A short story about class warfare by David Tombale: The Rooters

The Rooters

Leo could see the tears welling in the boy’s eyes even at a distance and felt the rage build inside him. Here was another weed that needed plucking and with all eyes on the athletic trials he couldn’t believe the boy wasn’t at least trying to hide his unseemly display. Leo tugged on the red badge on his arm and started walking across the grass field studiously ignoring the approaching runners. He was confident that they all knew the penalty for crossing a Rooter, even a junior one.

The runners at the front of the pack saw the seventeen year old walk right across the track and recognizing him by his blonde hair and tall build, quickly drew to a halt, not wanting to draw his attention. The object of his rage was leaning against the lower bench of an empty audience stand while keeping his hand on a bloody abrasion on his knee.

‘Is there a problem student?’ Leo inquired.

The boy lifted his head and his heart nearly stopped in his chest. Looking down at him with pure disdain was a pair of cold gray eyes, eyes that he’d often seen scanning the students at New England Prep for weakness. Junior Rooter First Class Leo Grant was the most feared person at their school; even the Headmaster stepped lightly around him.

‘No Junior Rooter Grant,’ the boy replied, his voice quaking.

Leo nodded his head, ‘I see, then you wouldn’t mind getting on your feet.’

The boy was beginning to sweat and glanced down at his knee then back into the rooter’s face and found no mercy there. He struggled to his feet then tried to stand up straight. He lasted for almost a full ten seconds before falling back on his haunches, a soft cry escaping his lips.

‘I see,’ Leo said. He turned his head and called over two second year rooters who had been observing their senior with interest. They came running over and took in the boy shuddering on the ground.

‘Sir?’ the first of them spoke up.

‘I want you to take this student to the nurse’s office, and inform her that I’ll need her notes for my report,’ Leo ordered them.

What little color remained in the boy’s face completely melted away and took on the expression of a condemned man. The two second years each got an arm under him and lifted him bodily to his feet. They marched him away with his toes scraping against the dirt, helplessly dangling between them.

Leo looked around and noticed how careful everyone was to avoid his eye, including the adults who’d come out to cheer on their kids. He eventually spotted a woman in one of the stands being supported by a white haired man, mascara dripping down her face in a torrent of tears and guessed that they were the boy’s parents. From the cut of her clothes and the uneven mess that was her hair she must have been a cleaner or working some other dead end job, which was probably why the senior rooters hadn’t bothered with her. It was a wonder they’d even gotten their boy into a school like New England Prep. Leo felt it when the man’s gaze focused in on him and the heat of his anger couldn’t have been more obvious. He stiffly gave the man his back and walked away from the practice fields.

The sun was just beginning to set when Leo brought his bike up to their building’s third floor and turned the key to let himself in to their apartment. Something rushed out at him from under a couch, and quickly setting his bike aside he bent down to let his pet Scottish terrier Byron leap into his arms. Byron started licking at his face while Leo laughed and tried to hold him at a distance.

‘How’re you doing boy?’ Leo asked the little dog, rubbing his nose against its cold one. Leo usually set Byron loose when his parents were out so he could get some exercise, but knew the apartment could get pretty lonely. ‘Come on let’s get to my room.’

Leo carried Byron under his arm and into his bedroom kicking the door closed. Placing Byron down he locked the door and watched the dog run excitedly around the room. Leo was grateful for the soundproofed walls that were the only reason his parents hadn’t figured out he was keeping a dog in the apartment. He sat on his bed and smiled at Byron who stopped playing long enough to sit down and look at his master.

Byron panted softly and gave Leo a huge doggy grin that almost rid him of the sight of that injured boy staring at him like he was the devil. He might as well be because his report was going to get that boy expelled and once his weakness was noted and put on file it would be nothing but public schools for him for the rest of his life. After that would be community college and if he was lucky he might get a job driving cabs for a living.

‘Come here Byron,’ Leo coaxed. Byron came running and Leo lifted him up and fell back against his bed while suspending the black furred terrier in the air. Leo knew that those were the rules and there wasn’t anything he could do to change them, if he hadn’t cited the boy someone else would have. It was so damn frustrating and even more so when he considered that if his parents ever discovered Byron he’d probably face far worse.

