Coming back from this fond memory, Hailey goes through a few more days of homeless torture, rummaging through dumpsters and getting few resources from others, until she sees that same boy she saw briefly the other day while walking through parts of where she came from - still staying clear of South Larrington School for Children. She wants to talk to him but is afraid to. Baron senses this and nudges her.
"Stop. I'm not going over there. I don't even know if it's him." Hailey says to Baron.
The boy overhears Hailey talking to the illisk and tugs on his mom's dress.
"Yes son?" His mother states leaning down at him to speak clearly.
"There she is again. That girl from the other day." Allijah says while peering at his mom.
"Son we've talked about this - there's nothing we can do. The government will take care of her." His mother says quietly as not to be heard by the others around her.
"You're always telling me to do the right thing.....isn't letting the government handle things like this, silly?" Allijah says to his mother.
"That's a good point, son." Allijah's mother says softly and then continues while crouching down to get close to him:
"I want to - don't get me wrong. There's others here that have probably done so but I just..."
"But what mom? She's pitiful!" Allijah says to his mother in a scornful interjection.
"Son,....Allijah...sweet boy. Always thinking of others. You have a pure heart and spirit - you know that? Such kind eyes. You're going to melt every girl's heart when you get older with those beautiful eyes....Your father's eyes." Allijah's mother says softly now pulling Allijah's hair away from his eyes and frantically trying to calm him down.
Allijah's mother collects herself, takes a deep breath, then begins again:
"Go talk to her. Don't worry about the illisk - you're too small for it to think you're a threat." Allijah's mother says confidently as she stands up and smiles down at him. To her right now, it isn't a big deal if he simply goes to talk to the young girl.
"Ok." Allijah says as he immediately drops his mother's hand and starts walking in Hailey's direction.
Hailey sees the boy get closer and closer. He is standing tall and proud - thinking that he's doing the right thing and that his mother let him get away with it. As the two get closer, it's apparent Allijah is only an inch or two taller than Hailey. Unfortunately for Hailey, her hair, teeth, clothes, and smell are not presentable so when he starts getting closer, the thought of running crosses her mind.
"Hey there! Do you need help?" Allijah says while keeping a good distance away as to not to disturb young Hailey.
After standing up and focusing her attention, Baron sees young Allijah, and subsequently lays down. The young, clean clothed boy, is no threat to her or Hailey, Baron confirms.
The two get closer together, look at each other directly, and then to the ground as Hailey begins:
"I'm not in a good place...." Hailey pauses and controls herself from crying as she shakes a bit.
"I could." Hailey says now staring at the boy. Hailey can finally see the boy she had seen a handful of days ago clearly now and begins to wonder where he is from. Not where he's from like around the corner but where his soul is from. She starts to instinctually slow time down again but this time the red wisps of light are going around Allijah instead of all over. She can, again, feel her heart slow, almost like she is about to have an out of body experience.
Hailey pauses from the strange feeling again and now just wants the boy to talk.
"...you could use some help? Ok. With your teeth all green I think you could use some. Why are your clothes that way? I'm going to walk back over to my mom.....I'll be back, ok?" Allijah says as he starts to back towards his mother with a reassuring smile, slowly raising the palm of his hands up. Bad dental hygiene here means green teeth, not yellow like on Earth. He's trying to avoid alarming the strange tattered clothed creature, that's been on foot for days, and lives beside and eats out of dumpsters. To Allijah he perceived her whole misery the very first day, as wrong. Young people have an honesty about them, especially when they look at the world around them. Most children on Earth have their exuberant moments they pass to others when they enter the spotlight and grant us this choice wisdom - something maybe our corruption as adults into the worlds we exist have damaged. It's no surprise on other planets this holds true as Allijah's instincts tell him that this girl's situation is bad but he doesn't stop thinking there. He goes further to ponder that her suffering should not exist. I know you're thinking the old hang ups of 'in a perfect world' thing, utopia is impossible, perfection is a cruel mistress but in the eyes of Allijah, like most kids, anything is possible. Maybe as we age, we're not corrupted. Maybe our world is smaller because we take knowing facets of life and how to navigate them more seriously, cautiously, only expanding on the dreadful thought that there isn't more to life. That thinking has jail cell bars of its own.
