A Hidden World

Teens

A gaggle of teenage girls appears from around a corner. "Katie!" one yells in a way adolescent girls do when seeing their best friend. Others wave while a pack of six scurries in our direction. Everyone seems to say hello at once.

It dawns on me, since hearing "Hello" in a hallway below, they all speak with different accents. In a small town, or even a city, most people talk the same way. It is how people say certain words or speak certain sequences of words. They all speak English, but with accents. A clear British one, a southern twang, one sounds like an Australian accent. She is small, with a blackish skin tone. Could she be Aborigine? One looks Native American with long jet black hair, high cheek bones and elongated cheeks. One appears to be Oriental. All have an array of skin tones.

Katie rattles their first names far too quickly for me to catch. She turns, "This is Tammy Richards. She's a victim from that South Dakota tornado. She left ECCU a few minutes ago."

A girl steps toward me with her hand outstretched to shake mine. "Miss Richards, I'm with rescue group two. I was in your town after that twister hit, but not at your school. The children told us how great you were in that half hour before we got down to you. You're a brave one, Miss Richards."

In turn, they reach to shake my hand. One girl nods, "We best let Katie get Miss Richards settled in." A moment later, they vanish into an elevator.

"I'm sorry Tammy. That was a bit much all at once. They're all good friends of mine. We take a lot of our rescue training together. Your suite is down this hall."

Murals continue on one wall. The other wall appears to be glass. Beside me at first glance is a play area for small children. It is a daycare. I see about ten children and at least five adults. It is a large room about a hundred feet deep with a far wall about six feet high. Above that is reflective glass. There are educational toys of every description, a sandbox, tables, chairs, climbers, slides, paints, crayons, felt markers, and a wall of books.

A couple of hundred feet further up a large room about a hundred feet deep reveals an empty open area with lounge chairs and tables. Beyond them is a glass wall. Looking beyond that clear wall reveals nothing for several hundred yards. There is a huge building visible in the distance.

Northern Canada has next to no population. I understood it is small towns and villages. Not twenty seven story buildings with another huge tall building in the distance.

Fascinated, I enter the room and move to hold a handrail built into the far glass wall. Three hundred yards below is a North American style football field. Past end zones are volleyball courts and opposite two full size basketball courts. Thirty yards either side of that football field's sidelines are rows of tennis or badminton courts. People move playing games below.

In tiers going up each floor recesses a little farther away. A few stories above us floors start moving closer together for another three hundred yards. A wisp of a cloud obstructs a clear blue sky above. I look left and right. It is an octagon shaped void. I am in and looking out at a massive eight sided building, completely encircling the play fields below.

I feel Katie close behind me. "Some people get dizzy when looking out at it. Others never get used to it."

"I am fine. I rode in helicopters without doors while with the Marines. A football field, volleyball and basketball courts and lots room left, how big is this building?"

She replies, "I don't know. Our buildings are eight sided and sixty stories above ground with more levels below. All the buildings have attached walls. They surround a deployment center. I've been here since they started this building and haven't seen all of this one, let alone the others."

Others! How many people live here? One more question to add to a few thousand already on my list. I smile at her, "Katie, please lead on. I suspect it will take a while for me to understand this place."