Chapter One: The New Guy

Title: Walking Through the City of a Perpendicular Universe. About living in that universe

         She woke up to a usual morning, some new split ends were in her golden hair, but when she swung open the yellow curtains to wake herself up, it became a lovely morning. The city was hopping with people, the sky was bright blue, the clouds were puffy and white, and one of those clouds was covering the black hole, just beside the sun. It was an eclipse day, and so it was a wonderful morning. Unfortunately her baby heard the sound of the curtains and woke up crying. Usually, at this sound, she would have a moment of sleepy annoyance before she got the urge to help him out, but today, with the usual reminder of the future extinction of planet Earth being conquered by Mother Nature and her clouds, she was all giddy and hopping over baby toys to go over and soothe the little one.
         She picked him up, brought him to the living room, and held him close while sitting on the chair he likes to calm him down. The materials that made it as soft as it is were naturally dyed—almost like the sun—ultraviolet, so the chair just looked purple. It’s his favorite thing to climb on. It’s faced away from the porch door and towards the TV, and until he calms and lets her get up to grab the remote, she has him cradled in her arms, twirling the seven cyan hairs on his head, which he got from his dad, being careful not to pull them out.
         While she soothed him, she looked out the porch door, between the wood panels, at the city. Since she lived near the top of her apartment, she could see the whole area going about its day.
         The food market was setting up their famous hotdog stand. Cars of all colors were driving their usual path to some predetermined destination she will ever know. Adults were preoccupied, but the children at the playground were watching the cloud. Were seeing their first eclipse, getting to feel what it must be like for the kids whose parents took them to a perpendicular universe that didn’t have a black hole in the sky.
         They all wore hats, as usual, but she focused on the one kid in the playground who didn’t have a hat, who she knew from the daycare. His hair was completely black from all that sun exposure. Throughout the year, taking care of him during weekdays, she’d watched his hair turn from a brilliant, deep orange to what it is now. She had no ideas as to why he never had a hat, since he could have easily afforded it. But there he was. Black hair, and staring at the cloud, like he was imagining a helicopter flying past, but even from this height she could tell the kid was imagining something else. Probably not the black hole swallowing the planet, as most adults seem to, but maybe something more relevant. His best friend’s dad took his family to a perpendicular universe a few days ago. He was probably imagining what would have happened if the black hole never existed.
         Well, hopefully he was imagining that. Exposure therapy and all.
         She made a mental note to go talk to him on her way to the daycare, since he’s never at the playground.
         And then, on the porch, there was the cat that strolled along the wood. It was Steem’s cat. His cat is bright, BRIGHT purple like that. She made another mental note to remind him that they live on the second to top floor of the apartment and he should be more careful with where he lets his cat wander, even if the building has safety platforms below the porches. You can never be too careful with purple cats and their mischievous behaviors.
         It really was a lovely morning. Her baby miraculously only took one minute to stop crying. So, she turned the TV to the weather channel, praying to Mother Nature herself to keep the cloud in the sky all day. The city could do with an eclipse day.
         There were two meteorologists on the channel, but one of them was new (and very handsome in that I’m-not-obsessed-with-weather-trust-me suit he was wearing), but he seemed like he knew what he was talking about. Though, he had flat, boring green hair.
         Since they looked so happy to be talking about the weather, it didn’t feel like the awkward elevator small talk with a stranger like it used to with the old guy. He clearly had a love for weather, and it radiated through the screen, brightening the day even more, like they summoned the sun in the TV room by saying its name four times. Seeing two grown men passionately talking about something you have no understanding of just warms one’s heart.
         And that new guy wasn’t nearly as boring as the old guy was.
         With the weathermen caught up to the present day, they began with the crocodile in the sky: the big cloud covering the black hole. The way the new guy did a little drumroll to announce that while half of Tree Town will be showered in rain, all of Cold Dog City will be free from the sight of the black hole all day, it was so sweet that she nearly made the baby start crying again with her giggle. But the little guy only had to see she was happy to know nothing bad was happening. He’s getting to the age where he’s gonna start saying words soon. She didn’t dare make another mental note for spending some hairs on those cards for teaching kids words, so she set the baby on the chair while she went to write it down on a sticky note. The note was cyan, like his hair. She wrote:

         1. Tell Steem to keep his cat indoors
         2. Buy those cards that teach kids words for Vivel
         2. Buy books and flashcards for Vivel

         and she stuck the note on the fridge handle. Then she took it off because that would get annoying, and she stuck it on the calendar because she would have to flip it tomorrow anyways, so she’ll definitely remember. Unless she forgets to flip the calendar.
