Episode 18: Peeping Eyes

Episode 18

Peeping Eyes

Jennifer walks as fast as she can to the library door, she feels the urge to run, but the last thing she wants to do is get in trouble with Ms H.

Outside, on the landing, Jennifer hastily looks up and down the street. Enoch should still be nearby. Spotting him, one street over, Jennifer trots down the stairs and quickly crosses the street. She follows at a comfortable distance, not losing sight of him, but she's also not close enough for him to spot her easily if he were to turn around.

Jennifer opens her mouth, to start expressing her thoughts to her reader, but then quickly stops herself. She had not realized that the price she would have to pay for the secrecy would be silence. Swallowing her words, Jennifer starts pondering the situation internally as they turn out of the main road. The first thing to come to mind is the Author's Advocate. She ponders the new letter and then the previous one and thinks about the questions the Author's Advocate had asked.

How does one classify others and oneself?

Enoch takes another turn and suddenly Jennifer knows exactly where he is going. She continues to follow him, hoping that he is not going where she thinks he's going.

Jennifer follows Enoch as he walks all the way to the far side of town. They walk past the natural disaster billboard, proudly announcing that there hasn't been a natural disaster in 289 days. Jennifer stops, standing behind a building and watches as Enoch walks all the way to the claustrophobic apartment complex that is built against a cliff – Ronita's apartment.

She flattens herself against the wall of the building, leaning against something solid, while she steadies her worried heart. Jennifer wants to abort the mission and retreat back into her library of solitude, but, now that she knows where he’s gone, she can't leave the entire situation up in the air.

Jennifer enters Ronita's building with catlike stealth and swiftly makes her way up the stairs, all the way to Ronita's floor. She peers around the stairwell door, making sure that the hallway is clear before entering.

Jennifer takes a step into the hallway, but stops. Her legs are shaking and, above all else, she's scared of what she might find. There is a part of Jennifer that would rather have stayed oblivious to the whole situation, but Jennifer has a responsibility toward her friend who, Jennifer thinks, is not being objective.

She takes a step forward on shaking legs and, before long, finds herself in front of Ronita's apartment. It wasn't nearly as hard to find the place this time around.

Jennifer leans in and looks through the peephole. To her great relief she can see into the room. She can see Enoch, his arms are folded across his chest as he leans against a wall. His face is stern and he is saying something, but Jennifer cannot hear what. Across from him is Ronita, she's sitting with her face buried in her hands.

Jennifer frowns. What's going on?

Ronita lifts her head from her hands and shakes her head. Enoch takes out his phone and reads something to her. She leaps out of her chair and yells drop it while pointing angrily at him, but she stops when she catches sight of his hands. She takes them in her own, looking at them for a second, but quickly shifting her gaze to his – repeating the words once again.

Suddenly the town's sirens start going off, fear shoots through Jennifer's body. Enoch looks directly at the door and Jennifer panics, she leaps into action and runs down the corridor, all the way to the stairwell. She closes the door behind her and takes in a few deep breaths.

She can still hear the sirens, but she has no idea what the sirens mean. A door opens into the stairwell and people start evacuating. Jennifer overhears confused conversations about not knowing what the siren means and about evacuating just to be safe. She calms a bit and starts walking downward herself, but then quickly stops and runs all the way up the stairs – all the way up the top floor and sits there.

Jennifer can't go down, Enoch and Ronita will most likely also go down and catch up with her. She has to wait for them to leave first, that's the only way she can be sure that she's not spotted.

Jennifer sit there until she can't hear any more people in the stairwell. Her nerves haven't calmed even a bit, her heart beats frantically as she taps her toes – waiting and listening. Finally, everything quiets, and all Jennifer can hear is the tapping of her own toes and the foreign siren in the distance.

It took much more for Jennifer to stand up and make her way downward than it had to run away. She tightly grips the railing and forces herself to move downward, but she stops when reaching Ronita's landing. Her hand moves out and she pushes the door inward. The hallway is empty. Jennifer finds herself walking toward Ronita's apartment and soon enough she's looking through the peephole again. There is no one inside.

Before leaving, she remembers that Ronita had left the door unlocked – the first and last time Jennifer had visited her. Jennifer tries the door handle and the door slowly swings inward. She takes a single step into the apartment and practically stands in the door while looking in. It still smells like popcorn, it's dark and there are boxes everywhere, Ronita's computers are packed up and it looks like the Timpelton's are moving.

Beep-bo-beep! A new siren becomes audible and this time Jennifer knows exactly what it means. This one means that a fire has broken out and that everyone should evacuate. Jennifer turns to leave, but spots something on the floor. An origami daisy.

The Author's Advocate letter must have fallen out of Enoch's pocket...

