Cory has worked for Amazon for several years. He is a second generation Los Angeles native. He previously co-wrote the audio play Awakening for Coeurage Ensemble. “Thalia In Albios” is inspired by the growing financial gap between the 1% and the rest of the world, and the corporate destruction of our planet.
Thalia’s shoes crunched on the withered earth as she walked to work. The shanty town of abandoned buildings where she lived was a 30-minute walk from the walls of Albios. The disintegrating facades of the buildings echoed with her every footstep. Decaying rusted-out cars lined the crumbling road. A gust of hot wind kicked up a cloud of dust that engulfed Thalia’s lungs and filled her nose with the musty smell of decay. As she stopped to cough uncontrollably for a moment she noticed a new piece of graffiti on an old building and turned to take it in. Star Trek’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard as a Borg with the words “Resist Albios” scrawled underneath.
Thalia rolled her eyes and kept going. She considered herself lucky to have a job cleaning houses inside Albios. This wasn’t what she had expected for her life, but after the collapse, options were pretty limited. Before the economy collapsed… before heat ravaged the earth making it impossible to grow crops… before sea levels rose, killing billions, and the ocean currents finally gave out, making the sea nothing more than a massive graveyard… before all of that, Thalia had wished to become an archeologist.
The Indiana Jones movies had been Thalia’s favorite, and she dreamed about traveling the world in search of artifacts. Now, as she walked, the Indiana Jones theme song played in her head and she pictured what it would have been like to paddle down the Nile. That great river was nothing more than a distant memory at this point, but she pictured the water beating against the hull of her boat as she engaged in an epic battle with the Nile crocodile.
She was about to bop one on the head with an oar when a guard yelled, “Have your security passes out. Get ready for the retinal scan.”
Thalia quickly snapped out of her daydream and began sifting through her purse, finding her security pass just as she got to the checkpoint. She handed it to the guard, making sure her eyes were focused straight ahead as a drone flew down to scan her retinas. The drone beeped three times, confirming her identity, and flew back up out of sight. The guard wasn’t satisfied and examined her ID intently, then stared at her. It seemed like his eyes were going to burn a hole in Thalia’s skull.
“Stop with the once over, Ralph.” She spewed impatiently.
“I have to make sur—” Ralph started to say, but Thalia had heard enough.
“You see me every day, Ralph. Just let me in already.”
The other guard did his best to contain his laughter.
“The Resistance attacked an empty shuttle yesterday. We can’t be too careful,” Ralph blurted back.
Thalia’s shoulders tensed up and she grabbed her ID from him.
“Are you serious?” she snapped., “What did they do? Break some windows with rocks and splash it with paint?”
Ralph looked down, his face turning red.
“That’s not an attack. That’s a bunch of dumb kids with too much time on their hands. Stop playing cop and let me in.” Thalia said.
“Well, go on.” Ralph muttered, as if Thalia had been the one holding things up.
Thalia approached the giant metal door and the other guard buzzed her in. She opened the door to reveal mansions with perfectly manicured lawns stretching as far as the eye could see. The sidewalks were so clean you could eat off them. The white concrete sparkled like diamonds in the sunlight, forcing Thalia to squint. The fruity, rich smell of jasmine, planted in every yard, filled the air and orange trees lined the street with the largest oranges you’ve ever seen.
They were so big that Thalia had to use both hands to grab one as she waited for the shuttle to come and take her to the house she worked at. She peeled the skin off to reveal deep ruby-red flesh and eased out the first segment, her mouth watering with anticipation. She took a bite and relished the juicy pulp, the sweetness dancing on her taste buds. She blissfully shoved segment after segment into her mouth until her stomach cramped. She winced as she forced the last segment into her mouth. This was the first and potentially last thing she would eat all day. No pain was going to stop her from eating all of it.
The shuttle pulled up silently and the big glass doors opened. Jan, the driver, sat impatiently twirling a toothpick between her teeth. She gripped the steering wheel so tight that her knuckles were white.
“What are you waiting for Thalia? I’ve got a schedule to keep!” she bellowed.
“Calm down, Jan. You just opened the door.” Thalia replied as she wiped the last of the juice off her hands and made her way onto the shuttle. “What’s eating you today?” she asked the driver.
