Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
I haven’t done my own laundry in a decade, but when I was in charge of it, our machine did not make noise like the ones in there.
“They run off jumps.”
“Huh?” I turn, surprised at Rodge’s voice in my ear.
“You’ve been pretty curious about the laundromat all morning. The machines run off jumps. That’s how we power them. The laundromat is a joint venture with myself and the gentlemen on the other side of the tower who sell jolts and jumps. I provide machines and labor, they provide the jumps. It’s very expensive, but…” Rodge shrugs. “Some residents of the tower have the coin, so we are happy to wash their clothes for them. Tyse always has us wash his clothes. He’s got coin, you know. War pensions for augments—even defective ones—are very generous. Don’t let his meager existence fool you.”
I smile. “Yes. You’re probably right about that. But… what’s a jump?”
“Oh!” Rodge’s eyebrows go up. “You are very new, aren’t you?”
I smile meekly and shrug. “Yes.”
Rodge continues to work as he talks, taking a slip and handing to me for filling. “Jolts and jumps are packages of spark. It’s all around us in here, but just in small bits. The gentlemen on the other side of the tower can collect the spark from the air and package it into potent jolts and even stronger jumps. You’re not addicted, I take it?”
I’m dropping little bars of food into the order bag when I answer. “Uhh… I don’t think so?”
“Well, if you stay much longer, you will be. So be careful. Maybe you could talk Tyse into leaving when you go.”
I turn and hand him the bag, now filled. “Why would I do that?”
Rodge takes the bag and hands it to the resident with a smile. “Five meal bars, five coins, Regina.”
Regina—an older woman with very messy gray hair and wearing clothes that look like they have never seen the inside of that laundromat—looks pained as she counts out five coins on the counter. But she doesn’t complain and before she turns to leave with her bag of food bars, she even gives us a smile. “Thank you. See you next time.”
Rodge gives her a small wave, then takes another order slip and hands it to me, picking up our conversation where we left off. “Tyse doesn’t belong here, Clara. He belongs…” Rodge’s eyes drift over to the window—which is actually a large cutout in the side of the building, outside of which is the dumbwaiter system that, for the right price, can get any resident of the tower anything they might need from the city. “Out there.” Rodge points in a seemingly random direction, which I interrupt to mean Tau City. But then when Rodge adds, “Where he came from,” I realize that’s not what he means at all.
“He belongs back in…” I search my memory for the name of the city Tyse said he came from as I start filling up the new order bag. “Delta?”
“No.” Rodge laughs. “Not Delta City. The Omega Outlands, of course. He hasn’t told you about it?”
“He mentioned it. Kinda of.” I just have no idea what he was talking about, but I don’t add that part. “It was something to do with his soldiering?”
“Oh, very much. The Omega Outlands is nothing but augments.”
“That’s the stuff in his eyes,” I say, handing Rodge the now-filled bag. “That makes him glow blue and show him words.”
Rodge gives me one of his surprised looks—which I rather enjoy because his face is so animated. “You’ve seen it!”
“Yeah. But… I think it’s acting up, or something. He was kind of surprised when it happened.”
“Oooooo.” Rodge’s expression is so comically astounded, I let out a chuckle. “That is something very interesting.”
Or, I postulate, something I was not supposed to talk about.
I think he gets this impression as well, because he changes the subject back to our original topic. “Jumps are very big packages of power. The men on the other side of Eight, they sell the spark to people who have been here too long. They need more and more of it to function, so the packages come in different sizes. Jumps are the largest available.”
“Define ‘too long,’ as far as being in the tower goes.”
“Well, it’s different for everyone. I’ve been here twenty years, myself. But I don’t live in the tower. My family and I live on the far edge of the ruins outside. So none of us have ever been in the field for more than ten hours at a time. We’re addicted, like everyone else on this edge of town. But we can leave and we’re not affected much. We even took a vacation back home last year for two whole weeks!” He smiles like he’s proud of this. “We could’ve stayed longer, but Tau City is home now. Thetaiota is where we came from, not where we belong.”