Nooli
Mara Corridor
Mid-Rim
”Nib nib.”Mara Corridor
Mid-Rim
The child motioned towards their mouth. They looked like they hadn’t showered in weeks. Cerys’ stomach churned with pity. How could a society let their children live in this manner?
”Nib nib.”
The child, a girl of no more than seven years of age, made the same motion towards her mouth and then held her hand out. She wanted money. Cerys was not going to allow a child such as this go hungry. She reached into her pouch, finding one of the few silver chits that she had left. There was plenty of credits from the previous planet she had been on, but Nooli used its own currency and of that Cerys had very little. The chit was placed into the little girls hand. Her smile was something Cerys would treasure forever. What a smile!
The girl had just been gifted enough money to buy basic food for a couple of days, or quite a nice meal from a diner if she wanted someone else to do the cooking. Cerys didn’t care which option the girl chose, so long as the little one had food to eat. It felt good to help.
The door of the business Cerys had been about to enter, before being approached by the child, flew open. ”Get out of here, you little maggot!” The shopkeepers voice made Cerys jump. Her eyes grew wide wondering why he would talk to her in such a manner. He had been so congenial the other day.
From his line of sight, she quickly understood that the shopkeeper was yelling at the child, who was now running away toward a nearby alley. “That was uncalled for Mink!” Cerys said to the shopkeeper. He was a large man. Tall, with a patchy beard, even patchier hairline, and a stomach that hid his belt buckle from view.
Mink just snarled at her and stalked back into his shop. Cerys followed, undeterred. “She just wanted to eat…have you no decency?”
“She’s one of Tennid’s beggars. She is just going to take the money to her master for a small piece of bread and the promise that one day she can go to one of the big feasts that Tennid claims to throw,” said Mink, as he walked back behind his desk. Mink had described his business as that of ‘problem solving’. To Cerys it looked as though he ran a junk shop.
“How often does this Tennid throw these big feasts?” Cerys said, suddenly feeling heat rushing to her neck. Had she just been conned?
”He doesn’t, kid,” said Mink, who just shook his head as if he had expectd Cerys to understand that. She was not sure why he expected her to assume that people could be so cruel.
“He doesn’t?” Cerys said, her stomach feeling unpleasant, “he…doesn’t.” She looked back to the door wondering what she could do to sort this Tennid out. Problem was, she was supposed to be leaving this world. That was, in fact, the reason why she had come here today.
”Look kid. If you ain’t gonna buy something…don’t just stand around…get a move on outta here, alright?” Mink said dismissively. There was no one else in the shop. Cerys didn’t understand why she was a problem.
”Mink. I went to the port today. But no one has ever heard of a ship called…The Daily Hustle,” said Cerys, turning toward him with narrowed eyes. Her attempt at looking ‘in charge’ was probably coming across as poorly as she imagined it to be.
Mink frowned. “I don’t know what you are talking about, kid. I ain’t never seen you in my life,” said the shop owner with a wave of his hand.
“I was here…two days ago…you said that your friend was taking a shipment of produce to Toydaria…and that I could catch a ride with him…I gave you the money,” Cerys paused at the end of her recounting of events. Her stomach felt more than unpleasant now. She found downright ill.
“There was no friend…no shipment to Toydaria was there?” She said, swallowing her tears back. How could he do this to her? He had been so helpful to her not even 48 hours earlier.
“No friends? I got plenty of friends,” said Mink, who was not looking at her but instead working on soldering a circuit board, “but you ain’t one of them…I ain’t never seen you kid. Now if you don’t mind…your little show here is ruining the mood…it’s bad for business.”
“You have no customers!” She said, incredulous. Her sick feeling had morphed into anger, something she fought to keep under control.
”You can’t do this to me,” she was leaning against his counter, tugging at his shirt.
“I have no customers because they hear some crazy girl yelling inside and don’t want the trouble,” he said, but as he looked away from his work and into Cerys’ watering eyes, his face softened unexpectedly.
“Look. Kid. You shouldn’t have given that kid out there money. You shouldn’t give anyone money if you don’t know them, or what they will do with said money,” he said almost sympathetically, “lessons like this can be expensive if you are not careful.”
“You are a liar…and a thief, Mink,” Cerys said, releasing his shirt sleeve with a little shove, “and you should be ashamed of yourself.”
“Fine. I am ashamed of myself,” he said, “ya happy now?”
“No,” she said, pouting.
“If you ain’t buying something kid…”
”I was just leaving,” she said. Mink waved dismissively, and Cerys marched to the door.
That money had taken her several weeks to save up. It was supposed to be her way off this world, and on to new sights, sounds and endeavours. Instead, she was back to square one. Seeing as square one on Nooli had been spending her first night under a bridge, Cerys was not to happy with the fact that it had begun to rain.
Rik Perris