Chapter One

"I'm doing the best I can, alright," I shouted at my parents as I slip on my work shoes to get ready for work. The shoes were worn down from the walking throughout the day into the night from having two jobs. "I know it's impossible to try and save a little money to buy my own car, but I want something of my own for once."

"We know that already which is why your father, and I are telling you that it's impossible to own a car in The Veiled community," says mother. "You could get in trouble with The Law and the gov—I mean The Administrate."

"Your mother is right," says my dad, "Besides, you don't have enough even with the two jobs to keep up with the maintenance and the gas prices. Your best bet is to continue using the bus route since it's free to The Veiled." He pats me on my head like I am still ten years old. "There will be no more of wanting to buy a car or a life of your own."

. . .

On my way to the bus route, I run through the trash ridden sidewalk trying to mentally calculate how long it would take till my bus arrives to make it to work on time. Though there is trash everywhere in our community, there is no longer any homeless people or the heroin addicts that beg for money as my mother use to say the world was back in her day. Ever since The Administrate enforced new boundaries to The Liberator States, The Law gathered all the homeless in the beginning and provided free rehabilitation to provide them with a purpose rather than perish on the street. So far, I never seen a homeless person, so I tend to think that maybe that is the only positive change to the community.

The Administrate decided to choose the life of everyone that are born in this country They decided in the year of 2056 that the United States needed a new change to keep up with other countries and restore order and are now called The Liberator States. The states use to have a total of fifty, but now its forty-eight since Hawaii and Alaska have submerged in the Pacific Ocean. The new Administrate created three tiers in the community. The Veiled, The Enlightened, and The Highborn are the three tiers of our glorious country that controls our purpose in life. The people in The Veiled tier know that our rank exists but pays no amount of thought or attention hence the name exists. Most of us are workers for the lowest of society where we barely make enough money to pay our dues and bills monthly. As the Veiled, we cannot buy properties or as much as create a company since we are the lowest and simply cannot create something that we cannot upkeep the demand and become bankrupt causing the loss of jobs and unemployment. The Veiled cannot marry or inherit into another tier since it will cause uproar and lead to riots causing thousands of innocent people to die for no reason. What use to be called police and other officials are now conjoined and are known as The Law. The Law is a part of The Enlightened since they do not make as much money as The Highborn but also more than The Veiled. The Enlightened are middle class people that can own property or create companies with approval of The Highborn tier and offers guidance to increase proper productivity and better jobs.

After taking the bus route for thirty minutes and my five-minute walk, I am about fifteen minutes early to punch in the time clock. After working for three years in the clothing warehouse, my hands tend to shake and freeze up and my knees get swollen after the first four hours. I take a couple of pain killers to ignore my first stage of carpal tunnel just to get through the rest of the day's work. Lunch time I take a nap for twenty minutes and talk to no one in my work since everyone is always wary and there is no laughter in the area here. Everyone is here to collect a paycheck that will not cover this month's rent or groceries.

Once my shift is over at the warehouse, I change clothes as a maid to clean houses in The Enlightened community. I change from my worn-out jeans and blue plaid long sleeve to a clean black suede pants and a black polo shirt. Anyone from The Veiled that comes to work in The Enlightened or The Highborn must wear all black to appear professional and swift at their position.

The bus route to The Enlightened community takes about an hour since it is closer to The Highborn community. People look wary on the bus due to lack of sleep and the bright lights as you enter the community. As I look outside, people walk the clean sidewalks in clean clothes and happy faces as they look down at their cell phones. The Veiled cannot afford more than two cell phones per household due to lack of money to keep up the bill.

I get off on the last stop that is in the middle of the city's busiest intersection where you can hear everything and nothing at the same time. Lights illuminate every corner of the area and neon signs glow through your eyelids as they are closed just to provide shade and prevent blindness. Nobody sees me through the crowd of people as we cross the intersection on a green light. So much noise in this community that I can barely hear myself think except for my next destination for work.

Once at the house, I ring the doorbell in the back entrance of the luxurious house with a swimming pool that could hold a 10-foot tiger shark along with an acre of grass with trees the same height as the house. The doorbell echoes behind me as a maid answer almost immediately. She too has the same wary look of every Veiled: dark circles under the eyes, slouched posture, and of course, the same black dress code that is mandatory for the workers from The Veiled.

