Maddy’s Last Moment in Redding Town

<Chapter One: Maddy’s Last Moment in Redding Town>

The arm was around thirteen-year old Maddy Remm’s neck and she was being pulled backwards before she knew anyone was behind her. The corner of the grey building moved away from her as she was being thrown to the ground. She got a very brief glimpse of a dust-masked and rust-colored bearded face before her own face was covered with a –

Maddy Remm awoke in the pitch dark … No, there was a mask or cloth over her eyes … and she was strapped to a metal, canvas cot. She knew it was a cot by feel and by the sound it made when she struggled, and failed, to pull her arms or legs free. Even her neck was strapped down. It was cold wherever she awoke, but her left arm and left breast were the coldest, so she knew her shirt had been half ripped off. For the test.

Her mother was right. Testers would grab her if she went into old town alone. That thought stopped cold in her head, as she comprehended that she had likely already been tested.

Already been tested.

She concentrated on her arm, where they drew the blood, but felt no pain. That didn't matter, her brain told her. The drawing of the blood was nothing. It was the result of the test that mattered. She concentrated on her face but felt no pain. She had yet to be tattooed. That she would definitely feel.

Maddy knew her life was about to change, ripped up at the roots. Her world would never be the same. She would have to leave Redding Town, her home, either way. But that was not what made her shake with panic.

There was consolation in not knowing. Not knowing the truth. No more false consolation. Now only the truth.

She started to yell, but then felt the gag in her mouth. A low moan was all she could accomplish. She kept screaming anyway.

A second passed.

Tears exploded, soaking the mask or cloth near her eyes.

Another second passed.

She struggled on her cot, but was tied down tightly.

Another … second.

Time was slowing down for Maddy. She could feel every shudder from the fear and panic. She could feel the sweat … flop sweat? Is that what it’s called? … flowing drip by drip from her pores.

As she screamed and cried, another second or two ticked by.

Then she heard a footfall and she fell silent, but the tears and sweat continued.

Two options. Yes or no. Soul or no soul. No more comfort from uncertainty.

Another footfall, as if the person were coming towards her in slow motion.

The shakes increased.

As suddenly as she was grabbed by the throat earlier … How much earlier? How much time had passed? How much distance? Where was she? … the cloth was yanked from her face. Above her the canvas green of a tent and muted sunlight, yet still bright enough to force her eyes closed.

She willed them open to catch a glimpse of her captor’s expression … Doomed or saved? Saved or doomed? Her world was over, but would that new world be horror or happiness or, at least, a chance at happiness. And what would happen next? … but no one was above her. Whoever was in the room was out of her vertical array of sight.

Her body, without her willing it, struggled at the binds.

A woman’s voice, neither gentle nor rough, neither young nor old: Calm child.

But she could not ‘calm’.

Then the whirr of the tattoo gun.

Now she struggled consciously.

The woman’s voice, louder, but no hint of an answer to the big question: Calm, child!

Her life had changed. Up or down. Soul or no soul. She settled into her fate, good or bad. All the fight gone. No more uncertainty, just the symbol of that truth.

The whirr from the tattoo gun intensified. It was all she heard.

She tried to move her head to the side, wondering why she hadn't tried before, but it was frozen in place. There were braces on either side.

The tattoo gun appeared in her sight first. Her eyes narrowed focus onto the tip of the needle.

Blue ink.

Relief flooded her body. All at once. The shakes and sweat stopped. The tears exploded again. She breathed as if for the very first time.

Blue.

Maddy didn’t feel the tattooing, even though it was on her face, on the upper cheek below her left eye. All she could feel was relief.

Blue.

She felt complete and total relief, even though her life would never be the same and she would never be allowed back in Redding Town. Thirteen years old. Poor as dirt. No family and no more friends. Not even a dust mask. … Why did she worry about that? All she felt was a pure, physical relief.

Blue.

The tattoo gun whirring stopped. She opened her eyes … They were closed? … to a smiling woman’s face: Close your eyes, child. Almost done. Maddy complied.

The smell of alcohol. A cloth was being wiped across her face. Her eyes opened following the cloth. Red? Red! Her body convulsed for a split second until her brain registered the red as blood, her blood, from the tattoo.

She opened her eyes fully to the same smiling face: Welcome, child.

The woman placed a mirror in front of Maddy’s face.

Puffy red face. Puffier below her left eye. Some streaks of blood, her blood, covering a blue “S” tattoo.

Blue.

The life-changing “S” on her upper cheek.

Blue.

<End Chapter One>