Allijah thinks what he is doing is exactly what others should do as he gets closer to his mother on approach. His mother is now chatting with friends outside a shop. She's nicely clothed and is welcomed by her friends most of the time because of her manner and beauty. Allijah finally arrives to tug on his mother's hand:
"Mom, she does need help." Allijah says in a serious tone while looking up at her and squinting his eyes from the Nagh's shine.
Once again, his mother crouches to talk to Allijah - to get a more personal conversation with him in an attempt to make the conversation quiet around her friends:
"Allijah, in this world, we can do for others in our own ways depending on where we stand, socially speaking."
"Huh?" Allijah turns his head in confusion.
"Smart boy, you have to know what I mean, right?" Allijah's mother says while now caressing the boy's face.
"I don't mom. She needs help and we have things we can give her." Allijah sternly replies. His mother gets closer and emphatically starts again:
"Son, I'm not a perfect person, neither is she. There has to be a reason she is there. Maybe her mother and father abandoned her. Maybe she's really mean and left her home. Maybe she.."
"SHE IS NOT ANY OF THOSE THINGS!" Allijah says loud enough for his mother's friends to stop and turn to look at him.
With her friends looking on at the commotion, a young Hailey is standing in the same place, going through the same issues she experienced earlier this week with the 'slow down'.
She doesn't feel like she's sick. She doesn't even feel hungry, now. She hasn't had a chance to really look at the stars while she goes through this weird thing so with Allijah's outburst, she turns her head up to look at the stars.
"Beautiful." Hailey says as she sees what appears to be all the distant clusters of stars, colors, worlds, cosmic rays, slowly drifting in space. She sees this so well, her vision stretches to far away planets, with distant moons spinning around their own planets, the non-visible bombardment of cosmic rays hitting Gannicus that is never seen in yellow-orange specters, now visible to her eyes. She worries if what she is experiencing is an after-effect of continued day-to-day hunger.
"Young man! You do not talk to me that way! Ever!......AAAHHH.....Let's go!" Allijah's mother screams as she looks up at her friends who are now smirking, dragging Allijah along with her in a feverous tow.
"But mom you said I could talk to her! You said I could help her!" Allijah says as he tries to wiggle out of his mother's grasp, and looking back at Hailey staring at the stars.
Allijah's mother stops and looks at Allijah angrily:
"I did not say we could help. I said you could talk to her. I thought you wanted to talk to her!"
Hailey stops looking up at the stars and realizes the young boy and his mother are leaving quickly:
"Well, if he isn't going to help, I guess it's still the me and you show, girl."
Baron grunts, sits up, and does a small stretch while staring at Hailey:
"Oh, we should, yeah we should go.....it's getting late."
As Hailey and Baron leave, Allijah's mother's friends are still standing in front of the shop giggling about their friend's unruly son.
Time passes as the night sky appears to Hailey as she glances up to see it - this time with no hidden gems or extrasolar candy to feast on. She's walked for hours with Baron trying to find a good spot where they know restaurant staff will throw fresh, slightly warm, food out in Hailey's favorite hang out - the dumpster.
Upon finding one, not too terribly hungry, she sets up camp again beside the dumpster where she just took food. She was lucky enough to catch the restaurant staff throwing food in the dumpster. Most of the time she looks for meals she can eat around or errors the kitchen staff made and had to throw out that no one has eaten - she'd rather eat something that tastes a little bad than actually eat from others. Unfortunately, she's had to do both things during this rough time.
After taking a few bites of a half eaten meal, she thinks she's grabbed the wrong one out of the dumpster. She intended to find what was fresh that was just thrown out but realizes this meal is a little too cold.
Frustrated, she puts down the meal as Baron walks over to have a sniff at what she rejected. The big cat doesn't mind eating other people's food so she devours it.