         She put it back on the fridge handle. Then she saw the coffee maker, took a minute to make coffee, and went back to the chair with Vivel, who seemed to absolutely hate the weather channel. He was looking out the window at the cloud that was blocking the black hole.
         If his eyes can even make it out yet, he was probably getting scared of the big white thing in the sky.
         When she sat down with Vivel, the weather guys were wrapping up the segment about the black hole, but it’s always the same usual stuff, so it’s alright to miss it. To end the segment, the new guy reminded the viewers that the sun will explode before the black hole swallows everyone, so there’s nothing to worry about, except for the sun. And the people on the street yelling to nobody in particular, trying to get you to hop into another universe. She didn’t understand how anybody could listen to them. That decision just ruins people, like the kid in the playground. Or even the kid’s friend. He had lovely, pink, curly hair.
         The new guy reminds everyone that there’s three short segments left, and then, in a poor transition into the next segment, he circles the attention back to the people on the street.
         “They do it all day, you know? I mean, with the madness turning them nearly bald, and the sun giving their hair sunburns standing outside all day, how do they even afford anything?”
         She hadn’t thought of that. They really are out there all the time, so it’s a mystery how they feed themselves. And with all that energy spent on yelling and walking around all day. It’d be really expensive to live like that.
         Universe hoppers are the thing to laugh at for that segment, and then the new guy did another bad transition into the next segment. The old guy had better transitions. The segment was about what the weather will be like in the coming three minutes. They talked about those three minutes for seven minutes. She didn’t even notice because that’s just how the new guy was.
         After that, they had one more segment about the weather tonight, but she had stopped paying attention to the TV because Steem’s cat was meowing outside her window. She did pick up on one thing, though. They were talking about the stars, and how someone found “a strange circle of light among the stars, in the middle of nowhere in the sky.” The new guy had a response the old guy would never give. He said, “In the night sky, everywhere is the middle of nowhere.”
         That wrapped up the conversation when they realized they had stopped talking about the weather, and they signed off in their weather reporter way, from which she learned the new guy’s name. Imada Shensley.
         The TV turned to advertisements, and she switched it off. Alongside her, the cat was in the reflection, scratching at the porch door. His fur was a diluted purple with the black screen. She sat there and finished her coffee before opening the door to let him inside her flat. After he jumped up on the shelf and made his way through the plants, she picked him up, left her flat, brought him to Steem’s door, and knocked on it. Steem opened the door wearing a sock on his left hand. She giggled at that.
         “Why’ve you got a sock on your hand?”
         Steem took it off. “It was inside out. Was just trying to get it right. Why’ve you got my cat? Come here little guy.” The cat hopped into his arms as he reached out for him.
         “He’s been pestering me all morning, you know. I don’t care if those platforms out there are cat-death-proof or whatever, he’s making me wanna rip my hair out. You gotta keep him inside.”
         “Aww, but look at him.” Steem scratched the cat’s purple-gray chin, and the cat touched his nose with his paw. “You think a little guy like this would be of any danger to himself?”
         “Yes.”
         “Alright. I’ll keep him inside… whenever you’re not home.”
         “Are you really doing this right now?”
         “Yes. By the way, you see the new guy on the weather thing?”
         “Yeah, you couldn’t miss a guy like that.”
         “I know. I doubt he’s even a meteorologist.”
         “Huh?”
         “Yeah, he was all nervous and sweaty and stuff. He got some info wrong and they had to correct him. You didn’t see?”
         “I must have missed it. What’d he get wrong?”
         “You’re really testing my memory skills here. Let’s see…he said something about how the black hole is getting bigger. And then the other guy whispered something in his ear. They went to advertisements for a whole minute. Then when they got it back on, the new guy ended the section by saying something else.”
         “Oh. I don’t think that means he’s not a meteorologist, does it? I mean, they wouldn’t hire someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Besides, it was his first day, you gotta give Mr. Shensley some leeway.”
         “Maybe. I don’t know. Well, anyway, I guess we’ll see how he does when the sun goes down.”
         “I guess so. The cloud will probably be gone by then. I’ll have missed the whole eclipse at work.”
         “Oh, just do a day about the black hole. They’ll love that.”
         “Wow. Don’t apply for my job. You’d get it.”
         “No, no, you’re just tired still.”
         “And you had a sock on your hand. But yeah, they’d love it, especially since it’s their first one. I don’t want them to miss it.”
         “Alright then.”
         “Hang on. I better not come home tonight and see bright orange police tape around a cat murder scene. Or any night, for that matter. Or morning.”
         “Do you want me to just put a net around my porch?”
         “You’re fine with looking through a net all day?”
         “I’ll get a white one that I can see through. A strong one too, so this little guy doesn’t rip it up.”
         “That would be great.”
         “Mkay, In a bit, elephant.”
