Slings and Arrows

On her next day off, Sedona went to scouts’ headquarters to meet with Athens. She was hoping to discuss her concerns about the sounds and vibrations she’d been detecting Outside. Neither she, nor Merida had come up with any data to support her worries, but Sedona thought it was time to let their commander know she was worried. Her timing was off today - Athens was in a meeting on the other side of the city.

Instead, she stopped by the control panel where Merida was working, just to say “hello”. But when she approached the desk, Merida gave her an icy look and turned her back on Sedona. What was going on here?

She gently touched Merida on the shoulder to see what was wrong. Merida swung around in her chair and lashed out. “Why did you have to put me together with Jakarta like that?”

Sedona jumped back a step. “What do you mean? I just introduced two of my friends to each other. What on earth has happened? Why are you so upset?” She looked anxiously around the room to see if anyone noticed Merida’s outburst.

Merida, seeing Sedona’s furtive glances and the interested faces that turned toward them, lowered her voice. But her words still came out in a hiss of anger. “Why did you push us together? We really cared for each other. And you know how by-the-book Jakarta is. He’s been upset at how close we’ve become. Now … he won’t even talk to me. He doesn’t want to break any stupid rules so he said he can never see me again.”

Merida’s breath hitched on a sob. Sedona didn’t want to draw any more attention to her outburst, so she smiled blandly at one scout, then hissed at another who was avidly listening to every word.

“Merida, I’m so sorry. I can see how upset you are. But maybe Jakarta did the right thing.”

Merida raised her head and glared at Sedona. “What! What are you talking about, didn’t you hear what I just said? He won’t see me again. Not Ever!”

Sedona tried to soothe her. “I know, I know, it’s so sad. But I did try to warn you about this. And just think Merida … remember when we were children, the couple who wouldn’t stay apart? They were put out. Outside of the City!”

Merida fumed. “What does that have to do with me and Jakarta?”

“What if you start drawing attention to yourselves? Just like you are right now.” Sedona glanced around the room again. The other scouts were at least pretending not to listen. “You could lose your chance for promotion if the commander suspected you’ve been violating rules.”

“He’d never know, we were always very careful. And you’re a fine one to talk about breaking rules!”

“What do you mean?” asked Sedona, who was by now completely confused.

“Oh, never mind. Just go away and leave me alone. I still think you knew exactly what you were doing by putting us together.” Merida sniffed and looked away from Sedona again.

Sedona stood up, shaking her head in frustration. It seemed that no matter what she said, Merida was bound to make an issue out of it. Maybe she did need to be left alone. At least long enough to calm down and see the sense of Jakarta’s decision. She placed her hand on Merida’s shoulder again, but Merida shook it off.

“I’m very sorry you’re so hurt Merida and I can tell you with absolute certainty that Jakarta is unhappy about this too. Maybe in a few days you’ll feel better about his decision. I’ll see you when I’m on duty tomorrow.”

Merida refused to respond. Except by turning her back on Sedona. Totally frustrated, Sedona walked out of headquarters and headed home. Merida had always been quick to get mad when they were kids. But like everyone else, she learned to control her emotions. Sedona had never seen Merida acting out like this, and it was worrying. But what could she do except give her some time to let things settle?

Still brooding about this new problem, she called Snuggles as she went into her apartment. But there was no sign of the cat. Puzzled, Sedona walked through all three rooms, looking for him. Was this a new cat-game he was playing?

Her worry about Merida now grew to include concern about the cat. She had a growing sense of something being wrong. Sedona stood still and just listened. Finally, she heard a faint, tiny meow. She turned to follow the sound, stopping every few seconds to listen for more meows, then making a course correction.

She finally found Snuggles dug deep into a corner, behind a mound of cushions – only the very tip of his tail was visible. When Sedona gently pried him out, his eyes were whirling around in fear or upset, and he kept trying to get closer to Sedona. She noticed he was carrying his back paw oddly. When she examined it, she saw it was smashed, even missing one of the delicate wheels in the bottom of the paw. “How did this happen?” she asked the cat.

As Sedona patted him and scratched his ears, the cat slowly settled down. But Sedona glanced around the room, feeling that something else was wrong. Wait! That blue dish wasn’t where she had left it. And one of the cabinet drawers was left partly open. Wrinkling up her nose, she sniffed. There was a strange smell in the room, as if someone other than herself and Snuggles had recently been there.

Now she was frightened. Personal privacy was a serious rule of law in the city. Could someone really have entered her home without being invited in? And why? Still fretting over this new mystery, on top of everything else, Sedona picked Snuggles up and headed off to the robot maintenance department.