Worth the Wait

“Did you hear about the kid?” the older of the two loaders asked as she typed a command into her tablet. The load station robots began to quickly fill Mildred’s pod with materials.

Mildred was not the one being asked the question but her ears perked up just the same. As she scrolled through her inventory list she tilted her head to the side in order to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“I heard they found him and brought him back last night,” the younger loader replied.

“Yes, but did you hear what the rumors are this morning?” the older loader inquired.

“No. What happened?”

“Well they say there’s something wrong with him.”

“Injured?”

“Not physically.” The older loader tapped her temple. “There’s something wrong with his mind. He keeps saying he wants to go back.”

“Back? Back into the Chaos?”

“Yes.”

“But there’s nothing but wild beasts and savages out there. Who told you this rumor?”

“I live in the housing block next to one where the kid’s family lives. The superiors won’t let him return home.”

“Maybe they just have to run some extra tests? You know, to make sure he’s not carrying some kind of contagion.”

The older loader shrugged. “Just telling you what I heard.” Then she addressed Mildred, “Everything’s loaded. You’re ready to go.”

Mildred quickly scrolled through the rest of the list and hopped into her pod.

As the pod whizzed out of the loading station the screen in front of Mildred flashed with schematics for the repair she was about to oversee. Once she arrived at the site she would complete the repairs. When she was finished she’d be prepped for her next job while enroute to the second site of the day. She’d complete all the day’s tasks in seamless succession in the same way that every other member of the Oasis did. Perfect efficiency. No time wasted and no unnecessary waiting.

The workplace wasn’t the only realm of efficiency that mattered. Everything in the Oasis was timed to a tee. Today was Tuesday, so when her shift was over Mildred would review the evening menu choices and entertainment options as her pod delivered her to the activity center near her housing block. She’d play an hour of basketball with the other members of her housing block. Then her pod would drop her off at her door where the dinner she had selected would be waiting for her and the portal screen would already be playing the desired show. No unpleasantness and no unpredictability.

The pod stopped and Mildred collected her tools. She was at the outer edge of the Oasis and the blue of the dome seemed to swallow her as she marched toward it. The first job of the day was a panel replacement. She scanned the base of the dome and quickly detected where one of the octagonal panels was missing.

The conversation between the loaders echoed in her mind and she couldn’t help but wonder if this is where the kid had exited the Oasis. She’d heard about how he’d gone missing and ended up outside the dome. Could it really be possible that he wanted to go back out there?

Nothing but wild beasts and savages…

She used her tablet to activate her repair robots and the buzzing droids retrieved the replacement panel from her pod. She was about to initiate the installment protocol, but she hesitated.

A curiosity she’d never experienced before was nagging at her. She’d never cared to know anything about the Chaos firsthand, her disinterest had probably made her an excellent candidate for a dome repair worker.

But since hearing of the boy, she’d had a growing urge to just peek outside. To see what it was like for herself.

She swiped a finger across her tablet and the droids slowly lowered the panel to the grey rocky ground. Then the droids stopped their whirring.

For a moment Mildred just stared at the gap in the dome’s panels. She should just finish the repair. If a superior found out there’d be consequences. But she crept forward. Looking over her shoulder, she saw nothing but miles of the grey rocks surrounding the white buildings of the Oasis. They were tightly clustered together like rows of teeth.

After taking a deep breath she crouched and set her tablet against the dome. Slowly, she inched her head through the opening.

Mildred gasped as her eyes were assaulted by vibrant green. She had seen grass before but not like this. The field of artificially grown turf at the activity center was always perfectly trimmed and uniform in color. But beyond the edge of the dome, wild uncut grass spread like a vast blanket in every direction. And above the grass there was a wide expanse of blue, but not at all like the pale blue of the dome panels. This was deep piercing blue that rendered her jaw slack. And something like a massive lightbulb suspended within the blue above cast a warm brightness on everything below.