         “Yeah, you’d get the job, saying things like that.” She waved, watched the cat jump from Steem’s arms to the floor as he closed the door, and she walked to her door.
         When she got back to her flat, she saw Vivel had climbed his favorite purple chair and was now reaching for the plants on the windowsill. Maybe he wanted the cat, since he was just there, after climbing all over the porches. That baby is learning too much from Steem’s cat. There wasn’t any risk of him falling forwards because the chair touched the wall, but she still went over and held him steady to keep him from rolling backwards.
         “You wanna water them for me, Vivy?” He made a babbling noise and looked up at her. “Okay. Let’s do this quickly before we leave.”
         She took one hand off him to grab Vivel’s little blue watering can, which she kept right beside her bigger yellow can on a pale shelf with other plant stuff—a soil bag, trimmers, and plant water. The plant was the kind that needed very specific attention, else a number of bad things could happen to it, hence the water made specifically for it. There were four pots because there were technically four plants, but they grow towards each other more than the sun. Eventually they merge and turn into one plant with multiple seeds. Ironically, they’re known as separates, because before people realized they were multiple plants, they were found on a remote island, without any other types of plants or wildlife, not even grass. Completely separate from the world. Not only that, but besides grass, it’s the only green plant in the world. That’s why the water requirements are so specific. And why she had to remember to write a reminder to buy more of it on the sticky note, since there was only a little bit left.
         After pouring the last of the water in Vivel’s can, which was still too big for his small baby hands, she held it by the bottom and helped his arms to tip it over the pot. Vivel turned to look at his mom, pushing forward a bit, and a stream of water came out a little quickly, and she pulled back before too much poured out.
         “Oh, not too much, sweetie. These plants can’t have too much water. You wanna know what happens if you give them so much?” Vivel touched the pot, and then pulled back and grabbed onto her fingers.
         “Well, the first day, they’ll grow to be even bigger than you, all the way until they’re the size of the entire window. The next day, they’ll fill up the entire room, and we’ll get stuck inside a forest, and you’d have to come find me in all those leaves and hidden furniture, or else you’d be on your own. Oh, but they won't stop there. They’ll keep growing and growing the more water you give them, all throughout the flat.” Vivel made a screech and turned around to look at the bottom part of the chair, then he looked at his mom, like he wanted her to get him away from the plants before they trapped him inside. “Yeah, you better be careful. It’s a dangerous one. Don’t worry though, Vivy, cause if and when it touches the ceiling, I’ll just trim it. Or put it on the porch. Or I could give it to someone with a bigger window, and I could get a new plant for us.” She put the empty bottle and small watering can back on the shelf. “Wow, that’s a lot of options. I’ll leave the choice up to you. You can handle that, right?” She helped him down the chair with a big jump and landed him on the orange rug safely where he could crawl around.
         “One more thing, Vivel. See this plant? Hey, Vivel. Look at me. You see how it’s green? If you ever get a cat like Steem, never dye it green. You got that? It’s bad luck. One day, you’ll let your green cat outside, and it’ll blend in with all the grass. You’ll never see your cat again. Better yet, do what Steem did and don’t dye your cat. Or do what I did and don’t get a cat.” He ignored her, as usual, and started patting the carpet with his adorable little hands. “While I’m in the shower, don’t start copying that cat.”
         It took only an hour for her to shower, cook, eat, and feed Vivel because she was going quickly. She always wakes up early enough so she doesn’t need to rush, but she ends up rushing every morning. Time just slips by. But today, she had plenty of time once she was ready since she went a lot faster than usual. It was something about the giddy morning and a lack of a need to rush that made her pick up the pace.
         She grabbed her keys, and then put them back and said to Vivel, “How about today, since there’s more time to spare, we just enjoy the morning and walk to the daycare? I can get you your favorite hot dog. How does that sound?” He wasn’t going to answer, but she waited for it anyway. Actually, she forgot she asked. She forgot she was there until Vivel made a loud noise that brought her back. He’s so adorable. The way he just does things, but tiny, like grabbing the wall for no reason. She picked him up and booped his nose.
         Before she left, she grabbed the haircutter by the handle, set it to four, and used the mirror to make sure she was getting the split ends instead of the good parts. By the time it collected enough, she didn’t have any more split ends, and she put the haircutter in her bag. She curled her golden hair up to fit it inside her hat, and put Vivel’s hat on him to keep his seven cyan hairs safe from the sun. The weather channel said it was warm outside, so she had grabbed the thin hats.
         “We’ll walk there. Besides, I just remembered that I was going to check on Denge at the playground. Are you ready to go?” Vivel said nothing, and she left.
         She was already on the elevator when she remembered she had forgotten to write a reminder on the sticky note about buying plant water.