Chapter 1
The short, slender girl looked into the black spherical camera. The doorknob turned in front of her, and the white wooden door, which had a shiny finish, opened. A woman in her forties approached slowly from the end of the corridor and greeted the girl. Her eyes were tired, but her voice was friendly.
“Tiffany, my dear, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you. Come inside!”
“Exactly four years ago, Petunia.” “Yes, how old were you, fourteen?”
The girl nodded and entered the hall of the newly built house, throwing her brown, wavy hair behind her back. The door closed behind her, then beeped twice, and automatically activated the lock; the teenage girl always flinched at the sound of the click.
“I was very happy that you called my mother.”
“Obvious, since I’ve known you for a long time. Since the new labor decree, we have even less time. We need someone we can trust,” the woman explained.
Tiffany sighed heavily.
“And how’s school going?” asked the woman.
“We have even more subjects this year. They are getting more and more difficult, and you have to choose a specialization next year.”
The pair of blue eyes lit up. “What are you planning?”
She looked down at her pearl bracelet and fiddled with it. “Honestly? I don’t know yet.”
“Oh, why are we just standing here?” The woman gestured toward the end of the corridor. “Come on. Get inside!”
Tiffany placed her backpack on the hanger and stepped into a wooden bowl half filled with a clear jelly substance. After stepping out of the bowl, the jelly dried on the soles of Tiffany’s shoes, which prevented dust and dirt from being brought into the house. After that, she entered the spacious living room, walked past the white armchairs, and sat down on the gray velvet sofa in front of the dark blue wall. This color scheme was not unusual in the City of Genius. Tiffany’s house had a similar style of decoration, with the difference being that the furniture here was more modern.
Petunia took a seat in the wide armchair opposite the girl.
“You’ve grown a lot.”
The young girl nodded, and her fingers gripped the hem of her yellow cotton cardigan as she examined it. In her colorful dress, Tiffany stood out from her surroundings.
“Your style hasn’t changed,” the woman remarked sullenly. Tiffany remembered her being so outspoken. She used to take care of Petunia’s little son several times, and when they played together in the garden, Petunia always controlled the child.
Tiffany shrugged.
“That’s how I feel.”
The woman changed the subject. “I just made a pot of fruit tea. I’ll bring it in!”
The woman jumped up and hurried out of the room.
The light breaking through the opposite windows cast a rainbow on Tiffany’s green skirt, and it was also reflected in the digital photo on the glass cabinet next to her. She went over to take a closer look. The frame hadn’t changed the picture—it showed the same photo of the Price family: three of them were smiling, and the two parents were holding their little son. All three wore gray shirts, the parents wore identical gold watches, and the hexagonal windows of the building in the background were covered with creeping vegetation. Tiffany remembered lively little Daniel from when they were neighbors. But in this photo, the parents were hugging another toddler, although the toddler undoubtedly looked a lot like Daniel.
Petunia returned with the steaming tea and placed it on the round table in front of them.
“Tell me more. Your mom mentioned that the office job wasn’t the real deal.”
“I was never interested in administrative work, but after school, it was the first thing that came up, and I tried it. One day, my older colleague brought her daughter to the office and asked me to keep an eye on her. That’s when I realized how much I love children and working with them. They are so fun!”
The woman sipped her tea as she listened intently to the girl.
“That’s why I was happy when Mom told me that you and she talked—”
“Mother! Mother!”
Tiffany heard the sound of approaching footsteps behind her. A short, black-haired boy, about three years old, jumped into his mother’s lap and hugged her. Petunia was careful not to spill the hot tea in her cup. Tiffany jumped up and took the cup from Petunia. Petunia and the boy hugged each other for a long time, even though Tiffany was excited to see her old neighbor. But Daniel didn’t appear, nor was he in the family photo. Tiffany’s enthusiasm waned.
“Noah, let me introduce you to Tiffany Akers. She’s the daughter of a dear friend of mine, who from now on will look after you twice a week while myself and your father work.”
The little boy turned and admired the girl with his bright greenish-blue eyes. Tiffany was surprised by how strongly he reminded her of Daniel. She crouched next to him.
