As soon as Naomi and I enter Banana Nation in search of my new outfits, one of the associates greets us. She has a slight nervousness about her but not in the same way as the librarian at the Information Center. She is about my age and height with newly cut strait blond hair and two braids that hang down on each side of her face. Her eyes are sky blue and she has fair skin. Her silver name tag stands out on her all—black store uniform with the name “Brittney” plainly printed across it. She takes in a breath and looks down to straighten her black shirt to prepare to talk to us.

“Hello, officers. My name is Brittney,” she says as she walks up to us. “Is there anything I can assist you with?”

Naomi takes the opportunity to push me up to her so I have to do the talking. I nearly run into her but catch my balance just before.

“Y-yes,” I say as I back up from her a step. “I’m here to buy a few new outfits.”

“Of course, sir,” she says with a slight smirk. “Anything in particular?”

I look at Naomi to see what to say, but all she gives me is a turnaround hand gesture. So I turn back to face Brittney.

“A few casual outfits will do.”

“This way then, sir,” she says as she turns and gives a slight gesture for me to follow. “Between you and me it’s my first day and first job. So I’m sorry if I seem a little jittery.”

“No, you’re doing fine,” I say quickly. “If you didn’t tell me I would have thought you were a veteran.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” she says.

“She’s kind of cute don’t you think,” Naomi leans over my shoulder and whispers. “You should ask her to go out to the festival with you.”

“What? No. I just met her,” I whisper back.

“Whatever,” she says as she takes the bag of Oni-Med from my hand. “Anyways I am going to finish shopping and get us a hotel to stay for the next three days. After I book the hotel I’ll send you the directions.”

“Wait. You’re just going to leave?” I ask.

“I have faith in you, and don’t be afraid to splurge a little I transferred one thousand dollars to your account.”

Brittney leads me to the changing rooms in the back of the store. In between the men and women’s department are four sets of tri-mirrors indented into the wall. On the floor in front of each set of mirrors are large glass hexagons. She leads me to the closest one and I stand in the center of the glass hexagon. Underneath the floor several tiny orbs begin to glow producing a holographic screen and keypad. She types in a security code.

I walk over to her and she shows me the monitor divided into three sections. Shoes at the bottom, pants in the middle and shirts at the top. She then scrolls through each one picking out a matching outfit.

“I will be honest with you I have no idea what this is,” I say.

“Really,” she says surprised. “It’s a shadow image displayer. I thought all Gandole clothing stores had them. Stand in front of the mirror. I will show you.”

She presses enter on a white shirt, dark blue jeans and white tennis shoes she selected.

“Go on. Step into the program,” she says.

When I take a step into the hologram it suddenly surrounds me so that I see the clothing over my uniform. It moves as I do and is so realistic I can see the stitching. I look in the mirror astonished that this is possible.

“I’ll take it,” I say grinning from ear to ear.

“You’ve really never done this before?” she asks.

“Nope. I’m use to the old fashion way,” I say.

“You’re pretty strange then,” she jokes. “Ready to try on a few more.”

At check out I use the MHC as Naomi instructed. I collect the bags of ten outfits and turn to leave the store.

“Hey, wait,” I hear Britney call. She walks up to me a stack of clothing folded across her arms. “I could not help but hear from your friend you are staying for three days. Are you planning on going to the festival?”

“Uhh, I think so,” I say nervously.

“You and your girlfriend should come. It could be like a double date with me and my boyfriend,” she says.

“Double date?” I say surprised. “Girlfriend?”

“Yeah. That girl you came with. She is you girlfriend, right?”

“Nao… I mean Janice,” I say correcting myself. “She is my cousin,” I say in a hurry.

“Oh, sorry. You seem like a cool guy and I do know someone who I think would like to go out with you. If you want to hang out. She just got into town today too.”

“Oh,” I say ready to decline. “Well actually I…”

“Well speak of the kanture. There she is now,” she says as a girl enters the store. “Ayesha over here.”

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The girl continues to walk to the back of the store not paying us any attention. She is cute even more so than Brittney. She has her light brown hair tied back in a pony tail. Her fair skin flawless and her eyes have an emerald sparkle. She is wearing a black sweat jacket and really short workout shorts that show off her smooth legs.

“Come on. Let me introduce you. I think she’s listening to music,” Brittney says as she rushes to Ayesha. “Hey, over here,” she says as she grabs Ayesha.

“Huh?” Ayesha says as she turns around. “Brittney, I was just looking for you.”

She swipes her hand over a gold bracelet and a small screen appears. She presses a stop button then looks up directly at me.

“Am I under arrest or something?” she asks.

“What? No. He’s a friend. His name is… ah, wait, you never told me your name.”

“Edward Jackson,” I say.

“Look he’s really cool and I was wondering since your actually going to stay for the Festival this year if you’d go on a double date with us.”

“What?” Ayesha says as her face glows bright red. “A d-date? I can’t do something like that. My father won’t allow anything like that anyway.”

