*****
Chapter Fifteen
The Countdown
Cimarron was waiting for me when I finally arrived at the CEC. She and I had only one week left together to go over last minute things before we’d both be plunged into the active world of a Lush Ambassador for Concord. After my Gala, we were off to Concord Four, then on to Three, then Two, and then back to One.
“I got word that we were officially given our security clearance today,” Cimarron stated. “All border stops will be informed of our right to pass through.”
“Do we just flash something on our tablets when we cross or something? Or will they have pictures of us up at the borders?” I asked, unsure of the security protocol.
“No, silly girl,” Cimarron smiled. “The guards will scan us and check our Identity Chips.”
“Identity Chips?”
“Oh yes. A little chip that we all have inside us.”
“And how long have I had this chip inside me?” I asked.
“They started being implemented about twelve years ago, probably during your first year of Training Tech. I remember when the mandate was announced. We were simply told that during the next scheduled physical check-up with our doctor, a chip would be implanted under our skin. It carries all our personal and medical information within it, so if we are ever in an accident or fall seriously ill we will be able to get the proper care we need. It also helps with the little ones if they wander off and get lost, someone in Tracking will be able to locate them almost immediately.”
I frowned. “I thought that was what the tablets were for.”
“The tablets are only good for contacting a person with a video chat or a message that needs an immediate response. They are a way to get hold of someone. They do have tracking devices in them, but people sometimes forget their tablet and leave it at home. Concord needs a reliable way to locate each Citizen and protect them from peril. That is why the Identity Chip was created.”
“I wonder why they never told us.”
“Mandates are not always passed on to children. As a Year One, you were too young to understand what the benefits were, so it was probably just inserted during some other minor procedure. It didn’t hurt. I remember it well; just a very small incision, and a little skin glue for closure. But I think I may have a high tolerance for pain. My husband has a slightly different opinion.”
“So everybody has one?”
Cimarron nodded her head. “Yes. Everybody. It is done minutes after a child is born now. That way they are fully protected from the very first day of their life. Concord Reigns.”
“Concord Reigns,” I repeated. “Have you been given any more details about what it is we will be doing during this tour?” I asked.
“We will be visiting the Training Tech of each Concord. While there, you will specifically speak to the classes of Year Six and Year Ten, as well as the Incorporating class. We will attend a hosted dinner party, sort of a mini Gala event, with several of the influential families of each Concord in attendance. The Council has informed the chosen families and extended a formal invitation. Only the most loyal and influential families were invited. Then we will make a few very public appearances, so that the rest of the Citizens of each Concord have a chance to catch a glimpse of you,” Cimarron explained.
“So it’s officially all planned out now?”
“A day by day guide will be sent to us soon,” she answered. “A full wardrobe has been packed and pre-shipped to each Concord for you, with a gown for each of the hosted dinners. I was able to get a bonus wardrobe as well. My husband thinks my new violet gown brings out the purple tones in my eyes.”
“Will your husband be allowed to join you?” I asked. “It sounds like we may be gone for quite a while.”
“It won’t be that long, just a week in each Concord, initially. And no, he was not granted the clearance to leave Concord One. He is needed at his place of work, and it would not do for him to take such an extended leave of absence. It usually takes months of planning to get the proper permissions to travel through the tunnels between Concords. You and I have been granted permissions because we are on a special tour. There are only so many travel passes granted each year.”
“It is good that Citizens are kept track of,” I said, remembering a lesson from school. “When I was in Year Ten at Training Tech, we were told about a time before Concord, when people were forgotten. They were lost to their families and disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. Many people died and there were never any bodies found, for proof of death for the remaining family members. I would hate for that to happen. It would be awfully hard to deal with.”
Cimarron smiled. “With so many Citizens to keep track of, it does require strict adherence to the rules, but it is for our own good.”
“I understand.” I said.
“I knew you would. Not every Citizen is aware of the Identity Chips or of the great amount of time Concord spends keeping track of our people, but that is for their own good. Some people do not process that kind of information well. That is another reason why you are quite perfect for this job. You understand that Concord works best when its Citizens are cooperative and accepting. I have always accepted that Concord knows best and I have been rewarded with a very nice life.”
“I see that and I know it is for the best. But is it wrong to question the way things work? Sometimes I just wonder if Concord should gather opinions from its Citizens,” I voiced a concern. Worry immediately spread throughout my body. I felt a lump in the pit of my stomach.
“Look around at those Citizens that may be performing in a low level occupation, or those that do not have all the luxuries that you have been granted. Those are the families that have chosen to resist Concord in some way, to question its policies, or to accuse The Council of wrongdoing. Fighting against someone that is trying to help you is such a useless waste of energy. It is better to accept the help and be grateful for it. Don’t you agree?”
“Of course, you are right. It was a silly question.”
Cimarron sat next to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Bluebell, I do not mind if you ask me silly questions. I will always give you an honest answer. You are still young and the young are very often unsure. But…”
“But do not ask them in public,” I finished for her. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“I didn’t think you would,” Cimarron stated with her standard smile.