“I saw a huge slide in the back garden. How about trying it out together later?” she said.
The little boy started to smile mischievously.
“You’re nice to him!” the woman rejoiced.
Petunia pulled the boy to his feet and gently pushed him toward Tiffany. Noah shyly turned his upper body left and right. To relieve the tension, Tiffany took out something from her maroon leather bag. It was a wooden leaf pressed into a gold frame.
“Our walnut tree has started to drop its leaves. I saved one for you.”
The little boy continued to blink.
“Thank you.” Petunia took the gift thoughtfully.
“I thought Daniel would be happy about it,” Tiffany blurted out.
“Daniel? Who is that?” said the middle-aged woman. “My son’s name is Noah.”
Tiffany looked at Noah and then at the woman.“I’m sorry. I mean, I thought Noah would be happy about it.”
The smile slowly disappeared from the young girl’s face. She tried to hide her awkward expression with another flash of her white teeth. She couldn’t take her eyes off the child. In her confusion, not a sound came out of her throat. She had never been in such an unpleasant situation. Poor Daniel! He was such a cute little guy, she thought.
“Noah, dear, shall we show Tiffany the house?”
The little boy nodded, and they both got up from the armchair. The girl took one last sip of her tea, and then she was shown around the huge house.
An hour later, Tiffany was on her way home when the obvious explanation occurred to her. She stopped on the street and looked back at the black-and-white family house. She had mixed feelings. How rude of her to mention Daniel to Petunia! Still, she could have told her what happened. Maybe an accident? Illness, it couldn’t be…
Tiffany couldn’t rest because of the thought of what might have happened to Daniel. It would have been easiest to just accept the fact that Petunia hadn’t talked about it. However, her inner voice didn’t leave her alone. And she followed her instincts in life, no matter how much this contradicted the expectations of her environment.
It was raining. The girl pressed the black button on the front of her bag, and a light-blue veil appeared around her. A man in a hat and balloon jacket stopped on the opposite sidewalk and rummaged through his bag. Tiffany wondered why he wasn’t using the rain-cover feature. The man fumbled in his pockets, shook his head nervously, and looked up at the sky. The rain fell in increasingly large drops.
“Press the screen on your watch twice,” a young voice called from behind her. Tiffany turned back. A tall, blond man in a suit pointed to the gold watch on his outstretched hand: “That’s right. Just do it after me!”
The figure in the hat pulled up the sleeves of his coat and copied the other man’s movements. The veil also appeared around him. He got it on his forehead.
“I always forget. I should have chosen the button solution too,” he explained, and then they both continued on their way.
She smiled. People often behaved in a measured way with each other, so she highly valued helpful goodwill in everyday life.
Tiffany made her way to the train station in the suburb full of three-story, cream-colored houses, watching the solar panels on the flat, dark gray roofs with boredom.
“It’s on the twelfth house. It’s not on the fourteenth. It’s on the sixteenth, and it’s on the eighteenth.” Finally, some variety!
She continued to walk, invigorated. A few streets later, she saw the six giant towers of the city center in the distance. Green, sprawling creepers fell down from every level. Tiffany sighed. This was her favorite building complex in the City of Genius.
She was already in front of the train station when the continuous surface of her hood trembled, and a name appeared in her vision at head height: Adrian.
“I’m taking the call. Activate the camera,” she said as she hopped down the wide stairs in her purple boots.
“Where are you?” asked the boy, running his hand through his rich brown hair, because a lock of his hair was standing up.
“I see your eyes are darker now.”
“Same auburn as before, Tiff. Must be the lights.” He switched on the small light next to him.
“I’m already at the central station. I’m just coming from Petunia’s. I had a rather strange conversation.”
“Excuse me, miss,” called a short man with a cape. “Do you know which track the train to Residual Center departs from? I couldn’t find the listing.”
Tiffany pointed over the stairs. “See that streamlined, worm- shaped assembly? This staircase takes you straight there.”
“Great, I thought I wouldn’t make it!” The man hurried his steps.
“It’ll be leaving in five minutes. You don’t have to hurry,” Tiffany shouted after him.
