The Gemini Age: Book One

[10-3] Rippled Reflections - Part Three

    The wind veiled the aged buildings and bowing footpaths of the high street in a blur woven from royal blue and pristine white, with the occasional stray thread of red lost in the mesh. Old buildings asserted their prestige against one another through masses of flags, yet the moment the wind quietened to a gentle whisper, the flags sunk into rows of lifeless cloth. While some traditional frosted glass remained in place, the new owners of the brown stone behemoths leapt at the chance to strip out the tenured stalwarts of daily life as part of their adjustments to their property's storefront. Black drainpipes slinked beneath their modern peers from the lips of tiled rooftops to the mismatched stone cobbles below, pouring thin air into the gutters tunnelling beside the street.

    Where developers preserved the overall look of the exteriors for appearance's sake, the interiors of the city's commercial properties failed to reflect such sensitivity. What was once a bloated bank building now housed the sprawling floors of a department store. The shop flooring dazzled under the condensed rows of strip lights, blue diamond shapes fixed into the mosaic of polished white tiles that resisted total traction with all but the grippiest footwear. Through the space carved out of each floor buzzed a series of escalators packed closely enough together for even Untempered shoppers to step between with reasonable confidence, regardless of the printed warnings. The soft rhythms of easy listening music eased the harsh grind of mechanical gears that reached every corner of the hulking structure.

    Jade glanced around as the escalator laboured its way to the floor below. Shoppers roamed every part of the menswear and children's sections, yet not a member of staff lay in her sight, and the escalators rolled empty around her. Twinkling with the thrill of new purchases, she cracked her knuckles and rode a gust of air over the barriers of the escalator and shop floor to the scrap of vacant space situated outside the changing rooms. She swelled with pride as she landed with a twirl, already keen to try the riskier reverse trick of leaping onto the escalators. It would only take a moment for the body of shoppers assembling at the foot of the rising stairs to clear, and the boys were still nowhere to be seen, even after her detour through the women's section upstairs.

    "Show-off," a dry voice observed. The sound came forth from a changing room curtain, and its owner looked no less uncomfortable as he pulled the dividing fabric open and glanced around the shop floor. After navigating her eye past the sharp lines of his dark grey cropped trousers and the airy hem of his burgundy tunic shirt, Jade at last recognised Marcus. Though his clothes were new, his sullen expression was all too familiar.

    Jade cupped her ear with her hand and leaned towards the open changing room. "Sorry, I can't hear you when you're hiding. You'll have to come out if you've got something to say." In truth, she needed the glare of the strip lights to confirm whether the aura of freshness sewn into the new garments extended to the scuffed tips of his trainers, to check if the smooth blush of his shirt imparted a similar glow to his tired skin. Marcus lingered in the safety of the changing room, then relented and stepped out, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt as he did. He rolled his eyes at Jade's inspection yet made no effort to stop it. She stepped back and nodded. "We can work with this. I'd say you look decent, nice even, if I thought you'd take the compliment peacefully."

    Marcus ran his hand along his neck and glanced down at the vivid glow of his shirt. "We didn't come here to look nice..." His eyes rose to scan Jade's confident stance, unsure of where to settle first. "Your old clothes would've worked just fine."

    Digging her fists into her hips, Jade puffed out her chest and smiled. "Yes, but I'd brought my training kit in my suitcase, and I figure it'll fit in better at the arena. Besides, I didn't want you two making me look bad after you cleaned yourselves up!" Dark blue was her colour, Marcus realised from the small section of her wardrobe she had elected to stuff into her suitcase. Her training kit consisted of a slim dark blue sleeveless shirt complete with dark grey compression sleeves that ran from her thumbs until the midpoints of her upper arms, as well as some dark blue shorts that led down to another pair of dark grey sleeves covering the rest of her legs. The sleek Chelsea boots had remained in her bedroom too, replaced now by a pair of dark blue running shoes with some slight wear around the otherwise white outsole.