Tina Chan - imperfect

“Hi, Jaiden, it’s me, Kristi. I’m borrowing someone else’s electro-slate to send you this instafication because I kinda lost mine. I’ll explain more about that later. Anyways, I’ll see you tomorrow…or rather, later today. Bye.”

The urge to yawn overcame Kristi; she couldn’t suppress it and the yawn escaped. The leopard mimicked Kristi and let out a yawn as well. Its maw stretched, fangs glinting when they caught the light.

“You must be exhausted. Why don’t you sleep in my bed for tonight? We can talk more after breakfast when you’re not feeling half dead,” Chelsa said. With a firm grip on her arm, the older girl led her to the single mattress in the room.

Kristi weakly protested, “Let me sleep on the floor. I’ve caused you enough trouble for the night.”

“Nonsense,” Chelsa said in a don’t-argue-with-me tone.

Kristi opened her mouth to argue, but then closed it when she realized she was too tired to argue back. Under normal circumstances, she would’ve considered this whole situation absurd, but today hadn’t been a normal day, so she let it slide. Before she knew it, she was sound asleep.

It didn’t surprise Kristi that Chelsa was already up and about before her in the morning. As usual, Kristi was the last one to wake; what else was new?

Chelsa was making instant oatmeal with a portable bio-fuel stove, stirring the pot with a wooden spatula. She seemed to be lost in her own thoughts, but looked up when she noticed Kristi moving.

“There’s a change of clothes for you in the bathroom if you’re up for a shower.” Chelsa nodded her head towards yet another door in the room Kristi failed to observe last night.

The bathroom, like the rest of Chelsa’s living quarter, was small but tidy. Kristi twisted the doorknob to the bathroom; it refused to turn.

“You have to press the knob to the right a bit,” Chelsa said, watching Kristi struggle with the bathroom door. With a reluctant creak, the door swung inwards, permitting her to pass through.

The shower Kristi took refreshed and drained all the sleepiness out of her, probably because the hot water wasn’t working. And there is no faster way to wake oneself up than stepping underneath a jet of ice-cold water first thing in the morning.

Next, she slipped on the clothes Chelsa had left for her on the counter. The V-neck shirt and jeans hugged her body comfortably; not too tight nor too loose. Satisfied with her new outfit, Kristi did her best to untangle and braid her hair. It was quite a challenge since her hair seemed to rebel against all attempts of being tamed. At last, she restored the bathroom to its original condition and stepped back out into the main room.

Chelsa had finished cooking breakfast and it smelled divine. Kristi nodded thanks and appreciatively accepted the bowl of cinnamon sugar oatmeal Chelsa offered. Then she started to sit on the wheelie chair, but halted when she realized the droid-leopard perching there. It takes skill not to notice a large cat sitting in the chair you were planning on sitting in, Kristi thought to herself sheepishly.

The leopard hissed at her, not pleased for having almost been sat upon.

“Geez, no need to get all catty on me,” Kristi said. She backed away from the chair in case the feline decided to pounce on her.

Chelsa cracked up. “That was hilarious! You should have seen your face when you saw Ghost!”

“I’m pretty sure the saying is, ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost’,” Kristi said. For some reason, her response made Chelsa laugh again. “Now what?” Kristi didn’t see anything funny about the situation.

“My leopard’s name is Ghost. I wasn’t talking about the idiom,” said Chelsa.

Kristi looked over to Ghost who stared evenly back.

“Ghost won’t bite you unless I command him to,” reassured Chelsa.

“Okay. I think I’ll eat breakfast standing though.” Kristi scooted away from the one-hundred-pounds-plus leopard and lifted a spoonful of oatmeal to her lips.

“Pet him. He likes being stroked.”

“I think I’m fine.”

“You aren’t scared, are you?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Pet him.”

Ghost let out an annoyed huff and leapt down from the chair. He glanced back once at Kristi then stalked out, looking as peeved as a droid-leopard could look. Kristi seated herself in the now-empty chair and ate the cooled oatmeal. Chelsa came over and nursed a mug of black coffee.

Kristi couldn’t prevent herself from observing Chelsa. Before her eyes was another Accident that had survived into her teens, a feat Kristi had believed only she had accomplished. If Chelsa noticed her watching, she showed no signs of it.

“Who are you exactly? Why are you here? Where are your parents? When did you move into North Region?” Kristi’s questions spilled out from her.

“Where to start…” Chelsa said.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning? That’s usually a pretty good place to start.” She gulped down a sip of coffee so strong it could’ve passed for an extra-concentrated caffeine pill.

“As I said before, I come from the East Region. Things weren’t pretty back there. I was constantly framed for any crimes that happened simply because I’m an Accident. Eventually, I decided I’ve had enough and left.” Chelsa collected the empty bowl from Kristi then continued on. “I found this room by accident; I was searching for a place to sleep and somehow ended up in the room behind the wall. To make a long story short, I installed the scanner lock to keep out intruders. My security system worked pretty well until now because all intruders have one thing in common: altered genetics.”

“What about your parents? Aren’t they going to worry about you?”

“My parents don’t care about me. Enough said about me. What’s life like for you around here?”

“Most people here just ignore me or treat me like I’m a three-year old,” Kristi said. “It must’ve been pretty bad in the East if it caused you to move.”

Chelsa nodded her confirmation. “I’ve seen new-born Accidents left out for the street patrols to pick up. You risk your life by being an Accident in East Region. Tell me more about yourself.”

Normally, Kristi wouldn’t act so open around a stranger. On the other hand, Chelsa did just save her life and struck her to be trustworthy person. “I have lived here all my life and have a brother named Jaiden. My real parents left me when I was little and Maria and Don adopted me. There really is nothing much interesting to know about me.”

“How did you end up being captured by the electro-slate thieves? To my knowledge, they don’t take prisoners,” said Chelsa.

Kristi told Chelsa about narrowly escaping the gang by stumbling into the TV room by mishap and returning to the room later that day to further explore it. She described her awe while watching The Phantom of the Opera and how she ran into Wilson when exiting the room.

“Speaking of DVDs,” Kristi said, “How did you get a copy of The Phantom of the Opera ? I thought the government had destroyed all fictional films.”

“Alex gave it to me,” she said. The corners of her eyes tightened. “He also taught me how to make the DNA scanner I placed outside on the brick wall. Alex was a good friend of mine,” she added when Kristi shot her a quizzical look.

“From the East Region?”

“Yeah.”

She watched Chelsa subconsciously play with her hands, almost dropping the mug precariously balanced at the edge of her knees.

“Do you want me to wash the dishes?” Kristi indicated the bowl and mug in Chelsa’s lap. She wanted to do something helpful for Chelsa; a small action of thanks in return for the help Chelsa gave her.