Watching Baron swallow instantly what she gave up, Hailey starts thinking deep again. She sees this cycle of repetition getting old - is this how she'll live from now on - she wonders? For a while now, she's had to fend for herself, in a district full of people who could offer her solid help. She knows pieces of the World Government laws about volunteering and giving but doesn't know nor comprehend them all. On her world, they don't teach enough for everyone to know all the laws and comprehend them yet they issue policies, laws, and statues daily. In their defense, they use the controlled network jumbotrons to let everyone know, and also instruct their Enforcers, to share it with everyone. Enforcers would rather not do this because they sound like parrots and again there are too many laws for even Enforcers to remember or to even comprehend.
The laws are mostly created from favors and people at the top swaying things their way. They use a guise of 'goodness for all' to defend their decisions as well. They root their creation within council and a pseudo elected body but no one really pays it any attention. The World Government sees a young, starving Hailey, as a small issue. Their councils have explained that homelessness is simply a byproduct of an ever prosperous society - a little bit of metal shavings from the big gears, grinding away at progress. They have no real intention of cleaning up the metal shavings or admitting they created the mess.
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She's so young she doesn't understand how anyone could just leave her alone. She knows people can give her things like the kind lady earlier this week, but she also realizes that she has seen the black vehicles first hand and doesn't want anyone taken away if they attempt to help her - or be misunderstood as hurting her. She of course doesn't understand the latter, but the 'giving' she's received through kindness thus far, much like her friends and family on her birthday, she understands. She is still vague on the food vouchers, however.
Her mother and father explained this to her the best they could when Hailey asked about having to cook all the time. Peering back into Hailey's life when she was living with her parents, not too long ago, let's take a look:
With the Nagh star setting, Hailey gets the feeling she needs to return home from playing. She's also pretty hungry. She rushes back to her home, opens the door, starts looking for her parents, and finds them cooking dinner. She's tired from playing but walks around to each of her parent's waist to lovingly hug them. She then proceeds to plop down in a dinning chair at the dining table, now visibly exhausted.
Their kitchen is typical of Earthly type's 'low income housing'. Most of the stuff in this house is exactly like the others in the neighborhood - same layout, cheap furniture, and not much extra between houses because there's a lack of frivolous spending. Hailey has peaked into other's houses in the neighborhood and has seen much of the same. At one time, the poor girl would get lost going home and open the wrong front door because every house looked the same. There's no need for house numbers on Gannicus within this district because there isn't a need for the occupants to have any interaction with the outside world, therefore - unlike Earth, no one is sending them letters. It's a wonder they even let them have children - probably a PR thing to make sure it doesn't appear these people are indentured even though the only contract these folks have made, is an agreement their assessment test was administered 'fairly' by the World Government.
Her father had seen her a few houses down apologizing to a neighbor for barging in and it tugged on his heart strings so he broke down a small table they weren't using. He thought about the discussion he had with Hailey about the star cluster being 'home' so he used the legs off of the table to pound in the star cluster's arrangement into the top left corner of the broad side of the board, and then used the legs to scratch and etch 'HOME' along the center. Hailey, seeing the new sign in front made her so happy she sprinted into her house after a government school vehicle dropped her off, to hug her dad who was reading a new set of disposable-docs. Shocked for a moment then realizing it's sweet Hailey, he knew exactly what he was getting hugged for and started to cry a bit.
Also having very little and not wanting to interact with the other parents in the neighborhood, their neighbors thought this was a waste, unsightly, and were tempted to call a World Government agent until they realized they too would be in trouble for even bothering them so the display has stayed in front of her home for a while. Not wanting to go down that route if things go south with Hailey's home when a possible World Government agent shows up, no one else in the neighborhood has tried to copy it. Obviously, Karens exist on other worlds yet here they decided to do something about them causing too much fuss, the wrong way, of course.
Hailey lowers her head now at the kitchen table that only has seating for 4. The World Government only allows a couple to replicate one's self so there is restrictions on procreation, that is especially enforced here in the Soc-fie district.
Hailey notices there's small pieces of paper that aren't disposable-docs on the table next to the real ones her mother and father have been reading:
"What are these?" Hailey holds one up while smiling at her parents.
"Oh sweetie, don't lose those! Those are important!" Her mother says turning around quickly and grabbing them from Hailey.
"You don't have to be rude. I was just asking." Hailey says now closing her arms together and looking straight ahead.
