"Okay so let me get this straight, you went halfway across the North on foot and then crossed the border to get here while stealing stuff to survive?" Lilac asks as we sit in her living room. I nod and lean back against the cushions couch.
The upstairs of the cloth shop is where she lives in her own after her mother kicked her out, for reasons she said she doesn't want to explain right now. She inherited it when she was fourteen from one of her grandmothers and has lived in it since she was sixteen.
Now a year later she says that she's making good business and has a worker out age named Dali. She talks about the shop more, losing Jul's interest really quickly but I pay close attention to every word she says, finding them completely captivating.
"So if you want to stay here you need to get a job, either helping out here or somewhere else," she states. Jul tells her that he'll get a job somewhere else and she offers to help him look for one later. They both turn to me and I smile nervously.
"I would like to work here if that's okay. I really like cloth and sewing," I say just above a whisper. She nods and then gets up off the couch. We walk to her kitchen and see a flattened square on the table. She walks to it and it opens in half.
She pushes a button on it and part of it lights up. I stare at it in shock. Jul states with me and Lilac looks at us confused. She motions for us to take a seat and I scoot a chair over near her before sitting down.
"What is that?" I ask in wonder, staring at the glowing object. She points at the object and I nod. She taps on the bottom of the object and the screen changes and has words on it.
"This is called a laptop. It's like a computer but it can go places with you. If you have Internet you can search thing up on it, like where to find jobs for example," she explains. She goes through what a computer is and how it works for a while before asking Jul questions.
He ends up applying for three jobs, one at a restaurant, one at a office, and one at a hotel. Lilac sends in the applications and closes the laptop. She walks over to what she calls a fridge, something that keeps food cold for as long as you need it to be.
She takes out a thing of turkey and some potatoes and I gape at her. She sets the turkey on the counter and washes her hands before taking seasoning and other stuff out of the cupboards to put on the turkey. She puts the pan the turkey is in, in an oven.
She puts the potatoes on a tray and leaves them on the counter. She walks back over it the table and Jul bows to her. She sits down in her chair and gives him a look. She asks about it and be stares at her like she's crazy.
"You have to be a ruler if you have meat like that," he says to her. She shakes her head and tells him that she's just an average person. He tells her about the North and how certain things were only for rulers, like turkey and certain kinds of products.
Electricity was usually for people who were well off, guards or rulers of course. Only leaders had showers, everyone else had a basin that they would fill once a week to bath in. Only soldiers were well fed so that they could show that they were superior.
Lilac then explains how things are done here. People can buy whatever they want if they can afford it. She tells us how much people are usually paid an hour and how much things cost.
She tells us about things that we don't know about, like tablets, televisions with multiple channels, cameras, and other electronics. She also tells us about different kinds of places that you can go to for fun besides parks.
But the thing that catches my attention the most is the fact that you don't have to date a person of a different gender. A girl can date another girl if she wants to. She tells us about all the different things like that saying that it's the LGBTQ community.
I make a mental note to look that up once I figure out how to use my tablet that she gave me. I never liked boys romantically and I got a hard smack from my mother when I told her that I liked a girl when I was twelve. It's nice to know that there's a name for it and I'm not the only one.
The oven beeps and Lilac stands up and clicks a button. She puts gloves like things on her hands and takes the tray with the turkey in it out of the oven. She stabs a fork into the potatoes and then puts that tray in the oven too.
She takes plates out of the cupboard and dishes out the turkey into the plates. The oven beeps again and she takes the potatoes out, setting three on each plate, cutting them in half and layering them with butter. She grabs shredded cheese out of the fridge and puts that on them too.
"Come and grab a plate," she says putting the shredded cheese and butter back in the fridge. I get up and grab a plate before setting it on the table. She hands me and Jul a fork and we sit down and start eating.
I take a bite of the turkey and smile. This is the most delicious thing I've ever tasted in my life. I look over at Jul and see that he has the same reaction. He shovels the food into his mouth like someone is coming to take it away.
"Is it good?" Lilac asks us. I nod and smile at her. Jul nods from where his almost finished plate is. When Lilac offers him more he immediately accepts and she tells him to take as much as he wants.
He practically runs over to the pan and poles more on his plate. He sits back down and continues eating while I shake my head and finish my plate. He's definitely my older brother.