Lex squinted against the light of Tau Ceti, which shimmered dimly through a thin linen cloth. The blurry shapes around him slowly took on the outlines of market-goers, strangers’ faces, staring curiously at him, some chatting among themselves.
Someone brought the opening of a plastic bottle to his lips.
Still groggy, he drank the water in small sips.
Another man placed a bundle of those popular green twigs in his lap, their fresh leaves sprouting from the cut stems. He patted Lex on the shoulder and mimed bringing his finger tips, shaped like a beak, to his mouth.
"I don’t have... anything to trade," Lex mumbled.
Just then, the fruit seller from before approached him again.
"I don’t have..."
But before Lex could finish, the man placed a few berries directly into his mouth. Lex chewed slowly, and as the tangy sweetness spread across his tongue, making his eyes roll back in pleasure, another thought crept in: only now did he understand the hospitality of these people, welcoming him without hesitation. The only one filled with suspicion had been him. He wondered when he had started seeing only the worst in people.
The men helped him back onto his feet. One of them spoke energetically and pointed toward a run-down general store with blue-painted shutters and a bead curtain for a door. Like the first man Lex had met on the road, this man kept making the motion of a chattering mouth with his hand.
A group of kids played in the dirt in front of the entrance. The old, crumbling brick building had several rusting air conditioners attached to its outer walls, their humming louder than the kids’ shouts. Cables snaked from power lines into the store’s walls. The children ran toward Lex, unsure whether the bag of sweet fruit or his unfamiliar face was more interesting. He clamped a whole apple between his teeth, holding the bag open with both hands, offering its contents to the kids. Each one grabbed a piece until the bag was nearly empty, except for a few grapes. Then, he took a big bite out of the apple, popped the grapes into his mouth, and allowed the kids to lead him into the store.
The checkout area was made of several fridges lined up together, and behind them, a frail old woman sat, moving a few pieces on a board game. She seemed to be playing against herself, her lips barely moving as if silently counting the steps of each piece on the wooden board. Small snacks and household items filled the long shelves that lined the narrow aisle. The children darted behind the makeshift counter and pulled a few candies from a large jar. One of them tore open a small bag of chips and shared it with the others. As Lex reached the fridges, he wondered if they were the old woman’s grandchildren.
"Hello," he said.
Her gaze passed right through him. Then he realized there was no gaze at all. The old woman was blind. Her eyes were clouded, like those of a drowned corpse. Just like Tayus back then, when the bitter cold of the moon’s atmosphere had frosted his eyes with a thin layer of ice.
Lex didn’t know why he was here, didn’t know what to say.
"They sent me here," he mumbled.
The old woman smiled at him, revealing receding gums that were swollen and inflamed, with just a few blackened tooth stumps hanging on by the roots. Slowly, she shuffled around the row of fridges, very slowly, hunched over, stiff, her labored movements making her seem even older. Her white hair, limp and lifeless under her headscarf, framed her weathered, dark face. The crow’s feet at the corners of her ailing eyes weren’t just wrinkles, but deep grooves, etched by a long life in a place where the sun always shone. A place where, despite everything, there were still reasons to smile. Now that the curtain of suspicion had lifted, Lex found that the people here seemed, at times, happier than the busy city dwellers of Vega Prime. In a barren, impoverished city like Rykuunh, he had expected anything but the wealth he found.
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The old woman lifted her claw-like hands in slow motion, as if every movement cost her great effort, then she gently felt the boy’s bony shoulders, his skinny neck, the sharp line of his jaw. He stood still and let her. Her touch was gentle, deliberate, like someone opening a book to read or an artist shaping a sculpture. She spoke, her voice soft and content. Then she pulled a chocolate bar from the pouch at her waist, softened by body heat, and held it out to him. Lex hesitated. He placed the bundle of twigs on the counter beside him, popped the last bit of apple into his mouth, and took the warm chocolate bar from her hand.
"Careful, she’s just fattening you up before she cooks you."