“Oh, yeah. You have never been on a date before,” she says.

“Shut up. I just don’t have time for stuff like that. I’m on a tight schedule.” Ayesha says defensively. “With work and my father and, I’m sure you’re a nice guy but…”

“Look you two have today and tomorrow to get to know each other. What is the problem?” Brittney asks. “Your father doesn’t have to know. He doesn’t let you do anything but train for hours on end.”

“But…” Ayesha complains.

“Now, now. Have I ever led you astray before?” Brittney asks as she pushes Ayesha into me. “So go run or something. He’s in the Army so he can probably keep up.”

As soon as her skin touches mine I feel the Vortex react almost as if it rejected her. She looks up at me with a surprised look almost as if she felt it to. She pushes me off of her with her face rosy red.

“See. You like him,” Brittney says with a big smile on her face. “He is a tourist. Show him around and talk. Not hard at all.”

“Now that I think about it, yeah, I totally need this,” she says.

“That is what I’ve been saying,” Brittney says proudly.

Ayesha suddenly grabs my arm and leads me back out to the door. This time however the Vortex is not disturbed by her touch.

“Let’s go,” she demands.

“Call me later, Ayesha,” Brittney cries after us. “And Edward, I hope to see more of you.”

“Ayesha,” I say as we approached the door. “I can walk myself you don’t have to drag me.”

“Oh, sorry,” she says as she lets go of me. “I didn’t want Brittney to tell you anymore embarrassing things.”

“It is fine,” I say. “I think your respect for your father is commendable.”

“That’s not what I was talking about.”

“Oh, that never dated thing? Truthfully I never went out on a date before either. So we have something in common.”

She smiles, “So do you have somewhere you can drop off those bags?”

“Oh yeah,” I say as I swipe my hand over my band. I check my messages and find the address. “Allencord…”

“Allencord Resort?” she questions. “That’s a ritzy place. I can take you there.” We walk out of the parking lot across the street. “Well Edward tell me about yourself. What brings you to Albany?”

“Well I am from Hailferd, Gandalia.” I say remembering seeing my address on the fake I.D. “Lived there all my life. I actually just recently joined the Military Police. As soon as I got out of basic training I was sent here for field experience. What about you?”

“I am from Doltan but because of my father’s work we move around a lot. I stayed here for most of middle and some of high school that’s how I stayed out of the specialization schools in Gandalia. A couple years ago we moved back to Gandalia but my father lets me come back for the Festival of Allegiance.” She looks ahead at the crowds in the street. “It’ll be faster to take the subway. Up ahead a lot of roads are closed.”

We walk down a stairwell to the subway station where mobs of people have the station packed.

“I am fine with walking,” I say.

“Yeah. I didn’t think it would be this bad.” She responds as we climb the steps to the street.

“Brittney said your training for something…”

“Yeah. It’s a bit personal though,” she replies. “I work for my dad full time now that I am out of school and it is very demanding physically and mentally. The Festival of Allegiance is usually my only days off. If I had known Brittney would be introducing me to a guy this time I would have changed into something more appropriate.”

“You look good in what you have on and she caught both of us off guard.” I respond.

“Thank you.” She smiles. “She has always been like this though.”

We arrive at the hotel and walk through the main entrance onto a white marble floor crafted so smoothly it reflects as if it were water. Gold lines the wall’s edges and the handrails up the stairs to the main desk. The lobby is beautifully decorated with a Congos tree with leaves grow white naturally with a golden trim. Surrounding the tree are assorted flowers arranged in a pattern of lightest near the trunk of the tree to darkest near the edge. The sky lights are aimed so the tree shines brighter and more beautiful than a star.

“Awesome,” I say as we pass by.

“I said the same thing when I first saw it,” she says. We stroll up to the wooden desk to the overweight attendant.

“You must be Edward,” she says with a phony smile. “Your superior booked your room in 402-A. Here is your key,” she says as she reaches from behind the counter with a card in hand.

“You know, on second thought, I’ll wait in the lobby,” Ayesha says as she looks at her bracelet.

“Why?” I ask.

“It’s our first date and you’re trying to get me in your room,” she says. “That has to be at least date four or five.”

“Teens these days. Just shameful,” the desk attendant utters under her breath.

“I’m not trying to force you into anything. I swear,” I say in my defense. “I’ll be right back.” I run to the elevator so fast the Seed must have activated.

I rush to the door of my room and slip the keycard into the slot. I fling the door open and throw my bags down without even bothering to flick on the light before heading back down. I see her standing in front at the Congos tree. I walk down the steps towards her.

“…Yes, sir. I could feel it when we touched. It was so intense it was almost overwhelming like nothing I ever felt before,” I hear Ayesha say to someone over the phone as I get closer. “It looks like he’s back, so I will talk to you later.”

“Who was that?” I ask.

“My father. He called me while you were gone and I wanted him to know I found someone… special.”