“I got my second write up yesterday for being off schedule,” Jan said, chomping down hard on her toothpick. “You know what a third means.”
Thalia’s entire demeanor changed suddenly and she scurried to the nearest open seat.
“I’m sorry Jan, I didn’t know. I promise I’ll get on faster tomorrow.” Thalia said as apologetically as she could.
Jan closed the door and sped off as she said, “It’s alright. You couldn’t have known. It’s just… I have to think about the kids, you know.”
“I know. It’s going to be ok because you’re not going to get another write up. We’re all going to make sure of that.” Thalia replied.
The handful of people on the shuttle all chimed in with “yeses” and “uh huhs.”
Thalia’s heart started beating a mile a minute as she thought about what a third write up would mean. Jobs were virtually nonexistent outside of Albios, and working inside Albios also meant access to scraps of meat and some fresh produce. It’s the only reason Jan’s kids were healthy. Thalia had watched Jan’s kids grow up. She had even babysat Gracey and helped teach Johnny how to read. She started to spiral as she thought about what could happen to Jan’s kids.
The best case would be for her to sell Gracey to a family in Albios that couldn’t have kids. But that rarely happened, especially now that Gracey was getting older. They needed small hands to fix things at the reactor, but the child death rate was over 80% – and once her hands got too big, she would run out of options.
Johnny’s prospects were even worse. Teenage boys could work in the water mines, but the work was so strenuous that most people could barely walk after a couple years. The constant scratching at bedrock left workers’ fingers worn all the way down to the top knuckle. Otherwise the only real option for Johnny would be to fight in The Pit, the only live entertainment for the plebs living outside Albios, a battle to the death so vicious that it gave many people nightmares. Johnny wouldn’t last a minute. He made splints for injured birds and read books all day. His skinny frame wasn’t built for hand-to-hand combat.
“Next stop Angel Heights Avenue!” Jan shouted.
Thalia snapped out of her spiral and quickly made her way to the door. Her whole body tensed as she waited for the door to open.
“Thanks for being ready to get off, Thalia.” Jan said sweetly.
“Of course. We take care of us.” Thalia replied as she gently put her hand on Jan’s shoulder before hurrying off the shuttle.
The shuttle sped off as Thalia’s feet hit the ground. Thalia paused for a moment, taking in the familiar street. The houses all had the same modern rectangular design. The only thing that differentiated them was the slightly different shades of taupe, tan, and beige. Occasionally, someone would paint their house eggshell if they really wanted to stand out.
Thalia walked up the driveway of the home she worked at. The only thing that distinguished it from the other houses was the doormat that said “Everyone’s Welcome Here” with a series of skin tone hearts, an LGBTQ heart, and a trans heart. Thalia rang the doorbell and Mrs. Smith promptly answered. She was in her 40s but there wasn’t a line on her face. She was wearing a perfectly tailored grey pantsuit.
“Well, come on in Thalia!” she said warmly with a slight southern twang.
“Thank you Mrs. Smith,” Thalia replied.
“Now Thalia, how many times do I have to tell you: call me Linda!” She said, teasingly.
“I’m sorry, Linda,” Thalia replied, putting a slight emphasis on the name.
“It’s alright Thalia. We think of you as family and want you to be comfortable here.” Linda said, putting her arm around Thalia.
“Thanks, I appreciate that,” Thalia said as she made her way into the house. She was careful to keep her tone neutral.
“Remind me to report that shuttle when I get home. It was driving so fast,” Linda said as she looked for her keys. Thalia’s heart dropped out of her body. Her brain felt like a mound of quicksand as she searched for a response.
“I don’t… it didn’t seem like it was going very fast to me.” Thalia finally managed to say.
“It was speeding. Kids play on this street. It’s not safe.” Linda replied firmly.
Thalia began to sweat through her shirt as she tried to think of what to say next.
“It’s just… if the driver gets written up again she’ll get fired… and she has two kids.” Thalia observed.
Linda looked over at Thalia, who saw the flash of contempt that was quickly replaced with a huge smile.
“Well we wouldn’t want that! I’m going to say something to the shuttle manager but I’m going to insist she doesn’t get fired. How’s that sound?”
