I Want People to Listen

If someone were to crash land on Lugus, they would think it paradise. If he was honest with himself, Dorian did, too. It was a simple pleasure to pick a ripe apple or pluck a flower from the communal garden without fear of being called a thief. The community focused structure of Greenhaven had its benefits. He just didn't have access to as many of them as he would like.

At that moment, he was experiencing the downside of this arrangement. Everyone knew about his “disagreement” with Graham by now. Avoiding eye contact, he walked back home, feeling the weight of the community on him.

“The hell do they know?” He muttered quietly to himself. “I bet the twins ran to tell everyone what happened as soon as the shift was over.” There was no point even trying to explain his side of the story to these people. Around here, things were deemed truthful or not based on the number of people that repeated the same thing. Parrots, the lot of them.

Dorian turned down the path away from the communal garden and into his neighbourhood. Rows of clean, neatly tied together bamboo houses set gently on a bank of high sand.

While walking, he always made a habit of tracing the leaf ties that held the bamboo together. Gradually, as you looked up, you could see the leaf blend with electrical wiring and metallic plates leading to the solar panel on the top of each house, an Earth Union symbol on the side of each one. If you didn't live here, it would be difficult to determine which house was which.

This wasn't a problem for Dorian today, though. His house was clear and identifiable because there was a very stern woman in an apron at the door.

Oh, shit.

Not wanting to drag this out for long, he quickened his pace. As he got closer to the house, he could make out another figure sitting on the doorstep. The frizzy head of hair was visible before anything else. The owner of the hair looked up at Dorian and smiled faintly as he approached.

"Yo Avery! What’s good ma-”

“No, nay, nein, non!” His mother interrupted as she stepped between them. Dorian had to hit the brakes quick or he would end up in the dirt. He was not the irresistible force that could meet his mother's immoveable object. “Avery is here. He came here after your shift to apologise. From what I understand, though, it sounds like you need to grovel and beg before him.

“Uh huh, yeah, definitely. So if you could just let me do that, that would be great". He made moves to step past his mother, but within a flash she had picked him up by the scruff of the neck and hoisted him from the floor.

If there was one thing that Rowan Pepper took pride in, it was her strength. Having to catch and wrangle Dorian was a skill that she needed to master early on. He had always been worth three children in mischief. “Explain,” she said flatly.

“Why you have leaves in your hair? Well, I imagine it's because of all of that wood chopping you do, what with you being Chief Forrester and all.” Dorian felt himself slowly being brought towards his mother's face. Within seconds, they were nose to nose. Her voice was a whisper.”

“Don't get smart with me, you stupid boy. Do you have any idea how many apologies I had to make today? How many strings I needed to pull to get you to maybe keep your job? I'm trying my best here, baby boy, but you need to cut it with this Union talk.”

Her son responded at the same volume. “What are you talking about? You think the same. Come on Mum, you don't think it's hypocritical?  Constantly talking about how the Union is terrible and big government nearly destroyed the planet. Yet, at the same time, we are all allowed to keep the Union solar panels, medical technology and whatever else they left us with. You don't think that's weird?”

“Of course it is, but Dorian honey, life isn't always that simple. I know that's a really boring old woman thing for me to say and I'm sorry. If we could all live as eighteenth century romantic philosophers, that would be great, but we can't, because life sucks and we need to make the best of it.”

“I guess that includes grovelling to get a seat on the council?”

“Hey! When are you gonna stop this woe is me attitude, child? You’ve made yourself very clear about what you want and I respect it. You know I do. I’m sure Grandpa would be very pleased with your patriotism but he's not here anymore. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade or you go thirsty. You get to choose.”

“I know but-”

“No Dorian, no buts. I’ve done a lot to keep all your privileges in this community, and I expect some respect in return. There’s going to be a Council meeting about your behaviour tonight. You getting away with it this time is not a formality, even with my help. Graham was adamant.”

“…I really didn’t break the pump, Mum.”

 “I know that! Idiot son of mine. You care about people. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be looking past me right now. Don’t worry, I think he’s fine. I tried to get him into the med bay, but he absolutely refused unless you were there."

“Med bay? Why would Avery need medical attention?”

His Mother raised an eyebrow. “Because of the cuts? He said he fell near the patch while on his way home.” Rowan saw her son’s face morph into a scowl, and it hit her. “The twins? Again? Bright sky above.”

“You can take nature’s name in vain all you like. Put me down.”

“Not until you promise not to march up to Manor Hill. I sense you want to do some damage.”