Jennifer quickly goes into the apartment, picks up the flower and puts it in her pocket – then leaves, flying down the stairs and exiting the building, without being seen.

There are a lot of people outside, all of them are slowly making their way to their assigned evacuation points. As Jennifer starts to do the same, her phone starts to ring. She answers the phone – her father is on the other end.

After having asked where she is and whether or not she is okay, he informs her that a petrol truck had lost control and crashed. The truck had caught fire and, with the dry condition of the town, it spread fast. Mr Hudstone had told his daughter that it was best if she stayed on the far side of town, where the fire was slowly being put out, and not go near their home, where everything was still burning brightly. Jennifer agreed and told him that she was going to one of the evacuation points and would contact him once she'd gotten there.

“So much for two-hundred and eighty something days without a natural disaster... this is just like Mecha Falls,” Jennifer says, keeping her mind off Enoch and Ronita. “We're not unfamiliar to natural disasters, we're not unfamiliar to safety drills or evacuations – for practice or for real – and that makes things a bit easier. After a while one stops panicking, after a while one completely gets used to the constant threat of...”

“Jennifer!” Someone calls. Jennifer spins around and looks in the direction from which the voice came, but she doesn't see anything.

“So, I seem to be losing my mind,” She says and continues onward. “As I was saying, there are evacuation points all around town and, if it is necessary, there will be emergency supply posts. These posts do have blankets and food and flashlights, if things aren't under control in a few hours, but it's never taken that long before...”

Someone grabs Jennifer's arm and she starts, letting out a loud yelp, only to be hugged by Enoch seconds later. She pushes him away, wanting to slap him (or something) for scaring her, but she stops when she sees the worry in his eyes. Jennifer takes a step closer and gives him a hug.

“You scared me,” He says. To this Jennifer frowns and wants to tell him that he had, in fact, scared her, but she spots Ronita out of the corner of her eye. Stepping out of the hug, Jennifer gives Ronita one too.

“I'm glad you guys are okay,” Jennifer says, trying to smile, but feeling quite guilty about spying on them earlier. “I was just headed to the evacuation point...”

“I told him that you'd be headed to an evacuation point, but he just wanted to check the library first,” Ronita says, looking pointedly at Enoch. Jennifer shifts her gaze to Enoch as well, who looks like he'd rather die than have that information revealed.

“Well, at least you found me. Now we can walk together,” Jennifer says, changing the subject. Ronita nods and starts walking in the direction of the evacuation point. It's at the edge of the forest, at an old hunter's cabin. It had been fortified and the basement was loaded with emergency supplies over the years. Only a few people have access to the cabin and trying to rob it would be rather futile.

Nearing the location, the small stone cabin comes into view. There are a lot of people and most of them came only with the clothes on their backs, some had taken a backpack or handbag, but, other than that, people came with nothing. Jennifer herself didn't come with anything other than her phone. Jennifer quickly texts her father, letting him know that she safely arrived at the evacuation point. She becomes oddly aware of the fact that Enoch is walking behind her and quickly puts her phone away.

Jennifer turns to Enoch, but, before she can speak, her eyes catch sight of Ronita holding his hand. Now things are starting to make sense, Jennifer thinks to herself.

“I'm going to look for my family,” Jennifer says, knowing full well that her family would have gone to another evacuation point on the other side of town. Honestly, she was just looking for an excuse to get away – maybe that will help her escape her guilt. Jennifer feels so uncomfortable under Enoch's gaze, she just wants to evaporate, disappear, fade into nothingness.

Enoch nods and Ronita waves Jennifer a goodbye, but she can feel Enoch's eyes on her back with every step she takes. Jennifer walks until she knows that she's out of sight. She weaves through people and dodges running children and ends up taking a seat at the base of a large old tree. She sits there for a while, looking at the people as they walk by. Looking at how they interact with their loved ones and longs to be with her family. They're far from perfect and a little crazy at times, but they're her people and, oh, how she wishes she could be with her people at a time like that.

Jennifer doesn't know how much time passes, but in her mind a small eternity elapsed before she noticed Tessa standing alone a little while away. With a heavy heart, Jennifer looks at Tessa and thinks about The Author's Inclination and everything she's learned over the past few weeks. Before Jennifer can even realize what she's doing, she's up and on her feet and walking toward her childhood friend.

Quickly Tessa spots Jennifer approaching, her entire face hardens. Tessa's exterior is a show of anger, but Jennifer now knows that it's nothing more than a result of pain. When Jennifer reaches Tessa, Tessa starts talking, saying something about not being in the mood for this, but all Jennifer does is hug her.

Tessa completely stiffens between Jennifer's arms.

“I'm sorry Tess,” Jennifer says and she relaxes. Jennifer's intent was never to hurt her or to dominate everything, but she had done so and she truly was sorry for all the pain she had caused.