Page 26 of The Compound

“Sure. No problem.”

“Thanks.” He turned to Sarah and Vanessa. “How are we doing on supplies?”

“Not good,” Vanessa said. “We have enough breakfast for everyone, and maybe a very small lunch, but there’ll be nothing for dinner.” Sarah handed him a coffee and a banana, and he hesitated, then said, “Keep it. Save the banana for later, and give my coffee to Candice. She’ll be up shortly. Thanks, guys. It’s nice to wake up to the smell of coffee.” He smiled at us and his curls fell across his forehead, giving him an air of innocence. “Feels like home, right?”

—

A little whilelater, we all met in the living room. It was Tom who spoke rather than Andrew, his face drawn and serious. Whatever else you could say about Tom, when he entered a room you looked at him. “We’re going to have to be ruthless today,” he said. We were quiet. “We need to do as many tasks as it takes to get food.”

It looked as though Tom was going to speak further, but Andrew interrupted, eager to get a word in. “We can do this, guys,” he said. “We’ll put in the effort, and we’ll reap the rewards. And look, if we have to work into the night, so be it. We’ve got to eat.”

The first task was for every boy to lift their bedmate over their head. It wasn’t a great start to the morning. Evan couldn’t manage it, as he was now sharing a bed with Vanessa, who was curvy and buxom. Vanessa flushed as he struggled to raise her up, but it was clearly Evan’s fault: I didn’t think that there was any girl there he could have lifted, not even Becca. He managed it after a half a dozen attempts, his arms shaking and Vanessa shouting down at him not to drop her. When she was back on the ground, Susie smirked at her. “Big breakfast?” she asked.

Vanessa turned to her coolly. “Wasn’t that you last night, shitting in the yard like an animal?”

None of the girls engaged in the conversation lest a fight break out. We were all on edge; I was so hungry I felt liable to snap at anyone.

The big screen read:

Task: Choreograph a dance to the song “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel. Everyone must sing and dance in unison

Reward: Lawn mower

It was the biggest reward that had been offered, except for maybe the freezer. I didn’t really care—at this point, all I was thinking about was food. Beside me though, Ryan murmured, “This is really going to make Yard Maintenance a lot more effective.”

Urgently, Tom called out, “Who knows the lyrics to ‘Uptown Girl’?”

It took us a long time. Becca, Evan, and I knew bits of the lyrics, so it took us sitting for what was probably an hour to get all the words right. Candice and Susie worked on organizing the choreography while Tom paced impatiently. We would have a verse figured out, but, with no paper to write it down, we sometimes forgot the words we had just remembered. Eventually, when we had a couple of lines, Andrew would shout it out, and have a group of people repeat it over and over.

Candice and Susie kept the choreography simple, but still it took us hours. We were slowed down considerably by a small number of residents, namely Marcus, Seb, and Jacintha. Jacintha was particularly uncoordinated, and I could see that she was getting frustrated with herself, shaking her head in annoyance when she muddled the moves. I tried to be supportive, but she was shockingly bad.

Halfway through, Sarah stopped and said, “Isn’t there a key change in this song?”

Tom looked as though he might snap somebody’s neck.

“That’s just the Westlife cover,” I said.

“Are you sure, Lily?” Tom said.

“Positive.”

Finally, we finished. Any giddiness that we had at the beginning of the task had disappeared. Any enjoyment we got from the song and danceevaporated after the tenth time we tried, unsuccessfully, to get through it. When we at last managed the routine in unison we were tired and irritable. The boys loped to the delivery area to look at the lawn mower while the girls went to the pool. Jacintha and I sat under a tree, away from the others.

“I’m the most pathetic dancer,” Jacintha said. “Fuck. I really messed that one up.”

“It’s over now,” I said.

“But people will remember how much I set us back the next time we vote to banish someone.”

It was true that people were likely looking for reasons to banish someone now that food was so scarce. But I knew no one would banish Jacintha: at least, not yet. “That’s not true. You’re the department of Repairs and Construction. That’s, like, the most important one, except for Tom and Andrew’s department. I just clean dishes,” I said, shrugging.

“Repairs and Construction,” she repeated, with an irritated jerk of her chin. “I haven’t even made us a proper door, yet.”

We were interrupted by the sounds of whooping coming from the side of the house. We all turned to look. Ryan came around the corner of the house, riding the lawn mower. Despite myself, I was impressed. It was enormous, oddly sleek, and a shiny red. Andrew was on the back, standing, his arms spread wide, and crying out with happiness. We laughed fondly at them, like mothers watching their children in the playground.

Candice said, “Ladies, that was all us. We put together one hell of a show.” Susie, standing at the edge of the pool, laughed happily, then jumped into the water, crying “Cannonball!” The water splashed the rest of us girls, and we complained, but then the boys cannonballed into the pool too. After some urging on their parts we joined them. It was easier to just give in. Marcus, who had been almost as lousy as Jacintha at the choreographed dance, took her in his arms, twirling her around. She resisted at first and then relaxed, laughing and throwing her arms around his shoulders, the two of them swaying in the water, him dipping her so that the back of her head touched the surface of the water but never quite went under.

—

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