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Eve could barely focus as the Oracles at the head table led everyone in the evening prayers to the Great Creator of All. She glanced over at Luke’s table on the other side of the room. He, like her, was the youngest of his House. The other members were also identical to him, differing only in age.
Once the prayers were finished, gray-clad drones moved amongst the tables, delivering the food that the Chef House had created. The scents of baked fish and steamed vegetables, mixed with the luring tang of fireberry juice, made Eve’s mouth water. It was a law throughout New Eden that fireberry juice be served with each meal. Fireberries were also popular in between snacks and were often sprinkled on salads and cereal.
As a drone placed Eve’s meal before her, she briefly met the girl’s eyes. Drones, designed merely to clean up and serve, were not allowed to look Citizens in the eyes, but this one’s gaze accidently settled on Eve’s. The drone then quickly lowered her head and shuffled away.
A queer feeling that she couldn’t grasp or understand flitted through Eve, then instantly vanished. It was forgotten a second later as she dug into her food. The trout, caught from the Fisherman House of Jonah, melted in her mouth with a buttery sweetness. She washed it down with cool, tangy fireberry juice.
Dinner was usually Eve’s favorite meal, a chance to savor the food, chat with the other Eves, and reflect on her day. It was the only mealtime when all the Houses gathered together. But tonight she felt distracted. What was she doing by agreeing to join Luke on some adventure that could get them Banished? Still, curiosity tugged at her. What did lie beyond those hills? Was that where the Banished were sent, as she’d expected? Or perhaps even the dead, whom the Oracles asserted floated away in spirit bodies to become one with the Creator of All?
Eve’s mind refused to settle as she crawled into bed in the dormitory that she and the other Eves shared. A restlessness that even the relaxing fireberry juice couldn’t expunge tore at her.
This unease continued over the next two days as she struggled to focus on work, playing games and reading stories to the younglings. For once she was grateful that she’d read these books dozens of times, since she could do so by memory and not reveal how distracted she was. She looked toward her next day off, and subsequent adventure with Luke, with an incongruous mixture of dread and alacrity.
She awoke at dawn on that day.
“Where are you going so early?” asked one of the Mothers as she gathered bread, meat, cheese, a batch of fireberries, and a thermos of fireberry juice into a pack.
“I’m spending the day with the youngest Son Luke,” she said truthfully, swinging the pack over her shoulder. “I’ll be back before dark.” Hopefully before then, she thought. How long could this adventure really take? Certainly not an entire day.
But why did she feel so nervous?
“Have fun then,” said the Mother Eve with a wave and a smile.
The morning was cool but growing gradually warmer as the sun climbed into the sky. Droplets from the night rains coated the grass, flowers, and trees like countless blinding prisms. Eve took a deep breath of freshly cleansed air as she headed toward the House of Archivists. Luke had promised to meet her out front.
Each House was long and rectangular, home to exactly fifty. Eve knew that once the eldest Grandmother of her House retired, a new Eve would take her place, keeping the House’s population at an even fifty.
About Donna Marie Robb
