Carola Dibbell - The Only Ones

Well, Migan’s shoes have Special magnets so she won’t get lost, but she finally learned to untie them, so now she ran around barefoot and what happens is, she starts to float away. Ok, what it is, it’s about the magnets. This year the infrastructure had improved so much it has some new Energy Saving Device, with magnets too, for transportation, called MagLev. It is two magnets with a train between, which floats on tracks, how special is that, and now they even have it for boats, they call the boat AquaMag, but with all the magnets at the school, the East River AquaMag could go off course so they set up these anti-gravitational devices on Mill Rock Island, which sort of work, except et to cap them and it makes a, like, current. There was already one injury, a minor one.

So, someone forgot to cap the anti-grav and this time Migan, who is very small and light, starts to float away. She only went up like five or six feet and is caught in some trees and rescued, but Lore and Dana went ballistic. It is because she’s Chosen. They’re always afraid she’s going to float away. Come on. What are the chances it’s going to happen again? But Lore and Dana pull her out of school and are going to homeschool her. Ani is really upset. Melanie would of dealt with it. Anton is just afraid he’s going to lose his job.

It starts to look like he could.

The Parents generally have an outside meeting after the regular Conference. So it turns out Anton is telling most of us our kid is ready to mainstream. Well Tensin’s mother, whose name is also Tensin, thinks he is just saying that because the school could get closed down. It is about the Migan incident, but also with Melanie so sick there could be a Hygiene issue. Well it’s true Anton did say Ani could mainstream and is grandfathered to a school they call Ward Island and could take the Tour even today. It is one of those island schools they like for outerborough kids so we will not give any other kids what we have. If we do.

I had looked over the water to where he said Ward Island school is. Some smoke came up from it. That could just be somebody burning leaves like they do this time of year, but I had said I rather take the Tour another day. Be on the safe side. Anton said she is also Zoned for IS 243 at Corona, a good local school.

Corona! She’s not going to Corona. I got a little too much history from Corona. That is where the fire thing began, when Cissy Fardo died in it. I just said thanks, Anton, I will get back to you on that.

Well it turns out Anton told all the Parents their kid could go to Ward Island. Well, except the really low functioning ones. I don’t know what he thinks those kids should do.

Remember how the Parents used to talk out at PS 263 in Queens about in case she comes back.PUs g what is wrong with everything? These Parents do that now. It really brings back old times. It is even windy like that time the Parents got mad outside PS 263 when it was boarded up for Hygiene. These Mill Rock Parents are glad to share what is wrong with Ward Island. It is a tough school. They make the kids do what they tell them to do. What are the chances a Mill Rock kid could bring it off?

So Tensin’s mother asks me, “Inez, what did Anton tell you?”

I don’t even realize at first she’s talking to me because generally the other Parents don’t. To tell the truth my mind had wandered and where it had went was whose name did I put down for emergency contact? Alma Cho. Does that mean Alma gets Ani if I die in a fire?

I look up. I say Ward Island. Or IS 243 in Corona.

So some Parent heard that is a good school, but Itzhtak’s mother says well here is what’s wrong with local schools. They are tough too. The way local schools are tough, kids punch each other in the halls. At Mill Rock they never let the kids punch each other. They also do not have halls.

So now they get their teeth into the main thing, what is wrong with Mill Rock. The kids never learned to punch each other. Their Education will suffer. I never thought anything is wrong with it but these Parents seem to know.

By the time I take Ani home, I am pretty depressed. This is the first time it really sank in, she would ever leave Mill Rock. Now I have to work the system all over again and it is hard enough trying not to die in a fire.

Ani heard from her friends about how all the kids might have to change school. I guess they are talking about it too. She got really excited. “Ma! I could homeschool with Migan.” She missed Migan.

“Come on, Ani. They live in the Dome.”

We’re waiting at Queens Plaza for the podtram. We have to take the podtram home because the Conference ran so long we missed the cuchifrito pickup and have to take public Transport home, which takes forever, but I’m glad they have public Transport at all in this part of Queens. I remember when they didn’t.

“Ma!” The podtram finally comes, we get seats. She is jiggling like crazy. “Ma, we could move to the Dome!” She doesn’t get how it works and I don’t want her to feel ashamed, but, give me a break here. When you live outside the Dome it is hard enough to get a day Pass, let alone move in.

I just say, “Ani! Enough with the jiggling.”

She is like, what? She is upset I said that.

She gets over it, though. When we get back to the garden apartments she is running up to our unit. Then she is yelling down at me, “Ma! The plumbing works!” There are some infrastructure improvements at the City Line. The plumbing sometimes works. “Build a fire and boil water for the clothes.”

Here we go again. I say it is too late for a fire.

“Ma! I smell!”

“It is too hot!”

“Ma! It’s not hot. It’s cold!”

Ok. I will do it. I built a fire in the courtyard and boil the clothes, and spread them to dry. When the water cools down I let Ani jump in the pot. Then I pour the water on the coals when she is out and dry.

Then I wake up in the middle of the night and run out to check the ashes. I can’t get this fire stuff off my mind.

Like I’ll be on a pulley scrubbing a the only one that works, why is it leave Quonseton Nassau County personal Dome and will notice I didn’t do anything for like ten minutes because I was thinking, could I put Rauden’s name down for emergency contact in case I die in a fire? Well that will never work. He’s living at the Farm and Janet would never let me use the Farm info. She doesn’t even like it when I try to reach his Mobile phone.

I did get my cleaning work done. I’m just saying it was pretty hard to concentrate, and the way things are turning out, I need all the help I could get.

Because what happens now is, Melanie died.

Well, when they had a ceremony for her on Mill Rock, everyone went ballistic — kids crying, Parents complaining, and Anton saying do not worry but everyone does. At least they are not building a fire to burn Melanie’s body, but when we get home after the ceremony, I think I smell smoke and make Ani stay inside while I go sniffing around the area, but she keeps coming to the door and calling, “Ma! I’m cold!”

I am busy.

“Ma! Where is the fire in a can?”

I just lose my patience. “Much as you are jiggling, what are the chances you will not knock over the can and start a fire.”

“Ma!” She is almost going to cry. “I did not jiggle.”

So then I felt bad. I came inside and put the fire in the can. I guess it is ok. When we wake up in the morning, we are still alive.

She keeps jiggling though.

At Christmas, look who shows up? Lore, Dana, and Migan. They are giving a party for all Migan’s old friends. They come back with a boat and bring everyone around the island in the freezing cold. Man, they are rich. They have a hydroponics franchise.

It turns out Migan is not in homeschool any more, she is in another Special school called Free School, where they also let them get away with everything, just like Mill Rock, though in the Dome. You have to pay for it. And you can be sure Ani is like, “Ma! Could I go to Free School with Migan?” She really misses Migan.