Kaleem
The last scene from Elder Joshran Kemnat’s Life Celebration
presentation faded from the huge screen which had been erected in the Peace Park.
Kaleem Kennedy-Bagarin’s left leg had gone to sleep. Because of the heat,
they’d been advised to sit for this part of the elder’s switch-off ceremony. Of
course, they’d all had to stand while the reposant was administered and while
his friends and relations said good-bye in private, and while the old man
became unconscious and died. The presentation though had been fascinating. That
was why Kaleem’s leg had gone to sleep. He had sat without moving for the two
hours of interviews and reminiscences. No wonder the man had been chosen as an elder.
He had been so clever and kind.
Kaleem tried to stand on his leg. It
gave way, making him tumble back down to the ground.
Pins and needles shot through as the
blood gradually made its way back to his toes.
Other people around him were now
making their way towards the transport decks.
Kaleem started to hobble along with them. He didn’t rate his chances of
getting a transporter though. Apart from which, he was not sure where he was
going. There seemed little point in going back to his grandparents’ apartment.
They wouldn’t be back for ages. He didn’t fancy doing any work. He’d been at a
bit of a loss since he had come back from his parents’ attachment ceremony on
Zandra. He couldn’t settle to anything. Terrestra and Zandra were trading
steadily now. That was all running smoothly. They didn’t really need him any
more.
His leg started working properly
again. He kept up with the rest of the crowd as they made their way towards the
nearest exit from the park.
He suddenly remembered that was where
he had first seen Razjosh. Here in this very park. Razjosh had been an old man,
even then. Now, he was almost as old as
Joshran Kemnat.
Kaleem stopped walking, suddenly
feeling nauseous. That meant that it would soon be Razjosh’s turn. Kaleem had
never been to a switch-off ceremony before, so he’d never known what happened
in the private part where the departant was given the reposant and then drifted
into a final sleep. Before today, he’d never seen even the public part of the
ceremony. It had always been something he’d rather not think about. Of course,
not every ceremony was as well attended as Joshran Kemnat’s had been, not even
for an elder. Kemnat had just been so popular. But was this going to happen to
Razjosh soon?
Then he had another thought, even
more awful. If Razjosh was going to face switch-off soon, then that would mean
that he would become the only Peace Child. One day, he would be an elder too.
And he would have no-one to show him the way any more. What if he pretended to
be learning very slowly? Then they would have to keep the elder around for a
little longer. No, Razjosh would see through that.
The nausea became even greater.
Kaleem was sure he was going to throw up any second now. The bile rose into his
mouth and his stomach retched. He felt hot and dizzy. He couldn’t stop the foul
fluid coming up into his mouth, burning his gut and his mouth on the way. He heaved
and spat out the evil-tasting liquid which spattered all over the ground,
making an ugly stain. Even getting rid
of all that unwanted material from his stomach didn’t relieve the uncomfortable
physical feeling, nor did it take away the horrible thought. Razjosh, to be
switched off? No more Razjosh. He retched again, but there was nothing left in
his stomach to come out.
He wiped his mouth and looked round. Good
that no one had seen him. This would not do. Not out in public. It would cause
a panic. They’d think he’d got Starlight again. That was ironic! He was
probably the last person on Terrestra who would get it. The antibodies in his
system were really strong. He was 100% immune to it now.
There was a bench nearby. Kaleem
staggered over towards it. He was shaking now. He bent his head so that it was
touching his knees. Then he put the fingers of his left hand on the pressure
point on his right wrist how they’d showed him on Zandra. After five minutes he
changed his hand over so that the fingers from his right hand were resting on
his left wrist. The nausea gradually went away. He sat upright. He had stopped
shaking.
The crowd was thinning out. He would
set off in a minute or two. He was still not sure where. He did think for a
moment of visiting the cave apartment he used to share with his mother, but
then realized that it would still be locked up. Then he thought of Pierre
LaFontaine. His apartment was not too far from here either. But somehow he
didn’t feel like being with just one person. He preferred the idea of a crowd
tonight. Somewhere where he could just listen and only had to join in the
conversation if he really wanted to. Besides, there was no guarantee that Pierre would be in.
He decided to go to the New Laguna
Bar. “New” . That was a funny name for it. It was over twenty years old, and
underground. It still worked the same way it always had. People of his age often came here. And it was where his parents had first met.
In just twenty minutes he managed to
walk to the entrance to the New Laguna. It then took the lift ten minutes to
get down because it was built so deep within the old cave system.