Thalia hesitated. She knew Jan might still get fired but she couldn’t risk angering Linda. The Smiths were one of the few homes in Albios to employ a human housekeeper instead of robots. They did it because they wanted to help people.
“I think that’s very generous of you, Linda.” Thalia replied.
Linda wrapped her arms around Thalia and gave her a bear hug as she said “Thank you. I believe generosity is the key to a happy life.”
Linda opened the door and got halfway out before saying, “We left some breakfast for you in the kitchen.”
“Thank you, that’s so kind! Have a great day!” Thalia responded, genuinely excited.
“Of course. John loves to cook a giant breakfast and we can never finish all of it. Enjoy!” Linda said sweetly as she closed the door.
Thalia headed straight to the kitchen. The pans were empty except for some grease and tiny pieces of bacon. She looked on the table and saw two plates. There were some half eaten scrambled eggs, a few potatoes, and some bacon scraps dotting both plates.
Thalia devoured them hungrily. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten eggs, and her jaw began to ache from chewing the rubbery eggs so enthusiastically. She quickly finished the rest of the food and put the dishes in the sink.
She got her apron from the supply closet and surveyed the house, which looked like a bomb had exploded. There were plates of food in the living room from breakfast and from the night before. The kids left their dirty underwear on the floor of the bathroom, one with a gag-worthy surprise in it. Thalia never understood why the kids couldn’t walk three feet to the clothes hamper in the corner of the bathroom.
As Thalia was walking out of the bathroom with the filled clothes hamper in hand she felt something squish under her right foot. She lifted her foot quickly and found some bright pink slime stuck to her shoe. Her heart sank. In that split second she had managed to grind the pink stuff into the brand new carpet.
Thalia immediately began to panic. Linda had been monologuing for weeks about this carpet. It was eco-friendly, soft, non-toxic, and so many other things that Thalia couldn’t remember with her pulse skyrocketing. It cost more than Thalia would make in five years. She might get fired if it was ruined. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t been the one to put the slime on the carpet. Linda believed in what she called “gentle parenting” that didn’t include punishing her kids. But she did believe in punishing Thalia in their place. She would probably dock Thalia’s meager pay, or make her replace items she couldn’t afford…
There was a way to get slime out of carpet though. One of the other housekeepers had told Thalia about it weeks ago when they were on the shuttle. But her heart was pounding too loud for her to remember the formula. Was it WD-40 and club soda? Or club soda alone?
She looked down at the pink mass seeping deeper into the carpet and her chest tightened. THINK! her brain screamed. Thalia paused, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She let the world stop for a moment. Her chest relaxed enough for her to feel her belly as she continued to breathe. And then it came to her: vinegar and water.
Thalia raced downstairs and opened the pantry, doing her best not to tear through the it as she looked for vinegar. She found it, hiding in the back. Thank god, she thought to herself. Thalia didn’t believe in god but in that moment she needed to thank something for the potential miracle.
She flung the cap off and poured half the bottle of vinegar in a bucket and added water. Thalia needed this to work.
She headed straight to the pink blob with a rag and began to scrub. Some of it began to come up, so she scrubbed harder. More and more came up the harder she scrubbed. The veins popped out of her forearm from all the scrubbing. They looked like tree roots, but they were carrying precious blood to her fingers so she could remove this pink nightmare.
Finally, she sat back on her heels and inspected her work. Every last trace of slime had been scrubbed away. She dropped the slime-covered rag and let out a huge sigh of relief. She rested her head on the wall and looked up at the clock. More than half the day was already gone and she wasn’t halfway done with her work! Thalia jumped up and raced through the house.
She threw all the dirty clothes in the washer. She did her best not to rush through making the beds. The corners had to be folded perfectly or Linda would make a stink. “How you make your bed tells the world everything they need to know about you,” She said to Thalia if the bed had the smallest thing out of place.
Thalia had just finishing making Linda’s bed and was looking it over to make sure everything was perfect when she heard the dryer buzz.
“Shit! I forgot about the clothes!” She cried. She raced to the laundry room right as Linda walked through the door.
“I’m home!” Linda called enthusiastically. Thalia’s heart sank. She knew Linda wasn’t going to be happy about walking into an “imperfect home.”
“Hey Linda!” Thalia replied. Her voice too high as she did her best to cover the panic shooting through her body.
