“By the way, I had to trade my crayon set to buy two boxes of hot pepper paste,” she tells me.
“You trade your things to shop?”
“Yes. We told you our agent brought all of our money.”
“But it’s still lucky they think our things are valuable,” her mother says. “They even bought my used lipstick. I felt guilty trading it.”
“Don’t feel bad. They love it. Believe me. They will pay you one more golden button per fingerprint.”
“Thank you for the information,” she says.
“Any more questions?” I ask. “Anything new?”
“We have good news, General,” Mr. Lee says. “We are going to be in a newspaper.”
“Newspaper?”
“Yes, reporters came to interview us. It will be a good advertisement.”
“What did they ask?”
“They asked me how we came here and started our business. So I answered frankly, how the agent deceived us. But I was careful not to mention any political view of this country as you said, and I also said ‘no’ to pictures.”
“Good, sir.”
“I met them too!” Hera says lively. “I was playing outside my house and they came up to me.”
“What did they ask you?” asks Madam Kang.
“They asked my opinion about STT. Don’t worry. I answered well.”
“How did you answer?”
“I said it’s like North Korea.”
CHAPTER 10
My smile freezes at her words.
“Did you say anything more?” Mr. Lee asks.
“No. I didn’t need to. They looked satisfied with my answer.”
Of course. The certain area contains a lot of description.
“General, will this be okay? You said they arrest people with negative views of the government. Will we be arrested as well?” says Madam Kang, worriedly.
“Arrest?” Hera exclaims, startled. “How come? I simply answered their questions. I didn’t lie about anything.” She turns her head around nervously, wanting one of us to give an explanation but, no one’s willing to talk to her right now. We keep silent until we hear a loud alarm, which tells us it’s time to close all the shops in Morning Market. We are supposed to hurry and leave the tent bar before the managers come to check that every shop is empty but, we remain still. It is a serious matter.
I look down at Hera’s anxious face. She does not know what she did wrong. She did not do anything wrong. No one would scold this girl for answering honestly to adults’ questions in the world in which she used to reside.
Is someone testing me? It’s now Hera after Cooper. I didn’t have this much trouble with BTTs. I haven’t really complained about the way they rule us. More people I know, more occasions to question the world I belong to.
“Don’t worry, madam and sir,” I say. “It’s not yet published. I’ll not let it be published.”
CHAPTER 11
I walk out of Morning Market leaving Hera’s family behind. They were captured by managers of Market as they closed their store after noon. They asked for half the income they earned today as a penalty but, changed their minds once they found a doll Hera was holding. The damned managers took her last toy that she brought from her motherland. But there’s no point to be mad at them. They are mere robots that move at their BTT owners’ order.
I have to meet Safire. I used to be a friend of the Morning Call’s editor but haven’t seen her since Cockroach Hunting begun. They are looking for her aggressively. Morning Call is the only newspaper that tells the truth about STT and us. I can’t think of any other newspapers that would have interviewed Hera. I have no choice but to beg my other friend to tell me how to reach her, though, it will take some more time before going back to MTT where Cooper’s all by himself.
I hope Nixie did not tell him what happened in the restaurant. Otherwise, he would rush to them without thinking of the consequences that could harm both him and his woman. The best thing that could happen is that Zeus already took her to the courtroom of a blood-favored Judge.
It must be in a parent’s mind to eliminate people around his son when they look to harm him, isn’t it?
CHAPTER 12
I step into an area where most of my former devotees live together. These are the people I shot but, failed to transform. They are the people who were ready to rise up against BTTs if only I had helped. They seemed to believe I became a MTT General with an ambition to change the world. But, now, they feel betrayed.
I feel bad about them. Who said I had such a dream? That’s truly a mad dream. They are way too strong. Their insanely smart gene doctors are stuffing power genes, and all the genes inspired by classic movies’ super heroes, into unborn babies every second. If they are humans, we are considered as tarsiers. We are way too undeveloped.
Will there be a society of people with advanced gene technology? Will they be kindhearted to find us? I sometimes daydream that an army from outside invades our district to save us from knowing it can’t happen.
This domain is made by one woman. Even BTTs should have to get her permission to enter our district when they want to work inside NTTs’ district as officials. That’s the Minister of MTT. She has a cold face just like other BTTs. She won’t hesitate to demolish her domain to get rid of us, just as she squashes a can with one foot.
I am certain that she’s doing a slave business with us. She feeds us well, she wants us to be healthy both mentally and physically, and she only watches us play and sleep all day. If she’s a normal monarch, she’d want her citizens to work hard and make a profit for her. But we have no factories where we can make products for import and earn our leader some money.
If I were her, I would work NTTs hard like slaves. Of course she’s meaner than me. She, instead, sells her citizens as slaves outside the country. Born student, born wrestler, and others born as something must be categorize to different types of markets. I don’t see beautiful NTT girls above ten. They seemed to be the number one priority taken out to slave markets.
I bet our faces and personal information are already listed in the slave agencies of different timelines. Live happily in a cage until it becomes your turn. That must be her strategy to keep the district for centuries without a revolt. Happy country! Smiling items under her secret territory.