Byron started barking and let his tongue hang out of his mouth, completely oblivious to the world his master lived in, but happy that he was home. Leo placed the dog beside him on the bed and laid his ear next to its chest and allowed the sound of its heart to drown out his thoughts.

A short story about obsession by David Tombale: Stalker

Stalker

She had to be in her late twenties and Win observed that she’d stopped crying these past few days he’d been studying her. Watching her from across the street he could see the careful way she handled the clothes she’d put on the mannequin. The store was a high end one and marketed solely to women, which explained the elegant ladies who glided in and out with their designer hand bags balanced on their arms.

Win had considered going in but he hadn’t been able to come up with a proper explanation for why he’d be wandering in a women’s clothing store. His mother had raised him to be honest so creating a fake girlfriend to buy lingerie for was out of the question. The woman stopped suddenly and slowly turned around. He observed her pass her eyes over the crowds across the street but wasn’t worried, seated behind a bearded gentleman in one of the busiest cafes in the area ensured she’d never see him. Then why did her eyes linger in his direction, why did she nervously raise a hand to her strawberry blond hair? Without warning she stepped off the platform and disappeared inside the store.

Win got to his feet, surprised and uncertain. Should he leave? The woman appeared at the doorway to the store still looking across the street at the café. Win decided to fall back in his chair and play innocent. He picked up the newspaper he’d left in his lap and leafed through to a random page. She was crossing the street now and passed right below where he was sitting on the café’s balcony as she went inside. Win was sweating through his Burberry shirt but was trying to play cool as he touched his black framed glasses and pretended to read some story about a philandering local politician.

The woman came through the balcony doors and now that Win could see her up close, he could see that her nostrils were flaring and that she looked quite upset. She walked in his direction and Win couldn’t help putting the paper down as she came closer. She went right past him and up to the bearded man seated in front of Win.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ she demanded.

The bearded man raised his head to look at her and smiled in amusement, ‘Is there some crime in being here?’

‘You know that I work right over there, so how dare you act like you didn’t come here to harass me?’

‘Harass you? Dream on babe, I’m just here to get some coffee,’ he said pointing at the cup in front of him.

Win expected her tirade to start up again but was surprised when he saw tears in her eyes.

‘Can’t you just leave me alone? Please, let me just get on with my life,’ she pleaded.

The bearded man got to his feet and took up his cup. He took a small sip then poured it in her face. The woman flinched and drew back while everyone stared. The bearded man stepped in front of her, then leaned in close to her ear and whispered something that drained the color from her face. As he drew back and gave her a wide grin Win punched him between the eyes. The bearded man fell back toppling over the table he’d been occupying.

A dark bruise began to spread on his forehead as he stared in disbelief at Win. Win ignored him looking over the woman whose eyes were wide and confused.

‘Are you okay?’ Win asked her.

She numbly nodded her head still embarrassed and covered in coffee. Win reached in his shirt pocket and handed her a handkerchief. She resisted for a moment then took it, slowly wiping her face clean.

‘Come on,’ Win said taking her by the shoulders. ‘Let’s go get you cleaned up.’

Win waited outside the ladies’ toilets for her until she came out twenty minutes later. She smiled hesitantly and handed him back his handkerchief. ‘Thanks.’

‘No problem,’ Win assured her. ‘So you ready to tell me what that was all about?’

‘Not really, let’s just say it’s complicated.’

Win tried out a smile and was relieved that he wasn’t standing in front of a mirror because it must have looked awful, but the woman didn’t seem to mind it all that much. In fact she smiled back at him.

‘I don’t mind complicated and you look like you could use someone to talk to.’

‘Alright,’ she said nodding her head, ‘but don’t say I didn’t warn you.’

They found a table as far away from the balcony as they could get. Win had even suggested they find another place but she’d convinced him that she was fine with staying where they were. The woman, Camilla was her name told him about her relationship with Logan, the bearded man. How he’d seemed so sweet at first and then how he’d become possessive. How he’d taken to following her everywhere and Win had coughed delicately remembering how he’d come to be at the café but he’d let her continue. She’d confessed about how she’d stayed with him because she was new to the city and had had no one at all.