It was disappointingly empty when he
got there. A single barman was on duty and someone who looked just a little
older than him propping up the bar. At least the barman was a human being,
though, and not a droid. He also seemed to be only a little older than
Kaleem.
“Hi there,” said the barman. “What
can I get you?”
“Wheat and rye, please,” said Kaleem.
It was the nearest in taste to the Zandrian frega which he now preferred to
Terrestran nectar. He found most of the juices here too sweet. This one was
sort of savoury.
“Coming up sir,” said the barman. He
was staring at Kaleem.
He’s asking himself if he knows me, thought Kaleem. And
he can’t quite think from where. He caught sight of his reflection in the
veriglass mirror behind the bar. That had been a real smart idea of his
grandmother’s, dying his hair black. Not only did it make him look more
Terrestran, it stopped people recognizing him straight away as the famous Peace
Child. The different coloured hair put people off the trail for a while, but
there might still be something recognizable.
Yes, his grandmother, Louish Kennedy,
was pretty smart. Why hadn’t he thought of that himself? It would have stopped
him looking so different from other Terrestrans back when he’d lived in the
cave apartment.
The bar man continued to stare as he
poured the drink.
“Not many people in tonight, then,
are there?” said Kaleem.
“No, it’s because of the switch-off,
I guess,” said the barman. “People don’t think they should enjoy a drink on the
day somebody’s switched off. A sort of sign of respect.”
Oh, here I go again, though Kaleem. Doing it different
from everybody else. The one time I come to a bar is the one time everybody
else stays home.
“Yeah,” said Kaleem, “but I wouldn’t
have thought that people our age would be so bothered about a switch-off.”
The bar man shrugged his shoulders. “Probably
not. Their olds might be, though.”
That was it, then, Kaleem guessed.
It was quite good, living with his
grandparents. They wouldn’t dare try and pin him down. Not after what he’d been
through, and anyway, they were just so glad to have him and Marijam, his
mother, back in their lives after she had gone and disappeared into the Z Zone
all those years ago.
“Anyway, everybody liked him,” the
bar man continued. “Even our lot. Wonder who’ll they pick for the next one?”
Of course, that was where Louish and
Frazier Kennedy were tonight. As Frazier was still head of education, they had
been invited to the wake for the elder of education and culture. The process of
choosing the next elder would start at the same party.
The barman disappeared into the room
at the back of the bar. Kaleem took a sip of his wheat and rye nectar. It was
still too sweet really, but it was helping to quench his thirst.
“You must be as bad as me. We must be
as hard-hearted as each other,” said a voice behind him. “Drinking when there’s
just been a switch-off. Not the done thing.”
Kaleem turned to see who was
speaking.
There was something familiar about
the young man with a distinctively long face. Kaleem could not quite work out
where he knew him from though. Before he had time to dwell on that, the
stranger started speaking.
“I know you from somewhere, don’t I?” he asked
Kaleem.
Kaleem hesitated.
The stranger shook his head. “Mmm?”
he said.
Oh what the heck. It was not exactly
going to cause a riot. People were really more interested in what he had done
than in him, anyway. Most people still found him a bit freakish, despite the
new hair colour.
“Imagine it blond?” he said pointing
to his head.
The thin-faced man frowned even
deeper now. “Yeah, definitely. Just can’t quite place you though,” he said
shaking his head.
“Zandra, acorns, vaccine, Starlight Racers….” Kaleem continued.
“Yes! Peace Child … Kal . er?”
“Kaleem Kennedy-Bagarin or Malkendy,
take your pick,” said Kaleem offering the stranger a Zandrian handshake.
The other man laughed.
“How do you…?”
“You just slot your hand into my
fingers like that,” he said, guiding the man’s hand into his open fingers.
“That’s interesting,” he said. “Much
friendlier than ours.”
“Yeah,” said Kaleem. Then he frowned.
“But look, I know you as well, from somewhere.”
“Did you watch the ceremony today?”
asked the stranger.
Kaleem nodded.
“Imagine ceremonial robes, then,” the
stranger continued.
Kaleem nodded again. “You were the
guy who …?”
“Yeah, that was me. I’m Ben Alki
Mazrouth, master of switch-off ceremonies. Because I’ve got a long face and I’m
generally so skinny, just like a skeleton, I always do the dark bit. They say I
look the part. ” Ben Alki pulled a long face.
