When we arrived at the other side, Careen stopped, trying to remember which direction to go. Like she flipped a coin in her head, she picked a street randomly and skipped off.
I found it hard to keep up, waddling like I was carrying several balloons full of water under my shirt. Thankfully, Joseph stayed with me. He curled his fingers in mine and we walked peacefully, forgetting, for a moment, where we were. If you didn’t think about the death and destruction, the yellow-eyed creatures and the feral, attacking cats, the city was quite beautiful. On this side of the bridge, the buildings were larger. They climbed up to the sky, all carved stone and metal, with pillowy, rounded roofs made of copper turned green with age. These buildings bordered a wide, stone-paved street that had lanterns attached to iron poles sticking out of the footpath.
The other three rounded a corner ahead of us and for a few minutes we were alone. I stopped for a breath. Putting my hands in the small of my back, I stretched backwards, staring at the sky, watching the clouds blow south with speed. When I straightened, he swiftly bent down and put his lips to mine, transferring the heat of gold and electricity through my mouth and down my spine. I kissed him back briefly, smiling as I extricated myself from his arms.
“You know, with all this romance, I’m liable to faint,” I said, rolling my eyes as I put the back of my hand to my forehead.
“I’ll always catch you,” Joseph said with a wink.
I fanned my face. “Oh, sir, you’re too much!” and I succumbed to giggling. Joseph laughed, slipping his hand around my waist and giving me a gentle squeeze. The sun was high and the city looked less frightening, more like a scenic ruin in this light.
A dark face poked out from behind the corner. Squinting in the sunlight, Deshi said, “Guys, you need to see this,” and then his head disappeared. I would have run, but in my current state the most I could manage was a brisk walk. We rounded the corner and were faced with a towering structure of latticed metal and broken glass. On the top of the building were six-foot-high letters, spelling out words I didn’t understand. We caught up to the others as Careen was climbing up the concrete stairs that led into the building.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” Deshi asked nervously. His voice echoed around the tall entrance foyer we were standing in.
“It’s fine, I’ve been in a couple of times. It’s well worth it, come on.” Careen tugged on Deshi’s shirt and pulled him toward some grated metal stairs, her long legs making easy work of them. She bounded up, her short hair swaying softly as she jumped from stair to stair. They led onto one another in a zigzag, reaching at least six or seven stories high.
We climbed two sets and then Careen dragged us down a dusty hallway. Shady entrances were cluttered with rubbish on every side. She grabbed Joseph’s hand, pulled him through a gap in the rubbish, and they disappeared into the darkness. Deshi turned on his torch. The light cut a line through the dark, illuminating metal racks from which strange items of clothing were hanging: shiny plastic bodices, shimmering pants, revealing tops, and underwear in plastic packets. What provocative clothes the people wore back then. Careen held up a black plastic top on a hanger, tight and low cut. “Here, try this on,” she said blithely.
I gagged, “There is no way I would fit into that!” Nor would I want to. It looked more like underwear than clothes to wear in public.
“What about this?” Careen suggested, holding up what looked like a see-through nightdress. All made of nylon and plastic. It seemed it was the only material that had held together. Then it hit me, what kind of shop this was. I had been in one back in Pau, when I turned twelve and my mother took me to buy a bra. That shop was more dainty cotton and lace but the idea was the same.
“Let’s save that kind of thing for after the baby’s born,” Joseph said, grinning his stupid head off.
I froze. I had thought a lot about how our relationship would change after I had the baby but I hadn’t even considered the physical side of things. I could feel the blood racing to my face.
Deshi and Joseph were chuckling away. Alexei looked extremely uncomfortable, propping and then re-propping his elbow against the doorway. Careen looked oblivious to the underlying implications of what Joseph had said.
“It’s all right, Rosa,” Joseph said between fits of laughter. “I was only joking.” I stormed passed them both, pushing their shoulders, hard. I wanted to knock their heads together but it would only make them laugh more. I stood in the cluttered hall, looking back and forth. Surely, there had to be something more useful in here other than plastic sex clothes.
Picking up a pack of underwear wrapped in plastic off the dusty floor, I realized that was what I needed to be looking for. I rummaged through other shop openings and found some cotton, button-down, shirts sealed in plastic. I grabbed one for each of us and kept looking. I found leather bags that were still mostly intact, some socks, and even some leather gloves. I searched around for something for Hessa and found a few packets of socks, a jumpsuit that looked way too big and some singlets. It would be good to give him some clothes so he didn’t have to be swaddled in cut-up blankets all the time. It seemed the people of yesterday were big on wrapping their clothes in plastic.
I shoved it all in the leather bags I had found. I could see the boys had calmed down and were doing the same thing, tossing clothes and other useful items into shiny nylon bags slung over their shoulders. But I couldn’t find any tools.
I worked my way right to the back of one of the stores, wading my way through a sea of over-turned racks and rubbish. It smelled like dust, like old death. Right at the back, behind a filthy, laminated counter covered in paper and metal coins, I found what I was looking for, a red metal door with a plastic plaque on the front that said ‘Utulidad.’ It was locked. I called for the boys and they worked at kicking it in. Booted bangs, the only noise this place had entertained in a long time.
We were rewarded for our persistence. Inside was a small room with a toolbox full of useful items. Mounted on the wall was another red box. Inside was exactly what I wanted. I smashed the glass with my hand wrapped inside a leather bag and pulled the shiny axe head from the box. The handle disintegrated as soon as I touched it, but I could make a new one.
We made our way out, looking ridiculous, like over-burdened mules. Wearing some things, and strapping the bags around ourselves as best we could. Careen emerged last, twirling a tight, hot pink top on her finger and gripping a large hunting knife in her other hand.
She leaped down the stairs like a gazelle, shoved her serrated knife in her pocket, and peeled off her top in front of everyone. She dropped the grimy, bloodstained one on the ground with distaste and stood bare chested in front of us. Her pale face showed not even a flicker of awareness that her nakedness might make us uncomfortable. I stared wide-eyed at her while the boys averted their eyes. She shimmied into her new top and adjusted her cleavage. She looked and behaved so differently to me that I couldn’t quite digest what I was looking at.
We walked back to the campsite, our progress slowed by our new possessions. Along the way, I dropped some of the less important things, sparkly hair ties and clips, a thin silk scarf wrapped in plastic, all useless. Joseph carried the small toolbox; I carried the treasured axe head.