"Thank you for being early," she sighs to me, "I will need your help in the laundry room as well with their children. My name is Natalie Santiago, and I am the head Maid of this household."

"My name is Samantha Warren, but you can call me Sam," I say as I extend my hand out to shake hers. She does not return the gesture, so I pull back my hand awkwardly. "I'm sure you'll need to show me the laundry room to get ahead on the clothes." Natalie invites me in and walks away as I decide to follow her to not get lost in this big mansion-like household.

In the laundry room, there are a total of two washers and three dryers as well as a huge pile of clothes that have accumulated under the dryer shoot. The room smells of laundry detergent and dryer sheet dust in this well-insulated space. There are no windows except for the door that leads to the stairs toward the kitchen and hallway of pictures on the walls. The walls in the laundry room are all white and the floor is made of tile that makes it easy for cleaning and nonslip.

"Do you know how to iron," asks Natalie. "Instead of drying the shirts, the Espinoza family instructs us to only iron the shirts once they come out of the washer and then put to hang. Pants, underwear, socks, and anything cotton can be put to dry. If you receive anything that is formal wear through the shoot you must put through the steamer with two sprits of fabric softener. Once the steam has dried completely, you are to place them in a clothing bag and hang it back into their closets." She turns to me and looks me directly in the eyes to show her seriousness. "Any questions before we begin, Warren?" I shake my head knowing full well that I know how to cook and clean at home so it should not be that hard as a job that pays. "Good, let's begin before the Espinozas return."

After sorting the laundry from the shoot and tossing them to wash for almost an hour, Natalie shows me the rest of the household. It consists of four bedrooms and five bathrooms along with an attic and huge basement that is transformed into an actual man-cave. As you walk in, the master bedroom has a queen size bed with a mountain of pillows and thick grey covers and side tables on each side with lamps and a couple of books with a magazine of the Sports Illustrate. The other three bedrooms belong to the Espinoza children; one teenage boy that is away for college and two young girls between the ages of nine or ten. The boy's room is only dusted weekly since no one enters and the girls' need a daily cleaning since they leave out all their toys and electronics for school. Once inside the girl's room, it smells of cotton candy and the walls are an overwhelming color of bright pink. The other girl's room smells of nothing but clean clothes.

"Haley and Iris run around the house and tend to hide until I find them in the kitchen going through the fridge looking for sweets," explains Natalie. "Haley is nine and Iris is ten years old so those two are as thick as thieves until they start arguing over which toy belongs to whom or going to the backyard." We go down to the kitchen and find the girls arguing over who gets a slice of cake.

"Alright girls, please settle down," warns Natalie, "it is past your bedtime and your parents both said to save the cake in the morning for breakfast." I look at Natalie and noticed that she changed her demeanor and looks full of energy and motherly, like she is the mother of these children. "We're sorry," says both girls as they hug Natalie.

"Don't forget to take your gummies before bed," says Natalie as she reaches for the cupboard for a bottle of children gummies that instruct to take one a night. She hands both girls one each and watches both chew them until it is all gone. The girls say their goodnights and rush up the stairs to their rooms.

"Don't say anything but," Natalie removes the cap of the vitamins to show me, "I give them one melatonin a night so I can finish their rooms while they sleep. The Espinozas do not mind since they are hardly ever here with their kids. Which is why their son, Anthony, is away to study abroad," she shakes her head in disappointment. Then she sighs and returns the wary Natalie from The Veiled. "So, the melatonin should go into effect in about fifteen minutes," as she sets a timer to remind herself, "let us go tackle the rest of the laundry."

We continue the rest of the night with ironing and folding and going upstairs to store away the freshly clean clothes in each bedroom except Anthony's room. Natalie finds both girls fast asleep in Iris's bed and moves Haley to her bedroom. I clear the room of their toys in each bin that is very well organized for a ten- and nine-year-old.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Sam," says Natalie as we go outside for some fresh air.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Natalie," I say as I grab my bag of clothes to change, "Goodnight."

Once I take the midnight bus, I turn toward the window and watch the lights of Enlightened community disappear into the night sky. The Veiled community does not have many lights since it consists of energy safe streetlights that have been broken since the beginning of the new Administrate. It takes thirty minutes to get home during midnight.

I enter the small apartment complex that manages to fit all six of us inside the one-bedroom apartment. With the last of my energy, I muster enough to take a cold shower and sleep for the rest of the night.