Sweat cascades down my body. The Minister gave us only one season. The summer. Imagine the hottest summer you can think of. It’s to keep us drained and indolent. No one works in a sauna. It’s just the same. And it’s another way to sort out smart NTTs from normal NTTs. Cockroaches are feeble in the heat while the others are able to play hard in this hotness, thanks to certain chemicals within affected food.
But they can’t see me perspiring as I’m in a disguise under a cockroach cloak. I’m only afraid of the children who are stabbing a Cine Moon manikin with a dagger. Sweating like a pig, I try to pass by them as quickly as I can but, one of them finds me.
“Look.”
“Is he mocking us?” one of children yells.
“Who are you?”
“Did they send you?”
I see one of the girls grasping her stiletto tightly, her eyes glaring at me. I swallow hard. It must be Chickie who sold the toy to the girl.
Alright, calm down. That’s only a little girl and I can manage that toy stiletto. Wait a minute, is that blood that is dripping on the end? Oops, it’s not a toy at all! It’s real. They are playing with real weapons!
Once I break into a run, one of them begins throwing small knives in my back.
Are you a ninja? No, I have to blame adults for this. Their crazy parents and kids’ president Chickie! I will take you to Justice Judge one day. He’s the only man I know that even BTTs fear.
Climbing an uphill road, I hear muttering from a boy. He must be out of throwing knives. Not a single one stuck in my back. I smirk.
“You are a bad ninja!” I shout back at them and laugh loudly at their curdled faces, even during my breathing chokes in m
y throat.
“Come on, give me the dart!”
I hear the stiletto girl’s mad voice behind my back and in a second, I feel every dart she’d thrown hit my black cockroach cloak. What a gangster. I speed up, feeling a real threat from the kid gang. I see Chickie’s toy shop is closer, just within twenty meters.
“Chickie! Chickie! They are trying to kill me!” I shout out of my throat. Just then I see a lance pass just above my head. This is a long, firm lance, stronger than the one we use for training. This is crazy. Buying their children real weapons! What are they thinking of? They call themselves parents? They must be thinking of riot!
Wait, wait a minute, the lance did not fall down on the ground but is coming back to me! Just toward my face!
I stop at once and crouch down, risking being caught by the kid gangs.
“Boomerang lance, seventy golden buttons,” says a voice above me. I look up at Frog Butler, an employee of Chickie. I see his frog hand holding the lance in the middle. “Not recommended to use for a real human.”
The girl snorts at me. “You were Chickie’s friend? You should have told us earlier. Let’s go, kids!”
“Wait, you wait there! You didn’t say sorry!” She turns back and sticks her tongue out, her hand on her ass. Then she turns back and walks away with her four soldiers.
“Gangsters,” I spit the word out with ire. I raced under the starkest sun. My mental state begins breaking down. Frog Butler carries me over his shoulder, saying “Chickie says you are such a dummy.”
I faint after beating on his back twice with my hand.
CHAPTER 13
I open my eyes to see large ice rocks inside a huge cocktail glass. My cockroach cloak is taken off and my burned skin under my uniform is cooled off.
Hmm, changed interior again, I think, looking around Chickie’s private domain. In front of me sits two giant teddy bears drinking their tea. I feel sick looking at a dessert tray standing on a table between them which reminds me of Venus’s foot cream. I turn away from them and look up at a clear blue sky and feel the refreshing wind of autumn.
Perfect weather. I once thought I’d do anything to get out of STT to feel this wind. And I realized it’s possible without fighting against them if only I visit Chickie’s place.
“That’s why you don’t grow up,” says Chickie, knitting on my right, sitting on a floating chair made of candies.
She is my best friend outside MTT. She used to be a gene doctor in her district but, came to hide among us after falling into debt in the casino.
“What are you knitting?” I ask, thinking it is not her thing at all.
“For your dad,” says Chickie curtly.
That makes me pause. I clear my throat and lean forward to her. “Is it his birthday?”
“Don’t come near to me,” she warns. “And don’t ask about him. Don’t revise your choice.”
My choice, she says. Yes, it was me who asked her to erase my father from my head. She has taken my memories about him, what he looks like and how he sounds. My father suffered, she said.
He seems to live alone since I left home. That is the least thing I know about him. No, there’s one more fact about him. He’s a Lolita. Look at Chickie. She still looks like sixteen while my dad must be at least forty. Her body has no curves at all, though her legs are lovely like a doll’s. I just can’t picture them kissing and sleeping together. Yeah, he must be a pervert.
“Whatever you do, I won’t tell you about him,” says Chickie. She read my tactics, to bring him, by provoking her. “He’s still mad at you. He doesn’t want me to talk about you. I respect his decision.”
He even doesn’t want to talk about me… well, that hurts. “Is he regretting having a son like me or doesn’t he consider me as one?”
She gives me a scowl. “Unlike you, he takes responsibility for what he did. He’s only seriously angry.”
“Why doesn’t he understand it was for his safety? If I didn’t erase him out of my mind, they would track him down and drag him to a courtroom for raising a smart son!”
Chickie stops knitting and says coolly, “You say that again. You always say that you did it for him but, tell me the truth. You had other ways to keep him safe. He has me. I can hide him in my domain.”