The voice came from a corner, where all Lex could see was a large shelf. He strained to hear over the noise of the children. Had he imagined it? A trick of his mind?
He took a few steps toward the large shelf, peeked around it, and saw a girl behind it, stacking cloth diapers. He couldn’t say what struck him first. Was it her curly hair, or her big brown eyes, her high cheekbones, or the way her full lips, when she smiled, opened like the petals of a tulip in the sunlight, revealing her bright white teeth?
"You speak my language," he said, forgetting to close his mouth.
"And you apparently don’t speak ours," she replied, making him realize how pointless his statement had been.
Suddenly, another thought crossed his mind: he must look completely wild in his tattered clothes, stiff with dried river mud. He hadn’t looked in a mirror in months. Come to think of it, he had no idea what he looked like right now. Only a vague sense that almost made him want to hide behind the shelf.
"Where are you from?" she asked. In her light blue summer dress, she looked like the embodiment of innocence. The complete opposite of him.
He raised his hand and pointed his thumb behind him. "From the jungle," he said.
The girl laughed.
"I believe you."
"Because it’s true."
A moment of silence passed between them. Her smile slowly faded, her lips covering her white teeth, something beautiful hiding something even more beautiful.
"Do you help the woman here?" he asked, realizing it was probably the dumbest question he could’ve asked.
"She doesn’t need help," the girl replied.
"Well, does she know that the kids are..."
"You’re from Vega Prime, aren’t you?"
She cut him off with sudden energy, as if she had to interrupt him at all costs. As if whatever he was about to say could take root like a seed and grow in this place.
"How do you know that?" he asked.
"Because you’re eaten up with mistrust and fear, like all the others. The kids aren’t thinking about stealing. In fact, a lot of the food here came from their parents’ fields."
"I..."
"Hiring a blind cashier to work in a store. Could you imagine someone doing that in Vega Prime?"
"No," he said without hesitation.
"Our land has been exploited by corporations. Abandoned by the World Union. The only thing we have left is each other. It’s the only thing we own. The certainty that we can trust one another. That’s why kids can play here freely, and a blind woman can work here without the store owner ever worrying that someone would steal from her. In Rykuunh, we help each other, and that makes us the richest people on the New World. Despite our poverty. Peace is our religion."
Suddenly, the bead curtain at the entrance jingled. Sunlight streamed into the little shop, brightening it instantly. When Lex turned around, he saw only a silhouette pulling the curtain aside, but the kids saw much more. Four of them ran toward the figure, screaming with joy. Their father, provider, teacher, role model, and hero all in one. The man knelt down and pressed their glowing cheeks to his. He wore laced-up military boots and an olive-green uniform. He stood and walked toward the girl, completely ignoring Lex, as if he were just as unimportant as the stack of shrink-wrapped toilet paper piled next to the fridge. Maybe even more insignificant, invisible.
The rebel of the Crimson Dawn embraced the girl in the blue dress, and she had to stand on her tiptoes. Lex saw her calves tense as her dress rose a little during the hug. The man gave her a long kiss on the cheek. But the warm greeting quickly shifted to a serious conversation. The rebel’s eyes fell on Lex for the first time.
"They’re looking for you," the girl suddenly said. "You’re in trouble. You’ve kept Algernon Beaulac waiting for over an hour."
"Who?"
"Algernon Beaulac. Arif said you were supposed to meet him in front of the market. He was going to take you to him, but you weren’t there. He’s been looking for you. The people at the market told him you were here."
Lex thought of the captain, who had kept tapping his watch right before they dropped him off at the marketplace. He was supposed to wait there. But how was he supposed to know that?
"Beaulac is the most important man in the desert," the girl continued. "Except for our governor, who oversees Rykuunh and three other cities in this district. Beaulac is the commander of the DFLL. Our leader. He’s a national hero, and we’re incredibly proud of him. But he’s also something else."
"What?" Lex asked.
"He’s really, really mad at you."