For just the beauty alone Mildred could imagine the kid wanting to venture outside the dome again. Had she really spent so much time mere inches away from such a sight and never known? All at once, that seemed terribly sad.

A movement near one of the closer boulders startled her. It was a person! A savage! Mildred’s breath caught in her throat. She knew she needed to retreat within the dome but she was frozen.

The savage had noticed her and began gesturing wildly. Was he…waving? At her? Yes. And now he was beckoning at her to come toward him. His movements stilled and he seemed to be waiting. Waiting for her to join him. But she couldn’t! Could she?

The Chaos was supposed to be desolate and dangerous. But instead it seemed…inviting. She scanned in every direction that she could see. The savage looked like he was alone. Entering the Chaos was a terrifying prospect, but at the same time her curiosity felt like it had grown from a small flame to a raging fire. But what would the price be for letting it go unchecked?

The savage turned away from her and started to depart.

And the crazy choice suddenly seemed the only choice. She wriggled herself through the opening in the dome and started running after him.

“Wait!” she called out.

The savage halted and turned to face her. As she came closer she realized he was quite small. And when she was close enough to glimpse his face clearly she could see he was just a boy. Maybe twelve years old. His hair was in a long braid and he wore a simple shirt of flowing material over a pair of trousers. Not at all like the cropped hair and stiff uniforms donned in the Oasis. And nothing resembling the loincloths and warpaint she had always imagined.

The boy smiled at her. “Where is Gerald?” he asked in a hopeful voice.

“Gerald?” Mildred asked.

“The boy who came out of the bubble like you did. The white hats made him go back inside, but he said he would find a way back out.”

This boy had met the kid from the Oasis. And if the kid had survived an encounter with a savage from the Chaos then Mildred had good reason to think she could too. Although this one was young. The grown ones might be more fierce. But he didn’t look fierce at all, he looked…gentle.

“Gerald has to stay inside the – what did you call it?” she asked.

“The bubble.”

“Yes, well, the bubble then. What did Gerald do when he came out here?”

“He was with me. I showed him things.”

“What kind of things?”

The boy tilted his head and looked at Mildred appraisingly. “I could show you.”

Mildred hesitated a moment and then nodded. She’d already come this far.

“Follow me!” the boy said before he started jogging through the grass.

Mildred followed. The boy led her to a place where the ground sloped downwards. As they wove their way around a mound in the earth she suddenly came to a halt. Just below them the grass blended in a stretch of earth that was almost golden. And beyond that light colored ground there was an endless blue, a different shade than the sky and it shimmered in the sunlight.

The boy laughed. “Gerald was surprised by it too. You people really don’t know anything about the world outside the bubble, do you?”

Mildred grappled for words as she continued to stare at the marvel before her. “We know that we are safe in the Oasis – the bubble that is – and that everything is as it should be. Nothing is unpredictable and time is never wasted.”

“Sounds quite dull,” the boy declared. “Come on!” He rushed forward once more.

Mildred coerced her legs into motion and trailed behind him. When they arrived at the golden colored dirt the boy tugged off the worn leather boots he wore. “Take your shoes off,” he directed.

“Why?”

“Trust me.”

Mildred set to work unlacing her shiny black boots. Then she stepped barefoot into the dirt. It was soft and warm. As she walked forward it shifted beneath her feet.

“It’s sand,” the boy said.

“And what is that?” Mildred asked, pointing ahead toward the blueness.

“That’s the sea! It’s water!”

Mildred’s eyes widened. “But there’s so much!”

The boy smiled, “Let me show you the waves!”

Together they made their way to where the sand was damp and firm. Rippling water with white foam was rushing up onto the sand, then it stopped and receded back.

The boy grabbed Mildred’s hand and playfully tugged her forward. When the next rush of water surged forward it surged around their feet. The cold of it was shocking, but not in a scary way. It was exciting, thrilling.

The boy laughed and so did she.

