The Fruits of Earth - Part 4
Thursday, December 27, 2018
“Please,” she says. “Please don’t tell!”
“I’m not gonna tell, you idiot. Show me.”
Ladeena starts crying. I feel sorry for being so bossy with her, but that’s who I am. This is how you survive in the Farm.
“Come on,” I say. “Just show me.”
She doesn’t want to but has no choice. She slowly unbuttons her clothing and lowers her rompers to reveal some kind of wet bandage under it. Then she looks at me inquiring and I invite her to continue. She starts unwinding the cloth and soon I can see her bare legs. Ladeena bears the signs of a seed! It’s so obvious, even in the dim light inside the shed. I feel jealous of her. She is so much more advanced in her treatment than I am. And the signs look genuine, unlike mine, which looks like a raw wound.
“What are you using?” I ask. “Wormwood? Sage? Something else?” I sniff around the cloth. “It smells foul, what is it?”
Ladeena looks at me but says nothing. She starts bandaging her legs back.
Now I’m really pissed. “Since when did you start?” I ask. “Yours look much better than mine.” I grab Ladeena’s shoulders and shake her. “Tell me!”
That last one was almost a shout. At this point, I have left all cautions of being discovered aside. I have to know her secret. I have to.
Ladeena tries to fight away but I’m much stronger than she is. She capitulates.
“I just cover the skin with this bandage,” she says.
“That much I understand,” I gesture a dismiss with my hand, “…but what’s on it?”
Ladeena looks embarrassed. “It’s dipped in piss,” she whispers.
I wrinkle my nose and make a step back. So that’s what the smell was. Ladeena takes advantage at my pause and she manages to get fully dressed again.
“Just… piss?” I ask in disbelief.
Ladeena nods.
“That’s kinda disgusting,” I say, still unsure on how to take this.
She shrugs. “I’ve heard if you do this, it won’t show.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know… the signs.” Since I don’t answer, Ladeena feels obliged to continue: “I try to hide them like that.”
I pause at her answer. I don’t understand why she would do that. Nobody in their whole mind would conceal the signs. They are the display of greatness.
“Hide? Why would you wanna hide them?” I ask.
It’s Ladeena’s turn to pause at me. She makes another attempt to go around me and leave the shed. But I’m not about to let this go just like that. I block her way.
“Answer me,” I say, getting even more impatient. I push her back into the corner. “Why?”
“’Cause I’m afraid.”
“Afraid?” I didn’t expect that. “Afraid of the other girls? They’re just jealous. What can they do?”
“No, not of the other girls,” Ladeena dismisses my idea. “Of the supers’.”
“The supervisors will be thrilled, you moron,” I laugh. “They can’t wait to see the blossoms in a girl. You know how they are… I’ll bet they’ll even offer you some treats.”
Ladeena avoids looking at me.
“So how did you do it?” I continue. “How did you get to show them? Were you using some plants?”
Ladeena exhales loudly, like having a great burden on her chest.
“I didn’t,” she says. “They are legitimate. That’s why I was trying to hide them.”
“But why?”
“You really don’t know what happens to the seeds, do you?” Ladeena says, smiling with superiority.
“What happens?” I smirk at her: “They get adopted, this is what happens. They get the hell out of this place.”
Ladeena shakes her head, all of the sudden more serious. “No, they don’t. They get sold off. And that’s not even the worst part of it…”
“What are you saying?”
“They will do things to you, bad things… Put things inside of you. You will… never be your own again.”
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You’re totally crazy,” I say. I feel like slapping her. “You’re stupid.”
“I’m not, I tell you. I know it. They do horrible stuff to the seeds. They just say that seeds are the greatest so that you play along and don’t complain.”
“That’s stupid,” I yell in anger. “You’re stupid.”
Ladeena shakes her head and looks at me like she pities me.
“You’d better pray to be just a fruit, poor thing,” she says.
I punch her in the face so hard I knock her down. Her beanie flies off her head from the sheer force of the blow. I leave her bleeding in the shed. That’ll teach her a lesson. To spread all this ill talking… Who does she think she is?
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