The Time of the Wall 5

Olina had been completely detailed in her work and had just even begun to have a little fun when he said  all at once: "That's enough, I believe you." and snatched her again without any warning and  stuffed her rudely into his breast pocket.
Indeed, no soft material waited for her, but all kinds of screws, tattered paper and big white things, which looked like crumpled up cellulose. "Oh by the Red Moon! These are no...", she thought and kept the hand before her mouth in disgust. With the thought that dried snot from his gigantic nose was in these paper cloths, she nearly had to vomit. Indeed, she did not have particularly a lot of time to be disgusted, because she was thrown to and fro by his hectic movements and the metal screws offered not exactly a good upholstery for this ride.
A loud bang made her ears ring, so that she did not understood when he said: "Hold on." Suddenly she felt how they whizzed into the depth at breathtaking speed, accompanied by an awful creaky noise.
When the wild slide stopped, she hit herself on the screws, and noticed that her skin was grazed at several places.
Finally, after some other gigantic steps of her kidnapper, he came to a hold.. or sit. Above her the breast pocket opened slightly and he asked whether everything was okay with her. She only looked at him furiously, with a bleeding graze in her face. Now her patience was soon at the end...

„Hey,", he said to the small Tigo that looked at him furiously „Sorry that I had to hurry like that, but the streetcar goes only twice per day and it is a rather long away to district 5. Do not act like this! Come on, enjoy the view!" He took Olina from his breast pocket and put her on the small edge, which enclosed the scratched window . „But keep an eye on her,", he said in his head „She will be very valuable...".
„You must know," he explained to the little one, „Today I have to go  to work again. And because you can't stay at my home, you come along with me."

This time Olina was not completely unhappy to be snatched. At least, she came out of this revolting pocket. "Hngh... alright, but could you please empty your pocket, before you put me in there again? Was really anything but comfortable", she cried a little and examined her wounds. It was nothing what she could not cure  fast, but from now on she wanted to be a little reserved with her magic. Yesterday she had overexerted herself quite a lot, and wanted to charge her "batteries" first.

So she laid her hands on the scratched glass and looked outward. The streetcar drove past gigantic houses with countless floors. Everything seemed to be gray and run down. Even the trees in the street edge looked more dead than alive. She definitively did not like this side of the embankment ... "Why is all so dreary here ...?", she asked a little curiously and turned round to Amon which observed her with eagle eyes.

„Why dreary?" asked Amon curiously „We have just turned into district 4. This is  one of the better quarters. The air is still pure here and one can see  the sky sometimes. I like it here.", said Amon to Olina, a little taken aback .
He did not know other surroundings. Since his birth the whole Grodi people were caught in a world of the eating away gray concrete whose substance became as ailing like the whole Grodi society. Criminal activity, poverty, hunger, awful illnesses, few educational opportunities, all this was in the agenda.
„Before the infection, you must know, all districts were as nice as district 1, some maybe nicer. But then the accident happened, and we had to build the bulwark to not to die. Thus I have learned it of my parents and they of theit parents.", told Amon Olina patiently. „Nobody comes near the wall, or the death come find us all.", he repeated a conditioned nursery rhyme.

Attentively Olina listened in to his explanation . And what she heard, even made her a little sad. She could not imagine to live in such surroundings. "I don't understand this. I mean the story about this infection can not be true at all. On my side there isn't, and never was an epidemic. Only one gigantic tidal wave which should have destroyed everything many decades ago. Therefore, the wall was built to hold an other wave..., but it seems as if here is no sea at all. So this also must be wrong. Something must have happened...", she stated and stared at the sea of concrete houses, which Amon called "nice". "At my home, it looks completely different..."

„Mmmh? Sea? There is nothing like this here. What is this?", asked Amon confused. „What do you mean by: something happened? And what particularly interests me: how does it look like at your home?" the curiosity got the better of Amon. He and many others had asked themselves about the how, when and why of their existence. But because the education system simply did not teach any of it here and  the books were either old or rationalized by the state. These thoughts disappeared fast while becoming an adult and in the general fight for what Amon understood  as a luxury- what often could be just a full stomach.
But now his curiosity was woken up again. His work and his problems were fay away now. He lowered the head and laid it on the same edge on which Olina stood. This girl seemed to bring him closer to the answers which he was looking for, more near than anytime before. „Please, tell me."