“I’m going to cause you to miss a few Visitation Days with your daughter,” I stated, trying to change the subject. “I hope she doesn’t miss you too much.”
“It isn’t because of you. I do my job with pride, for Concord. My daughter, Iris, is well aware that I am sometimes needed in other places. My husband will visit her if he is able to, and she is well cared for at Training Tech, just as we all were. I informed her at the last Visitation that I would be absent for a few weeks. Iris is proud to have a mother that works so hard for Concord. It is sweet of you to think about her though,” Cimarron squeezed my shoulder.
“So what are we working on today?” I asked.
“We are working on a new speech for your Gala,” Cimarron answered.
My father and mother sent another one of their vague messages about not being home for dinner. My father had a late Council meeting, while my mother was busy trying to sort out more last minute details for the Gala. I tried to video chat with Lily, but she sent me a message saying that she was busy helping her mother with something. The Pets were on a dinner date with two of their four guys. Holly and Ash were watching some new video with their parents. Stone was spending the evening with Rosebud, and Fisher was meeting with one of his Architecture instructors for extra after-hours personal tutoring. I couldn’t get hold of Willow, plus I was starting to feel a bit desperate, so I stopped trying to think of who the next person I could message was. I just sat in my room, alone and bored.
With nothing pressing to occupy my time until I was to meet up with Thorn, the mystery tablet
started popping back into my head. All I had to do was pull it out from between the headboard and my mattress. Once my index finger was scanned, the next file would be ready and waiting for me to open it. What harm could it do? It was just a file. I was under no obligation to act upon it… and knowing what some of the nonconformists were saying would help me in my arguments against them, if I was ever confronted by one outright.
It would be an educational experience to read the file, I reasoned with myself.
I reached my hand down in the space where I’d hidden the tablet and found it right away. It turned on, but instead of displaying file names, the screen was blank this time. I knew what I needed to do. With my finger placed in the center of the tablet, I waited for the solid green line to move across the screen. The tablet scanned my print, flashed black for just a moment, and then the names of the remaining files appeared.
I placed my finger above the word Second and let it hover there for a moment, asking myself if this was really what I wanted to do, and then I pressed down. The file opened.
Have you asked yourself why Concord has suddenly decided to have a Lush Ambassador? You are not the first Lush girl, but you are the first Lush Ambassador. Why do you think that is? What does Concord accomplish by creating a public figure out of you? Is it for the benefit of Concord, the benefit of the Citizens, the benefit of The Council, the benefit of your mother and father, or is it for some other purpose entirely?
What happened to the other Lush women? How many have there been? Why do we have no record of them? Do they still exist somewhere in Concord?
There are just too many questions and not enough answers. But the answers can be found. Records are kept somewhere, they must be. Ask yourself who has access to that kind of information.
We are able to give you a few of these answers. The rest you must find out for yourself.
Rumors of the last known Lush brand are from nearly twenty years ago in Concord Three. It is said that the girl came from a family with very little social status. Even though both her parents were branded fertile, neither sought to marry someone from a more prestigious family because they had become infatuated with each other during their Incorporation. They started their co-habitation period while they were still in the CEC. And because neither of them had enough money or social clout, the woman produced a child as a surrogate first, moving quickly to fulfill her duty and receive compensation, so the two of them could enter into a Marriage Contract.
Sometime later, they had a little girl of their own. The Council was not completely happy with their decision to move ahead and not wait to see what alternative pairings they could have made before settling on one another, so they made sure that the parents were never allowed to advance much higher in their low level positions. This made the parents very unhappy. So while this yet to be determined future Lush girl was in Training Tech, her parents started to urge her to strive for something more. Their life had not been the most comfortable one. They grumbled about the positions they held, they cried out that they had been forced into the life they lived, and they wanted something better for their daughter.
During Visitation Days, they were quite vocal in their opinions. They told her if she was branded fertile she should seek the most advantageous match she could possibly find, they told her to find out what would please Concord. Their daughter was quite beautiful and they hoped her beauty would make someone desire her enough to be the future mother of his future child, regardless of her parents’ social standing. They didn’t want her to repeat their mistakes.
So eventually the time came, Incorporation ended, and not only was it determined that she was fertile, she was branded Lush. The brand wasn’t publicized, attention wasn’t called to it; in fact Concord wasn’t quite sure how to deal with it, since her parents weren’t exactly pristine examples of dutiful Citizens of Concord. They had dared to vocalize their displeasure with their careers, their finances, and their home, which was more than likely the deciding factor that kept Concord from publicly recognizing the girl with the Lush brand.
In fact, there is no official record of anyone being branded Lush around twenty years ago; our account of this story is gathered through whispered remembrances of former classmates. We were told that The Council did offer to help her find a match and interviewed her to determine what kind of person she would successfully be able to share a home with. The daughter had grown tired of her bitter parents, and was determined to get away from them as quickly as possible. She told The Council that it didn’t matter. She would just be grateful if they found her a potential Marriage Contract as soon as they could.
