Human Hands

Tourism is flourishing in Japan, the flying island. It mostly peaked early on since the technological makeover using Crystalite has started, but it’s now still consistently growing. Foreigners know that if they go to Japan, they can experience a futuristic vacation island that feels like being in a movie, while any realistic change that technology can do in their country - may take money and time.

Year: 2300. Angelica left her house to go and meet up with Arney at his place, to walk together towards Reef’s house.

-“Hey!” Angelica yells loudly to an invested-in-his-Smart-BLUE Arney.

-“Oh, good morning. Let’s get going, Albert is already at Reef’s house.”

The two of them head together to meet with Reef and Albert. They shortly arrive only to meet with Albert waiting by himself.

-“Good, you guys are here. Reef just texted me, he will be here shortly.” Says Albert.

Different houses look almost identical. There are different shapes and sizes, but their type is known, numbered and limited. And so, since Angelica and Reef live in the same type of house, the only difference between the two is actually the color of the door.

The blue house door suddenly opens, and Reef shows up, looking like doom and gloom as usual. Angelica tries to quickly make everyone remember to smile and that they should be having a happy vibe, by making small talk: “I remember my house’s door was also blue, but I drew on it as a kid. My parents then had to paint all over it. I really like red, always did. That is the reason I dye my hair red.”

She doesn’t mention how she probably liked it because Crysty complimented it, as that might get Reef upset which is the opposite of what she is trying to do. “...I kind of overdid my red little paintings on that door, so they used the same color to paint over, since the paint could be weak and my drawings may still be visible if they used a different color. Ironically, the red color they bought was weak enough that my drawings were still visible anyway, so they decided to paint it white several times, making it identical to the walls. Sometimes we check the security footage and some delivery workers seem to be confused as to where the door is. Cracks me up every time, haha.” She explains, laughing.

The rest of them keep talking and walking casually, as she successfully set the tone.

-“I always liked your drawings.” Reef says despite his mood, to the surprise of the rest of them.

He always surprises them when he suddenly appears friendlier and participates.

-“I know! You told me a bunch of times! By all means never stop though.” She says with a big smile.

They arrive at the new site a bit early, seeing some other students are already there too, along with an old janitor that is already cleaning.

-“Hey, Mathew, why is there a janitor already cleaning here?” Albert asks one of the other groups’ leader.

-“It seems the student cleaning work is something they added to the existing janitor forces. Some areas are mutual.” He replies.

-“Well, you heard him.” Albert says to his friends, as to address their probable identical curiosity. “As usual I’ll start with others and meet you guys in the end, then we’ll walk to school.”

Albert then proceeds to talk to the janitor and returns quickly to the rest of them. “Looks like he will join your group for today. From now on when a janitor’s cleaning grounds are mutual to ours we will combine our efforts.” He explains and leaves with another group.

The groups then go their separate ways while Reef, Angelica and Arney stay with the janitor in that same area. They start cleaning together. It’s the middle of a street and just a bunch of buildings are nearby. Nothing interesting in the area, besides one bench with a trash can next to it. A trash can in a public area would mean a lot of trash that failed to get inside of it. And so, in this relatively small, boring area, they start talking to the janitor in order to break the ice, and possibly hear something interesting.

-“I’m Arney...” He says while pointing at himself. “...And these are Reef and Angelica” He adds while pointing at them respectively as he mentions them.

-“Hello.” Angelica says.

Reef doesn’t say anything.

-“Good morning children, you can call me... ‘Mr. Blue’. I’ve worked as a janitor for years in this country. Glad to have you aboard. Our society has decided to still have us around and not let the robots handle cleaning. Instead, the robots are tasked with penalties and other labor.”

-“Hmm.” Arney thinks out loud. “If Albert was here he would have wondered why was it decided to specifically be handled in this manner.”

-“Well...” Mr. Blue tries answering. “...It seems they wanted to have more of a conscious touch, some human hands involved.”

-“I think he meant: Why specifically in janitors’ work.” Reef replies without even looking to his direction.

Mr. Blue is silent for a few seconds. “Why indeed.” He finally answers.

They finished up with that area very quickly and so they proceed to the next one. Relatively shortly, since they have 4 participants, they finish with the other area that was due as well.

-“We finished so fast today!” Angelica yells in triumph. “Should we text Albert to meet us in school?”

-“If you want, I still have that street over there to cover. Looks like that area wasn’t mutual. What do you say? Do you want to take a look there with me?” Mr. Blue asks enthusiastically, to their surprise.

That line surprised them similarly to how Reef’s sudden interest and positive change of mood is always surprising. It felt like he doesn’t ask because he needs the help but rather to inspire them to participate in an important activity.

-“Yea, sure! Let’s go, one more street.” Angelica says, motivated, while looking at the other two as to confirm.

As they clean the other street, Reef finds himself staring at the old man, cleaning with them in a fast pace. He develops some curiosity towards him. He is feeling intrigued by his seemingly-more-educational approach.

-“How do you like the Crystalite robot age?” Reef boldly asks all of a sudden.

-“I don’t like it one bit.” The old janitor says, while keeping his hands moving, as he looks a bit towards Reef’s direction with a little smile and then looks away, not stopping the labor for a second.

-“Yea, I think I can see that.” Reef replies, forming a little smile too, surprised by the unlikely friendship he may have found.