That’s the end of conversation as far as he’s concerned, and his eyes fall back onto the tablet. My eyelid is twitching. How does an eyelid start twitching? Finally it’s totally apparent I can’t deal anymore, so I flip around and stomp as hard as I can back into my room. I hope he can hear how angry I am, not that I’m sure he cares. Whatevs. I don’t need my dad to be my therapist. That’s what I’ve got this recorder for. ’Cause at least it pays attention to me.
Wow. Pretty sad.
Though, seriously, Reinforcement just reteaches the rules? As if putting a guy through a class makes him turn out like Danny did. It was just Dad blowing me off again. Still, I’m willing to bet that the “lessons” happen on Floor 1, since that’s where all the supersecret stuff goes down. I just don’t know what room, when, or any serious details about the process. Because in the Tower you’re not supposed to know anything important about anything, apparently.
Recording Eleven
It rained today. Thank God for the plastic they use for the sides of the greenhouse, or we’d be boned. The solar panels don’t take any damage, but fresh rainwater is toxic. I’m not talking Creep toxic. I mean, it’ll make you sick and possibly kill you. You’re not supposed to be on the rooftop when it rains, and if it weren’t for the tarp we use to cover the veggies, our garden would be dead. Rainwater isn’t exactly good for plants, or at least not au naturel. That stuff has to get cleaned before we use it to water the garden.
I hate the rain. It’s all black and thick, more like oil half the time. You get to see it pooled up when a storm’s over and you head back up to the rooftop, but nobody’s supposed to deal with it. Not us, anyway. That’s a job for Cleanup. Those guys have it the worst. At least the life of a Scavenger is exciting. Cleanup guys just… well, they do what they’re called: cleanup. Bunch of charred Creep that Security’s gotten done frying? Call Cleanup to wipe up the mess. Did someone lose their lunch while playing too hard in the gymnasium? Cleanup gets to mop it away. That should basically tell you the story of what they do after it rains. It’s Cleanup’s job to get that stuff soaked up. It’s a real hazard for the workers, too, ’cause you never know when you might put a foot in it.
It’s not that hard to imagine it happening. I wasn’t there for this, but there’s a story that one of the kids once stepped ankle-deep into the stuff. It wasn’t his fault; he’d just been trying to stare over the edge of the roof. We all do it. Well, there was a pool of rainwater just sitting there. He didn’t lose his foot, but he wasn’t able to walk straight after that. Seriously, what a mess. That’s why the rain’s more dangerous than the Creep. Creep won’t cripple you or poison you.
I mean, not normally. I still don’t know what happened that one night… on my birthday.
We need the rainwater, though, even if it’s disgusting and poisonous. I know this is a totally groundbreaking revelation, but we kinda need water to live. Now, you shouldn’t go around just drinking the stuff. If it’ll cripple you just by touching it, then who knows what’d happen if you drank it? That’s what the filters are for. The whole roof’s lined with them. Cool thing is, when it rains, a lot of the rooftop floor slides away. Underneath’s where the filters are, and they collect all the rainwater they can get. Afterward they make sure whatever’s deadly in it gets drained out, of course. Don’t ask me how they do it, since Dad’s the only one that could explain, and at this point I’m pretty much done trying to talk to him.
All I know is that without it, I wouldn’t be able to take a shower. God. That would suck. I’m not going to lie; I’m not the most “feminine” smelling of girls without my daily rinse. Doesn’t help that I like to work out a lot. I might not be a jock, but I like to keep in shape. You know?
Mom keeps telling me that the older I get, the easier it’ll be to gain weight. Thanks for giving me another reason to look forward to the future, Mom.
Recording Twelve
I was down in the gym today. If I’m going to be honest, I smell like the bottom of a sweaty sock right now. So why am I recording this?
Psh. Who knows? I’m just one of those girls.
No, I’ll get around to it. I mean, I might as well. I’m here. At home. My empty, empty home.
So, Mom’s gone. Not like she’s never coming back or anything; I just mean that she’s visiting some people down on Floor 6. Thank God. That woman needs more friends, I mean, just to keep her sanity. I’m not even joking when I say that I’m legit happy that she’s out with people. She’s even spending time off of our level! Cue the band and pop the champagne.
But that got me to thinking. Actually it’s been on my mind for a while, if I’m going to be real about it. How did everyone settle on where to live and who was going to run things?
From the top. Floor 1 is Tower Authority. So, although I’ve never been there… well, no, I can’t say much about it. I mean, nobody really knows what goes on there. They give out the food every week and run all the other departments. They’re in charge of Security, Cleanup, Science, Scavenging… basically everyone. They pick your job for you when you turn eighteen. How? Well, some of it’s based on your floor. The higher up you live, the less chance you have of being put in Security, for example. Don’t get me wrong, there are exceptions. I mean, take Allison’s dad. They live on Floor 6, and he’s Security. He just, you know, didn’t have the smarts to be anything else.
God, I hope Allison never hears this recording. She’d tear my hair out for saying that. It’s true, though.
Anyway, beyond that, nobody really knows much about Floor 1. You can’t go in, and nobody in Authority ever comes out. Which sucks for everyone else. I mean, if your job is kinda based on what floor you’re born on but nobody ever leaves Floor 1, then that means the only chance to be in Authority is to be born into it. It’s not like you ever hear of someone from the lower floors getting a job with them. It just doesn’t happen.
That sucks, man.
Well. Whatever.
Floor 2. Really, we only go there for Sevenths Day, but Reception Hall isn’t the only thing that’s on that level. Receiver Garry and others like him live there, so they’ve got apartments. And hey, does anybody think it’s a little messed up that the science department is below them? A bunch of scientists being forced to work beneath Receiver Garry, a man whose sole purpose in life seems to be to discourage questions? Priorities, kids.
Right, so that brings me to Floor 3. I know Dad works there, but Science covers a lot of stuff. What he actually works on is kinda a mystery to me. Technically speaking you can go to Floor 3 anytime you want, but most people don’t. There’s lots—and I’m telling you this as a person that sees tons of Security on the lower floors—there’s lots of Security on Floor 3. They don’t tell you to get out, but they do this creepy stalker thing where they follow you around. Yeeeeahh, I think I’ll skip that, thanks. I get my weekly dose of paranoia from wondering about how we got in this tower. Nobody lives on Floor 3 anyway, basically, since it’s the only place in the entire Tower without any apartments… that should tell you that the place is, like, really important. It’s all science labs, which means locked doors, which means why the heck would I want to visit there anyway?
I mean, besides visiting Dad. Even if I’m just slowly forgetting why I’d even want to do that.
I’m kidding. I love him, but I’m just… super-frustrated today is all. I feel like he’s lying to me even when he’s not saying anything.
Why’d I start talking about this?