My personal tablet beeped at me. It was six-thirty. Even though I hadn’t read to the end of the file, I put the tablet back in its hiding place. I went to my closet to pick out an outfit, quickly ran a brush through my hair, and then exited the house at ten minutes to seven. I walked toward the park, happy that I was on my way to meet Thorn.
He was waiting for me at the very edge of the park, sitting under a tree, watching my approach. He didn’t get up, he just waved, so I walked over to where he was and lowered myself to the ground to sit next to him. I leaned my back against the tree, rested the back of my head on the bark of the trunk, closed my eyes, and sighed.
“I’m a big fuzzy mess up inside my brain right now,” I admitted.
It was the first thing I said to him.
“Why is that?” he asked.
“I can tell you anything, right? And it will never be repeated outside of the two of us. Just questions between friends, right?”
“Yes. Absolutely. Just questions between friends,” he assured me.
“Did you know we have an Identity Chip implanted inside of each of us, just under the skin, somewhere in our bodies?”
“Yes. I know. My father told me about it when we were only a few years into Training Tech. He also told me not to talk about it to anyone, because he wasn’t sure if Concord was going to keep the knowledge from the youth.”
I kept my eyes closed and continued to talk. “I don’t think very many people near our age, or younger, know about it. I wonder where it is in my body.”
“Mine is in my left forearm.”
“How do you know that?” I asked him.
“I asked my father’s doctor friend to scan me for it after we were finished with Incorporation.”
“Do you think that doctor would scan me? I want to know.”
“It’s pretty simple to figure it out yourself, actually. Once we found the spot, I inspected the area for a tiny scar. They had to get the chip under our skin somehow, so I figured it must have left a scar. I found it, right there where the scanner indicated the chip was. Look, Bluebell.”
I opened my eyes to look as he held out his arm and showed me the spot.
“Search all over your arms and your legs and look for a tiny scar,” he said. “My guess is that they go for our extremities first when implanting.”
“Okay, that sounds easy enough. Look for a tiny scar. Do you know anything about a mysterious untraceable tablet that could get me in serious trouble if I’m found with it?”
“What? No,” he shook his head. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing. Forget I said that last part,” I sighed. “After my Gala I’m going to be off traveling the Concords for at least three weeks. I’m not sure I want to go.”
“Do you have a choice?” he asked.
“None whatsoever,” I said, closing my eyes again.
“Then I guess you have to go,” Thorn replied. “I’ll message you a ton, so much that you might ask me to stop and you’ll be so busy answering my stupid questions that before you know it you’ll be back.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” I smiled. “You know, when we were in Training Tech and during Incorporation, I had my life pretty much settled in my head. I would get my Citizen Brand, I had minor cares about whether it would be an X or an O, but I knew that being a descendent of the Original Twenty would save me in the end. I figu
red I would be assigned an occupation, secure the best Marriage Contract possible, have a child or use a surrogate or adopt a child, and then live out the rest of my life.”
I felt Thorn hook his little finger with mine. “That’s what we all expected, except for the Original Twenty part, that’s just how we were all told our lives will be. It is what every Citizen of Concord is groomed to accept.”
“I would have too, you know? I would have accepted it. I know I question things in my head, but I rarely voice them. I would have been perfectly fine to live out my life, boring as I knew it would be.”
“But?”
I lifted my head and sat up a little straighter. “But then these dreams of mine started coming more and more often, and I was branded Lush, and instead of being given a career, I was told I’d be a public figure. My parents are actively looking for the best possible candidate for me to marry. They want someone that looks amazing if you wrote down a list of all his good traits. My mother sees this as a social game.”
“When did you start calling her your mother, what happened to Aspen?”
“Yesterday morning she asked me to go back to it, and I am trying to. We had an amazing day yesterday. She told me she was proud of the job I was doing as Lush Ambassador, she took me out shopping, we spent the entire day together and it actually felt good. But then this morning, it just seemed like she had checked something off her list. Be a good mother: done.”
“People don’t change in a day, Bluebell. Either she’ll continue to try and be a better mother to you, or she won’t. Give it some time and you’ll find out if she was being sincere.”
“I guess what bothers me most is that I feel like I should question everything now. Especially since you came around. Lily has always told me to ask questions, but she meant like… Where is the Gala? What time is dinner? When will you be home? You want me to ask questions like… Why don’t we remember more? Why are people encouraged to marry so quickly and so young? Why does an O make someone more important than someone with an X? Those are deep questions, Thorn. Those are questions Concord would rather we not ask.”
“We said we could ask each other those questions. So for now, that is what we will do. It goes no further than me and you,” Thorn said tugging at my little finger with his own. “And if you have some mysterious tablet that could get you in trouble, you should keep that thing hidden. I’m not asking about it. I’m just giving an opinion.”
“Not. Acknowledging. That. Statement,” I said quietly.
Thorn stood up and reached for my hands. “So we are in countdown mode.”
I grabbed his hands and he pulled me up. “What do you mean?”
“Five days until your Gala and six days until you are off to tour all of the Concords.”
“I guess we are,” I sighed.
“What should we do before you go?”
“Ask each other more questions,” I smiled.
“And try to remember,” he added.
“And try to remember,” I promised.