Awake

Chapter Thirty-One - Siblings

Pippa seemed to snap out of her daze. "Oh, that's just what it's like up here. All of you below-stairs aren't supposed to know about us."

"We don't," Carmen sat down cross-legged on the floor. "But we came up here anyway. Suppose you tell us all about it?"

Pippa looked from her to Nigs and back again, shuffling her feet uncomfortably.

"Please?" Carmen offered. "Please tell us?"

Pippa sat down hurriedly, drawing her knees up under her chin. "What do you want to know?"

"What is this place?" Carmen asked. "And why don't we know about it downstairs?"

Pippa took a deep breath. She even spoke a little like Nigs, some of the same cadences in their voices. As an only child, Carmen found the similarities between siblings bewildering. Nigs and Pippa might almost have been the same person.

"The army lives downstairs. They're in charge. They're what matters. We live upstairs, because we don't."

"I thought everyone was in the army," Carmen frowned. "I thought that was the whole point."

Pippa shook her head. "No. Somebody has to make your meals and sweep your floors. Someone has to stitch your clothes and purify your water."

"But why you?" Nigs demanded. "And why don't we know about it?"

The look Pippa gave him was so old and so tired that Carmen had to turn away.

"Because we're not good enough," the tiny girl said. "We're not strong enough. We're not built to be soldiers and we're not smart enough to be scholars. We're not good enough to live downstairs."

"What?" Nigs stared, horrified. "But...what's supposed to be wrong with you?"

Pippa undid the rows of heavy buckles up her left boot and gently removed it. There was no foot on the end of her leg, just a smooth rounded curve as her calf came to a tidy halt.

"I was born without it," Pippa said, simply. "It's not unheard of. But you can't be a soldier with only one foot. With these boots on, I can walk around but I could never fight like I'd be required to."

"So they hide you up here?" Nigs was outraged. "That's terrible!"

"Better up here than down there," Pippa snapped.

Nigs blinked. "Really? You think so?"

"You have to be obedient," Pippa snarled. "You have to do exactly what you're told. At least we're allowed to talk to each other. At least we're allowed to think for ourselves. Because they don't care about us. They don't think we can do anything."