“Worm-shaped?” Adrian asked with slight resentment in his voice.
“Well, no. They look just like—”
“My robot worms?”
“Aha!” The girl giggled and turned the camera there.
“You giggled the same way when I first showed you the prototype.”
“Because it’s funny! Earthworms, sorry, robot earthworms”— she stressed the beginning of the word—“you became a researcher at the Elite Science Center because of your creation.
“That’s true,” Adrian agreed, dimples of satisfaction appearing on his face.
Tiffany arrived at the off-white train. She pressed the button on her bag, and the hood disappeared. The train car door opened by itself, and she stepped onto the chrome floor. She touched her ladybug earrings, continuing the conversation.
“But what were we talking about?” asked the boy amusedly. “I got it! What happened at Petunia’s?”
The girl plopped down on a bluish-gray, double leather seat, put her feet on the table’s crossbar, and told him about the meeting.
“You mean he’s dead?” asked the boy doubtfully. “That’s pretty unlikely.”
“It’s very strange for me too. Believe me. I was with them five or six times, you know. I learned to bake from Petunia. She gave me the recipe for the round, chocolate sponge cake.”
“Indeed! Can you make that recipe? I am craving a good cake,” interjected Adrian.
“Yo-yo! Help me figure out what happened and I get a cookie!”
A pair of twins in their forties in gray suits approached, heading straight for the seat for four surrounded by darkened glass, where you could only sit with a special reservation. The robot guide opened the electric door for them; the young girl looked in awe at their shoulder-length, straight blond hair and commanding emerald eyes. Before they entered the closed compartment, the woman in the front looked over the occupants of the car, and her eyes fell on Tiffany. She tilted her head back slightly and spoke to her sister. The other woman whispered back to her, and then the door of the booth closed behind them. Tiffany couldn’t hear them, but she read lips well. She doesn’t fit here.
“Tiff, are you here?”
She swallowed hard. “Sorry, I just wandered off.”
The cold shook her; the hair on her forearms stood up. She pressed the blue button on the table, activating the soundproofing.
“When are you going to Petunia’s next time?”
“Next week on Tuesday. I only have four hours at school. You know what I still don’t understand? How could they afford this house? Petunia works part-time, and Bryan is a shift manager in a factory. Houses built with such a clean interior structure are not just given to anyone.”
“They may have a family fortune. Who knows? Anyway, something unusual happened to me today.”
“Tell me!” Tiffany demanded excitedly.
“Imagine, a delegation visited my workplace today.” “Hey, and did you show them your new invention?”
“I wanted to, but they wanted me for some unfinished research.”
“Which research?”
“They were interested in my idea about cell genetics. We agreed that I would check in with them before going public.”
“That’s great, isn’t it?”
“I became extremely excited. I even went back to the lab to show them my new invention. I was already walking down the hall when I saw them getting into the elevator. I ran down the stairs to catch up with them, but I couldn’t find any of them. I asked the receptionist, but she didn’t see my boss or the delegation.”
“This is weird. Where could they have gone?”
“Wait, now comes the exciting part. I went back and wanted to find the only guy whose name I had memorized, but according to the database, there is no employee named Gabriel Smith at the company.”
“Couldn’t it be that you have a commission contract?”
“That’s right. Then it’s not in our system,” Adrian acknowledged with relief.
“By the way, using the system, can you look up Daniel? There should be some kind of public list with information about newborns and deaths.”
“I don’t have access to that, Tiff. However, for those working in the Birth Center, yes.”
“I don’t know anyone there. Come on, come on.”
“I can’t even open the files for no reason. But…for the sake of our friendship, I’ll try, although I doubt I’ll find anything, since they all die at fifty.”
“OK, I know, but please help me! In return, I’ll bake two bowls of chocolate sponge cakes.” She smiled.
“OK! I have to go now, Tiff. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
At the end of the conversation, the girl opened the soundproofing. She slowly passed the twins’ darkened glass booth, hoping to hear or see them, but no luck. She was heading toward the last train; the passage between the cars was free. All of them were arranged in the same way, except for the last one, which was covered with glass all the way around the top and sides, and in the middle was placed an elongated, wave-shaped white sofa. Tiffany sat on it and leaned against the soft back.
