Chapter 76

Rain had a vague idea what a motorbike looked like, having seen one before, assuming it was the same as those some military Mothers used, or similar. She still couldn’t imagine Adam driving one without any practice, but then, he seemed to be able to do most things he put his mind to.
She took a bite of her turkey. It was delicious, and she was starving. She tried to remember her manners and not shovel food into her mouth, but it was difficult. Her stomach was rumbling even as she was eating.
“You going to the dance?” Esther’s question wasn’t phrased as if she was seeking information from her eldest son. It was more a statement.
Seth shifted slightly in his seat, took a few more bites, then said, “I don’t know.”
“Seth….” Esther began, also concentrating on her food while she contemplated her word choice.
Rain wished she weren’t sitting at the table. This seemed like the sort of conversation the two should have alone. She glanced at Peter, whose eyes were locked on his plate. Not one word had parted his lips since she’d been there, at least, not that she’d heard. It was an assumption that Seth’s younger brother could, in fact, speak, but she had no evidence to support that.
“Mama, it seems really odd to be going to a dance in here while it’s likely Mothers will be crawling the mountainside above us. Either that, or our militia will be fighting to defend the people staying in our own home, some of them likely giving up their lives to do so.”
Esther cleared her throat, took a sip of tea, set her glass down. “You’re leaving soon. Your friends deserve to see you one last time, Seth.”
“I plan to be back in a week, two at most.”
His words were clearly chosen carefully. Rain didn’t miss the phrasing. She doubted Esther did either. He didn’t say he would be back, only that their current plan called for it. Things changed. Plans changed.
“What if something detains you?” Esther could be vague as well. “Don’t you think your gang, Joseph, John, Simon, the others, don’t you think they’ll wish they’d gotten a chance to tell you goodbye?”
Seth shrugged while Rain envisioned him standing around in a group of young men, laughing and carrying on as she supposed free young men would do. She’d never seen that before. The closest she’d come was eavesdropping on his conversation with Adam, the one Daniel Redd had spoiled. She’d seen Walt and Adam chat and cut up a little, but that wasn’t a group. It was hard to imagine.
“I’ll think about it, Mama.” That seemed to be the best Seth could do until his mom went the extra mile.
“What about Hannah?”
There it was. Rain had remembered the mention of the girl in the same conversation she’d overheard, the one she wasn’t supposed to be privy to. At the mention of her name, Seth’s shoulders tighten. Even his arm on the table next to Rain’s seemed to grow more rigid. “It’s not like that, Mama.”
“I know what it’s like,” Esther countered, a knowing lift in her left eyebrow. “I also know what it’s like to be a young woman sweet on a boy. You should go.” Then, in what seemed like an afterthought, she added, “Take Rain. She’s probably never been to a dance.”
The fork she’d been using to eat her salad clattered from between her fingers, colliding hard with the glass plate. “Me?” Rain asked, glancing around. Even Peter had lifted his head to look at her. “Oh, I couldn’t,” she stammered. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin….”
“Fiddle faddle,” Esther declared, an expression new to Rain's ears. “Mary has five girls. I’m certain one of them will have a gown that will fit you. You’ll need shoes. What size are you?”
“Size?” Rain repeated, the idea of attending a dance terrifying her more than the possibility of the Mothers storming down from atop the mountain at any moment. “Uh… medium.”
“Medium?” Esther cocked her head to the size, her fork frozen mid-lift, a piece of lettuce balanced on the tines precariously. “Your shoe size? It’s not a number?”
“No?” Rain had no idea why it sounded like a question. She knew her shoe size. It was medium, as she’d stated.
“Why aren’t your shoe sizes numbers?” Seth asked, a bit of turkey in his mouth as he asked. He did well to hide it in his cheek so she didn’t see the bits of gnawed up flesh.
“Well, we only have small, medium, and large,” Rain said with a shrug. “Our clothes are basically the same. Everything comes from the Mothers. We get what they give us. If we want or need something, we can ask for it. We usually can get it, but the sizes are general.” She thought of the fashion catalogues her other two roommates liked to look through. Gale and Breeze hadn’t even crossed her mind since she’d left Weather House. She hoped they were okay and no one had decided to interrogate them to see if she or Mist had divulged any information or plans. She wouldn’t have even known enough to tell them what direction they’d be running. The fashion magazines the girls used to look over weren’t usually for real people--they were mostly for avatars in the online games they played on their tablets. No one would ever wear anything like what was displayed in those magazines in real life. It wouldn’t be practical. They did look at magazines that had different colors of shirts and slacks from time to time, though. They could get those from the Mothers as needed. They were basically all the same, though. Rain swallowed, wondering what all she’d been missing out on, living in a world without dressing up, without number sizes, without dances.
“I’ll see what sizes Mary has available. I’m sure she’ll have something that fits you.”
“But Esther,” Rain began, protesting the idea that she needed to go to the dance. She was curious, it was true, but she couldn’t imagine herself fitting in with the kids of Judea. They’d have to know who she was. What if they called her names, the way Daniel Redd had?
“You should come,” Seth said, giving her a reassuring nod. “It’ll be fine. You’ll have fun.”
She raised an eyebrow at him, thinking he must’ve lost his mind. If she did go, would he dance with her? Would he care that she had no idea how to dance? Other than the happy little jigs the women did when they scored well on an exam or otherwise received good news, Rain had never danced a step in her life.
Protesting would have to wait. Esther’s phone made a loud chirping sound that made Rain’s bottom lose contact with her chair. She reached for a rifle that wasn’t there but calmed slightly when she realized it was the device. But then… when she thought it might be Adam, she felt her pulse pick up again.
“It’s Mayor Abraham,” she said before she pushed a button and lifted the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
Disappointment settled over Rain as she accepted that it wasn’t Adam. Then, she realized he could be calling about Adam and sucked in a deep breath, all thoughts of eating fleeing her mind.