Chapter 6: The Secret

Jason was glad that lunchtime was after their Adult Literature and Film class. He was still shocked by that movie, and having a break to sort out his thoughts would definitely help calm his nerves.

“Heya Jason!” Moira’s slap on the back pulled him out of his daze, and he turned to take in her smiling face. How could she be so unfazed by what they’d just watched?

“Um… hey.”

“I was thinking, I still owe you for that picture from last time! So I’ll use my food credits to treat you to lunch!” She turned to Skye. “You can come too!”

“Obviously,” Skye sniffed, rolling her eyes. “In case you forgot, eating lunch without your Partner is against the rules.”

“Yep, yep, yep, rules, rules, rules, good ol’ Skye!” She chuckled. “C’mon Andrew, it’s lunchtime!”

The cafeterias in the Bunker were some of the largest rooms, because everyone ate lunch at one of four designated times. But it never felt crowded. Every table was arranged with two chairs for a pair of Partners to sit across from one another. If you wanted to eat with a larger group, you could push them together, like the four of them did.

“What did you think of that movie we saw today?” Moira asked, her green eyes flashing with excitement. For some reason she had taken the seat next to him, instead of sitting beside Skye.

Jason hesitated to answer. Not because discussing the contents of their Adult Education classes in public was against the rules, but because there was something about her freckled grin that just made his voice catch in his throat.

Fortunately Skye was there to save him from making a fool out of himself.

“It’s against the rules to discuss class materials in public,” she snapped, shooting a glare at the redhead.

“I know, I know, but come on, that movie was just so-!”

“Moira!” Andrew hissed, glancing at one of the approaching patrol drones.

She quickly shut her mouth and sat still as the floating telescreen stopped at their table.

“Moira! It is time for your medication!” Ai’s cheery voice sang.

“Oh, thanks Ai!” She held out her hand and the drone deposited a white pill into her palm. She gulped it down with a glass of water and then took a bite of her sandwich.

Jason remembered the pills. Back when they were in Primary Education, Moira had been even more rambunctious than she was now. She would run around the classroom during break time even when the teachers asked her to stop. Timeouts did little to stop her boundless energy, and even when it was time to pay attention in class she would bug everyone around her. Ai had judged her behavior as being in need of modification, and began administering her pills with every meal. She’d calmed down after that, but only slightly.

All these years later and Ai still hadn’t fully corrected her behavior. Even now she was still fidgeting in her seat, tapping a beat on her plate with a carrot stick as she scanned the room for something to entertain her.

“Hey! Look over there!”

Jason followed her finger to stare at a blonde woman. She was older than they were, and older than his sister, as well. A Generation or two ahead, perhaps. He could see why the woman caught her eye. She dressed oddly, in fancy black and white frills, and her food tray was empty but she hadn’t gone back to work. She was reading a book instead, even though it was eating time. But the most unusual thing about her was that she was sitting alone.

“Why’s she all by herself?” Andrew wondered. “Where’s her Partner?”

“Maybe she doesn’t have one!” Moira wondered. “Or maybe he’s in the Punishment Box! Or maybe-“

“Or maybe her Partner is ill at the moment and cannot join her for lunch. Or maybe he is simply assigned to a different lunch shift,” Skye curtly interrupted her. “Please come up with reasonable guesses to explain things next-Moira?!”

The redhead was already gone, bounding out of her chair and across the cafeteria. She was a Moira on a mission.

“She hasn’t changed since we were kids,” Andrew muttered, shaking his head.

Jason found himself getting up to follow her. “I’d better make sure she doesn’t get into trouble,” he sighed. It wasn’t his responsibility to look after her, of course, but he felt like someone had to. He managed to catch up to her just as she reached the woman’s table.

“Hello there!” Moira greeted. “My name is Moira! It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance!”

He marveled at the fact that she actually remembered the official greeting.

The woman slowly raised her head and turned to look up at the two of them. Her eyes were a deep electric blue, and her smile was very… Jason couldn’t think of a word to describe the curiosity it evoked.

“Hello there,” she greeted her back. “My name is Sylvia. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” There was an odd purr in her voice.

“Why are you eating lunch alone? Where’s your Partner? Did you lock him in the closet? Because my mom did that to me a lot when I was little because I kept running around our quarters and making messes, did your Partner make a mess? Is that why he’s not here? Or-“

The woman’s laugh reminded Jason of the evil witch from a fairy tale. He shivered.