"They're food vouchers." Hailey's father says while cooking then continues:
"The World Government gives them to us for every certain amount of hours we work. They also give us credits to live here in this neighborhood when we work. We have to pretty much do what they tell us to so we can live here."
Hailey pauses trying to understand why her parents would go along with this. She remembers an episode of her favorite show where the main character was locked in a cage.
"So it's like Stavio in that one episode where he gets trapped in a cage?" Hailey says trying to relay what she had seen in the episode to her parents.
"Honey, I don't think your mother and I have seen what you're talking about." Her father says looking at Hailey's mother and smiling.
"Oh, he got captured by some people who he thought were his friends, told him he should listen to them or he'd be put in a cage." Hailey says smiling while giggling amusingly because she remembers something funny in the episode.
"Well. No not like that." Her mother jumps in.
"Well it sure sounds like it!" Hailey quickly replies.
Hailey's parents laugh at her outburst and continue:
"Well?" Her mother breaks the quick laughter.
"Well what? Oh he ends up getting put into the cage." Hailey remembers.
"He didn't want to do the things the bad guys wanted him to?" Her father says throwing some food into a glass bowl-like object.
"No. He decided that he wasn't going to do what they told him to do and he sat there for days in the cage." Hailey replies while looking at her dad bringing over food to the table.
"And?" Her mother says while smiling at Hailey and finally sitting down to eat. Her parents think they're in for a cute tale from a kid's show.
"The Stobs, the, I think, government people in the show, came and rescued him from the cage. They didn't show it but they hurt the people who put him in the cage." Hailey says with both her parents staring intently at her now.
"....How do you know they hurt the other people?" Her mother says softly with silence now coming from the table.
"Oh it is kind of a guess. They do it in almost every episode. There's bad guys, Stavio gets into trouble, the Stobs always come to help him. I never see the same bad people again in any of the episodes. All I usually hear is the Stobs' them music and there's crashing, banging, and...... people screaming." Hailey says now while trying to eat and talk.
Her parents look at each other and realize a pattern that Hailey probably doesn't - she's smart of to realize the episodic pattern but not the implications it appears it's trying to convey. They wonder if there is something else she can do to entertain herself but without books to read and only World Government programming, there isn't much else.
Hailey looks at them both and says:
"So we're in a cage too, huh? Is anyone coming to get us out?"
Her parents look around the room avoiding answering Hailey then briefly look at each other, nod their heads, then look at Hailey for her mother, smiling, to reply:
"Yes. We are going to get US out of here sweetheart."
Hailey pauses and looks at both of them then stops eating. She then takes a turn to reply:
"How? We've been stuck here for a while. Aren't we supposed to be here?"
Her parents look at each other then back at Hailey and smile again as her father tries:
"There's things going on around the planet that you're not aware of and there's a chance..."
"Don't say it." Hailey's mother stops eating to sternly say while her father shuts up.
".....we'll be fine either way sweetie. If we can't get out of here then that's ok. As long as we have each other and your mother and I try really hard to keep what we have, we'll be just fine." Hailey's father finishes.
"Ok. I like the idea of leaving to see other places on the planet. Does everywhere else look like where we live?" Hailey says innocently.
"No Hailey, they do not. Please. Let's continue eating and we'll discuss this later." Hailey's mother says while patting Hailey's hand.
Hailey shrugs her shoulders and continues to eat. She did not have time to prod her parents further about this intriguing topic because they vanished and Hailey woke up in South Larrington School for Children.
Fading back into the time of young Hailey still homeless on the streets of the Tel-cae district, Hailey begins:
"I was stuck at home, stuck at that stupid school, and now I'm stuck....am I stuck here? I still feel like Stavio in the cage here even though I'm nowhere. How?"
Baron and Hailey have gotten so close now that there's no need for warmth from anything else during the cold nights. Baron has lovingly, slowly, gotten closer to Hailey every night thus far. Tonight, Baron hears Hailey whispering and pushes her back hard against Hailey as she stretches out, then yawns.
Hailey stops to rub Baron's back a little to tell her the push against her was fine.
Another night passes as a sweet girl lays in the street with a big cat, beside a dumpster for partial shelter.
