“I stand corrected.”
“I’m sorry, Talros. I am grateful for your offer, but the idea of you spending an hour walking home is just not one I can take.”
“Then I will fix your door. Sufficient?”
“Tal…”
“Nope, it’s decided.” Talros motions me inside. “Go on.”
I walk toward the offices and then stop. “Why are you…”
He collects a toolbox from his truck. “Don’t want you to miss out on your opportunity at a better life like my mom did.”
I turn back and hug him. It takes him a second for him to hug me back. “Thanks, big brother.”
“Gotta make sure you get there so I can have my vacation, too,” he teases.
I scoff in mock offense and punch him in the shoulder.
“Maybe you can invite me to the wedding or at least to tour your new homeworld?”
“Okay. Might be nice to have a familiar face now and then.”
He steps back and chuckles. “Alright, see you in the morning?”
“Yeah.” I adjust my bag, thank him one more time, and then hustle into the port security office.
The janitorial closet is tucked in the back corner of the bottom floor, and I have three levels to clean. The faster I do it, the more time I have to sleep.
I start with the bathrooms and locker rooms and find two clogged toilets, one having flooded the floor, a mess of gear grease in the showers from someone who’s ignored the rules, and a broken soap pump in the men’s bathroom, leaving the counter covered in foamy slime.
Lovely.
By the time I hoist the backpack vacuum over my shoulders and start working my way through the offices, I’m exhausted and shaking from not eating dinner. But I need my pay before I can eat.
Every time I vacuum, I sense the tingles of electricity through my discharge harness. They zing through the threads embedded in my skin, trying to find a path to ground. My body feels like it’s leaned up against a hot, chain link fence that fizzles. My gauntlets light up, alerting me to the increased electric load. I feel it most in my arms, but everywhere.
Shitty vacuum. Maybe they’ll get a new one for the new cleaner. Doubt they’ll have a Faraday bodyweb.
When I finally clock out and my credits load onto my armbands, I sulk out through the doors and back to my car. It’s mildly cool, like most nights just outside of the city. A light breeze picks up cottony bits, rolling them across the pavement, likely stuffing from some forgotten mattress by the dumpsters.
When I get to my car, Talros has mended my door so that it shuts. His hover truck is missing, and I’m glad he’s gone home to sleep in a bed like he deserves. He’s always been there for me. We make a solid team. I don’t want to ask for more from him.
I get in and try to start my car so I can drive to the minimart and get some food since I can’t bum leftovers from the port restaurant anymore. My car whines, squeals, and quiets. There’s no sense in trying it again. The charging system’s starter is toast. I can’t get another until the morning.
I slump back in my seat, hungry, tired, and barely hanging on. I lock myself in my car in the empty port parking lot and open my datapad, studying the pictures of the aliens to distract myself from the pains in my stomach. And finally, it breaks me.
Tears fill my eyes, and I curse myself for being weak, feeling broken, and wasting precious water. Clean water isn’t free in our city.
A scrap of paper in the shotgun seat catches my eye.
Thanks for the help, bitch. Good luck finding your pillow. Hope a venomous alien picks you.
-Verity
I scoff, look up at the fluff swirling around the parking lot, and realize she shredded it to spite me. I crumple up the paper and angrily toss it on the floorboards. I have few things of comfort left, and she just destroyed one of them.
A light clunk of metal lands on my roof.
