small moon came without warning. The jeopardy seated with him in that car screamed at Sal as Rose and Tyler gave him so many signs. Sal smiled, but a part of his heart cracked as he realized how foolish he had been to think he could attract true affection with a firedrop's glow.
"Wait until the two of you look upon the firedrop," Sal spoke, and his words soothed Rose and Tyler so that they had no suspicion that Sal recognized what they harbored in their hearts. "There's nothing on this world that compares to it. The two of you will look at only a single bulb, and that will probably be enough to make the both of you cry. I have walked upon AU803 while Glazkov sparkled above, and while the firedrop filled my sight. Now that is really something. It's a shame that not everyone can be a harvester and experience the view I have. But one firedrop is still a splendid thing, more than enough to make you two swoon."
Another word was not spoken as Tyler guided the car to the spaceport. Sal had plenty of time to read Rose and Tyler's intent, ample time to gauge what they held in their heart. Sal realized during the drive that he would not return to the housing stacks from which he had come. He would have to find new lodging, and that made him sad to think he would not be able to return to show the stack's children the glowing firedrop as he had promised.
"This is probably as close to the vendor tents as you're going to get, Tyler." Sal nodded towards an open spot along the curb. "I'll just have to walk the rest of the way to the merchants. I'm sure the lines are already long. Afraid you two are going to have a long wait."
Rose winked as she hopped away from Sal. "That's fine, sugar. We can wait for the firedrop."
Sal nodded. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Thanks again, Tyler, and I'll save my kisses for later, Rose."
Sal shuffled out of the car and walked as quickly as his weak legs let him in the direction of the vendor tents. His teeth clenched as he gripped his red, plastic token. He wondered how long Rose and Tyler would wait in that car. He wondere
d how long Rose and Tyler would drive through the city's blocks searching for him.
Though he wondered, Sal did not look back.
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