Chapter 18: What’s in a Name
The dead which he slew at his death we more than which he slew at his life.
Just as Owen said, I wound up on the floor in the middle of the mess hall. It was quiet and there wasn’t a person in sight. I picked myself up off the ground and brushed the loose soil from my pants. Then, I heard my mother shouting, “Where have you been, Georgina Marie?”
Oh, no. I had to think up a lie and think of one quick. “I took a nap, woke up, then went for a walk.” I hoped that she believed me. I did sound pretty convincing when I said it.
She marched over to me and grabbed me by the hand. “From now on, when you go somewhere, you need tell either me or your father. I came back to the room and you were gone. I’ve been searching the rooms for the last hour.” She tugged me through the open doorway and down the hall.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked. Even though I already knew where I was going, I couldn’t let her know anything.
“The council called some emergency meeting.”
“With all the families?”
“Yes,” she grumbled. “I told your father that I didn’t want any of us to go but he insisted.”
The funny thing was that I knew exactly what was going to happen at the emergency meeting. And I couldn’t wait to see the look on Mark Baker’s face when he saw the surprise that I had in store for him.
The entire meeting room turned to face my mother and me as she dragged me through the door, yanking on my arm. I did my best not to run into anyone, weaving in and out of the people in the crowd. Mr. Baker stood on the small, dirt stage with the rest of the council members, eyeing me suspiciously. Once we got to the front, my mother pulled Frankie up from the side of the stage and tucked us both underneath her arms.
Mr. Baker waited a moment, then stepped forward, raising his arm to quiet down the crowd, that since my arrival, had broken out into a hushed roar of whispers. When I took a moment to look at him, I mean really look at him, I couldn’t see the feeble, yet authoritative man who stood before me. All I saw was a monster. A monster who plotted murder for his own selfish reasons.
Closing my eyes, I pictured the loud crack of his palm when he slapped Owen across the face. Then I focused on Frankie and several other children in the room. How did this one man have us all so fooled? I wondered when he inserted that censor into my head or any other child in the room for that matter.
Thinking of everything he had done set the rage burning deep inside of me on fire. I wanted to hurt him, but not just for myself. I wanted him to suffer for the future lies, betrayal, and pain he would cause the people of the colony. I wanted him to suffer for Monica, a beautiful, innocent girl whose life he’d stolen for the sake of his own obsession with greed and power. If it wasn’t for my mother, with her firm on my shoulders, I’d be up there already, and I’d kick that treacherous snake where it counted.
“Colonists,” Mr. Baker announced. “We gathered all of you here so you could witness the drawing of the second lottery. Two random names have been selected.” He cleared his throat and went on. “We have heard complaints from several of you last time about not being able to witness the names being drawn. While the names have already been selected, we invite you all to witness who will be breaching the earth’s surface, next Sunday at noon.” He turned to Mr. Martin. “Dale, can you bring me the box, please?”
Mr. Martin lifted the box up from the center of the small, wooden picnic table in the middle of the stage. He flipped the lid open and placed it on Mr. Baker’s outstretched hands. “Here you go, Mark.”
Mr. Baker nodded. “Thank you, Dale.”
A triumphant grin spread across my lips. Yeah, I was definitely getting my opportunity to kick him where it counted. Just in a slightly different way.
He removed the first piece of paper, unfolded it, and called out the first name, “Dylan Edwards,” he boomed. “You’ll be the next male.”
I glanced over at the Edwards family. Dylan looked proud, like venturing out into the frightening world was an initiation, a test of his manhood. His mother and sister, on the other hand, had tears streaming down their cheeks.
Mr. Baker stuck his hand into the box for a second time, and removed the final piece of paper. “And the female who will be joining him is…”
Those last few seconds felt like hours. Open it! Open it! I urged him on mentally. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I wanted to see the look on his face when he saw his own daughter’s name in that box. My eyes zoomed in on the paper as he unfolded the first corner. His fingers were trembling. Beads of sweat glistened on his forehead and drizzled down his chubby little cheeks.
He couldn’t lie with everyone here watching him and I could tell it was making him nervous. Then, he unfolded the paper a second time and that was when my father stepped up behind him and glanced at the paper over his shoulder.
He clutched the paper, gripping the paper so hard he crinkled the edges. Every colonist in the room glared at him as a wide range of expressions passed over his face. First, confusion. Then anger. Finally sadness. Me, I’d reached the point where I’d started laughing. The crowd was growing impatient. Colonists began whispering and moving around. Finally, someone shouted, “Just read it, already!”
“Um… Yeah… Uh.” Mr. Baker paused, trying to regain his composure and the crowd. Then, he blurted out, “It’s Georgina Carver!”
One by one, people started shouting.
What?
That can’t be right?
She went last time!
Is this thing rigged?
I didn’t even care that he called out my name. He was desperate. And desperate people went to extreme measures to try and get themselves out of a bind.
My father reached up and snatched the paper out of Mr. Baker’s grasp. He scanned the name on the paper, his eyes lingering on the written name for a minute. Then he smacked the paper against Mr. Baker’s chest. “This says Elise Baker,” he snarled. “These names are supposed to be selected at random and everyone between the ages of sixteen to eighteen is supposed to have a turn. And my kid is not going two times in a row!”
During that moment, the entire room broke out in chaos. People were screaming and chanting, “Liars!” Mr. Martin and Mr. Edwards kept glancing between Mr. Baker and my father with confused expressions on their faces. My eyes found Colin’s in the crowd. I gave him a wicked smirk and winked.
Colin Martin was now my sworn enemy, and if he couldn’t tell that by the expression I just gave him, then he was a bigger airhead than I thought he was.
The crowd started swarming the stage. The little children in the room were startled by all of the commotion, crying and throwing temper tantrums as their parents tried to calm them down. My father looked lost. The entire colony was out of control.
“Cast Baker out!” a women, bouncing her hysterical toddler shouted. Elise Baker was in the upper left corner of the crowd hyperventilating.
“We trusted you! And this is how you repay us?” shouted a man in the back.
As the crowd filed out of the room, my mother kept her hands on my shoulders and guided me and Frankie toward the door. I jerked slightly when I felt someone yanking on my arm. Mr. Baker’s face was red and splotchy, his eyebrows scrunched together, enraged. “I know it was you!” he shrieked. “It was supposed to be you! It was supposed to be you!”
My mother threw herself in between us, scowling at Mr. Baker. “You leave my daughter alone. You hear me, Mark! Don’t you lay another finger on her!”