Sector City

Prelude ~Julie~

   A whirlwind of events surrounded my thirteenth birthday, a sector change, my parents, Clarence Blake Clark and Kenzie Bree Clark, gone, and it all started with a note.
~
I walk home from school the day before my birthday laughing with my friends. We are headed to my dad's art studio for a sleepover that we have been planning for weeks. Gracie's mom finally consented to let her come, so now there are three of us, Gracie, Ellie, and me.
Everything was perfect, until we stepped into the elevator and the doors slid shut.
There, stuck to one of the doors, was a small piece of paper.

"Julie,
Call your mom!
She needs to talk to you.
Dad."

I glance nervously at my friends,  neither have noticed it yet. I reach out, rip it off the door, and shove it in my pocket.
The laughter stops, both the girls look at me suspiciously.
"What was that?" Gracie croons, "A love note?"
The giggling rebounds before I can respond. I realize that if I pretend that that's what it is then this whole thing will be over before it even starts and that is exactly what I want. So, I duck my head and make myself blush.
"It's probably from that cute boy on the tenth floor," Ellie says, she has been here with me before because her mom and my dad worked together on a mural for the town hall and they planned it out in his studio. While they were doing that, we were snooping around the building.
The elevator dings, the doors open, and we step into the hallway. Both of them are still laughing like little idiots, although I would never say that to their faces.
We walk to my dad's door, number 615, and I pull my key out of my wallet that is hanging from the brown lanyard around my neck. The lanyard is school issued, but I decorated it, same as with my school issued backpack, covered with the sector tree.
Its branches hang low like a young live oak and are decked with small glass lanterns, each holding a candle but all of different colors.

The tree is every thing I want to be, beautiful, majestic, strong, powerf-

"Snap out of it Julie," Ellie grumbles as she shoves me to the side, and unlocks the door herself. "I'm hungry!"
the door swings open and we all barge in and drop our backpacks down on the table. I walk over to the phone and take it out of its holder.
"I'll be right back," I say opening the clear glass door to the balcony, "make yourselves at home."
I slide the door back into place and dial my mom's cell phone number. I stand there facing the city as it rings, once, and a bus pulls up at the red light less than half a block away, twice, and a huge flock of pigeons flies past at breakneck speed, three times and my mom picks up.
"Julie Anne," the first words out of her mouth, normally have the ability to calm my nerves even in the most confusing circumstances, but not this time. Her voice is riddled with worry. I can almost immediately tell that something is wrong, but the note from dad helps too.
"Mom what's wrong?" I ask a little bit of panic in my voice that even I didn't know was there.
"I've been called on a research trip to the Sector Garden, your father has decided that he is going with me."
"But! But! But!" I stammer, grabbing the railing tightly and inhaling quickly, "What about ME?"
"You will be going to stay with my sister and her husband on their farm in the Scientific Sector." mom says slowly, as if I were a child that she was explaining this to, I guess I am acting like one so I don't respond, yet. "We should only be gone for a couple of months."
That's when it hits me that they wont be here. I will be stuck on a farm for two whole months at least, maybe longer. I become desperate.
I whine, "Why does daddy have to go?" in my most pitiful little kid voice yet.
"Because he wants to," I think my mother will stick with the classic response but then she continues, "he wants to take this once in a life time chance to see the sector trees, he thinks he'll get inspiration from them and my bosses have agreed that he can go."
I wonder what my dad bribed them with this time.
"Alright," I say dejectedly submitting to my fate, "but I have a few friends over, do I need to send them home?"
"That won't be necessary," my mom says, "they can still stay the night. Pack your things and just get on the Agricultural bus on the way home instead of ours."
When I hang up I go inside to have a pity party with my friends. at least they understand.
~
The next afternoon I stand at the bus line with Gracie and Ellie. The bus pulls up and I turn to each of them in turn for a farewell hug. We all three worked ourselves to tears last night. I walk slowly toward the bus and as its brakes squeal, the doors open and the bus fills quickly.
As I climb the stairs hear Ellie shout out a word or phrase, but while I can hear her voice I can not quite catch the meaning. Instead of responding with something meaningless to her, I turn and wave then continue into the bus. the bus driver barely notices me and I find an empty seat three rows back.
I slide to the very edge and stare out the window, while all the farmers' kids laugh and joke with each other. Just before the driver closes the door and pulls out, a tall, slender girl about my age jumps up the steps and into the bus. The guys finally shut up but they all just stare at her as she walks toward the only empty seat on the bus, right next to me.
"Hey," she says plopping herself and her backpack down as the bus rolls forward.
I mumble something vaguely resembling a "hey" back and continue staring out the window. I stay silent for most of the ride home. Until the farms start to show up and I realize I have no idea where my aunt and uncle live.
I turn to the girl and ask timidly, "Do you know where Anne and Lou Hayes live?"
"Next stop," she says, "That's where I get off too. You see that boy over there?" She points to a thick shouldered boy who has the same color hair as me, dirty blond. He has the same shaped nose too come to think of it. "that's the Hayes boy. just follow him home. By the way I'm Jenny Kay, I live right down the road from the Hayes', are you staying with them long?"
"Honestly I don't know," I say quietly, "I'm only supposed to stay for a month or two while my mom is at the Sector Garden, but it could be longer. I'm Julie Anne, the Hayes' niece." I have heard that 'ag' division people like double names so I might as well start with mine.
"Do you want me to walk you home?" Jenny Kay asks but then we both see the bus stop and I see an older, and fatter, version of my mom. "Oh..." she pauses, "Never mind there's your aunt."
The bus slows to a stop and about five or six other kids start gathering their things.
"I appreciate the offer though," I say as I grab my bag.
She smiles.
"Julie Anne," Aunt Anne shouts as I hop off the last step of the bus. I am followed by Jenny Kay and the boy who she says is my cousin. The rest of the kids are headed down the road.
~
"You are without a doubt the spitting image of your mother." she says, and, without skipping a beat, she continues to explain to me who the boy is, Thomas Henry apparently, and to him who I am, his cousin. Jenny Kay waves to me and heads off down the dirt road to what i can only assume is her house.

With the formalities through, and Jenny Kay gone, we walk to the farm house in complete silence. Thomas Henry it seems is a man of few words, quite unlike his mother.
~
By the time I climb into an old rickety bed in the upstairs of a pretty, yet practical, little farm house tonight, I have already learned how to gather the eggs and put out hay for Uncle Lou's steers. I was told that tomorrow it would be appreciated if I would "help with the baking". The way Aunt Anne cooks its no wonder she is so round, I watched her melt three entire sticks of butter for the hush puppies she made. I won't be complaining though because they tasted great. Thomas Henry, it seems, gets his silence from Uncle Lou. They both barely said a word all evening, but Aunt Anne makes up for that. She said more in the first ten minutes of me being in the house than I do during a normal phone call with my friends. The only thing I remember hearing from Thomas Henry was that he goes by the name Tom at school.
         I can tell already that this is going to be very different than living in the city, and I wonder if anything will ever be the same.
~