"I-”

“If I put you down and you don’t immediately march towards the house and help your friend into the med bay, you’re grounded for a year.”

“…Okay fine.”

“Good boy.”

***

“I really don't mind doing this, but are you sure you couldn't wait for me to get home before we got you patched up? Dorian had moved the med bay up to his room. A Portable bed with a computer attached to it, it could diagnose all ailments in the Union database up to the day Lugus handed in the withdrawal request. This was fine for the residents. They had recorded any extras they found in a medical notebook in the council office. They weren't short of medical knowledge.

“I s-suppose. I was scared, though…The machines.”

“Yeah, I know. Look, sorry, I'm so pig-headed. I've known you long enough to know that you're going to struggle in situations like that. I shouldn't put my ego before you, I'm sorry.

“N-no!” Avery sputtered. “It's my fault! I shouldn't be so c-childish. I should be strong like you,” he sighed. “I should be better.”

They both hated to talk like this usually, but Avery couldn't help it when he had a bad day. Ever since he was born, there had been something different about him. Nobody could really tell why. Avery never really engaged with the world. He looked at it and appreciated it, but when it came to interacting with it, socially or otherwise, he just couldn't. His family tried to get him medical help, but without the expertise of the Union, nothing could be done. 

It was so stupid. People here always wanted to put a label on things. Why couldn't they just accept that Avery was happy? There was nothing medically wrong with him, that's just the way he is. You don't always need to get to the bottom of everything. Sometimes you can let things be.

“I've told you before that comparing yourself to others is pointless. And before you go on about how I'm wrong and how you don't deserve friends, and I'm only hanging out with you out of sympathy. Stop. If I didn't want to be here, I wouldn't be. I've got plenty of lost loves to find, after all.”

Avery lay himself down in the med bay pod. He was pensive, one eyebrow raised with the crinkled face of concentration.

“It’s going to beep.”

“Huh? What is?”

“The med bay. I can tell it doesn’t sound right.”

“Oh? How sure are you?”

“About fifty percent.”

“Ah, less than usual then. Are you sick? Aside from the cuts, I mean.

“I don’t t-think so.”

“Good. Okay, you know the drill by now. Stay still.”

Avery did so, and Dorian kicked the machine into life. The initial loud beeping startled his friend, so Dorian clasped his hand. Once Avery felt his palm meet with Dorian’s, he relaxed.

“Everyone thinks I'm a child, don't they? Please don't lie to me Dorian, I can tell. I tried to tell Brooke about the gum three times and each time he said, ‘well done Avery, that’s good looking out.’ It wasn't looking out. I knew the machine was broken. I could hear it.” Dorian had no reason to doubt his friend. Avery knew the comings and goings of the Station better than anyone. His silence hid his intellect. It was the thing he liked most about him.

Dorian breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Once the shyness and the stutter had gone, it was very difficult to distinguish Avery from anyone else in the village. Avery did what made him happy, but Dorian got the impression that he felt just as trapped by his situation. The Station was the only work task that Avery wanted to do. Apparently, he found the noise of the reactors soothing. Nobody cared if he stood and stared at bio engines for hours, as long as he was out of the way.

They'd never really spoken about it. 

He really felt the mental strain of it all. To top it all off, there was the need to tell Avery about his possible citizenship removal. Poor boy was going to be so upset.

“I don’t know man. You shouldn't really listen to me, anyway. I'll just get you into trouble, if it was up to me I’d just tell you to poison Graham’s lunch or something. We should do that.”

“No, I don’t want that, I just want…I want people to listen to me.”

“I’m listening.”

Silence enveloped the room. Dorian and Avery were both deep in thought. It was moments like this that Dorian hated the most. Even though he pretended to be aloof and uninterested, he desperately wanted to help his friend, he just couldn't figure out how.

It was only after a few seconds of pondering that they both noticed that Dorian still held Avery’s hand tight.

“Oh right, uh yes!”

“S-sorry D-D-Dorian.”

“Oh no, it's fine. I was just, you know, making sure you're okay and stuff. Are you okay?  Right now I mean.”

“Yeah. I-”

The two boys had never been so collectively happy to hear a machine alarm. As predicted, the med bay beeped an alert before finishing. Dorian took a moment to collect his thoughts before examining the panel.

“Unexpected foreign item in the containment chamber. Error code: 24601. Well, that’s not very nice, is it?” He looked over at Avery to see him grinning widely.

“I told you the alarm would sound,” he said. He held up a piece of metal, a black box with a fan attached. A fan with eucalyptus gum for a hat.

Dorian's jaw hit the floor.