12. Jake

All my life I would have never expected to react that way to that voice, but I just couldn't bear to hear Mr. Buxton's smooth voice.

I wake up, and, for all I know, my fainting episode could have never happened. I stare up at rotten planks of wood. I roll over and my shoulder smashes against another rotten plank. I sit up and hit my head on the bunk above. I laugh at myself, Oh, Kayla. Yesterday you were worried you'd wake up Florence and she'd ruin your day. Was it really only yesterday, my life was normal? Could so much happen in one day? I lost my brother, my assignment, my parents, my home, and even my planet!

I rub my head as I carefully climb out of bed. I might have thought I was back home if it weren't for the wooden beds. Only a couple years ago had there been any wood in the Zermedine, but the ZLB ruled it "Unhealthy" and removed every particle of wood in the facility. That was also when they repainted the community. If I weren't 7 -that's right... I am 7- and had seen the wood that used to be in the Zermedine I might be staring at the greenish brown stuff all around me and act like I was 1. But as I walk the halls toward some noise I pass several small children, 1/2 or 1 years old, and they don't seem at all mesmerized by it.

A boy (probably a 7 or 8) walks up to me and asks, "So, Kayla, what's wrong?"

I stop. What do you mean, "What's wrong?"  I wanted to shout, My whole life is gone, my family's gone, I don't know where I am, and everyone knows my name! Instead, I stared at him and asked, "How do you, and everyone else on this planet for that matter, know my name? I don't have the slightest idea who you are!"

The boy seems confused- no, shocked- and he opens his mouth to say something, but stops himself and suddenly changes, flashing a bright smile. "Sorry about that! I'm Jake. Everyone calls me George or... Well, anything but Jake, so I pretty much answer to anything." He holds out his hand. Now I stare in confusion.

"Um..." he reaches to my side, grabs my hand and shakes it. I stare. "Don't you even know what a handshake-" He slaps his hand over his mouth, wide eyed. He mumbles something before removing his hand. "Uh, you're supposed to go to Aunt Biltnee today-"

"Wait... Is she your Aunt too?" I ask.

"No. Actually I don't think she has a single relative in this town, but everyone just calls her 'aunt'. I don't know why, though." He smirks, every hint of his former panic-like state wiped away.

"Ok, so..." I feel like running again, back to that field maybe, but, me and my questions, I force myself not to make the same mistake of just runnning, "Um... why do people call you 'anything but Jake'?"

Jake shrugs "It's really silly, actually, but there was a guy named Jake, used to live in town, went wandering off toward this giant puffy grey 'cloud on earth', said there was some kind of 'higher technological world' in the cloud. Well, old Jake... he never came back. I had already been born though, so my name is really Jake, but folks 'round here don't call me by it, say it'll send me to my doom if they do."

I'm not really in my normal mood, but If I were, I would say something like, "Yup, that's silly! You should just not respond to people when they call you something different."

"Anyway, it's all fairytales and I don't think a persons name will choose there fate, but if it does, well I'm already a goner. Don't matter what you call me, my name is my name and I'd like to stick to it if you don't mind. Well, I better get you to aunt Biltnee's. She put me specially in charge over you. After you came here in the arms of those grumpy 'gaurders' they called themselves. 'Cept I don't what they guard since there ain't nothin' 'round here for miles, or maybe you just ran real far to wind up in their area or somethin'. Anyway, after they dumped you here and 'expressed their anger', Aunt Biltnee said I'd better stick close to you and see that you don't run yourself into anymore trouble... This way... Follow me." He says, then he quickly turns and speed walks down the hall.

I might have stood there in confusion at his strange way of talking and the jumbled way he relates events, trying to sort out what happened the night -was it night?- before and why he was called George and other things, and why he was taking me to aunt Bitnee, but my legs, still sore from my long runs, literally ached to run, so I follow close behind.

He stops in an open doorway facing a street with many cheerful people, going to and fro and children on doorsteps yanking at shoelaces and running as they pull bright hoodies on. If this is the same street that I ran down yesterday, the same street Jake had run down calling to me to play, the same street I stumbled out to after my confusing visit with -Aunt?- Biltnee, I wouldn't be able to tell. It definitely looked different. No longer did the street seem like it was on the verge of sleep, but there were many more sounds, bells, shouts, hammers, even a motor sound. Or maybe I just hadn't had my head straight enough to notice them until now. The sky shone bright blue and Jake seems to gaze up at it. Another confusing thing, why did I always wake up during the sunset and go to sleep as the day begins and the sky is red? He whispers something, but it is too quite for me to hear. Obviously he wasn't talking to me, but who was he talking to?

"Aunt Biltnee lives just down there." Jake points somewhere down the street "Ready for 'rehab'? Whatever Aunt Biltnee's interpretation of that is?" I want to say yeah, I guess I'll struggle through it for today, and laugh, pretend nothing's wrong, to be cheerful and satisfied like everyone else, but I simply nod my head and follow him down the street. As we walk, kids call out "Good morning, Kayla" and "Hey, Greg!" (referring to Jake, of course) and other things, but my mind is too jumbled still, to think or respond. And anyway, I don't want to.

We finally arrive at the door that is Aunt Biltnee's, and Jake says, "Well this is it and I'd best get off to school now. See you later." I just stand, frozen on the doorstep. I might stand here all day if the nurse doesn't hear Jake calling, but she does and I was soon inside for "mental rehab"... ugh.