Linda walked into the laundry room and her mood shifted immediately.
“You’re not done yet?” Linda asked. Her faux-concern had all the judgement in the world coursing through it.
“Sorry! I had to get—” Thalia started to say when Linda cut her off.
“It’s fine.”
Thalia was speechless for a moment. Linda was never “fine” with things like this.
“Really?” Thalia replied meekly.
“Yes, you have a shuttle to catch.” Linda said sweetly.
“Thank you, Linda! That’s so kind of you.” Thalia took off her apron and headed to the front door.
“You’re welcome. I’m docking your pay 10% for not finishing the day’s work.” Linda said.
Thalia stopped dead in her tracks and looked at Linda, panicked.
“I can stay and finish.” She pleaded.
“No,” Linda said flatly. “This is your allotted time. You did 90% of the work, so you’ll get 90% of the pay.” Linda’s eyes were cold.
Thalia gulped. “I… understand,” she said, resigned to her fate.
Suddenly Linda was smiling again, all coldness gone. She put her arm around Thalia and walked her to the door.
“That’s what I love about you Thalia. You just… get it. Have a good night!” Her tone was as sweet as the orange Thalia had eaten earlier.
Thalia slowly made her way to the corner to wait for the shuttle. She looked down at her aching hand. A tear landed and rolled across her thumb. Then the tears fell faster and faster until they covered her entire face. How would she survive? Maybe she could eat only every two days? She glanced down the street as she wiped her face and saw an orange tree. Maybe I can take a bunch of oranges? she thought. But she knew the answer. People would get suspicious if her bag was too full and there were too many oranges missing. She couldn’t take the risk. That’s why she had settled on trying to take only one each day.
She wanted to scream, but the shuttle pulled up, saving her. She wiped her face again and got on the shuttle.
“Keep it moving darling.” A gruff voice said to her. She looked up and saw an older, balding man smacking his gums. Thalia stopped for a moment, caught off guard by a new face.
“Who are you? Where’s Jan?” She said with her voice on the verge of breaking.
“The name’s Sal. Jan got fired. Somethin’ about speedin’ in a neighborhood, I think,” he said.
Thalia grabbed onto a seat to stop from collapsing. A wave of sadness flooded every inch of her body. She had to hold onto the overhead compartment to keep her balance as she made her way to the nearest open seat.
All she could see was the look on Jan’s face when she got off the shuttle that morning… the relief in Jan’s eyes as Thalia said “we take care of us.” The imagined Jan’s anguish and fear. Thalia began to shake at the thought of it. Rage started to fill every inch of her body as her thoughts shifted to Linda, that generous woman.
“We’re at the front gate.” Sal shouted, momentarily snapping Thalia out of her rage.
Thalia got off the shuttle and heard bloodcurdling screams. She rushed to the front gate to see the guards doing their best to force Jan our of Albios.
“Please, I’ll do anything! I’ll clean up shit! I’ll work in the water mines, just let me work!” Jan shrieked.
“Jan you know it doesn’t work like that!” One guard said as he pried her fingers from the gate. “You got your third write-up, you have to go.”
“BUT MY KIDS!” Jan wailed. She let out a guttural cry that wrenched Thalia’s heart and echoed around the compound as the guards closed the gate behind her.
Jan turned grey. The life left her eyes. Then she drooped slightly and fell against the gate, weeping.
Thalia’s heart felt like it was ripped from her body. Her own concerns felt so pale now, in comparison. At least she didn’t have kids to feed. At least she wasn’t left with the decision between selling her daughter and sending both of her kids to hell. As she walked, thinking about Jan and about Linda, Thalia’s blood began to boil. She needed to do something! But what was to be done?
The sun pierced her eyes as it started to set behind the mountains off in the distance. Thalia looked up, shading her eyes, and found that she was standing in front of the graffiti again. She stared at it, at Picard’s face, half buried beneath the Borg implants, and felt something spark inside her.
“Resist,” she said quietly.
Then she said it again, louder, and again, and again, until she was shouting it.
“Resist!”
Standing in front of that graffiti, filled with the rage and sorrow of the day, Thalia knew what she needed to do.
She was joining the resistance.