Somehow during all of it she got Win to tell her about his job as an illustrator, about how lonely moving out to the city had been for him. In the end that solitude was something they shared in common and pretty soon she was laughing so hard that little tears came out at stories of him getting lost on the subway and ending up at a cabaret. The entire time he could only marvel at the way her whole being radiated joy and beauty. 

A science fiction story about solitude by David Tombale: The Intrepid

The Intrepid

The vastness of space had slowly worked its dark magic on Kevin’s brain, filling it with permanent shadows that the bright lights of the spaceship could never completely dispel. It was his fifth year standing at the helm of the Intrepid and there were as many as another eight left before he could awaken another crew member to take over his shift. Not that he’d let them. There was no way he’d trust his fate to a bunch of clones.

Suffice it to say the many years of solitude Kevin had endured with only the ship’s AI for company had left him a little paranoid. Another opinion might be that he’d been driven completely insane by the lack of conversation with another breathing human.

Kevin took one of the lifts down to the cryo chambers. It was a Thursday by his count and this was when he usually went down to check on the others and read to the crew member in POD 00187. The doors opened for him letting him into a huge room covered by clouds of cold air that tried to suck the warmth out of his insulated uniform. He walked from pod to pod checking their diagnostics and the status of their inhabitants.

He went through five rows of them before finally stopping by her pod. She looked like Ophelia from the book, suspended there in the cushioned bed of the plastic pod, her thick brown hair falling around her. Kevin placed his hand on the transparent plastic lid that protected her and was grateful for the black glove he’d chosen to wear. Otherwise his skin might have gotten stuck to the cold surface.

He showed her his gift, it was Alice in Wonderland this time, they’d read it four times but he was certain that it was a favorite of hers. He sat in front of her pod and started reading in a loud voice. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know her name or that she might be a clone like the rest of them. He knew she was special and that they were meant to be so he told her all about Alice again, Alice and the white rabbit and when he finally stood up he was so sure that she looked happier.

Kevin finished his inspection then returned to the helm. He had just sat down in front of the flight controls when she walked out of the shadows.

“Kevin?” she said softly.

Kevin looked up at her and even now was astonished at how closely he’d gotten her to resemble the woman in the pod. The android walked further into the room, the vented air blowing through the flimsy night gown she was wearing. The sound of her heels was loud in the silence of the pressurized room.

“Did you go to see her?” the android asked.

“Yes,” Kevin replied turning his attention back to the navigational charts.

She reached out and placed her arms on his shoulders. Kevin shook her off and glared.

“That’s enough Celeste. I’m very busy right now,” he said firmly.

“Oh but you weren’t too busy to visit her? To read to her? Why don’t you ever read to me?” she complained.

He’d made a mistake by tampering with her neural chip; androids weren’t meant to be so emotional. “You’re a robot Celeste; you don’t need me to read to you.” The instrument panel in front of him began to flash with green lights and when he hit a button an asteroid field jumped up on the screen.

“Well maybe you’ll read to me when she’s gone?” Celeste continued.

“What are you talking about now?” he asked her, annoyed by their whole conversation.

“I’m talking about opening the airlock in the cryo chamber and ejecting all those clones you hate out into space, including her.”

“What?” Kevin’s head spun around. He got to his feet, “You didn’t.”

“I did,” Celeste smirked.

“God, are you insane?” he yelled running for the lifts.

When the lift carried him to the lower decks he raced towards the doors to the cryo chamber but it was too late. She’d left the airlock doors open and he couldn’t get in to the now vacant chamber. He stared with horror at the area where 83 souls had once rested.

“I told you she’s gone,” Celeste said happily.

Kevin turned to look at her and somewhere at the back of his mind resided the hope that he could use the ship to get them all back on board but then he remembered the asteroids and he knew he’d never make it in time. She’d killed them or rather he’d killed them. There was no way they’d ever convict a robot for this. It was all over.