Chapter 4: The Finest in Tower Living

Chapter 4: The Finest in Tower Living

Wynn and Lina’s rooms were next to each other and high up in a tower that formed part of the honeycomb structure of the Hoo. On the doors to the rooms hung blackboards and chalk.  The only windows available were small skylights that let in little shafts of light from the ceiling.  

“It’s like a grotto!”  Wynn exclaimed with delight.  

Indeed, the walls were made of softly rounded stone, and little pockets in the stone provided shelves for storage.  The bed in each room was high up above stacks of drawers, and a rope ladder hung down for easy access.  The soft light from the ceiling illuminated the counter-top of a desk built into a deeper stone pocket across from the bed.

Lina wasn’t quite as pleased.  “This room is so dark and small!” she moaned. “There is no view at all!”

But there is plenty of fresh air,” Wynn piped up. “It’s blowing through these little vents in the walls, see?”

But Lina didn’t care.  She was not going to be soothed by Wynn.  She stomped off down the hall to find some place more cheerful.  The zigzag hallway led to a softly coloured, open room full of cushions, a few low tables, and floor-to-ceiling windows in front of a balcony, and actually, one of the windows had a door handle, didn't it? So she could go outside, which made her feel a little better.

A door led off from the pillow room into a very tiny kitchen that was crammed full of interesting appliances: a wood stove and a basin with an attached water pump, lots of choppers and mixing bowls and a funny kind of grater (a pasta maker, actually, though Lina didn’t recognize it).

"Holy cow", said Lina.  “There is no fridge in here…actually, nothing in here is automatic at all.”

‘were yeh looking fer otto?  he ain’t here, now who are you then’

This sort of half-question hung in the air.  No one had exactly said anything, but the question had still, well, just sort of arrived.  So who in the world was asking?

“um? What do you mean? Is anyone here?” asked Lina uncertainly.

‘, name’s bina or binajee if you'd like to be formal about it, makes nix either way, and you’re lina, we came up from the river together, but I’m sure you won't recognize me now with the kerchief off, but calm yerself, I’m subvocalizing to yeh, and I pick up the same from you, all those things you aim to say but don’t quite say, those I pick up, how do yeh do.’

Lina wasn't sure how she hadn't noticed, but the door handle from the balcony was turning, and a person was coming inside, a very small, bright-eyed person still wearing a long cape, as she had on the FUNICULAR -- Lina remembered now -- but whose headscarf was now gathered about her neck instead.

What Lina hadn’t been able to see earlier on the trip up because of the headscarf were Bina’s extremely large, long, droopy ears, like the ears of a donkey – they looked very soft - and instead of a mouth, Bina's snout, a snout that would have been difficult to speak out of, that is if she had needed to. Its shape made her look a bit like a capybara, Lina thought, astonished. She put her hand over her mouth, trying not to gasp.

“This is really amazing…to meet you, I mean…do you do the cooking here?”

‘well, that depends doesn't it on what's asked' - Bina looked at her, eyes twinkling, as if she was holding on to a secret.

'what do you mean? you mean someone has to ask you something first?'

'oooh, you've cottoned on to it right away, what a smart one we've got here'

(maybe it should be harder to figure out) (riddle like conversation)
(so the idea is they've just always been here, and people here accept the way things are, and some people find out the secret and can get help from them, but those who are self preoccupied forget them. they are not easy to notice. perception filter like.)
(go back and change the previous encounter where someone is uncomfortable. instead, they should just ignore them.)

FIX THIS:
in and the door to my own room here is under the table and I’ve also got a door to outside, where I keep the yards tidy and do the flower-planting and gather stove-wood and look to the water pump and a bit of an herb garden and such but I’m not quite a cook, more like an assistant,’ “So you’re always available if we need you?”

‘not always mind, I do have my own life you know, but I’m oft in here at mealtime and bring in food-baskets regular-like, but remember there’s a deduction from your a-count, 5 faivalas monthly for the wood and water and cold storage of yer food, and then another deduction if I help yeh in the preparin, and don’t be scared, now, I don’t make trouble as long as I keep busy-like, but I see you’ve never met a jee before, that must be why you’re surprised, but I see you’re adjustin’ quite well,’

“Well, nice to meet you, Bina, I’m sure I’ll see you soon,” Lina replied – she didn’t know really what else to say, because Binajee seemed to know whatever she meant already.  She ran back to the rooms, calling out, “Ann, you have to come here and meet Bina, and hey, we really need to find out about those accounts, people keep mentioning them!”  Ann was waiting at the doors to their rooms, where she pointed silently to what was written on her slate:

When you’re ready, come down to the HubOfTheHoo,

and we’ll sort out how you’re to earn a living here and

set up a-counts. Welcome! – Daffy

“Perfect.  Earning a living.  I didn’t want to do ANYTHING this weekend except write songs!” Wynn moaned. “Then again, who knows what day it is here in Beedabeeda-whatsit, maybe it isn’t even the weekend…”

The penny dropped. Lina leaned on her door and slid down until she plopped onto the floor.

“What’s the matter, Lina?”

“Ann, what are we doing?  This is all too much.  All these new people, in this strange town? I’m talking to very strange people, and the land doesn’t look like Canada, or even Brazil, and we’re acting like everything is ok, but really, we DISAPPEARED FROM HOME – I mean, what are my brothers gonna do when they notice we aren’t there?  What happens when my mom and your mom come back and we aren’t there?”

Ann said, a little uncertainly, “look, I’m pretty astonished by everything here too, honest," and sat down on the floor too. 