The public address system played an environmental presentation that presented nature and developments from a scientific point of view. Tiffany liked to sit in this car because there were always few people here. She wasn’t interested in scientific explanations, so she turned on her own instrumental music through her earring and watched the various faces of the passing city. The irregularity of buildings and green vegetation always surprised her with more and more miracles. At one stop, a beehive-looking building appeared. The semifinished facility was made up of straight columns in a uniform and regular hexagonal pattern, lush green vegetation was planted in every other hexagon, and the rest were covered by reflective glass.
Tiffany stood up and walked over to the window to get a closer look. The scary twins passed in front of the building. They’d gotten off at the previous stop. They strode together in their gray stilettos on the sidewalk, then walked into the construction site. The train moved on, and Tiffany wondered if the female siblings were architects or if they had been sent from the control center. Everyone there was so serious and cold. She looked at her own reflection. In her yellow cardigan, green T-shirt, and purple shoes, she really didn’t fit in with the residents of Genius, but she completely blended into the environment with lots of plants. Her music faded. Her stop followed.
The girl lived with her parents in the hilly area of the city. Here, each of the houses was a white-silver, two-story capsule with glass on the sides and running plants, Tiffany’s being the third on the slightly rising street from the train stop. A new car was parked at the house opposite. Petunia used to live there before they hurried away that rainy autumn morning in an unfamiliar black jeep. It had been vacant since then. The girl found it ironic that she was coming home after the events of that day.
Inside, she headed for the kitchen.
She heard the sound of dog claws tapping on the granite.
“Mango! Are you eating with me?” Tiffany enthusiastically bent down to her dark Labrador and stroked the base of his ear. The dog wagged its tail wildly, rhythmically pounding against the kitchen island.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
The red infobox flashed on the fridge. She pressed on, and her mother’s voice rang out over the speaker.
“My little girl, I’ll be home later today. You’ll find your favorite food, potato casserole, on the top shelf. The dog should not eat it. Kiss!”
Tiffany took out the boxed food and heated it on the highest setting in the e-microwave. The glass box was transformed into a plate under the influence of microwaves, thereby protecting the environment. The girl sat down on the white barstool and ate leaning against the kitchen island. The dog didn’t take his eyes off her.
“I can’t give you any. Mom told me not to,” Tiffany explained, although she almost laughed. “All right, come on, but you promise not to tell anyone, hmm?”
After her lunch, she went out into the back garden to her homegrown raspberries. She always ate them with pleasure, nibbling slowly so that the taste lingered in her mouth for a long time. She went up to her room well-fed.
She jumped in bed, tossed and turned for a while, and closed her eyes, but she couldn’t sleep yet. She knelt on the pink ribbed blanket and gently pushed the bedside table away that was next to her bed. She placed her palm on the exposed white wall surface and tapped it rhythmically with her fingers in an alternating patter. A small part of the wallpaper split in a circular shape. Tiffany reached into the hole and took out a golden A5 notebook. She tapped the part of the wall at the top of the circular opening with her index finger, and the wall closed again into a continuous smooth surface.
She lay down on the bed, opened the notebook, and took hold of the pen inside; there was a printed deer on the cover, which eagerly awaited what entry would be in the diary. No one wrote a diary. This was considered an activity that did not support the society or the science. Books were written exclusively in the spirit of science and served the development of their society and technology. Tiffany wrote down the events of the day, drew question marks for Petunia’s strange behavior, and put an exclamation mark next to Adrian’s reaction. After writing out her feelings, she was tired. She grabbed the orange pillow closest to her and rested her head on its soft surface. She fell asleep immediately.
The growing sounds of dogs barking and distant voices crept into Tiffany’s sleep. She turned over to her other side.
“My little girl, are you home?” her mother said kindly from the ground floor.
Tiffany moaned. “Hey!”
She sighed. She had reached the point where she could no longer return to dreamland.
“Go find Tiffany!” said the voice that was still cheerfully calling out.