“No, nothing like that. We work in different shifts,” she explained. “By my request.”

“…Why wouldn’t you want to eat lunch with your Partner?” Moira asked, twisting her face in confusion.

“I find that there’s a certain value to time spent in the company of only their thoughts,” the woman called Sylvia cryptically replied. “A little private time helps soothe the nerves.”

She flashed a smile. “When you become a mother you’ll understand what I mean. For now, though, you should enjoy the time you have alone with your Partner.”

Her eyes met Jason’s as she said that, and he froze. Wait, did she think…

Moira turned, noticing him standing there for the first time, and gasped. “Wait, what? Jason? No, no, he’s not my Partner!” She laughed. “That’s Andrew! No, Jason’s just my friend!”

“Yeah, right.”

Sylvia raised her eyebrow, an another unreadable smile crossed her face, like she was hiding a secret of some kind. “…Is that right? My mistake, then.”

She rose from her seat and picked up her tray. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Moira, Jason. I’ll be seeing you around!”

With that she turned and walked away, leaving her book sitting on the table.

“Hey, wait, you forgot your-“ Jason picked it up and moved to follow her, but she had already vanished into the crowd.

Then he realized something. She'd known his name before Moira had told her, even though he'd never met this woman before in his life. How was that possible?

“What’s that?” Moira brought him out of his daze for the second time today, staring curiously at the book. She snatched it out of his hands. “’A Collection of Secrets’,” she read. “Huh. I’ve never read this book before, have you?”

“Moira!” Jason hissed, making a grab for the book. “We have to give that back!”

She pulled it out of reach. “What? No way! I wanna read it! It looks interesting!”

“Remember the rules? ‘All lost property must be returned to the nearest deposit chute’! We can’t just keep it, that would be stealing!”

Stealing was one of the worst crimes in the Bunker. Jason still remembered the time when he was in Primary School and he’d stolen another boy’s crayon. He wasn’t planning to keep it, he just needed more green to draw the trees in the oxygen farm! But the teacher explained that stealing was still stealing, and he’d been forced to spend a full week of his recreation time sitting alone in the classroom.

He wasn’t going to go through that again.

“We’re not stealing it,” Moira asserted. “We’re just… reading it first, before we give it back, yeah! There’s nothing wrong with that!”

Jason thought that there was plenty wrong with that, but for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to say so. He looked around nervously, expecting someone to spot the two of them and report them to the nearest telescreen, or for one of Ai’s drones to swoop in and catch them both. But no, the cafeteria was drone-free, and everyone else was busy with their meals. No one would know if they took it.

…But he would know.

“We can’t, we need to turn it in.”

Then, a strange sensation came over him. Moira’s face seemed to morph in front of his eyes, in a way he’d never seen it before. Sad as she looked, her cheeks dimpled into a smile and she bit down on her lower lip, fluttering her lashes like she’d gotten dirt in her eyes.

“Please, Jason? Please can I read it first?” She pleaded with him, and seeing her like that sent an overwhelming urge through Jason’s body. Suddenly the idea of breaking the rules didn’t seem so bad, not compared to the idea of making Moira upset. He felt like if she wasn’t happy then he’d feel just plain miserable.

“…Okay, you can read it first,” he whispered. Her eyes lit up with joy and for a moment he wondered if she was going to hug him again like she had the other day, but she didn’t.

“Oh, thank you! You’re the best!” She grinned, slipping the book into her bag. She leaned in close, whispering so no one could hear. “Listen. I’ll read some of it tonight, then I’ll give it to you tomorrow morning, and you can read it! That’s fair, right? We’ll swap each day until we’re finished!”

The idea of reading it at all made him feel even more guilty. But he couldn’t say no to the excited look in her eye, so he nodded.

“Awesome! Oh, and don’t tell Skye!”

Like he was actually going to tell his Partner, Skye, of all people, that he’d willingly broken a rule? “Yeah, obviously.”

She grinned at him. “Great! Then this’ll just be our little secret!” She giggled. Those words sent a flutter through Jason’s heart that he could only guess was fear of getting caught. But it felt so much better than all the other times he’d been nervous before.