Chapter 19
The air was considerably cooler than the previous days in Andloor, despite the sun beaming through the clouds.
The sparse trees dotting the sidewalk rustled with the cool breeze, some already exchanging their green foliage for golden ones.
They reflected in the glassy mirrors of the skyscraper buildings, infusing their own sense of color to their surroundings at the ground level, while the neon ad signs added their pop higher up.
Esmie drank in her surroundings, staring at all of the shops that took up the bottom floor of almost every skyscraper.
A comfy scarf in particular caught her eye.
The fabric appeared like silk under the light.
Esmie envisioned her hand running along the smooth fabric.
Samson, already familiar with the area, was fortunately patient enough to stop every so often and wait for her to catch up when she stopped, craning her head back to stare at the buildings towering above her.
“Don’t make me hold your hand while we walk,” Samson joked when she almost bumped into a person rushing by.
“Humph. You would enjoy that way too much.” Esmie responded in like after apologizing to the person she almost ran in to. She halted, almost slamming into Samson who was a few inches away from her.
“Maybe I would, so better not tempt me,” he grinned down at her for effect.
It worked as Esmie curled her hands in the sleeves of the light jacket Samson lent her, which was a few sizes too big, but comfy and warm in the cool autumn air.
She was grateful for the breeze that now danced against her hot cheeks, hoping they cooled them enough for Samson not to notice how much his presence—and teasing—affected her.
He adjusted her baseball cap and sunglasses before turning back around and walking again.
Esmie made sure to follow him more closely this time.
“I thought it would be too warm here for the autumn season. Is this a fluke, or is it like this every year?” Samson asked, switching topics before Esmie could collect herself.
“We get all the seasons here. Just not as cold as probably other parts of the country.”
“All of them? Autumn and winter too?” Samson’s eyebrow rose.
“Well, yes. Autumn, the leaves change and fall, then around December we get a sprinkling of snow, which doesn’t last long. By February it begins to warm up just a bit, then by April we are back to spring weather and in June it heats up.”
“Aren’t we in the southern region?”
“Yes, why?” Esmie hugged herself, feeling the chill creeping in the jacket. Her short sleeve top did nothing to help protect her from the cool air.
“Don’t you find it odd you live in the southernmost point of the country, and you have similar weather to further north? You get the perfect seasons. It should be warm here almost all year round. At least from what I remember reading.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. It’s been like this all my life, and no one has told me any different of what it should be according to some textbook.
” Esmie huffed, thoroughly confused. What was Samson getting at?
What was with all the questions? He apparently had been to more places than she had, and more than anyone she knew, so he would know more than she would.
“I just find it weird, and I thought you would too.” Samson shrugged. They walked on in silence with Esmie unsure of how to answer.
Her mind worked over his questions. They did live in the most southern state of the country.
It would make sense that it would be warmer here and it was.
They didn’t get a full-blown winter like she heard about other locations getting.
Their snow was a dusting. She couldn’t even make snowballs or snowmen with it.
It wasn’t like others hadn’t questioned it.
Some of her classmates even mentioned they thought Andloor Capitol could control the weather with a classified machine they made.
Esmie entertained their conversations for fun, but she never investigated it beyond classmate jokes.
Now she was beginning to wonder if she should.
The walk and the cool air were getting to her if she was seriously considering Samson’s words. Esmie shivered. She felt tired from the hard work out earlier. The walk should have energized her, so she thought, but instead all she wanted to do was go back to Leo’s and lie down.
“Where are we going again?”
“To a meeting with a client at a place called The Bodega. It’s a couple more blocks away.”
“Bodega? You have a bodega here? I thought they got rid of those.” Esmie perked up.
Samson glanced back at her. “They did. This is a high-end market they call The Bodega, to make people feel at home, but it is nothing like what Leo told me about when you were younger.”
Esmie face fell. “That’s disappointing. I miss the real bodegas. They had a sense of community and understanding within our culture. We could go there and know we were understood and safe. Mamá said when they got rid of them, it was in effect trying to get rid us, of our sense of culture.”
“Andloor Capitol has been pushing everyone to not identify as anything other than a person. All sense of cultural identity is being lost, and they are perfectly fine with eradicating it altogether.” Samson’s words were more bitter than the breeze whistling through the buildings.
“For someone who doesn’t know his, you seem pretty upset.”
“You don’t miss a thing, do you?” Samson chuckled, glancing both ways before they crossed a busy intersection.
He reached back and grabbed her hand to ensure she kept up with him.
Electric waves danced along Esmie’s fingers where they interlaced with Samson’s.
“As someone who wishes they knew more about their cultural identity, and was hoping to learn more about it here, it angers me it is being stripped away.”
“I understand. Watching our school be affected by the new ‘suggestions’ pushed out by Andloor Capitol, like removing recognizing cultural holidays and awareness months, has been disheartening to see. I’ve tried to ignore it myself as Mamá and Papi told me to, so I can focus on achieving a level of success to enact my own changes, whenever I arrive.
Whatever that means. I guess, me going to see Maldado, was my way of rebelling, not against them, but against people trying to take away my culture.
Music is a huge part of culture, so keeping it alive, keeps my culture alive, no matter what Andloor Capitol does. ”
They stopped in front of a skyscraper whose fa?ade matched the others around it, except for a large orange neon sign blinking ‘The Bodega’ high above the glass doors.
Esmie stared up at the sign, the luster of the city fading a bit.
Admitting to Samson, she had rebelled against Andloor Capitol was a revelation even for her.
She would never want to outright disobey her parents but rebelling against a force trying to silence the very culture she was proud of, was more enticing.
If she was stuck with this purple slash across her face, and the powers coming with it, maybe she could use it to change these laws and bring back culture to Andloor. Not just hers, but everyone’s.
“Before we go inside, do not remove your sunglasses or ballcap for any reason. Got it?” Samson adjusted her hat and sunglasses again.
Esmie nodded. “Good. For the record, I also went to see Maldado for the very same reason you did. And yes, I do remember seeing you that night. You are hard to miss, even without the purple on your face. I figured you didn’t want me to bring it up in front of your brother.
Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.
” Samson blushed slightly after his rushed admission, then entered The Bodega.
It took Esmie a moment to gather herself after what he said.
The cool breeze did nothing to help remove the hot tingles she felt all over her body.
He was going to be a huge distraction at this rate.
She hadn’t even realized she admitted going to Nightcrawler.
Their conversation just flowed where she could be open with him unlike with anyone else. Well, except for Leo.
Esmie sighed, then pushed through the glass doors.
Immediately, she was assaulted by bright LED light fixtures high overhead.
Blue LED aisle numbers and descriptions of food items blazoned at the top of each row of aisles, stretched endlessly to her left.
The white stark lines of the aisles and checkout lanes appeared cold and bland.
The only upside was it was warmer in here than outside. Barely.
To Esmie’s right sat a sleek coffee shop, in patterns of black with accents of brown coffee mugs.
While it was nice, the modern effect left a taste of basic in her mouth.
Further to her right were hot cases of food, where shoppers passed by picking at different colorless shades of meals that appeared as tasteless as the rest of the store.
Samson waited by a bank of square tables between the coffee shop and hot food cases. Esmie approached him.
“There she is. This is my associate, shadowing me today,” Samson moved to the side to reveal a man with messy jet-black hair and pearly straight white teeth.
Chad moved his hair off his forehead, smiling without warmth. “Oh, we go way back, isn’t that right Esmie?”