Cory has worked for Amazon for several years. He is a second generation Los Angeles native. He previously co-wrote the audio play Awakening for Coeurage Ensemble. “Thalia In Albios” is inspired by the growing financial gap between the 1% and the rest of the world, and the corporate destruction of our planet.
Thalia’s shoes crunched on the withered earth as she walked to work. The shantytown of abandoned buildings where she lived was a thirty-minute walk from the walls of Albios. The disintegrating facades of the buildings echoed with her every footstep. Decaying rusted-out cars lined the crumbling road. A gust of hot wind kicked up a cloud of dust, engulfing Thalia’s lungs and filling her nose with the musty smell of rot. As she stopped to cough uncontrollably for a moment, she noticed a new piece of graffiti on an old building. She turned to take it in. Star Trek’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard as a Borg with the words “Resist Albios” scrawled underneath.
Thalia rolled her eyes and kept going. She considered herself lucky to have a job cleaning houses inside Albios. This wasn’t what she had expected for her life, but after the collapse, options were pretty limited. Before the economy collapsed; before heat ravaged the earth, making it impossible to grow crops; before sea levels rose, killing billions, and the ocean currents finally gave out, making the sea nothing more than a massive graveyard—before all of this, Thalia had dreamed of becoming an archaeologist.
The Indiana Jones movies had been Thalia’s favorite, and she dreamed of traveling the world in search of artifacts. Now, as she walked, the Indiana Jones theme song played in her head and she pictured what it would have been like to travel down the Nile. The Nile was nothing more than a distant memory at this point, but she imagined the water beating against the hull of her boat as she engaged in an epic battle with the Nile crocodile.
She was about to bop one on the head with an oar when a guard yelled, “Have your security passes out. Get ready for the retinal scan.”
Thalia quickly snapped out of her daydream and began sifting through her purse, finding her security pass just as she got to the checkpoint. She handed it to the guard, making sure her eyes were straight ahead as a drone flew down to scan her retinas. The drone beeped three times, confirming her identity, and flew back up out of sight. The guard wasn’t satisfied and stared at her id intently, then stared at her. It seemed like his eyes were going to burn a hole in Thalia’s skull.
“Stop with the once over, Ralph,” she spewed impatiently. “I have to make sur—” Ralph started to say, but Thalia had heard enough. “You see me every day, Ralph. Just let me in already.” The other guard did his best to contain his laughter. “The resistance attacked an empty shuttle yesterday. We can’t be too careful,” Ralph blurted back. Thalia’s shoulders tensed up and she grabbed her id from him. “Are you serious? What did they do? Break some windows with rocks and splash it with paint?” she snapped. Ralph looked down as his face turned red. “That’s not an attack. That’s a bunch of dumb kids with too much time on their hands. Stop playing cop and let me in,” Thalia said. “Well go on,” Ralph muttered, as if Thalia had been the one holding things up.
Thalia approached the giant metal door and the other guard buzzed her in. She opened the door to reveal mansions with perfectly manicured lawns stretched as far as the eye could see. The sidewalks were so clean you could eat off them. The white concrete sparkled like diamonds in the sunlight, forcing Thalia to squint. The fruity, rich smell of jasmine, planted in every yard, filled the air, and orange trees lined the street with the largest oranges you’ve ever seen.
They were so big that Thalia had to use both hands to grab one as she waited for the shuttle to come and take her to the house she worked at. She peeled the skin off to reveal deep ruby red flesh and eased out the first segment, her mouth watering with anticipation. She took a bite and relished the juicy flesh, the sweetness dancing on her taste buds. She blissfully shoved segment after segment into her mouth until her stomach cramped. She winced as she forced the last segment in. This was the first and potentially last thing she would eat all day. No pain was going to stop her from eating all of it.
The shuttle pulled up silently and the big glass doors opened. Jan sat in the driver seat, impatiently twirling a toothpick between her teeth. She gripped the steering wheel so tight that her knuckles were white.
“What are you waiting for, Thalia? I’ve got a schedule to keep!” she bellowed.
“Calm down, Jan. You just opened the door. What’s eating you today?” Thalia wiped the last of the juice off her hands and made her way onto the shuttle.
“I got my second write up yesterday for being off schedule. You know what a third means.” Jan said, chomping down hard on her toothpick.
