<FWG> <Meridian> Karma's Payment, Part 5. (Zach Auron)
- From: Jason Ziredac <ziredac@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: fwgalaxy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:26:12 -0800 (PST)
Karma's Payment
by Zach Auron
Shawna Kenton
&
Jack Leirone
5.
Just make everything right, he said to himself as he requested the transport
shuttle to the next planet.
Just make everything right, he said to himself as he was flown beyond the
Meridian?s sight to the blue-skied planet of Andrecia.
Just make everything right, he said to himself as he stepped off onto the
tarmac into a partly-cloudy afternoon where the sun was starting to make the
sky blush.
His suitcase, smaller than a carrier for a kitten, rolled behind him in one
of those sturdy plastic roars, and the sound of the shuttle wheezed out of
existence as he left the port, hailing a bright green cab into the city of
Hendricks, where he would find her, and he would make everything right.
The car ride took about thirty-four minutes, and Zach knew this because he
counted on the clock, counted every blink of the little green colon between the
hours and minutes. He?d spent his life between the hours and minutes, it
seemed, and instead of counting up, they were counting down. Cabs on Andrecia
were manned, an old fashion that had been abandoned by fast-moving cultures
like Earth, and other such metropolises. But this one didn?t talk much. Just
took the fare, got on the freeway at the Hyde Junction, and sped into Hendricks.
The Market was downtown. Balloons were waving in the wind that ignored the
ground, and the smell of food invaded even the recycled-air atmosphere of the
cab. Downtown wasn?t on the route, but there was a building going up that
required a detour into the heart of the society. Zach didn?t mind. Time wasn?t
an issue; just rightness. He could have walked and stopped to smell the daisies
along the way.
?Actually I?ll just get out here. I haven?t been to the Market in years.?
?Haven?t missed much,? the cab driver said. ?The coordinators were having
trouble a couple years ago with incoming acts for the entertainment, and there
was a bad riot about the mayor that stopped the Market the year after, and
then last year when the Borg attacked the Market was cancelled completely.?
?Which would explain the saturated turnout today.?
The cab driver pulled to the side by an astral cartographer?s supply store
called Meffin?s and added, ?It?s the first day. People always come down for the
first day, and the last. Even people that don?t intend to. Like yourself.?
?Thank you for the ride.?
?Pleasure. Enjoy.?
Zach hopped out onto the street and caught a cloud of cigarette smoke from
someone on his left. He didn?t mind. With his small suitcase now hanging from
his arm with its wheels tucked into its body, Zach wandered for an hour and a
half, trying foods that all the vendors were pushing at him telling him how
delicious everything was. Less than half of them were wrong.
Underneath a great cement canopy that usually served as a covered parking
area was stationed all of the vendors of things inedible: trinkets, glass,
cloth, paintings, sculptures: iron, wood, and clay. A group of fifteen-year-old
girls were selling synthetic neon-colored bracelets that could glow when you?ve
turned the lights off. An old couple were sitting in handmade rocking chairs
whittling their restock. There was even the computer salesman who got more
business than one would have thought at the Market.
Before he left to hail another cab, Zach found a dorantium pendant of a leaf,
overturned as if it were falling from a tree. Immediately he thought it a
lovely gift for Valerie when he saw her next. An appropriate gift between
ex-husband and wife. Between friends.
Because that was what it was all about.
From the old whittlers he purchased a small wooden box with a lid that could
slide right and left, but when centered it stayed put unless touched with
opening intent. He stored the leaf pendant inside; he knew she had a chain for
it, a special chain that her mother gave her. That gold one. With the spiral.
From the samples of food alone Zach had stuffed himself, and felt no hunger;
and his spending money was now in the hands of others, so he continued on, into
the suburbs.
Serafi Village looked like it had always been, same copper-rusted fountain
out front, same red playpen protruding over the rock wall from that first
house?s kids. They were surely getting too old to be playing on that thing,
Zach thought. Then again, he hadn?t been gone more than five years. Those kids
might have found new uses for that playpen. Instead of something to slide down
for the thrill of it, it might have become a spaceship or a sewer system, or
something else as cutely creative.
The cab let him out at the address he?d instructed.
Zach wondered if anyone was home; there wasn?t a car out front, no lights on
inside. It was still daylight, however, but some of those rooms were
uncomfortably shady even in the brightest sunshine. Mena was still at school,
and Kelly?well, Kelly was probably in elementary school now. Both of his
daughters were at school. And he wasn?t the one driving them there.
That was something I did, he admitted, hitting the sidewalk. It?s my fault,
and I need to know that. I might be part of their lives again if I show Val
what I?ve become. Everything will be fine.
Zach heard a door open, but it was to his right. He looked surprised and
waved. ?Mrs. Neromiger, hi!?
The Neromigers were in their sixties, and a sweet, quaint couple. Their son
had been lost on duty in Starfleet, but Zach couldn?t begin to remember what
ship they said he was on. Mrs. Neromiger, Freda, looked upon him like he was a
runaway mutt who?d come back like a proper pedigree, tail wagging with a
newspaper in his teeth. Suspicion and all.
?Well?well, hi, Zach, how?how are you? I haven?t seen you in?well how long
has it been?? Freda did not call over her shoulder for Tennyson (or just Ten)
Neromiger to come out and see him, which was something she always did when Val
used to come home from vacation. Zach wasn?t surprised.
He offered a smile. An honest one. ?It?s been nigh on five years, Mrs.
Neromiger. And I?m doing better than I ever have been doing.?
?It certainly seems like it.? She almost stepped a step back when he crossed
the dividing lawn to greet her with a shocking gesture of embrace. ?Forget it
seeming like it. You have been doing better. A hug from Zach Auron was the last
thing I ever thought I?d receive.?
?That?s an honest and well-deserved comment,? Zach said with a slight bowing
of his head and a hand on his chest. ?Candidly, I used to be kind of a jerk.
But duty abroad and the things happening along the way have brought me out of a
hole I never dreamed would stay uncollapsed. Is Val home??
It seemed as if she was convinced, as she rightly should have been, that Zach
had no harbored ill will, so Mrs. Neromiger said, ?Well I haven?t seen her
leave, but I?ve been inside all day trying to get Ten to go on a walk. Stubborn
oaf won?t get away from that movie machine.?
?You go try to get Mr. Neromiger some sunshine, Mrs. Neromiger. I?ll go see
if Mrs. Norridge is at home.?
?She actually didn?t take his last name,? Mrs. Neromiger informed. ?It?s
still Maybelle.?
That put a weird thought in Zach?s head that oughtn?t have been there.
?Thanks for the info, Mrs. Neromiger, I wouldn?t have wanted to embarrass
myself.?
?It?s good to see you doing better than you used to be, Zach.?
?It?s good to be this way, Mrs. Neromiger. Have a good day.?
---------------------------------
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