“It’s a good thing you brought those,” Kamrin said, shaken.
Luke nodded. “I’ll give our neighbor two of our water bottles,” he said, closing his now empty backpack.
It was strange that, as the remainder of the adrenaline kept him alert, he felt full of life and energy. When had been the last sudden and rousing experience? He’d felt, seen, and heard more things in the past day at Taurus than he had during the last few years in the Purlieus. The icy air of the Taurus morning invigorated him and the world’s colors and sounds seemed to have sharpened around him. The incident had also diminished the uncomfortable inequality he’d felt beside Kamrin.
“Have you ever fought off thieves in the Purlieus, Luke?”
Kamrin’s voice was admiring. Trying to suppress a sudden burst of self-complacency, Luke answered, “No, there are no thieves in the Purlieus.”
“No thieves! How?”
“Burglary is considered one of the worst crimes in the Purlieus. The concept of possession is very important there, and taking what belongs to someone else is unforgivable. Everyone is born and raised to work honestly to earn something for themselves,” Luke found himself speaking of the Purlieus, for the first time, without feeling ashamed. “I suppose that’s why I didn’t consider the possibility of Graceway having thieves. I wasn’t as watchful as I should have been.”
Kamrin shook her head. “Graceway is full of thieves. We couldn’t have journeyed without running into some of them. We’ll need to be on guard for more later, Luke.”
“I will,” Luke promised. “I had no idea Graceway had so many.”
“Graceway is a city of crime, my teacher says,” Kamrin said. “There’s kidnapping and murder here as well.”
Luke stared at her in horror. “Murder?—why?”
“People want more money, that’s what my parents told me when I asked.”
Disgusted, Luke quickened his pace. “Ungrateful city brats,” he chose not to remember that Kamrin was potentially one of them. “They don’t know what it’s like to labor for what you own—they just want more than what they’ve already been given for free. I wish they could see the Purlieus, where everyone’s too busy fending for themselves to try and steal what others have.”
“But those who steal are used to doing that. It’s a way of living for them. Speaking of which, Luke…how did you fight them, if you’ve never faced thieves before?”
“Instinct, I suppose,” Luke said carelessly. “And working in the Purlieu fields make a man stronger than growing up snitching in the city streets.”
They walked in silence until they reached a street full of shops. Inside one, Luke endured the same hostile treatment as they briefly warmed themselves, but when the man at the counter said, “Trying to farm but failing, but being too proud to admit it, that’s what people are like in the Purlieus,” Kamrin retorted, “They also know how to raise their own crops instead of buying them in the market; have you ever wondered how much of what’s in your shop comes from the Purlieus? Those who haven’t might consider the Purlieu crops a ‘failure,’ right, Luke?” Luke had to hide a smile at the man’s offended expression.
Back outside, the tracks continued as did their journey; it was now near noon. The sky was becoming bluer and the streets less icy.
“We’re nearing another borough,” said Kamrin excitedly, “It’s still within the North division, but should be closer to the West.”
Sure enough, the sun was shining when Luke and Kamrin entered Angelis borough. It had a marble sculpture of an angel at its black, gracefully curved gateway, and its cobblestones were silver-gray speckled rocks. Angelis was still wintry, being in northern Graceway, but had less of Taurus’ aristocratic air and more of an old-fashioned, respectable look, in its faded brick buildings and the abundance of horse-pulled carriages through the streets.
“Haven’t you traveled out of Savannah before?” Luke asked Kamrin when he noticed that she seemed no less impressed by Angelis borough’s beauty.
“I have, but only within the West division. During the warmer months, my family and I often visit our grandparents, since they live in Austin borough. That’s where my father was born.”
The image of a family travelling together around Graceway was suddenly painted in Luke’s mind. “How nice,” was all Luke could say without betraying his sudden burst of envy as they walked on.
Kamrin seemed to sense his change in mood. Fortunately, as their conversation died down, they reached another neighborhood where they knocked on a house to ask for lunch.
As they thanked the man and walked in, Luke suddenly felt tense and unhappy again: he was not without hope that Angelis citizens would treat him with a manner better, at least, than those of the people in Taurus, but he told himself not to expect that.
“From the Purlieus,” the man grumbled as he led them to the table, “Lazy folks, farming trash.” Luke had not realized that his complexion would serve as such a clear indicator of where he was from. Angelis citizens were still fair, although not as pale as the ones in Taurus. The man had only glanced at him before changing his manner entirely.
The meal was difficult to endure. Kamrin now knew enough about Luke, or sensed a camaraderie with him, strong enough at least to glance at him worriedly every time something derogatory was said about the Purlieus. This did not help Luke control his temper, not when neither the man nor the woman seemed fazed at Luke’s silence.
“Farming’s a poor excuse for an existence,” the man said, glowering at Luke. “It’s a poor excuse for a life.”
“An excuse, that’s exactly what it is,” the woman agreed, “For people who can’t, or don’t want to, find real work. They run into the wilderness and hope for the best.”
“And what’s in the Purlieus? Rainstorms and sandstorms. Two kinds of hell.”
“Only pigheaded runaways would think of living there, a pathetic way of living it is,” the woman said. “Less determined runaways simply lay themselves down and die, I’ve heard. And serves them right.”
