Chapter 4 – “Annoying Alex”
The next morning, I woke up earlier than the others and went to the furthest place to work to avoid Alex, but I had a feeling that he would find me anyway.
The Kreon’s farm didn’t have that much of a difference with the farms humans used to have. Of course the machines are slightly, no, make that, immensely, different from the machines humans used to have but once you got the hang of it, everything seemed easy.
They had machines to milk cows, wash and feed animals, almost everything for anything. All we had to do was make sure the animals were washed, fed and milked for there wasn’t any machine that made them move towards it and we also had to make sure that the animals are in good health and aren’t pampered too much.
“What are you doing all the way out here?” asked a voice behind me.
I slowly turned around. Please don’t let it be him; please don’t let it be him, I prayed, but it was him.
“Are you trying to avoid me?” asked Alex with that annoying smug look on his face.
“Oh, no, of course not .I don’t see any reason why I should avoid you.” I replied with a forced smile.
“Well, you don’t look pleased to see me.” he said
Of course I don’t, if I did, then I wouldn’t be trying to avoid you, I thought, but I said in a fake cheerful voice, “What makes you say that?”
“Your annoyed face” he answered.
Well, at least he figured that out. Now why doesn’t he leave?
“So, um, did you want anything?” I asked, pretending to ignore the last statement.
“No, just wanted to say hi.” he replied.
“Well, then, hi and I’ve got to get back to work now, so bye!” I said and left him standing there.
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After that annoying encounter with Mr. I-love-to-annoy-Trinity, I went off to find my friends to pass the rest of the day, as my work was finished. I also tried to keep the furthest possible distance between Alex and me, and fortunately, I found Haley and Natoe in our quarters where Alex was nowhere in sight.
“So, what’s Alex like?” asked Haley.
“A nightmare,” I replied.
Natoe, who was lying on his bed, sat up when he heard my answer and said, “Why? He seemed a nice guy.”
I was surprised. Natoe rarely talked and was more of an observant type of person. His attitude gave one the impression that he was very experienced when it came to human nature, and that he understood people very well. So, a compliment coming from someone like him meant that the person is truly nice. Then, why was Alex so bothersome?
“Well, maybe to you he was, but to me he was so…UGH!” I said in exasperation.
Haley laughed and said, “What? Can’t find a word to describe him?”
“Oh, I can think of a lot of words alright, but trust me, you don’t want to hear them.” I replied.
At that moment, a group of hysterically laughing people walked into the room, as if they’d just heard a joke.
“And then, the stupid Kreon police guard apologized to the robber and let him get away with the money!” said Alex.
To this, Wanda and Leon broke into fits of laughter again. I was shocked. Was I the only one who thought Alex was an annoying jerk?
Wanda, Leon and Alex stood in a corner together, talking, and since Haley, Natoe and I were on the other side of the room, they didn’t notice us.
“So, Alex, how was your morning?” asked Wanda, who had her back to us and didn’t see me.
“Well…” Alex cast a glance at me and then said, “It was good, and I had fun.”
Yeah, had fun annoying me didn’t you? - I thought bitterly.
“And, what do you think of Trinity? Nice girl, isn’t she?” asked Wanda.
Before Alex could answer, Haley pretended to cough. Wanda turned around and noticing the three of us in the room, turned into a deep shade of red, apparently embarrassed.
“Oh, hey, guys!” she said, nervously looking at me.
Alex, ignoring what had just happened asked Wanda, “Okay, so if the Kreons keep us as pets, how come we work for them?”
“That’s because they have a different view of pets unlike ours. I mean, they’d love to cook us up and have us for dinner so they keep us at arm’s length and put us to work. That way we’ll be useful and they won’t have the temptation to eat us,” answered Wanda.
“That doesn’t apply to all Kreons though,” I piped up, thinking of Yonza. “The Kreons that brought us here are vegetarians and they make us work to keep their farm going.”
“But, they have robots for that-” started Alex.
I groaned. Here we go again, I thought.
“Robots are not the same as us. They won’t treat animals the way we do. Kreons know that so they keep us so that their farm flourishes,” Haley, thankfully, answered for me.
“That’s what Trinity said but Kreons are aliens. They have advanced technology, so what would they do with farms?” asked Alex.
I walked out of the room. I had enough of Alex in the morning; let them deal with him for now. He had asked me the same questions in the morning and I had answered them, so why doesn’t he stop already?
I sat on the bank of the river and tried to block the question that Alex had triggered in me, for even though I’d hate to admit it, he had a point. What would aliens do with a farm? They had technology to compensate for farming; technology that humans never even dreamed of. So-
I stopped my wandering thoughts, my head hurt and I didn’t want to think about them. I mean, what was the use? I’m healthy and happy living in a simple, beautiful farm and the least I could do is just be grateful, not go around asking questions that I know I wont get answers to. I guess Alex couldn’t understand that, maybe because he came from somewhere where he was better off, but I doubted if there was any other place better than this farm.
