Taken by Edward Bloor

Author:Edward Bloor [Bloor, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ages 12 and up
ISBN: 9780375890758
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2007-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

I was still smiling, remembering that exchange, when Dessi broke into my thoughts. He was tapping on the foot of the stretcher. When I looked up at him, he said, “You need a bathroom break.”

I answered, “I need a bathroom. I need a few minutes of privacy. I need to brush my teeth, damn it.”

“Sorry. You know how it has to be.”

“Come on! You go to a bathroom. There must be one right outside!”

He just repeated, “Sorry.”

“Then forget it. I can wait.”

“You’re supposed to be drinking your Smart Water. Three bottles a day, for complete nutrition.”

“Well, I’m not.”

“I know you’re not. You don’t want to get dehydrated. The doctor would not like that.”

That word really offended me. “The doctor? How can you call that criminal out there ‘the doctor’?”

Dessi shrugged.

“Doesn’t that bother you?”

“No. It’s just a word, like any other word.”

“Excuse me, but no. It’s a title. A title that should be earned.”

Dessi’s lip curl returned. “Spoken like a true Highlands girl. You’ve never gone to a clinic doctor. Have you?”

I admitted, “No.”

“If you had, you’d know it’s just a word.”

“Oh yeah? A word, let’s say, like ‘kidnapper’?”

Dessi’s eyes twitched slightly.

“You don’t like it when I call you that word, do you?”

He answered defiantly, “I would rather you called me that word than some others.”

“Like what?”

“Like ‘servant.’”

“Really? You think ‘servant’ is something shameful to be?”

“Yes. And so do you, if you’re being honest.”

“Absolutely not!”

With a dismissive wave of his hand, Dessi pulled down the bench and sat. I figured he was through talking, but I was wrong. He pointed an accusing finger at me. “Would you be a servant?”

“Yes.”

“An RDS servant, with the fake costume and the fake name and all?”

“Absolutely. I work with Victoria all the time. I’d be just like her. I’d work at RDS and save enough to go to college.”

“Really? You would come down from your throne and work for a master?”

“I would work for myself. At an honest job. And make my own currency. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.”

“Oh no! Things have gotten so much better for the servant class. I hear some of them even get health care.” Dessi held his hands up. His palms were very white. “Did you know that the servants of an Egyptian pharaoh, when the pharaoh died, had to march into his pyramid with him, get sealed in there, and then slowly die of starvation so that they could continue to serve him in the land of the dead?”

“No.”

“Nowadays, when servants die, they get to stay dead. They don’t have to serve anymore. So yes, I suppose that part of the job has improved.”

I shook my head at his hypocrisy. “You’re the one who looks down on servants. Not me.”

“That is such mierda. Such merde. You look down on anyone who isn’t from your economic class. Everyone except Ramiro Fortunato. He’s admirable to you. Why? Because he defends all the rules that keep you on top.”

I repeated his words from earlier: “How could I admire him? He’s not even a real person.

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