Steam Powered Hearts

Tin tugs at the lead, trying to get back to his owner, but I pull him away and see whether Perdita and Pete managed to get along well. I hear the hearty chuckle of Pete coming from the inside of one of the engines.

"Perdita?" I call out, after hearing her giggle too. I clamber into the engine to see Pete and Perdita sharing the leftovers they managed to claim from the 20.09 from Clamourth. Finally something had placed a very wide smile on Perdita's face as she ate the food. "Oh!" She squealed pointing at Tin, an albino german shepherd, "Isn't he charming!"

And saying that she threw him a chunk of cooked ham. Of course Tin gobbled it up, and I stared at Perdita gobsmacked, she saw me stare and explained herself: "My father is veterinarian, specializing in dogs- I've grown very fond of them!"

Pete bellows with laughter again, "Looks like all this girl needs is a bit of food and canine company to get her back to her normal self!" She rises to her feet and thanks Pete for the food, and scratches Tin between the ears.

"Shall we walk him?" I ask Perdita, warming up to her character, and it is no surprise that she says yes. "Before we go I have to give something in, and we need to get Leave Permits." I explain.

"Leave Permits?" She questions, totally new to the way of working at the station.

"You can't leave the station unless you have Leave Permits which you can get from the station master. You get two leisure leaves a month, which are worth 6 hours each- so if you want to go away for a day, you save up. Of course there are certain jobs where you have to leave the station, like walking the dogs, and for that they have work leaves." She nods with her eyes widened.

"So if I want to go home one weekend," She calculates, " I need to save up at least 4 months" I jump in trying to stop the smile from leaving her face.

"But you can earn more permits! More shifts, harder shifts, covering someone, doing some odd task- they can all result in receiving more permits!" She sighs, deep in thought as she follows me out of the engine.

Because of the dog, we can't take the ladder up to the station halls and instead take the longer route, taking us past the worker hall.

The worker hall is the other half of the station, with trains that take workers to their jobs- either to the mines or the industrial zones that were set away from the city, so as not to bother the well-offs. There is also a small service for workers to travel to different towns and visit family, but as you can imagine- the people hardly get a chance to use it.

Being that it is mostly used for work, you find that it's empty most of the day, bar mornings and evenings. As we walked up to the hall, I saw we came at the wrong time of the day, as all the workers were coming in from a long day at work. I grab onto Perditas hand and tell her to hold on no matter what, and I barge into the crowds of workers.

I bump into people on all sides, although they don't care- they are used to cramped conditions and lack of personal space, but I can hear Perdita apologizing every time she brushed past someone. I turn back to tell her not to bother and the look on her face is full of fear. More people push into us, and between us, I lose sight of Perdita and hear Tin let out a yelp, I keep a tight grip on both the lead and the hand, and decide not to bother telling her anything, but just get her out of there. She keeps apologizing, each time with her breath getting faster and her hand grabbing tighter.

We suddenly break free from the crowd, and I run with her to a staff hallway where we catch our breath. We look at each other and I realize that the workers that had just got in, had been from the mine as we are both covered in soot. I let out a giggle from the exhiliration of running through the crowds, and Perdita gives me a confused look.

"Weren't you scared?" Perdita asks, and I shake my head, "With all those people, I couldn't breath, and being pushed and shoved from every direction, I thought they were going to close in on me and squeeze me till death!" I bite my tongue, thinking of the stampedes that had occurred few times before in the worker hall. Perhaps holding back on those stories will be best.

"I'm dirty." She finishes, looking herself up and down.

"It doesn't take long to get used to." I console her, and we walk in silence to the station masters office, aside from Tins regular breathing. A swift knock and Potter opens the door.

"Seeing you a little too much for my liking today." Potter says with the weary look he gets towards the end of the day. "What do you want?" He asks directly, forgetting about Perdita's presence.

"Two work leaves to walk Tin." I ask with fingers crossed, it's a one man job and it isn't my responsibility but Taibus'- I guessed there is a fifty percent chance that we'll be able to go.

This time it seems we're in luck as I see him raid his pockets for a permit.

"Just this once, seeing as I have to meet with Taibus and Marco. Only zones I and IV." He explained, referring to the different zones in town. Zone I is where the station is, and there is a dog park in IV.

He scribbles a signature on the permit and passes it to me, and turns to return to his office. "Oh!" I call out, remember the missing poster. "Give this to Marco and Luca" Potter looks at the poster and sighs.

Under his breath his simply says, "It won't cut it, but nice try Lailah, plum." My face flashes red, in a mixture of anger, and embarrassment. Anger from failing to save Taibus and embarrassment that Potter knew without hesitation what my actions and intentions were, it stung to be so clearly read. I turn and tug too hard on Tin's lead and storm off.

Perdita's feet coming running to catch up with me and I huff loudly, not wanting invasive, intrusive questions about my mood and what happened from Perdita. When she catches up the questions don't come. I turn my eyes to her to see what she is doing, and she's looking ahead, minding her own business.

I still want to be angry, but she has thrown me off. She isn't like the other workers- that is clear. We get to the front entrance, show our permits and leave the building. The first thing Perdita does is take a deep breath: "Fresh air" She mutters to herself.

We walk along the road towards the park in Zone IV and the anger from before has converted quickly into curiosity.

"Where you from?" I asked bluntly.

"Redwort." She responds equally bluntly, which makes me smile.

"Have you been to Ruttyard before much?" She shakes her head, Redwort is a good 5 hours distance from here, kept tranquil in the countryside is doesn't compare to the disorganized city she now lives in. Ruttyard is one of the old cities, with the old quarter, river quarter and worker quarter.

A city of three quarters I think to myself as we get to the river.

"The river Yeoln" I state and she peers to the other side. A 'wow' slips out. The well-offs stick to one side of the river, and the other side which Perdita was looking at was the Worker Quarter.

The 'wow' would have been from sheer awe how the buildings rise up high and appear to sway, how a grey haze sits above the homes and how the firelight from homes dimly light up this curious skyline. There is noise, quietened conversations, worries and arguments mixed with laughter and sighs.

"Are we going there?" Perdita asks, almost fearfully.

"Not today. We're sticking to the river quarter, seeing as its the barrier between the Well-offs and Workers you don't see many of either here." We walk along the river towards Zone IV as Tin marks various lampposts. Perditas eyes are still glued to the Worker Quarter, it makes me look out too.

"Is it odd to say that it looks sort of nice, but pathetic?" Perdita voices her thoughts.

"It's more so in the heart. We'll go one day." The whites of her eyes grow in fear, "I'll take care of you. And if you're one of us- so will they." I comfort her.

"I don't want to be either, I don't want to be on a side." She moans, and inside I think 'Me either'.

"Hup!" The guard at Zone IV calls our attention. "Alright ladies, how we doin' Leilah? Was expecting Taibus." He says as I pass him the permits. "Walking the dog?" I catch his eye- hesitate with how I want to respond, and decide to nod. "Have some doggie bags- keep good care of 'em."

He passes the bags into my hands and I hear the crinkle of paper as I grasp onto it. My hand feels ten times heavier. We pass through to Zone IV which opens straight into the dog park and I see Perdita watching me.

"You're very... observational." I say as I slip the one crinkling doggie bag into my bra. "And I trust your very quiet, too." I state. She doesn't respond, but her eyes follow my actions, "It's sometimes best to stay quiet." I add with a brash tone.

She leans forward and scratches behind Tin's ear, "Let's go to the toilet," She coos as she unlatches his lead, "And go back home".