"The sea...", Olina pondered how she should describe it to him. "It is a gigantic surface which consists only of water, kilometer-far. And the water is salty. Till now I've been there only once. It is quite far from Vinme."
For one moment she was surprised that he had suddenly put away his haughty grin, and now showed an almost childish curiosity. "It is very nice where I'm from. We have only small houses, at most three floors. Only the temple is higher. All around the town there are fields, and wide, hilly grass areas. Now and again a few trees also grow there. And in the warm season the hills are littered with red Pandid-blossoms. Indeed, it is often very dull in Vinme. It does not happen  a lot there.", she described her native country and got, a stagnant feeling in the stomach. She missed her friends who must already been looking for her... or a be least terribly worried... her looks became sad.

„Mmmh.", rumbled Amon. Many words were hard for him to understand. He was not dumb, just uneducated. But here somebody who grew up in his state,  did not have to expect any more. He should not to ask or know ,but work.
But the little one had woken something up inside him, what he had not felt for many years : The wish to know more. Then he saw how she became sad. He looked at her very long and then said softly: „You are  quite sad because you can't be there, hum? No worry you will get back.", he said to Olina but a light pain pulled through him.
„Did I mean that now? No, that cannot be. I need the money damn. Well, but I think one day more with her will do nothing bad." he said in his thoughts, exactly at the moment as the streetcar stopped at the bazaar. The doors closed again.

She was confused a little. Till now this was the friendliest what he had said to her. Maybe she could trust him, nevertheless? It was no miracle that he had become a frustrated person in this sad and ugly world . "What exactly do you do,  at your work actually?", she asked. She was curious by nature and his friendly tone, made it easier for her to live out her curiosity.

„Er... uh..., well, you will see it soon anyways.... I make an apprenticeship as... we call it... building cleaner." he stuttered while his face  became red again. This was simply no occupation for a young man like him. Even he was too clever for it.

„You see, I always wanted to become a mechanic, or even study mechanical engineering as a child. But the district leaders have not allow it, after my father has disappeared. And because I needed money very urgently,  I had to do something else. But I could not stand it long anywhere. Now this is my last chance. If I screw this, I'll be forced to move to district 16  and nobody wants go to district 16."
The streetcar stopped, Here was his stop  "We have to get off here.", he said to Olina and took her in his hand more affectionately this time and put her on his shoulder.

"So, from now you must behave like a Tigo... eh... I mean like a thing. Though this society may accept a scatterbrain with toys on the shoulder, but not a scatterbrain like me with such a  value... er... special thing." he  whispered to Olina quietly and hoped she had not noticed his Freudian slip of the tongue. In the meantime, both stood  on the street and Amons nostrils filled with the stench of this awful area, but he was used it. There were a few more steps to the entrance of his company, and Olina got the chance to observe the area  a little more intensely . Slowly  Amon trotted along the sidewalk without any sign of zeal or hectic rush. His motivation had vanished.

Olina needed a few seconds to place herself  on his shoulder so that she could not fall down and tried to look like a motionless thing. Therefore, she did not  really get what he said. The revolting stench, that came to her nose  did not make anything easy. It smelled as if garbage rotted... very disgusting garbage. She saw that the giant trees, who stood between the street and the asphalt ways, were surrounded by garbage piles. Before them there was a big gray building with a glass door. Indeed, one could not recognize the inside, because the glass shone too much. In it would be certainly even more giants... Anxiously she clung onto the shoulder seam of his jacket and tried to hold as still as possible.

Now Amon stood  before this odious glass door again. What could have become of him? "Well, maybe the money helps me to change my job . This would really be a dream coming true." He turned his head slightly and saw Olina in the corner of the eye and started to grin  broadly. Maybe too broadly, so he quickly looked at the glass door again  in which he saw his reflection. Just now he saw how dilapidated he looked ,and to him it occurred that he had not washed for three days and his organism suffered from a mixture of long constant sleeping denial, excessive Posta consumption and the funny magic of this small thing.
His short brown hair stood up in all directions and his blue eyes, lay far back in their caves and had deeply dark rings under them. Amon sighed once, took a deep breath and opened the glass door which swung itself open with a loud squeak. At this moment the awful smell of all cleaning supplies, which had been stored here for years, came to him . Shuffling they crossed the foyer which was mostly made out of  gray marble which testified the better days of the past. Nobody seemed to be there. "Hmm... that's strange", thought Amon. Then he looked at his clock and noted in the date that it was Friday. Well and on Fridays the work started, in contrast to all other days,  one hour later and ended one hour later. "Wonderful"  thought Amon and sat down on a small wrecked wooden bench. "Hey" he said to Olina "You can move again. Nobody is here yet. They will come in one hour."