Thalia’s entire demeanor changed suddenly and she scurried to the nearest open seat. “I’m sorry, Jan, I didn’t know. I promise I’ll get on faster tomorrow,” Thalia said as apologetically as she could.
Jan closed the door and sped off, “It’s alright. You couldn’t have known. It’s just . . . I have to think about the kids, you know?”
“I know. It’s going to be ok because you’re not going to get another write up. We’re all going to make sure of that,” Thalia replied.
The handful of people on the shuttle all chimed in with “yeses” and “uh huhs.”
Thalia’s heart beat a mile a minute as she thought about what a third write up would mean. Jobs were virtually nonexistent outside of Albios. And working inside Albios also meant access to scraps of meat and some fresh produce. It’s the only reason Jan’s kids were healthy. Thalia had watched Jan’s kids grow up. She had even babysat Gracey and helped teach Johnny how to read. She started to spiral as she thought about what could happen to Jan’s kids.
The best case would be for her to sell Gracey to a family in Albios that couldn’t have kids. But that rarely happened, especially now that Gracey was getting older. They needed small hands to fix things at the reactor, but the child death rate was over 80 percent—and once her hands got too big, she would run out of options.
Johnny’s prospects were even worse. Teenage boys could work in the water mines, but the work was so strenuous that most people could barely walk after a couple years. The constant scratching at bedrock left people with fingers worn all the way down to the top knuckle. Otherwise, the only real option for Johnny would be to fight in the pit. It was the only live entertainment for the plebs outside Albios. A battle to the death so vicious that it gave many people nightmares. Johnny wouldn’t last a minute. He made splints for injured birds and read books all day. His skinny frame wasn’t built for hand-to-hand combat.
“Next stop Angel Heights Avenue!” Jan shouted.
Thalia snapped out of her spiral and quickly made her way to the door. Her whole body tensed as she waited for the door to open.
“Thanks for being ready to get off, Thalia,” Jan said sincerely.
“Of course. We take care of us,” Thalia replied as she gently put her hand on Jan’s shoulder before hurrying off the shuttle.
The shuttle sped off as Thalia’s feet hit the ground. She paused for a moment, taking in the familiar street. The houses all had the same modern rectangular design. The only thing that differentiated them was the slightly different shades of taupe, tan, and beige. Occasionally someone would paint their house eggshell. If they really wanted to stand out.
Thalia walked up the driveway of the home she worked at. The only thing that differentiated it from the other houses was the doormat that said “Everyone’s Welcome Here” with a series of skin tone hearts, an LGBTQ heart, and a trans heart. Thalia rang the doorbell and Mrs. Smith promptly answered the door. She was in her forties but there wasn’t a line on her face. She was wearing a perfectly tailored gray pantsuit.
“Well, come on in, Thalia!” she said warmly with a slight southern twang.
“Thank you, Mrs. Smith,” Thalia replied.
“Now Thalia, how many times do I have to tell you, call me Linda,” she said teasingly.
“I’m sorry, . . . Linda,” Thalia replied, putting a slight emphasis on the name.
“It’s alright, Thalia. We think of you as family and want you to be comfortable here,” Linda said, putting her arm around Thalia.
“Thanks, I . . . I appreciate that,” Thalia said as she made her way into the house. She was careful to keep her tone neutral.
“Remind me to report that shuttle when I get home. It was driving so fast,” Linda said as she looked for her keys. Thalia’s heart dropped out of her body. Her brain felt like a mound of quicksand as she searched for a response.
“I don’t . . . it didn’t seem like it was going very fast to me,” she finally managed to say.
“It was speeding. Kids play on this street. It’s not safe,” Linda replied firmly.
Thalia began to sweat through her shirt as she tried to think of what to say next. “It’s just . . . if the driver gets written up again she’ll get fired and she has two kids,” Thalia opined.
Linda looked over at Thalia with a look of contempt that was quickly replaced by a huge smile. “Well we wouldn’t want that. I’m going to say something to the shuttle manager but I’m going to insist she doesn’t get fired. How’s that sound?”
Thalia hesitated. She knew Jan might still get fired, but she couldn’t risk angering Linda. The Smiths were one of the few families in Albios to employ a human housekeeper instead of robots. They did it because they wanted to “help” people.
