PRELUDE III: Family of Flowers

**6:49**

Darkness loomed on the sunsets to highlight the pyrotechnic display of the flames and winds pushed back and forth prolonging the show, it was a one of a kind spectacle of a house burning at dusk. While I was hundreds of meters away from the fire, I could see it’s low brilliant glow in the dull gray background created by the surrounding buildings.

I raced against time to put down the coveralls before it clocked 7. Outside the shop was Ricky and Mr.Zack waiting for me, both of them were on their feet. Mr.Zack had taken off his coveralls revealing his dark blue polo shirt with a small horse label at the left breast and Ricky had his head slightly tilted to the back of his spine, eyes fixed on the way I was coming from.

I halted from my run, and puffed out the exhaustion from my lungs, “I’m… back!”.

Why does it seem like I’m always running out of breath?

Mr.Zack and Ricky looked distracted by something, I thought they were upset about me being late but they were watching the smoke rising up in the sky behind me.

Ricky’s nose caught whiff of the scent I carried along. “You are late, Vic… Eek, you stink.”

Mr.Zack turned his gaze from the smoke, “Ooof…”, swiping his right arm across the air around his face to blow off the stench. “Did you drink… and smoke something? You smell like all kinds of… things.”

“I ran into an alcoholic and got some drinks spilled on me.”

Not too vague. But it doesn’t need to be the whole truth.

“This much stench?” His narrow almond eyes opened wider signaling disbelief, “Anyway, it’s already late, put it on the drier for tonight, you’ll wash it tomorrow morning”

I took off the overalls and put in on the drier as instructed, My jacket had accumulated some dust in the room and had to shake them off before I wore it.

I came out of the building and Mr.Zack handed me the day’s pay. The pay was satisfactory, I didn’t know exactly how much he collected for the car repair since I wasn’t there when he made the deal, But what he gave me was much more than what I was used to.

I turned back at Ricky. “We’ll be heading home now, Ricky.”

Ricky waved his hands at Mr.Zack as we walked away, “Bye Bye.”

“Goodnight, Mr.Zack.” I made a farewell to my new boss.

“Goodnight”

We got home safely without disturb that evening.

Besides the yellow backpack, the library of books seemed to be one of the things I grew fond of, they kept me occupied when I’m bored of staring at the square vent in the blank white ceiling. 

The following morning, Ricky and I followed the same morning routine, we took our baths together in the soft-paste porcelain bath tub to avoid using too much of the water we never paid for, afterwards we brushed our teeth nekkid and I took a much longer time by the bathroom mirror trying to tidy my messed up short hair.

Mr.Zack didn’t specify what time I must be at the shop, which worked in our favor owing to the fact that we lacked a working timepiece. I surmised he had forgotten to tell me.

I looked out the window at the sun, relying on the archaic method of telling time. The sun was barely out, and the white smog limited its brightness while damping the atmosphere with temperate heat. The prime effect of the smoke from the fire I caused the previous night.

The high humid weather decided what we were to wear. And Ricky and I followed through, dressing in knee shorts and plain nylon shirts.

I spent a few minutes or maybe hours reading the book I was almost halfway through on my last read, the Riverrite book, while Ricky made doodles of weird twisty and bendy illutrations on a notebook.

A few of the thick smog had lifted off by the time we left, stalling for it would take the whole day. Two cars were parked in rows inside the service area, one of which was closer to the entrance had a sleek design, painted blue in matte coating, the other had a design inbetween elegant and sleek, its smooth cursive edges blends with glittery purple color, they both look like upper class rides.

The large office window had its blinders activated, preventing me from seeing what was inside, this led me to think I arrived too early. The distance from the repair shop to my house was not that much, I could get there in a jog without a single stop, but i had wished I spent more of those wasted time and energy on reading books.

I hurried to the office door, Ricky’s light footsteps followed behind. I knocked on the door, and waited a second for the door to open. A new face answered the door, she glared at me with her starry cross imbued irises. Her face was in no way less of a beauty as her eyes were, her skin smoother than the porcelain bath tub I bathed in that morning.

Damn! Is she a goddess or something?

“Hellooooo!” She teased while making a straight face.