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Later on after briefly falling asleep, Hailey feels pats of something wet on her face and wakes up. Her worst terrestrial fears have come - a storm. The storms on Gannicus can get violent but Hailey hasn't been in this district long enough to experience it, especially out in the open. On top of this, Gannicus has infrastructure for vehicles but not much. Since the government, at this time, has only public transportation, the infrastructure is very small. There's no bridges to hide under, there's no real overhangs on buildings, there just isn't much to shelter under.
In an instant, Baron jumps up, becomes enraged, and starts to growl so loud she completely wakes up Hailey who was half asleep, while Hailey gasps.
A figure approaches, stumbling, pushing an object. The figure can be seen only as a silhouette from the background lights in the alley so to Baron and Hailey who have both just woken up, the object and figure appear to be a large monster. Hailey gasps again:
"Nooooo! Who are you! What are you!"
Baron, not fooling around, crouches in a manner to attack. She creeps ahead in the dark, wet, alley they're stuck in to approach this figure in a sneak attack.
"No girl! We can run out through here!" Hailey screams while pointing to another part of the alley that appears to be an easy escape route.
Growling can be heard as the darkness envelopes Baron, and Hailey starts to reason with Baron and cry:
"NO GIRL I NEED YOU! DON'T GET HURT! I NEED YOU GIRL! COME BACK!"
Hailey falls down in panic and realization while watching what appears to be, eminent doom. Baron is so loud growling that window panes up and down the alley start to shake. The storm flashes lightning-like bolts but none are anywhere near to shine down enough light to see what's coming. Hailey begins to clutch herself, crying heavily, even more so than the rain-like drops landing on her face.
"No girl. Come back. I don't want to go. I haven't done anything wrong." Hailey begins to whisper to herself while rocking back and forth and still wondering where Baron is. The poor girl is alone, once again, but this time, she's not leaving - she's not leaving Baron. She just feels transient like a scary movie she doesn't want to watch is playing in front of her.
Abruptly, Baron's growls stop. The storm's thunder-like noise crashes across a still shaken Hailey as she jumps every time she hears it or sees the lightning. The part of the alley where the figure and object were moving towards her is now completely dark. Since it's dark and she's completely alone, she periodically buries her head into her hands while randomly looking up. She wonders if such a large figure is able to take out the big cat, she definitely won't make it. She then lays still collapsed and shaking, quietly whimpering, and staring into the darkness for the inevitable to come, not accepting anything, just in shock this is happening to her. Her heart is racing. She can't slow it down. She feels completely lost and helpless, until:
"Meeeeoooowwwww" Baron happily starts while zeroing in on Hailey from the darkness with a comforting rub, scaring Hailey so much she falls back and almost hits her head on the building's wall behind her. Raising up and still shaking, she realizes Baron has returned, but the darkness is still behind Baron:
"LOOK OUT GIRL! HERE IT IS!" Hailey exclaims while grabbing Baron and forcing her eyes closed so hard all the tears and rain squeeze right out. In a strange moment between the two, a small girl on another planet is trying to pull on a large 4 foot tall quadruped cat, who's soaked, and has oily fur. Baron doesn't know what to do while Hailey tugs on her fur while the storm appears to be passing. She pulls, tugs, grabs, probably the most she's ever touched Baron, but nothing is moving her.
Grunting and trying to move while Baron is solid as a rock, Baron decides to just start rubbing Hailey more to calm her down. The dark figure and object are right behind Baron, but it's paused.
Frustrated that Baron isn't going anywhere, she slowly starts to open her eyes in fear of seeing what she doesn't want to. Baron, seeing her opening her eyes, slowly starts smacking her face again with rubs. Hailey decides to open her eyes fully to see what is really going on and realizes there's a person behind Baron, and Baron knows this, and isn't trying to protect her from them. Hailey jumps up now to appear like she's protecting the big cat but still confused why the big cat is on the strange figure's side and isn't seemingly hurt. With tears in her eyes and her right hand raised threateningly while she's sobbing and trying to speak, she begins:
"What did you do to her! I'll hurt you! I have things here I can hurt you with! Stay back! This illisk is my friend. Get away from...."
Suddenly, a high, scratchy, trembling from old age, man's voice cuts Hailey off and interjects:
"Her name is Baron."