She paused for a bit, tracing the pattern in the door frame. 
"But for the moment, what can we do?  I’m just trying to go with the flow."

Lina: “Yeah, but it’s just a big shock. I think you feel like you are on a big holiday or something. This is not real to you yet. But believe me. This is not a holiday. This is gonna be really hard!”

Wynn: “Look, yes, it’s bizarre. But you know what? Maybe you just don’t use your imagination enough, you know? This all seems like something out of a fairy-tale – and how cool is that, for it to be real, all around us?  I think it’s just amazing!”

Lina: “Also, I think it’s weird that they are telling us about all the systems for everything, like the young teachers on the bicycles, and the cooking helpers, and accounts, and all this stuff.”

Wynn: “I think they are just well organized – what is so bad about that? – I mean, everything works really well here, have you noticed?  Look how quickly they’ve taken care of us. Maybe they even have some kind of special system for accidents like us, and we just have to wait until we find out about it so we can get home!”

“Well, Daffy and Alex didn’t think there is a way to leave this place. If a way home exists, it’s probably not up here on this hill,” Lina answered.  

Wynn: “Well, I think that for now, we have to concentrate on earning our room and board here so that we can at least stay where we know people are friendly.  At least you’re fit and strong - I’m sure you’ll find some work.  Me, I’ve never had a job, unless you count my babysitting my little brother.”

Lina didn’t respond.  She would work for now, but if this was a place where little capybara-people with big ears sat in the kitchen, then there might be magicians around too who could help them. She wanted to start looking for them right away.  

Wynn also stopped talking because there was so much to look at: banners flying from poles stuck in the tops of the honeycomb apartment towers; clothing hung to dry from window sills; people coming and going with carts of clothes, musical instruments, books, lots of books especially, she noticed. But she hadn’t seen any carts of food yet, since those ladies with the baskets, and she was starting to get hungry.

Right on cue, bells started to ring from the towers, and windows that faced onto the Hub of the Hoo started banging open.  “Easyfood mealtime, getcher sausage and pepper, getcher curry right heeere!”  Amazing smells of grilled sausage and french fries started wafting through the air.  Ann’s stomach rumbled.  She saw Daffy in the distance across the Hub; Daffy waved to them to come and join her.

As they neared her, they noticed she was standing under a large sign that said A-COUNTING.  “Here are your Counto cards,” she said, handing them small, carved blocks of wood with their names and a long number on them. “Everything works on the Counto system, so’s you can order some easyfood here at the Hub, buy at market in TownMiddle and get your food hill-hauled."

"With every purchase, you just show your card, and the restaurant-haver or the farmer sends the bill to A-Counting, and then when you do work, the money you earn will go straight to your a-count, and your rent and fest-fees come straight out of it, because everyone has to help out with the cost of putting on the big fests that happen up here. 

"Don’t worry, anytime you’d like to know how things stand, you can ask the book-holders here at A-Counting how you’re doing, and they’ll do all the math for you, since we don’t expect Valdoyzas to waste time on things like counting coins! Now mind you don’t cause any damages to property and the like, for you’ll be fined for those – what now?, you’re looking at me like you don’t know how wild things can get at a revel…you’ll see soon enough, my onions.  Now, what do the two of you do exactly that we can pay you for?”

Lina started out confidently, “Well, I cook for my brothers when my mom is not home, and I am good at repairing machines (Daffy looked questioning) like um the things in the kitchen? if they break I can sometimes fix them.."

Daffy perked up. "We can get you to assist Otto!  Nobody ever wants to sign up for that! He’ll be ecstatic to have a helping hand with his marvelous creations." 

Lina continued. "And I think I could teach capoeira – that’s a kind of martial art that looks like…” - here Daffy interrupted. 

“Oh my, you shan’t be doing some military art up here, we absolutely won’t have violent sport of any kind what-so-ever!”

“But it’s not violent, it’s like dancing,” Lina said.

CONFLICT ABOUT DANCING? DANCING OK IN HOO OR NOT? EARLIER ALLUSION TO SILLY DANCE.

"Don't be ridiculous. Dancing has absolutely nothing to do with fighting whatsoever." Now she looked pensive. “I suppose I can give you some easyfood kitchen shifts too, if you like cooking so much… Now, Wynn, what about you?”

Wynn’s spirits sank.  If Lina’s skills were no good, what in the world was she going to be any good for?  

She stammered, “well, I babysit my brother sometimes, but I’ve never really had a job before, and I’m not really good with my hands or with cooking or anything, and I don’t go to after-school activities, so I don’t really know what I can earn money with,” she apologized.

“My goodness, I wasn’t asking to see what labor you can do, although we don’t mind if you are willing to do it.  I’m asking what you do for art, for culture, for the advancement of thinking!”

“How does that earn any money?”

“Silly squash! The Faculty will pay you for poems, for stories, for essays and teaching, for art and performing – that is what the Hoo is for, after all!”

“What? Em – oh! – Well, I like to read and paint, and write poetry,” Wynn replied, surprised.

“That’s more like it!  So you’ll be working from your room, and all the poems and paintings you create, you can bring to A-Counting, and they’ll value it and pay you for them.  And it would be wonderful if you could help in the children’s garden when parents want to make art off by themselves for a while – it’s good to have a change of scenery.”

Wynn couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  Neither could Lina.  They paid you for poems and songs, but didn’t allow sports for their ‘delicate’ residents?  Lina had to work in the kitchen, and Wynn got to sit in her cave all day imagining things?  They stared at each other, open-mouthed.

“Then that’s all settled! You are now officially members of the ValdoyzaHostliVingCommons! VayHaVayCay for short!”