I expected her to be a year or two older than I was, but she doesn’t look like anyone I’ve ever met before, so the best way to reply would be…

“Uhmmm… Hi. I am an employee of Mr.Zack’s, so could you please, kindly… move away from the door.”

Her Violent Pink hair droop down away from her head turned on its side.

She squinted her large round eyes, as if she wanted a macro shot of my beautiful face. “You… look like him.”

“Huh?”

“Dad! He’s here!”, She shouted aloud without restraints.

Dad? She looks nothing like Mr.Zack, must be the mother’s genes.

“Victor?” Mr.Zack voice reverberated through the dull metallic storage room door.

“Yes, It’s me.”

She stood upright, opened the door wider and stood in front of it. ”So, you’re Victor? That’s a rare name. Dad’s been waiting for ya.”

“Forgive me miss, My name is Victor. I just started working here and I wasn’t told the start time.”

Nice and formal, she look like too much of a royalty to give a normal speech.

Tiny dots danced around her pupils changing shapes and colors, they do not appear native to the her eyes but they fit in with her style. She gave me an unintended hint on what the dots were before I could ask her.

“Hi, Sydney, How’re ya doing? I just got ya message and I played the game, I had a great time playing the game. My best part about ya game are the cute pluffies, they are so cuuuuute! I wish a merch of them were made…”

I sneaked a peek at my brother’s face to see if he wasn’t watching my disgraceful self, but he was, “She ignored you”, his comment felt rather spiteful despite him looking at me with such consoling eyes.

I just wanted her to leave the door, instead she continued talking on and on with someone we can’t see.

I threw away the formal act, and lay my face to its natural neutral expression. “Hey! I’m still right here!”

She put her index finger on her lips and middle finger below it, to make a sign telling me to shut up. Then she left the door and sat outside on the clients’ chair, resting her elbows on the desk whilst her wrist move about to compliment her speech.

Ricky sat down opposite her in the same chair he spent hours in playing game while I was gone the day before. Mr.Zack came out of the storage room wearing his coveralls, we exchanged pleasantries and I went into the storage room to get my coveralls ready.

I re-stacked the boxes in the storage to get to the washing machine. I waited till the coveralls were done. The sound coming from the machine felt like a tune, a low hum with louder hums at short irregular intervals. It got me in the mood for some music.

“I’m Emiko” She said as I was walked out through the storage door.

“Sorry, I got a call from a friend. She’d been pressing me to check something out”, she pleaded as she slid her pink boots on the smooth floor tiles.

“Oh, so that’s why you ignored me, I’m Victor…”, I whipped my head to the right side pointing at the busy Ricky, “and that’s my brother, Ricky”

“Nice to meet ya, Victor and Ricky”

My brother and I responded in a chorus “Nice to meet you too.”

She tittered, closing her eyes shut for a moment.

“Victor! It’s time to start the repair” Mr.Zack yelled from the service area next to the wall on my left.

“Im coming” I replied.

“I’ll be helping out too”, She added.

We worked on the vehicle at the entrance first, it had mechanical issues with its brakes and clutch, which took lesser than two minutes to fix.

The second required a battery change. Emiko cheerfully volunteered to get a spare H4 battery from the storage. She kept her dungarees Jeans on her pink shirt while she helped provide occasional assistance on our repairs. Sometimes she would suddenly leave and start speaking to the people on the other side of her invisible communicator. Normally communicators work by reading and sending neural signals through the neck, but hers was nowhere to be seen on her neck. It was obvious she had them as implants, somewhere in her.

We completed the repair before noon. I felt hungry and I went to get lunch. The haze was still around but more of it has been dispersed. Most of the pedestrians walking around wore light clothes, designed to allow adequate flow of air to the skin. It was a necessity for the hot humid weather.

Only a few blocks away and I’ll be there.

I started to feel optimistic as I got closer to my favorite food stall, until I ran into an odd fellow, the shadow outlined his tall thin figure, gaining a few centimeters in height over me.

“What’s up Devianto?!”

The word “devianto” from the figure in the smog struck a dark uneasy feeling into my heart, I could’ve swore my soul jumped out of my body the second I heard the voice.

 It was fear… one I had not felt in a long time.

It was… “Kurai”