Chapter 13

As the trio walked towards Rome they noticed that the houses were getting closer and closer together. There were fewer farms and fewer trees as they continued walking. The houses closer to the city were less colorful than those outside the city. They continued walking on, hopeful that they would be able to find Jenn and leave Rome before the day was over.
“So what are we gonna do when we get there?” Josh asked.
"I have some friends. We’ll find them and go from there,” Stacie said.
Soon they came to a large city. This was apparent from the tall buildings and large “Welcome to Rome” sign they encountered on their way in.
“My friends live in the blue district on the south-east side of town,” Stacie pointed to the left of her. “Jake’s apartment is a short walk this way.”
They came to a tall building that was covered with a mural done entirely in various shades of blue. Stacie walked to the side of the building and started walking up the fire escape. “It’s quicker this way,” she said. Josh and Starr followed her. When they lived in the dorms they had used the fire escape to get in and out of the building, although usually so they didn’t have to talk to the R.A. on duty.
When they got to the third floor, Stacie knocked on the door. “Hey, Julia, will you go tell Jake that Stacie’s here?” An older woman’s voice echoed from inside. “You kids. Why can’t you come in the front door like everybody else?”
“Julia!”“All right. “I’ll go get him.” They heard her knock on the wall. “Jake some of your loser friends are here.”
A few moments later a well dressed young man in a red suit coat, black tee shirt that said ‘there is a Bob’, blue jeans, and a blue-green tie opened the door. “Hello, Stacie,” he said. “I see you’ve brought some friends. Do you know the password?” The latter was directed towards Josh.
“Password?” Josh was taken aback.
“Oh so sorry. I’m afraid I can’t let you in, kind sir.” He ushered the girls in and slammed the door in Josh’s face.
Josh pounded on the door. “Let me in.” He stopped after he heard laughter coming from inside.
“Do you think we should let him in girls?”
“I don’t know, he hasn’t been particularly useful so far.”
“From what I’ve seen, you seem to think he has some pretty interesting uses.”
“Is that so. I knew there was something shaky about him. I’m definitely not letting him in now.”
At that the door swung open, hitting Josh in the face.“Ow!”
“Aw,” Stacie said. “Is my little Joshy-washy hurt?”
“I’m fine, no thanks to you.”
“Well, no harm done, lets go inside. I‘m sure your hungry. I have some soup on the stove.”
They followed him into a sparsely furnished, brightly colored room. It was a large spacious room with separate eating, sleeping and living areas. Jake showed them the kitchen area and they each took a bowl. Then they sat down on a couple of milk crates.” I like what you’ve done with the place,” Stacie remarked.
“So who are your friends. Some riff raffs you picked up off the street?”“This is Starr,” she said.
“And the scab next to you?”
“This is Josh,” she smiled. “Like I told you there from.. somewhere else. They’re looking for their friend Jenn. Like I said she was last seen in Rome.”
“Well, that’s quite an interesting dilemma.”
“Jake, what’s with the mural on the building?” Josh interjected.
“You like it?” Jake asked. “A friend of mine did it.”
“Yeah. But why is it all blue?”
Jake looked at him, dumbfounded. “Of course its blue, I live in the blue district. I am a blue person.”
“Remember what I told you about the credit system in Rome?” Stacie explained.
“Yes.”
“Well, in Rome they color code things so that everyone knows what your level of credit is.”
“Oh.”
“One more thing. Who is this guy?” Josh smirked. “Your boyfriend?”
Jake and Stacie laughed. “Jake is my cousin.”
“But, when did you tell him about us?”
Stacie pulled out a small thin device that looked like a flat cell phone. “I sent Jake a message using this. How did you think I knew he would be home?”
“But, I didn’t hear you use that. Did you, Starr?”
Starr had been strangely silent this whole time. “No I didn’t hear her use it either”
“Text phones don‘t make any noise. How could I afford a voice phone?”
The four of them had a lively discussion which basically boiled down to two points. 1) On Stacie and Jake’s world everyone could afford one,(service was free) because no one had spent much time developing voice technology. 2) This was the fundamental difference between Stacie and Jake’s world and Starr and Josh’s world. Or rather, the desire to do the best for all people was the difference. After this lengthy discussion the four of them finally settled down to business.
“So, do you think we can find Jenn?” Starr asked
“I can call a few friends and see if they know anything. We should probably check the papers for unusual arrests. This would be a lot easier if your friend had bothered to register.”
“Jake” Stacie protested.
The three of them started cleaning up while Jake checked in with his friends. It didn’t take long before everyone was finished.
“Well?” Starr said.“Well, what?” Jake smiled innocently.
“Do you think your friends know anything about Jenn?” Starr finished.
“Oh, that. I think so, but we decided it would be better if we all met here.
“When?” Josh asked, eager to get something done.
“Most of them are working right now, so we’re going to meet for dinner.”
“But that’s several hours from now,” Josh protested.
“Well, don’t worry so much. We can check the papers while we’re waiting, and besides this is Rome. Where ever she is, she’s safe and well fed.” Jake reassured them unconvincingly.
“Jake has a point,” Stacie continued. “Even if we don’t find her today, she’ll be o.k. and we probably couldn’t do anything immediately anyway.