Olina gasped a little, because she had tried to breathe as little as possible. The inside of the building had surprised her a lot. It seemed to be equipped with a noble material. Though it smelled a little bit  of chemicals, she preferred this to the garbage stench outside. "Uh, the smell reminds me of my school hours... in the chemical lessons it has also smelled like that.", she said, in hope to start a conversation. This was better, than sitting around in silence .

"Chemical lessons? What is this?" asked Amon with a perplexed face. "The only in which I was teached were Grodi-language, history, mathematics and sports... Mmmh, although in the elementary school  I have heard that there was more . But then my father had disappeared you must know. My mother had to move to district 6 with me and my sister , since then I only was allowed to visit the schools for the lower classes. Since you study and learned something  like 'Kemistree', or how you call it,  you must belong to a high class, right?" he asked Olina further.
"Why do I tell her all these things...?" Amon thought. But then his features froze for one moment and a thought  formed in his scatterbrain "Ransom... that maybe would be also an alternative. And maybe I will get  even more money that way. Well, and I get access to even more of these Tigo. I'm a genius!". his face relaxed again and he looked Olina deeply into her brown eyes.

Olina swallowed a little. The higher class? That would be great "Eh no, not really. I have already told you that I am born under the Red Moon... this means that I am actually born from the moonlight. Whenever the moon becomes red, it sends rays to the holy places. And then  children appear there . However, there are also Tigo which are born in normal manner... by a mother. But I... the children of the red moon are not able to have children themselves, therefore we are also disadvantaged compared with the others. We must pay for our education, others not...", she sighed ... had she  really just told him this? "Well, these chemical lessons... they are about the composition of materials. Mostly we have only  mixed some liquids or inflamed something... I never did well in it."

"What do you mean by this ?Born from the moonlight?" Amon was completely taken aback... he already had no notion of the world he was living in,so it did not exactly help him  to hear confusing things like that. Slowly all that became too much to him . "I should have sold her already." he said quietly to himself. Again he turned to Olina. "Ah well, moonlight or not... but then there are only two classes, or not?"

"Well, I cannot exactly explain this moonlight-thing... nobody is able to do this. It simply happens . And there are more than two classes... But your class depends ,apart from this lunar thing, primarily on your actions. If you serve the society well, you get a raise and your magic potential rises. But for me it is difficult to rise... But enough of me. How is it here? You have told something about these district leaders.. they seem to be in charge here?"

"mmh... a society in which the status depends on your own actions... oh it would be nice if it was like this here. But one has told us the society could only survive like it is now. In history we  learned, that hostile species which we call "Enosino"  had tried to conquer us and our planet. However, the big and mighty Grodi-warriors could beat them. When they left our planet they launched their last and also biggest weapon which spread an evil virus. However, the great Grodi-warriors have foreseen this and have built a bulwark against the contamination. Because the Enosino destroyed a lot of our technology and made us prisoners of our own town,  the society crumbled  more and more and and there were some uprisings. However,  the Grodi-warriors also  have foreseen this and have created our class society in which everybody gets the place which is most useful to the survival of the society.
And the powerful and wise Grodi-warriors formed the class of the Disrict-leader which were each the rulers over one of the districts.
Earlier, before all this, my father was also a Disrict-leader. He was the ruler of district 19 which was responsible for research and science. But one day he simply did not come back." Amon's face had solidified. His eyes became wet and he lowered the head for one moment. Then he lifted it again and he smiled excessively broadly. "Well, maybe there is something good about it. Otherwise, at least, we would not have met." he said in a noticeably feigned tone. "If we are  lucky, I am sent to district 19 today to do the cleaning. "I could sell her to the scientists who are working there.", he thought. Then he directed his look again upon Olina.

A strange feeling overcame Olina. What he told her. seemed very strange to her. This Grodi said, the wall was built on account of this weapon of the conquerors..., but they never existed. Behind the wall were only... the Tigo. This made no sense at all...
And she could only force a fake grin to his remark. She was on no account happy to have met him... to be here in the first place was awful. Then she noticed how he became sad when he spoke of the disappearance of his father. She could not really understand how he felt. At least, she had no family. But what he told her about district 19, seemed interesting. If everything there was about research and science, intelligent people had to be there also... who could maybe help better than Amon, who did not seem to be the brightest crayon in the box. But she could not really blame him for that. This strange society was to blame for it.
"Bah, no offense, but this thing with these big warriors seems to be complete garbage. Maybe we will find some more serious sources in this research district... ", she said and tried to lie down along his shoulder on the belly. This seemed to her more comfortable.