“I think that’s very generous of you, Linda.” Thalia replied.
Linda wrapped her arms around Thalia and gave her a bear hug. “Thank you. I believe generosity is the key to a happy life.”
Linda opened the door and got halfway out before saying, “We left some breakfast for you in the kitchen.”
“Thank you, that’s so kind! Have a great day!” Thalia responded, genuinely excited.
“Of course. John loves to cook a giant breakfast and we can never finish all of it. Enjoy,” Linda said sweetly as she closed the door.
Thalia headed straight to the kitchen. The pans were empty except for some grease and the remnants of bacon. She looked on the table and saw two plates. There were some half eaten scrambled eggs, a few potatoes, and some bacon scraps dotting both plates.
Thalia devoured them hungrily. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten eggs, and her jaw began to ache from chewing the rubbery eggs so much. She quickly finished the rest of the food and put the dishes in the sink.
She got her apron from the supply closet and surveyed the house. The house looked like a bomb had exploded in it. There were plates of food in the living room from breakfast as well as from the night before. The kids left their dirty underwear on the floor of the bathroom, one with a gag worthy surprise in it. Thalia never understood why the kids couldn’t walk three feet to the clothes hamper in the corner of the bathroom.
Thalia walked out of the bathroom with the dirty clothes hamper in hand when she felt something squish under her right foot. She picked up her foot quickly and saw some bright pink slime stuck to her shoe. Looking down, her heart sank. In that split second she had managed to grind it into the brand new carpet.
Thalia immediately began to panic. Linda had been monologuing for weeks about this carpet. It was ecofriendly, soft, nontoxic, and so many other things that Thalia couldn’t remember as her pulse skyrocketed. It cost more than Thalia would make in five years. If it was ruined, she would be fired. It didn’t matter that she didn’t put the slime on the carpet. Linda believed in what she called “gentle parenting”—and that didn’t include punishing her kids. She did believe in punishing Thalia in their place though. If she wasn’t fired outright, her pay would be docked or she would be forced to pay for items she couldn’t possibly afford.
There was a way to get slime out of carpet though. One of the other housekeepers had told Thalia about it weeks ago when they were on the shuttle. Her heart was pounding so loud, she couldn’t remember the formula. Was it WD-40 and club soda? Or club soda alone?
She looked down at the pink mass seeping deeper into the carpet and her chest tightened. THINK! She screamed loudly in her brain. She paused, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She let the world stop for a moment. Her chest relaxed enough for her to feel her belly as she continued to breathe. And then it came to her, vinegar and water.
Thalia raced downstairs and opened the pantry, trying her best not to tear through it as she looked for vinegar. She found it, hiding in the back. Thank god, she thought to herself. Thalia didn’t believe in god but in that moment she needed to thank something for the potential miracle.
She flung the cap off and poured half the bottle of vinegar in a bucket. She needed this to work.
She headed straight to the pink blob with a rag and began to scrub. Some of it began to come up, so she scrubbed harder. The harder she scrubbed, the more came up. The veins popped out of her forearm from all the scrubbing. They looked like tree roots carrying precious blood to her hand so she could remove this pink nightmare.
Finally, she sat back on her heels and inspected her work. Every last piece of slime had been scrubbed away. She dropped the slime covered rag and let out a huge sigh of relief. She rested her head on the wall and looked up at the clock on the opposite wall. More than half the day was already gone and she wasn’t halfway done with her work. Thalia jumped up and raced through the house.
She threw all the dirty clothes in the washer. She did her best not to rush making the beds. The corners had to be folded perfectly or Linda would make a stink. “How you make your bed tells the world everything they need to know about you,” she said to Thalia if the bed had the smallest thing out of place.
Thalia finished making Linda’s bed and was looking over it to make sure everything was perfect when she heard the buzz from the dryer. “Shit! I forgot about the clothes!” She cried out. She raced to the laundry room right as Linda walked through the door.
“I’m home!” Linda called enthusiastically. Thalia’s heart sank at the sound of Linda’s voice. She knew Linda wasn’t going to be happy about walking into an “imperfect home.”
“Hey Linda!” Thalia replied, her voice too high as she did her best to cover the panic shooting through her body.