Another wave overtook them and this one swallowed their legs up to Mildred’s knees. She cried out in surprise.

“Why are they different?” she asked.

“They always are. The sea can’t be controlled.”

“Unpredictable?”

“Yes.”

Mildred looked out at the sea and breathed deeply. The air was salty. She watched the waves forming in the distance as she felt the water swim around her ankles. If forsaking this was the cost of certain safety and total control, it didn’t seem worth it. Could she really go back to the Oasis and pretend that all of this wasn’t just outside the dome?

But the alternative would be to leave everything behind for the unknown.

“I – I think I need to go back…” Mildred said quietly.

“Are you afraid?” the boy asked with concern.

She shook her head.

“Can I show you one more thing before you go? It’s what I wanted to show Gerald.”

Mildred nodded.

They made their way back up the grassy hill to a collection of large rocks. The boy took a seat and patted the smooth boulder beside him.

Mildred sat and took in the view. “What did you want to show me?”

“You’ll have to wait.”

“For how long?”

The boy shrugged, “Not too long.”

They sat in silence. Mildred was not used to silence or the freedom to let her thoughts wander. It was uncomfortable at first. She felt guilty for wasting time, but the boy seemed perfectly at ease. She could hear the sound of the waves on the shore. The light that had once been above them was moving closer toward the water. It was strange but it was peaceful too. And she began to wonder what was so bad about waiting.

The boy stirred beside her.

“What is that light?” Mildred asked.

“It’s the sun,” the boy said. “You don’t see the sun from inside the bubble?”

“No, we don’t.”

“Then how do you know when it’s day or night?”

“At night the lights on the dome panels barely shine and then they become bright in the morning.”

“Why do you stay there?”

“It’s all I’ve ever known. Efficiency is everything,” but even as she said it, Mildred knew she no longer believed it.

“Do you have kids?” the boy asked.

Mildred shook her head.

“Family?”

“My parents live in the housing block next to mine,” Mildred said. She’d considered signing up for an early matching, but she’d gotten so used to the routine of being alone and had just decided to wait until her deadline year when everyone her age who hadn’t been matched yet would be assigned a partner.

“My family lives in a village on that hill over there,” the boy said, pointing into the distance beyond the dome.

“Won’t they be worried about you going so far away for so long?”

“I might get a scolding for coming home late, but I’ll be okay! Look! It’s starting!”

Mildred wasn't sure at first what the boy meant but then she noticed the blue above her was no longer blue, not all of it anyway. The parts close to the sun were changing color. First they looked yellow, and then they transformed into hues of bright orange and pale pink.

“What’s happening to the blue?” Mildred asked in wonder.

“It’s called a sunset. The sky puts on a show of colors every night when the sun sinks below the horizon.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Worth the wait?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want me to show you the way back to the hole in the bubble now?” the boy asked.

No. She didn’t. But she said, “yes.”

The boy led her back toward the Oasis. The dome looked like a ginormous ugly rock from the outside. He brought her back to the gap in the panels that she’d crawled out of a couple hours ago. The glow of artificial day shone out from the hole. Mildred wondered if her absence had been noticed yet.

The sky was turning purple and dark blue. And little points of light were starting to appear. The boy noticed Mildred’s upward gaze. “Those are the stars.”

“There are so many!”

“My father says they are a reminder of how small we are.”

As the stars became more defined an idea took root in Mildred’s mind. She crouched by the gap in the dome and peeked inside. Her tablet was still propped against the dome. She reached her arm in, snatched it up, and then pulled it through the gap. She quickly tapped out a sequence and then watched through the hole as the droids hummed to life. Then she started the installation sequence.

“You’re not going back?” the boy asked.

Mildred shook her head.

“What about Gerald?” he inquired.

She held out the tablet for him to see. “With this, we can open up a hole again. One day we will come back for Gerald and maybe others too.”

“When?”

“I’m not sure. But it will be a day worth waiting for.”