“Dying in the Purlieus might just be preferable to living here being clothed and fed by the city and sheltered from all sorts of disaster,” Luke snapped, unable to keep still at such a comment.
A silence fell over the table, during which Luke had less satisfaction of having the last word than the humiliation of having given way to his anger. The woman shook her head disapprovingly and the man gave his wife a glance that said all too clearly, “What did you expect from him?”
“Learn to listen and think before you lash out, Luke,” he recalled his uncle back home telling him sternly. Patience had never been his strong point. Anger still kept his face hot and his strides aggressive as he took Kamrin and walked out of that house.
“They were being insufferable, but Luke, you shouldn’t have said that to them. They were taking us in and giving us food without expecting us to pay.”
Unable to deny that, Luke walked on in silence.
“If you’ve never left the Purlieus before, how could you know what it’s like here? You just fought off thieves. That’s only a small part of the things that happen in Graceway. Not everything’s easy here, either.”
“Those people sure made it sound like it,” Luke said angrily, “Was what I said incorrect in any way, then? Does anyone here labor to provide food and shelter for themselves?”
“Graceway can afford to keep its citizens supplied with food and shelter because it has a government and laws that citizens abide by. Each borough has an Official who’s in charge of the distribution of resources there, and reports these things to the government of Graceway.”
“Not all its citizens abide by the law, if you look at the thieves. You said so yourself, there are many of them in Graceway.”
“Exactly. That’s what I meant by saying Graceway doesn’t have it easy, either. If there’s hard labor and natural disaster in the Purlieus, there are violent crimes and burglary here. The government can’t do everything perfectly.”
“With so much money and a well-established city, why can’t it? What’s it lacking that it can’t give the street people what you and the man and the woman have?”
Kamrin’s voice rose to echo his. “I don’t know what happened to the thieves to make them lose their home, but ultimately they’re breaking the law by stealing what belongs to others! When you break the law, you break a contract with society, that’s what my teacher said.”
“Why should you keep an accursed contract when it doesn’t feed you properly?” Luke demanded, recalling the hoarse voice and desperate eyes of the man who had attacked him. “I wouldn’t, either.”
“The government can’t keep track of all the food in all seventy-five boroughs of Graceway,” Kamrin told him scornfully.
“Seventy-five!” Luke repeated, stunned.
“Yes, Graceway is divided into quarters: North, South, East, and West. Within each division are boroughs that amount to seventy-five in total. And each division has a general climate, specific vegetation, seasons, and a culture of their own. Not to mention traditions, dialects, and customs. Even more when you consider each borough separately. Do you understand why you were wrong to assume that all Graceway is perfectly monitored?”
“How can that be possible? Seventy-five?” Luke had never imagined such multiplicity within a city, not even Graceway.
“The Purlieus are probably uniform for the most part,” Kamrin told him in a suddenly serious and gentle voice, as if she were the elder one between them, “and maybe that’s why you didn’t consider the culture here when you talked to that couple. They were brought up in the environment celebrating Graceway’s diversity and scorning the people of the Purlieus whom they considered to be voluntary withdrawers from the community of Graceway. Those are the things nearly every Graceway citizen is taught since childhood. What I was taught, too,” she finished as an afterthought.
Luke had a few things to say himself about the perception of the Purlieus, but facing the earnest eleven-year-old before him, he suddenly realized how intelligently she’d educated him about the fundamentals of where she lived. This conversation had angered and stunned him, making him feel as if he were talking to an equal, or perhaps even a superior. The contrast of her innocence with her sharp discernment of the erroneous beliefs taught in her own city was astonishing. He also realized that Kamrin herself had never directly spoken ill of the Purlieus.
“Did you learn all of this in school, Kam?” Luke asked finally, not attempting to restrain his genuine appreciation of the girl’s maturity and unchildlike, refined manner of speaking that had startled him as soon as he’d met her.
“Most of it, yes. From my parents as well. What’s school like in the Purlieus?”
“I’m not the one to ask,” Luke answered quietly, “My help was needed in the fields when I was about thirteen. I’ve never been to school since.”
Kamrin’s silence Luke perceived to be disgust or shock, and he felt himself flush, regretting his decision of revealing one of his greatest disappointments in life to the young girl. For the past seven years, his dream of being able to finish his education and attend college had slowly been silenced under layers of discouragement, settling over one another each year. Even now, when Luke thought he’d long forgotten that dream, it would sharply writhe under his efforts to kill it.
And then he heard Kamrin say, “I can’t believe it. You talk better than my parents do.”
Luke shook his head and hid a gratified smile as they knocked at the nearest house to ask for supper and a place to sleep that night. For the first time, the owner of the house did not seem to scorn Luke, even after taking in his darkly tanned skin. Luke glanced outside as they were ushered to the table, and saw the final ray of sun disappear, the evening blue of Angelis settling over the streets. Now that Kamrin had uncovered for him a part of the delicate structure and science that Graceway was built upon, he found himself able to regard the passersby, the ornamented plates, clean glass windows, and softly lit lamps with less hostility: people were imperfect and they had struggles, wherever they lived.
