Homesick
Chapter Sixty - The Earthquake

4702 was sleeping when the earthquake hit. The ground shook violently, sending him flying towards the South wall, though he couldn’t be sure how much of that was real and how much was a dream. He never actually hit the wall, which made him think it was a dream. He also remembered noticing that the others had not awakened and the room itself remained undamaged.

The next day, however, there was considerable evidence of quake damage. One of the new towers of the poor Masters’ palace had crumbled badly. Fortunately, a work crew was busy restoring it. The wheel survived, as did the foundry, though the many stacks of bricks had to be resorted and piled. It saddened 4702 that the Masters’ bricks would be delayed, and he begged be allowed to work extra hours to make up for the loss. But Mistress Pooool refused his request, claiming that all was still on schedule. He’d also offered to help retrieve bricks that had fallen from the palace wall and deliver them to the workers on top. But no, she seemed determined that he waste those precious hours uselessly asleep!

Mistress Obiiilion probably would have allowed 4702 the extra work, but Mistress Pooool only granted such favors grudgingly, if ever. Also, Mistress Pooool’s face seemed oddly sour to him. Mistress Obiiilion always looked happy and content, and she made her every desire known. Mistress Pooool rarely claimed the privileges she was entitled to. And she asked so many questions!

Almost every day Mistress Pooool would have her chair set down near where he was working. She would then start prodding him for information about things totally irrelevant to the task at hand! She asked him about Nebraska, which was a word that sounded familiar, but only vaguely. Why was she trying to get him to remember that? He thought it was a place, but he didn’t know why. And, even if it was, it had to be far away from home, since his memories of it were so poor. But thinking about it made him afraid. It was worse than the horrible machine in the sky, probably because it was farther away than even that was! But, how did he know that? He always felt confused after talking with Mistress Pooool. Why wasn’t she more concerned with making the new tower for the palace? Wasn’t that more important after the quake? And why didn’t she talk about getting the other people out of the machine? Mistress Obiiilion cared for them, why didn’t Mistress Pooool?

But Mistress Pooool wasn’t his only concern these days. There was a female and two younger ones who always ended up working near him. He didn’t know why, but they disturbed him. Their faces made him uncomfortable, as if something about them were wrong or out of place. And they always looked glum. Why? There was so much joy here! How could they not be enjoying themselves? Didn’t they appreciate all the Masters had given them? And why should they always make it a point to hang around him? They were all one! The Brethren were a unit that moved together! Was it mere coincidence that every time he looked back while walking, that strange woman happened to be watching him? Occasionally she even spoke to him, but her words were confounded like the gibberish the enemies from the machine spoke.

But then sometimes, while he slept, he would think of her face. It would appear in his mind, distracting him. And a word came with it. It wasn’t a name like he had, but it was more than just a sound. “Wife?” What did that mean?

The thought of this word made his head hurt and he felt desperately apprehensive. He breathed deeply, drinking in the scent of his brothers and sisters. He reached out to feel their moist, sticky bodies.

“Go away, Wife!” he said to the face in his mind. “You come from the bad place beyond the horrible machine in the sky and I don’t want to remember you!”

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