“Then why did you let me? You are the one who did the operation.”
“You threatened me.”
“You’re lying.”
“No, that’s you. That’s the real you. You can harm anyone for your own. Even your dad! That’s why I erased him out of your mind. I thought one day you’d hurt him.”
“See? You thought the same. We did it for him.”
“We are not the same. You didn’t trust him.”
“How could I rely on him? If he’s strong enough to protect me, I don’t need to live this life. If only he were not a citizen here, I must be born somewhere else.”
Chickie gives me a long look. “You changed. You didn’t dislike here.”
“I had no reason to hate here until I had a friend.”
“Friend? You made a friend?”
“I didn’t expect this, either. My life’s becoming too complex.”
“I pity your friend.”
“Me too!”
“No, I pity your friend because you regret having him as your friend, cockroach. You have no right to have a friend with such a mindset.”
Maybe she’s right but, I don’t want to hear it from her.
“I like you because you’re more twisted than me,” I say with a joking resentment.
“You are right. This village is asking me to make more weapons for the rebellion and I’m going to report this to MTT.” She says, smiling wickedly, “Because I’m twisted.”
I turn to her, startled. “Don’t!”
“I already did. You are a MTT General. Make your decision. What will you do?”
“They’ll die,” I say seriously.
“But you don’t care,” Chickie whispers.
“I care. That’s why I shot them.”
“Their spirit won’t die no matter how many bullets you insert.”
“You convince them. They trust you, don’t they? You tell them to live in peace.”
“They won’t listen to me. They want a change.”
“What’s wrong with them?”
Chickie leans backward and says restfully, “People change. That’s natural. You’ve transformed too. You’ve made a friend and finally recognized things to change.”
What is she trying to do? It’s like she wants me to join them and lead the riot. I shouldn’t listen to a devil. I better leave as soon as possible.
“Chickie, there’s just one thing I want to correct before I leave.”
“What.”
“Not a friend. I’ve made several of them.”
She laughs at my proud face. “Just how old are you?”
“Twenty one.”
“Oh, kid.”
“I know you have none. I wanted to encourage you,” I say smugly. “It’s fun. Life is fun with some friends.”
“Are they worthy to risk your life?”
I pause at her question. She asked so casually but, it is absurd. This kind of conversation, friend talk, is the first one coming up between us. Risking my life for my friends… I couldn’t imagine that. Nevertheless my answer is…
“Definitely.”
CHAPTER 14
I am waiting for a City Truck as Chickie instructed and it is sizzling hot.
City Truck. It is only a pretty way to call our moving container boxes carried by a truck. Every time I see people packed in the container, through small holes, sorry for them, but they look like animals being transported to a slaughterhouse.
We are not allowed to have a decent ride. BTTs want to limit our travels, believing we would have a fantasy to go out of the territory they built for us. You are not allowed to leave STT unless you work for the Ministry of Time Travel. That must add one more reason why I’m in the center of admiration and
all the jealousy.
I see the truck slow down and stop in front of me.
“Mr. Roach, where do you want to ride? Our first and second boxes are packed,” a truck man says as he jumps down from the truck.
“Last one.”
“It’s being used for an office now. Do you know who’s occupying it?” he says quietly.
“Safire,” I murmur, not to sound like myself.
He nods and walks with me to the last container box. He is a man of a big build, carries a large ladder with only one hand. I feel people’s eyes, inside the container boxes, following me and hear laughers that ring in my ears. Chickie made this cloak to ridicule smart NTTs. Those who are laughing at me don’t even know its meaning. I just let them laugh like crazy.
I open the door on the roof and jump down into the box. I hear a screech once I land in her container box.
“General? Is it you again? Do you really have to wear the cockroach costume?” says Safire standing up from her chair. She looks startled but, still welcomed me.
“Please complain to Chickie. But thanks to me, no one will try to enter your new office where a giant cockroach lives,” I say, taking off my cloak.
“You’re right,” she says, chuckling.
I look around. One desk with a chair, two sofas, a small table and a pile of newspapers plus, four studio lights in each corner are all she has in her moving office.
“Looks cozy,” I lie.
“Thank you,” she says, “Sorry, I have nothing to offer but a sofa.”
“No problem,” I say. We sit down, facing each other.
“You have no windows. How do you breathe? It’s really hot,” I say, fanning my face. She offers me a flying fan. It flies around my face to dry my sweat away as I switch it on.
“It’s bearable with Chickie’s 24 hour cooling skin.”
“That doesn’t work when you are under a cockroach cloak. I bet she made this heavy and thick intentionally.”
“Positively,” she says with a lovely smile on her face. She is one of a few people I think is beautiful. She isn’t a standard beauty and I don’t know which parts exactly I felt were beautiful. Maybe, because she is everything opposite of BTT women. Parted front teeth, freckles over her cheeks, a wart next to her right eyebrow, and some wrinkles appear on her forehead every time she widens her eyes. They all look wonderful. In other people’s eyes, only beautiful things about her might be her name and her curly, burning red hair. If I ever marry, I’d choose a woman who ages naturally like her.