The dog’s claws sounded on the stairs, and Mango ran to Tiffany where she was lying in the middle of the huge bed with her eyes open, counting backward out loud.
“Ten, nine,…six, five,…two, one…”
At that moment, the Labrador appeared at the door of the girl’s room and jumped into the bed next to her.
“Stop it, Mango! Stop it!” Tiffany pushed the dog licking her face away from her. It didn’t give in easily, but finally, Tiffany took it down with wrestling moves. Mango grinned at his master in a submissive pose. Of course, she couldn’t resist him —she kissed him.
“Tiffany, are you in your room? Hey!”
“Yes, Mom.” As soon as she answered, she heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
She knelt down, and pushed Mango away with a firm movement. The dog rolled off the bed and thumped dully on the floor. The girl folded her notebook, hurried to the secret part of the wall, and knocked on it.
“We have new neighbors!” shouted her mother excitedly walking up the stairs.
Tiffany knew she didn’t have much time left to hide her diary. She placed it in the compartment, and with a quick tap, the gap in the wall disappeared.
“Mango, shut up!” she instructed the dog, motioning toward the threshold. Obediently, the dog ran over, stood on its hind legs, and, leaning on it with its front paws, let its full weight rest on the white wooden door. It closed immediately. With the time that Mango had bought Tiffany, she was already standing on the floor in her striped socks. She pushed the nightstand back as quietly as she could so that her secret hiding place would not be noticed by her mother. His dog turned around next to her, wagging its tail.
The spherical doorknob clicked, and Olivia opened the door. Tiffany didn’t have time to straighten her messy brown hair. Heaving with relief that she had finished the covert operation in time, she jumped out of her seat.
“You’re finally here!” the woman said with relief, her hand still gripping the doorknob.
“I was asleep, sorry,” Tiffany said, gasping for breath. “Everything is all right? Your face is so red.”
The dog nudged the girl’s leg with its wet nose.
“Sure, uh, I was just wrestling Mango.” She looked at her pet, thanking the dog for its help with a nod. She quickly caught her breath. “I also saw that new residents moved into Petunia’s old house. I noticed the new car in the parking lot.”
“I thought I’d say hello to them and invite them over for dinner. What do you think?” Olivia asked enthusiastically.
Tiffany nodded. “Yeah, good idea.”
“Great!” I’m going to make spaghetti Bolognese. I’m gonna go now.” With that, the woman turned out of her daughter’s room. Tiffany let out a huge sigh, crouched down next to her dog, and petted him.
“Who is the smartest dog in the world?” she muttered to him.
Three hours later, Tiffany was in the kitchen with her mom, putting the finishing touches on dinner. There was a loud whine from near the stove. Olivia had accidentally stepped on the dog’s feet.
“Mango, go away!”
The dog trudged away with great difficulty and then lay down on the white granite stone. Tiffany walked over to her pet, crouched down, and stroked its paw.
“Oh, take care of him,” she begged her mother.
“He’s always underfoot when I’m cooking! A dog does not belong in the kitchen,” Olivia stated firmly.
Mango rolled onto his back and happily received the comforting chest scratch. The intercom beeped and projected the image of
the neighbors waiting in front of the door in the middle of the living room in a blue light.
“Coming!” said Tiffany’s father, Zavier, from the living room. He put down his e-newspaper on the leather sofa and walked toward the kitchen in his slippers.
“My little girl, are you done setting the table?” Olivia asked.
“I can’t decide. Should it be the transparent, square tableware with the blue tablecloth, or the transparent, circular one with the gray tablecloth?”
On the long dining table, the shape and color of the place setting changed as the girl touched the corner of the table with her finger. Her mother stopped and checked her. She raised her eyebrows.
“We use the blue tablecloth template only on holidays. Do the other.”
“I think so too,” remarked Zavier and smiled at his loved ones.
Her father placed his palm in the middle of the door, and the door opened. A short woman with a frail body was standing on the threshold. A blond girl with curly hair blinked in front of her. The woman gently touched her back and nudged her forward, but the girl continued to stand in one place.