Kaleem laughed. Suddenly he wanted to
know more. A lot more. “What actually happens,” he asked, “in that bit we don’t
watch. I mean, what’s it like, when they actually, you know…”
“Not pretty,” replied Ben Alki. “Not
much to it though really. They’ve usually been so heavily sedated- the
departants - for days really, and then a bit more so on the day, so they don’t really notice much. It’s a wonder they’re with-it
enough to give out their gifts. No. It’s the relatives and close friends you
feel sorry for. They really get stressed. Even those you’d think were pretty
near to switch-off themselves and have seen it all before.”
Ben-Ali stopped speaking suddenly and
stared at the wall behind the bar. He took a sip of his nectar.
Kaleem looked down at his wheat and
rye. No he couldn’t bear to touch it. It was too sweet and he felt nauseous
again. This was going to happen to Razjosh soon. In several more years’ time,
this would happen to Marijam and Nazaret if they decided to live on Terrestra.
He would still be relatively young himself then. Eventually, it would happen to
him. Oddly, that did not bother him so much. He would not have to watch it, and
as Ben Alki said, he would hardly be conscious.
He thought about the two other times
when he had been drugged. Both times, he had fallen asleep instantly – oh, and
he’d had that dream of course. Then
he’d woken up several hours later and felt more or less all right.
Switch-off would be different. He
wouldn’t wake up from that.
Ben Alki suddenly tipped his beaker
of nectar back and drank it all in one go.
“Can I get you another drink?” he
said to Kaleem.
“No thanks,” said Kaleem. “I’m still
okay.” He pointed to the almost full glass of wheat and rye.
The barman had not come back.
“Any-one serving round here?” Ben
Alki called.
Kaleem noticed the impatience in his
voice. Perhaps it’s his work, he
thought.
A droid marched into the space behind
the bar. Presumably, the barman had gone off duty or else was still doing some
work in the back room.
“May I be of help sir?” asked the
electronic voice.
“Yes please,” said Ben Alki. “A rose
and orange water. And make it a double.”
The droid busied itself getting the
drink. Kaleem winced. Rose and orange water was the sickliest of all the
nectars. A double, after the single Ben Alki had already drunk so quickly was
bound to have an effect – probably a not altogether good one.
Ben Alki turned and grinned at him.
“It’s okay,” he said. “I can take it. I’m used to it. You need this with the job
I’ve got.”
“Mmm,” murmured Kaleem. He wasn’t
sure.
“I bet you wonder why I do it,” said Ben
Alki.
“Well, yes, actually ….,” replied
Kaleem.
“It’s easy,” said Ben Alki. “I can’t
be bothered to study to do anything else. The pay’s good here. Really good if
you think about how gross it is. It’s the best solution for me.”
That’s true,
thought Kaleem. He’s got a point there. In
fact, it was the only unpleasant task a
human might be expected to do. Robots and droids did all the menial things –
fixing broken machines, cleaning out the sewers and dealing with the rubbish. But
most humans would shy away from conducting a switch-off ceremony because it was
so horrible. Almost as horrible as having to issue the reposant or having to laser
and mulch the corpse.
“Actually,” Ben Alki continued,
waving his tumbler at the droid, “it’s quite good at the moment. Less to do.
The Starlight disease has done some of our work for us. They’re also allowing
them another five years.” His words were beginning to slur. A shadow passed
across his face. “Ah, but it’ll all get frantic again in a couple of years,” he
said, “especially ‘cos of your work. Getting them acorns to Zandra, so’s we can
have some vaccine in exchange.” He
hiccoughed. He grinned. “S’alright,” he said. “You’re a good egg.” He turned
towards the droid that was standing motionless in front of him. “More’n I can
say for you, sunshine.” He slammed his tumbler down on the counter.
“Sir will not be permitted any more
nectar,” said the droid. Its automatic response had set in: Ben Alki Mazrouth
would be receiving no more nectar today. He was a little over the limit
already.
“Are you okay?” started Kaleem.
“Would you like me…?”
Ben Alki stopped him before he could
finish.
“No, it’s fine,” he said, suddenly
sounding quite sober again. He looked directly at the droid. “Call me up a
transporter.” He turned to Kaleem. “Just a pity she wasn’t here.”
“Who’s she?” asked Kaleem.
“Sophia,” replied Ben Alki. He slid
off the hoverstool and walked towards the door in an absolute straight line.
Whatever effect the nectar had had, it was wearing off rapidly. He turned in
the doorway and grinned at Kaleem.
“Come and watch some time,” he said.
“There’s an observation room. They can’t see you.” He waved and then
disappeared through the doorway.
