Family

I slightly barreled my way into a dinner. But the owner eventually folded with a little help from Louise. I gave them a polite smile. Around the lobby I didn’t see anyone else. It left me wondering a little. The end of their work day should be soon, if not already complete. “Is your husband…?”

“He’s in the back.” She pointed over to the corner of the lobby. A door with the sign “Maintenance” marked off the location. I’d be visiting them at some point. “If you have anything you need that doesn’t require the Basilica, he’s got you covered. Off network stuff can be a little weird for those guys.”

Giving her a small nod, I rubbed my arm passively for her. “So he’s not part of the Clergy?”

“No, family trained.”

“Impressive and rare.” Not sure if I have ever met anyone like that. The only people that I knew that could do maintenance was the Clergy. It made me even more curious about her husband now. I wonder what he could do.

She nodded and motioned back to a door on the opposite side in the back. Pushing Louise on ahead, she escorted me to the back of the House. This probably was where they lived. Even with a forced invite, it still felt a little intrusive. But I didn’t like being strangers to those running the House. And I’d be able to learn so much from them.

The back of the first floor did in fact seem to be their living space. Sometimes the owners lived in one of the rooms or had another floor to themselves. I think some don’t even live on site, but that seemed like a bad idea.

A hall ran down the length of what seemed like half the building with a couple of doors closed off. Midway through the hall opened up into a wide room before continuing back. The way the mother continued on, I had to guess it was the kitchen and maybe other services. But she stopped just as it closed back into a hall.

She motioned out to the room. It had a mostly clean appearance. Apart from the usual furnishings, I saw another rendering of Sol with a book at the center of the wall of the room. There was even a small wooden cabinet with a worn finish of wood carvings. The familiar Basilica Sol and book emblem marked the doors of it.

Louise bounced out into the room grabbing up some toy off the floor. I smiled a little back to the mother, understanding the mess now. “It won’t be large portions, but if I don’t mind waiting a few minutes I can get something for you.”

“No rush, ma’am. I’m happy to wait. This is all new, so I'd love to hear about your town.”

“You’re a strange Courier. And no need for formalities, I’m Adelphe Lalonde.”

“I get that often, Mrs. Lalonde.”

“Well if you don’t mind watching an eight year old, I’ll get dinner properly started.”

“Sounds great!” I looked down to see Louise running up to me. Her eyes beam with that child-like energy you could swear actually made them light for real. Big bright blue saucers with soft hazel hair in a cute bob cut. The frills of her dress bounced almost desperate for a moment of rest.

A silver cube presented in her hand. If it was a toy I wasn’t familiar with it. “What does it do?” I knelt down to get a closer look at it.

“A Torucube!” Was that something of a local device? I haven’t heard of such a toy before. My confusion seemed to read clear enough for Louise. She pressed her thumb to the center of one side as it lit up.

Suddenly the cube exploded into the room. Projected light bounced around the volume of the chamber looking to be mapping it. After a second the shine faded as the shards of the cube organized into a geometric torus. It expanded out into a flower-like bud. Light shot out once more, but in a waterfall of particles generating an azure sky painted with purple hues throughout.

Quickly massive skyscrapers rose up from the ground as concrete and steel crawl meter by meter over the greenery. A thick metropolis filled with flying vehicles and long causeways. It was an idyllic representation of what the old world used to be. I didn’t know how accurate it might have been, but it reflects all the stories we were told.

I turned around in the projection seeing how the depth and shape maintained no matter the angle I looked. A very high quality artistic rendering. Though I was still a little confused. “I haven’t seen anything like this other than in a net museum.”

“Pretty isn’t it?”

The location shifted away from the center of the city out to a distant building. Louise turned to the roof as though she controlled the whole space, which probably was true. Though it was just a projection laid over the room, it still provided a convincing illusion that it dropped us on the top. Out beyond the limits of the city, I could see the horizon stretching on into vast tall forests and picturesque mountains.

As I looked at it longer, the artistic license became more clear. Though the 3D was very well crafted, the proportions didn’t quite match up. Whoever made it never left the bounds of the Corpus town. Not that surprising.

I looked down to see a smiling glow about Louise's face. She had a well crafted control and yet still carried that awe. It made me grin a little, understanding the feeling. “You show this to others?”

“Sometimes, but a lot of them are too busy and don’t seem to care. But you’ve seen it, right?”

Ah, so that was her objective. I gave her a nod, even if it was obvious. “It doesn’t look like this anymore. Most of the cities are gone.”

“You’ve seen them?” Her glow intensified at the thought.

“No, I just go between towns. Not sure anyone’s been back in a century.”

“What’s the sky like? Is it like this and not drawn on like they say?”

It was hard to stifle a small laugh. I could hardly blame her for thinking the sky might be like that. This was the only sky she knew. “Not quite, but it is beautiful still in a different way.”

“What’s different?”

“It’s not—“ A sharp deep cough tore out of the little girl’s chest. She dropped the geometric sphere as her body shook. The artifice fell away as I knelt down putting a hand on her back. Each cough I could feel vibrating through her frame it seemed. I could only make a guess at how much of her remained organic still since birth, but I’d never seen anything like this.

She appeared to have symptoms like that of a flu or biological virus. And yet unless she didn’t have the standard healthcare package, such a thing should be impossible. Disease as the past knew had been eliminated, so what was it? I had to assume being a House family, she was well taken care of.

The coughing finally started to ease up, but the color looked to have drained from her ever so slightly. It struck to her very core. What the hell was going on? It couldn’t be a coincidence that two people I meet today have some sort of disease that should be nearly impossible. “Louise, are you okay?”

Louise took another few seconds to collect herself. There was something about the way she composed her body that looked almost practiced. I really got a bad feeling about this whole thing. She stood up with the Torucube returned to her hands. “Yea! I’m fine, Miss.”

I gave her a narrowed stare. Sure from an external exam, she did look to be normal again. Even her warmth returned to her skin. But she’s just going to pretend none of that happened? “You were coughing just a moment ago. You were in pain. Does your mother know?” Maybe I overstepped my bounds, but this looked serious.

She waved it all off with her free hand. “Oh yea! It happens. It’s fine, see?” Louise bounced and ran around the living room acting like none of it slowed her down. Which I guess from appearance seemed to be the case. And with whatever augments she might have, that probably helped too.

Still I didn’t let my concern for her fade from my face. She grabbed my hand to show me she was better. “This happens often? Has it gotten worse?”

“Eh, I don’t think so? It just happens every so often.”

Maybe I was making a bigger deal about this than it seemed, but I would think something unknown like this would be something of concern. Louise however didn’t seem to be willing or able to go into more details. “If you’re better.” I gave her a gentle pat. Even if I relaxed my expression, I couldn’t suppress the feeling.

She nodded even more emphatically to me. I guess I had more than one thing to look into when I looked around the town tomorrow. This wasn’t the sort of sightseeing I had in mind.