Linda walked into the laundry room and her mood shifted immediately. “You’re not done yet?” she asked. Her faux concern had all the judgment in the world coursing through it.
“Sorry! I had to get—” Thalia started to say when Linda cut her off. “It’s fine.”
Thalia was speechless for a moment. Linda was never “fine” with things like this. “Really?” Thalia replied meekly.
“Yes, you have a shuttle to catch,” Linda said sweetly.
“Thank you, Linda! That’s so kind of you.”
Thalia took off her apron and headed to the front door. “You’re welcome. Oh, and I’m docking your pay 10 percent for not finishing the day’s work,” Linda said.
Thalia stopped dead in her tracks and looked at Linda, panicked. “I can stay and finish,” she pleaded.
“No,” Linda said flatly. “This is your allotted time. You did 90 percent of the work, so you’re getting 90 percent of the pay.” Linda’s eyes were cold as they gazed at Thalia.
Thalia gulped. “I understand,” she said, resigned to her fate.
Suddenly Linda was smiling again, all coldness gone. She put her arm around Thalia and walked her to the door. “That’s what I love about you, Thalia. You just get it. Have a good night.” Her tone was as sweet as the orange Thalia had eaten earlier.
Thalia slowly made her way to the corner to wait for the shuttle. She looked down at her aching hand, watching as a tear landed and rolled across her thumb. Then the tears fell faster and faster until they covered her entire face. How would she survive? Maybe she could eat only every two days? She glanced down the street as she wiped her face and saw an orange tree. Maybe I can take a bunch of oranges, she thought. But she knew the answer. People would get suspicious if her bag was too full and there were too many oranges missing. She couldn’t take the risk. So she settled on trying to take one a day. She wanted to scream out but the shuttle pulled up, saving her from herself.
She wiped her face again and got on the shuttle. “Keep it moving, darling,” a gruff voice said to her. She looked up and saw an older, balding man smacking his gum. Thalia stopped for a moment, caught off guard by a new face.
“Who are you? Where’s Jan?” she asked with her voice on the verge of breaking.
“The name’s Sal. Jan got fired. Somethin’ about speedin’ in a neighborhood, I think,” he said.
Thalia grabbed onto a seat to stop from falling over. A wave of sadness flooded every inch of her body. She had to hold onto the overhead compartment to keep her balance as she made her way to the nearest open seat.
All she could see was the look on Jan’s face when she got off the shuttle that morning. The relief in Jan’s eyes as Thalia said “we take care of us.” She knew all of that was replaced with anguish and fear. Thalia began to shake at the thought of it. Rage started to fill every inch of her body as her thoughts shifted to Linda. The “generous” woman.
“We’re at the front gate,” Sal shouted, momentarily snapping Thalia out of her rage.
Thalia got off the shuttle and heard bloodcurdling screams. She rushed to the front gate to see the guards doing their best to rip Jan from the gate. “Please, I’ll do anything! I’ll clean up shit! I’ll work in the water mines, just let me work!” Jan shrieked.
“Jan, you know it doesn’t work like that. You got your third write up, you have to go,” one of the guards said as he pried her fingers from the gate.
“But MY KIDS!” Jan wailed. She let out a guttural cry that echoed around the compound as the guards closed the gate, wrenching Thalia’s heart.
Jan turned gray and the life left her eyes. Then she drooped slightly and fell against the gate, weeping.
Thalia’s heart felt like it was ripped from her body as she watched the scene unfold. Her own concerns felt so pale now, in comparison. At least she didn’t have kids to feed. At least she wasn’t now left with the decision between selling her daughter and sending both of her kids to hell. As she walked, thinking about Jan and about Linda, Thalia’s blood began to boil. She needed to do something! But what was to be done?
The sun pierced her eyes as it started to fall behind the mountains off in the distance. Thalia looked up, shading her eyes from the sun, and found that she was standing in front of the graffiti again. She stared at it, at Picard’s face, half buried beneath the Borg implants, and felt something spark inside her. “Resist” she said quietly. Then she said it again, louder, and again, and again, until she was shouting it.
Standing in front of that graffiti, filled with the rage and sorrow of the day, Thalia knew what she needed to do. She was joining the resistance.