Amon turned his head in her direction with a jerky movement , now he stared nastily with his blue eyes and jumped up. His veins hammered in his temples "Who do you think you are, to offend the big warriors so easily ! Without them we would be dead! Maybe you are the pathetic debris of the infection. The small shades of once  big Grodi!." Amon seemed to  completely lose control. However, then he slowly calmed down. Up to now, all the small Tigo said, had been quite smart and were reasonable things... maybe she was right about this one, too . At least, the air did not seem to be contaminated for these small people. "I should ask in the district 19 when I finally sold her. Then they can also find out something about her physiology... Maybe she really a contaminated Grodi." with this thought he got the creeps. Maybe he had already been infected by her. After he sat again he looked to Olina "What have you learned about your history then? Maybe I can offend a few important personalities of your origin", he spat.

Luckily she had changed into a lying position before. Thus she could hold on with her whole body when he suddenly jumped up and shouted at her. She could not understand really a lot of what he exclaimed, because he was simply too loud, but she catched up the most important thing.
She swallowed... what if he was right... maybe there really had been an epidemic... maybe they were really only shrunken Grodi..., then she shook her head. She almost believed this stupid story of his! When she noticed that he had sat down again and had calmed, she loosened her clutch a little. He asked her about her history..." I have learned that there were much more Tigo than nowadays. We were a big people, but parted into many small nations which worked mutually. But the big divinity was very angry about the fact that we destroyed the countries and sowed grief and death by our wars. Therefore, there was a gigantic tidal wave which washed everything away and  many, many people lost their life. There were only very  few Tigo left and they could hardly reproduce to build up a new state. Then the big divinity got compassion and sent the red lunar rays and therefore more Tigo. These should serve to build up everything, while the others should look after the continuity and the spirituality of the people. And thus the moonlight children were also asked  to build the big embankment to hold back another big wave. ", she told." I am sorry, if I have offended you..., however, everything here is so foreign and absurd to me... everything is so different."

"Gods, floods... this sounds far less realistic than an epidemic..., however, I can understand , I also often think about how  absurdly this world is." And at this moment Amon really  imagined how it was to be small and not to be able to do anything . Now it occurred to him  that he was, actually, in the same situation like the small Tigo. Suddenly he heard loud rumbling and shouting. Unfortunately, it was a voice which he only knew too well. "Olina, now you must act like a Tigo again. Quick!"

Finally, Mr. Hagitski rumbled through the door: "Mr. Wodni! What were you thinking about not coming to work for two days !? I have told you that you are already moving on thin ice! Do not forget that you have neither the educational nor the district licensing for this occupation! I have only employed you because I am an old friend of your mother. Poor Chieli... Her good-for-nothing  husband runs away and then her son must still develop exactly in the same way."  Mr. Hagitski shouted at Amon at  the top of his voice, who had just managed to stand up.
Olina hung, like it was normal for a Tigo , lifelessly on his shoulder. Mr. Hagitski was the leader of the cleansing enterprise: a disagreeable older man who always smelled of real alcohol  and appeared more than once drunk in the job.

Amon was full of understanding for this, he himself was not declined to the Posta and had showed up drunken often enough. But Mr. Hagitski connected his hobby-alcoholism with his severity and meanness. However, he was liked by the district leaders. Amon couldn't do anything about it. He clenched his fist in his pocket. He did not like it at all if he and his father were offended in the same sentence. But he was unconscious in a way. Exactly like Olina was in his hands, Amon was in Mr. Hagitski's big hand." It will never happen again, Mr. Hagitski. I promise . But I am sick. Just look at me." Amon said meekly.

Hagitski scrutinized the young man and really found out that Amon looked even more dilapidated  as usual. "Well. "answered Hagitski "This time I'll try to ignore it. Anyhow, your mother is not very well at all." At this moment the short, gray-haired man noticed the Tigo on Amons shoulder . He grabbed it and threw it into the wastepaper basket with a light swing.

Amon's heart almost stopped. A dead Olina would bring him no money. But no muscle stirred on his part." I do not want to see such a thing here. You are 19 years old! Too old to play around with Tigo." Mr. Hagitski turned around and went back the way  he came from. When he was out of sight, Amon sprinted to the wastepaper basket. Fortunately, it was filled with old cleaning cloths and handkerchiefs.
Quick he took the small Tigo into his hand . "Hey everything okay with you?" he asked Olina worried.