“Go inside, Sophie. You don’t have to be afraid. They’re our neighbors.”
Zavier stepped back from the door and crouched down to be at the same height as the little girl.
The little girl ruffled her knee-length skirt. Zavier examined her, but she didn’t move.
“Sophie, please go.”
Tiffany was curious about her neighbors. She ran toward the door, her checkered socks slipped on the stone halfway across the room. She stopped next to her father holding on to the edge of the open door. Mango ran after her, his toenails tapping on the hard floor.
The blond girl’s blue eyes were wide with excitement. “Dog!” she shouted and ran through the door straight toward the animal.
“Well, finally,” sighed the mother, stepping inside. Her tall, bespectacled husband followed closely behind. The woman stopped.
“What a clean style your living room has! Ours has a completely different layout.”
“That’s why yours are so much better. The semicircular, giant sofa on the platform is my favorite,” Tiffany gushed with sparkling eyes.
The woman and her husband looked at each other.
“Have you ever visited us?” asked the man with glasses in a deep voice.
“Yes, we often played on that couch with the little boy next door.”
“With a little boy? Your imagination is vivid, my little girl,” her mother remarked.
Tiffany didn’t understand her mother’s reaction. She kept her eyebrows raised for a while. Her father cleared his throat.
“Let me introduce my family. My only daughter, Tiffany, and my wife, Olivia.”
Violet and her husband, Derek, also introduced themselves.
“And our daughter, Sophie,” added the tall man, “who won’t even pay attention to us all evening because your dog has charmed her.”
“Mango is everyone’s favorite,” Tiffany said proudly.
The dog rewarded Sophie’s petting with a happy tail wag. Derek handed their hosts the dark glass in his hand.
“We brought a little something. Homemade, medium-bodied red wine, goes perfectly with spaghetti Bolognese. Children also love it because of its sweet taste, and like other wines, it is alcohol-free.”
Olivia took the bottle and looked at the engraved circular emblem. The e-oven beeped and turned on the sound system. Soft jazz played in the background, and the lights above the kitchen table dimmed to indicate that the food was ready. They sat at the table, and the master of the house poured the wine into the transparent glasses. The intense red color filled the modern, gray dining room with life.
Derek praised the work of Olivia after the first sip. “Wow, that’s a very special flavor. What fruit is it made of?”
“Sweet, like a peach. Peach. I’m sure of it!” Tiffany said. Derek nodded. “And mangoes.”
Hearing his name, the Labrador raised its head and put its ears in a listening position.
Violet pulled herself out and put her hand on her husband’s upper arm.
“We just call it peago.” Her husband took over.
“Sophie loves the sweet taste, but unfortunately, the garden of our former residence only produced mangoes and peaches. I crossed them, and this is how the peago was born.”
“Have you been involved in cultivation for a long time?”
“I have always loved plants. Since I was a child, I can tell what ingredients are in a drink or food by the smell. That’s how I became a grower after studying at the Leopold Scientist Training School,” said Derek.
Tiffany marveled at him. “I never understood how someone could have such an ability. I planted raspberries in the back half of our garden.” She jumped up from her chair, ran to the refrigerator, took out a bowl of raspberries, and stood next to the man with glasses.
“Taste it.”
“Tiffany, it doesn’t go well with Bolognese.” Her mother waved her off.
Derek took out a berry and handed it to Sophie. The little girl chewed it right away. Her enthusiastic expression said more than anything.
“She doesn’t talk much, but she’s fond of fruits,” explained Violet.
Tiffany kindly placed the bowl next to Sophie and sat back down. Sophie smiled at her for the first time.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Well! Sophie has a hard time socializing and rarely talks to strangers. She likes you,” Derek remarked in amazement. “You mentioned that you played with the little kid next door. Maybe you also took care of him?”
Tiffany could only nod, as she had just stuffed herself with a large forkful of spaghetti.
“Yeah, I’m still doing this after school.”
“We’ll celebrate our acquaintance’s last birthday on Saturday, but we don’t have anyone to entrust Sophie with. You could come over and take care of her.”
Tiffany was happy to say yes.