52stories

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“That’s it, we have no more work. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”, the foreman said to the crowd of twenty alien beings. Yuri, a human, was among that unwanted throng. Father of two, husband of Janna, Yuri had bought into the promises of financial prosperity offered by the planet Salis. Yet immigrants did not get great jobs, and had to scrape by to earn any credits. Still, Yuri had a few things going for him, he had no oversized wings to get in the way on a factory floor, and he didn’t have a million wiggling cilia to suck the life out of coworkers that disagreed with him. Humans were rather plain.

“W-w-w-what cha goina do Yur-yur-yuri?”, asked Blis, a friend, who when speaking English always stuttered. “Come-come-come drink?” He gestured with all four of his arms toward the section of town with the most frequented bars. His gray skin was rippling indicating either extreme sexual arousal or anticipation. Yuri prayed it was the latter.

“No Blis. My problem is that I don’t have ENOUGH money. I’m not going to waste my last on getting drunk.”

“Ssssssssuit yourself.” Blis headed off down an alley, easily finding someone else to pal around with.

Yuri, considered his options. The early morning work was at the docks. He had been denied there this morning too. There was too large a labor pool. Banks wouldn’t give him finances to start a company, because he hadn’t been on-planet long enough to build credit.

After the docks, there was construction sites, they got going pretty early too. After that was the manufacturing district. They had high turnover because the machines were so dangerous. On average ten people died a day just in this district, from work related accident. Twice that number became wounded enough to be incapable of work, so opportunity was renewed daily. Yet large transport ships landed at least twice a day, each containing hundreds of new workers and families, all promised lots of work, and abundant wages.

Chewing an apple-like fruit that would serve as breakfast lunch and dinner, Yuri gazed upward at the sky, and missed the clouds of Earth.

~~~

“Lily! Come feed your brother.” Janna finished blowing on a simple mixture. “You can have what he doesn’t want.” Passing over the spoon to Lily, she watched at the beginning to make sure her eight year old daughter was feeding the one year old correctly.

Usually proud to keep a home neat and tidy, a household running like clockwork, it pained Janna to have no home to run, and only the simplest things provided at this shelter. The menagerie of other aliens that crowded in this place intimidated her, and she hated to let Janna play with the other kids.

“Mommy, it smells funny.” Lily spoke up, her soft voice tainted with tones of worry.

“The smell here changes hourly.” Janna said, busy making the bed. If done just so, it would no wrinkle all day, despite Lily and Yuri Junior playing or napping on it. Only a twin size, to contain all four of the household, they slept cross-ways, adult legs hanging off then side.

“No, the porridge!” Lily held the bowl up as high as she could. Janna took it from her, and examined it. Small blue worm like things wriggled from under the surface.

“OH!” Janna slammed the bowl into the commons trash can. “Come on children, let’s go for a walk.” Janna hefted Junior onto her hip, and took Lily’s hand.

~~~

The bustling streets of District Five meant Janna had to keep her children close. There was danger from horses, vehicles, and the crowd in general. The destination Janna had in mind was a five kilometer walk. Junior began to cry after the first ten minutes.

Reaching the Crimson Plus Outreach Center, Janna stood in the line that wrapped around the building. Occasionally someone tried to ‘break’ in line, but she was having none of that. It was easy to stir up the crowd, who also were following the rules, to side with her and eject the miscreant.

After four hours of waiting in blistering sun, amid endless alien species, and trying to keep the children entertained, Janna found herself on the steps to get inside. Surprisingly, she recognized the man leaving, and descending the same steps.

“Yuri?”

“Janna?”

She gave the look, asking the obvious question, of why he was here and not working.

“Same reason you’re here, to give blood, to get ten credits and orange juice.” Yuri leaned in close. “They rejected me. They said they had too much human blood already.”

~~~

Of course they fought that night, what else could they do? Leaving Salis was impossible without money for the fare. Finding stable employment was proving impossible. Everyone was hot, dirty, tired, and hungry. In the end they all had some water, cleaned up as best they could, and went to bed.

Sleep came for Janna, the long day in the sun draining her resources. Yuri fought it, sure that if he could just figure out something, it would be alright. To see his family starving, was a shame on him, a clear indication of his failure as a man.

“Papa?”, Lily whispered softly.

“Go to sleep honey.” , Yuri replied.

“I want you to have this.”

Yuri rolled in place to see Lily offering a small golden pocket-watch.

“Where did you get that?”

“Grand ma maw.” Lily explained. “Just before we left on our big adventure. I want you to have this. Sell it for food.”

Hot tears burned each eye, as Yuri just enveloped his daughter in his arms.