The Twenty Five Percent Rayanna

Utopia

          I awaken with a start. Where am I? What woke me up? I look around, momentarily confused. I seem to be in my room in Everly Station. I breathe a sigh of relief. Okay, so why the confusion? Wait, something is wrong. Where is my bed? The room looks like it always has, except instead of being asleep in the same bed I have been using since my arrival, I am curled up in a brown oversized recliner. What's going on? Did someone break in while I was sleeping and steal my bed? But why leave me with this chair? How did I even get back here in the first place? Last thing I remember, I was with Wolfe, inspecting the claw marks the lions left in the trees, last night.

         "Well, just laying here won't answer my questions. I better go find Wolfe and see if I can find out what happened." I say to myself. I stand up, and head for the door. I twist the doorknob, open the door and find myself standing in the same hallways as always. Only, it's not quite the same. The holes in the floors and walls, the loose hanging wires and beams, all seem to have been repaired overnight. The building looks as if it were just built. What in the world? I follow the twisting and turning hallways until I get to the door that leads outside. I hesitate momentarily, what if Wolfe and Lou left me?

        I shake the bad thought and open the door. I blink in the bright sunlight and look around me. I'm definitely not in Everly Station anymore. I'm not sure where I am, but it definitely qualifies as a city. Where Everly Station was a small town built out of a collection of old zoo buildings, this place looks brand new and has a sort of shine to it. The buildings, as far as I can see, are all white, even the roofing tiles. The sky is a soft pink color, and the sun seems smaller than usual. I look down at my feet and see lush, green grass growing along pristine white sidewalks. Flowers in a variety of colors and shapes are scattered throughout the green landscape. 

       I bend over and run my hands through the grass. I have never felt anything so soft before, it feels softer than the bed I was sleeping in last night. I pick a yellow flower and bring it to my nose, what a beautiful scent. A delicately sweet scent that smells so good I briefly consider eating it before deciding against it. I straighten up and see a variety of trees, growing here and there. These too, seem to come in a variety of colors. Some of the trees are full of colorful flowers, some are just full of leaves, and some have fruit dangling from them. I walk to a tree with fruit, and gently examine it, careful not to pull the fruit from the branch. The fruit in question is oblong-shaped and purple in color.

        "Welcome to Paridon and by extension, Rojus," a voice says from my left.

        I look and see an older woman approaching me. She looks vaguely familiar and I get a sense of déjà vu. Who is she? Why does she seem so familiar? And then it hits me. Kyra. Her name is Kyra. She was with Altair when he picked me up from the Ghemin. The Ghemin. The Lotto. I must be dreaming again. Nothing for over a week and then bam, back to this weird dream. I sigh, annoyed.

        "Come along, dear the women's dorms are up ahead. I'll show you where they are and where your room is. From there, I want you to wait until Altair comes to get you. He will show you around. Give you the 'Grand Tour' as they say." Kyra says. "Oh, and I suggest holding off on the fruit. Dinner will be shortly. You don't want to spoil it."

        I guess I'll just play along until I wake up again. "Okay," I say, dropping my hand to my side. I follow behind her as we pass by several more trees heavy with fruit, and past a few smaller buildings as well. Soon, we are approaching a large building. We walk up the steps and approach two large glass doors.

        Kyra stops, with one hand on the front door, and turns to face me. "This is the female dormitories, no men allowed in here, with the exception of Altair, of course. And absolutely no men in the rooms, and no co-mingling amongst men and women that aren't married. That is the biggest rule, if you break it, you will be kicked out of not only the city but off the planet as well. I know that you are young but there are more important things than finding a partner, that need to get done. In fact, finding a partner should be at the bottom of the list of things to do. Just go on ahead and push it out of your mind. Understood?"

       "Yes." I say. She sure is bossy.

       "Yes, what?"

       What does she want? "Yes, I understand?"

       "I'm glad you understand but I'm going to need a yes ma'am from you." She says, sounding annoyed.

        "Yes, ma'am," I say. Yes, ma'am? Who says that? I wonder why she wants me to be so formal. And finding a partner? Does she mean getting married? Seriously? That already was far down the list of important things to do, more like at the bottom of the list. I don't have time to be hunting down men.

        She turns around and opens the door and I follow her inside one of the most richly decorated buildings I have ever seen. When I was a little girl, I remember my mother telling me a story of something called a princess. This princess lived in a magnificent palace, filled with tons of toys, food, and furniture, more than she could ever need in her entire lifetime. I used to have fun trying to imagine huge rooms filled with unused furniture, and now I no longer have to imagine it. I guess you would call this room the entryway. It's larger than any of the buildings in Eterly Station, in fact, I would say you could fit ten buildings from the Station in here and still have room to walk around them. In the center of the room is a large water fountain, so big that I could take a bath in it if I wanted to. Behind the fountain, I can see an elevator with glass doors. To the left and right of the fountain are winding staircases leading up.

        "Wow," I whisper. I think I'm going to enjoy living here, even if it is just a dream.

        "Follow me. You have been assigned to the fifth floor." Kyra says, making her way around the fountain to the elevator.

       As I pass by the fountain, I look down and see multicolored fish swimming around inside of it. Some of the fish are as small as my finger and some are as large as my arm. I notice that small rocks and aquatic plants litter the bottom of the fountain. "There's fish in there?" I say out loud.

      "Yes, rare fish, found only in the rivers on the far side of Mount Meju." she says, pushing the call button for the elevator. There is a ding, and the glass doors slide open. She walks inside and waits for me to enter before pushing the button for the fifth floor, there's a brief moment and then the doors slide shut.

       The elevator comes to life and zooms us to our destination. A few seconds later, there is a ding, and the doors open up. We walk down the long hall, in silence, until we reach a door with the number 523 on it. She places a hand, on a pad, beside the door, pushes a few buttons under the pad, and then I hear a beep. "Okay. Place your hand, here, on the scanner."

      I do as I'm told and hear another beep, followed by a click.

        "Your handprint has now been registered, so you can come and go as you like. Only, not today. Today you wait in your room. Just remember, your hand will not open any other door but this one."  she says, before turning and walking away.

        "Wait I..." I start to say, turning around. But it's too late, she has already disappeared down the winding hall. I shrug and turn back to the door, that I'm told leads to my room. I open the door and look around. I'm not sure that room is quite the right word you would use to describe what I see. It's more like a house, or like apartments back in the day. This place is huge, Ican tell it's bigger than any house I have ever been in. I step into the room and let the door close behind me. I turn around but don't see a lock. I guess the door automatically locks. Before I can explore my new living arrangement, any further, I hear a knock on my door. Who could that be? I just moved in.