Free The New Girl (Downside) by S.L. Grey Page A

at the Mall, higher than the prefab palms in the piazza at the Apartments. And all around her, the birds are singing songs that make
her chest ache. Animals that fly! With their colours, they swoop in the open air and they soar off into the nothingness above. Everything lives exposed out here, stretching and growing and moving
and moulting.
    The tame brown has been tending a patch where vegetables grow on living wood. Even the soil, something she knows well, smells different here. No matter how well they prepared her, it’s
overwhelming.
    She walks upstairs to the television room, finds Father on the couch, scanning through a sheaf of mimeographs from the evening session. She watches him for a moment without him
noticing. She’d never met him before she was assigned, doesn’t even know his real name, just as he is unaware of hers – up here, he is simply Father, and she is simply Mother. He
finally looks up, nods distractedly at her.
    ‘Was it a good session?’ she asks from the doorway.
    ‘Yes,’ he says. ‘Plenty of viable. The Ministry’s prognosis was sound.’
    Realising that he is busy, Penter turns to leave.
    ‘Mother?’ he says.
    ‘Yes, Father?’
    ‘The meal you prepared. “Breakfast”. It was... interesting. In the sense of unpleasant. I think you could make some more effort to prepare a meal that allows the family to
remember the comforts of home.’
    The bubble of good feeling she was nurturing is rudely burst and she’s stung. ‘May I remind you that I am a Deputy Node Liaison for the Ministry of Upside Relations, and not a
victual servant?’ A terrified thrill runs through her. Her disregard is a direct result of the thought-seep. Despite her status, Father is the team leader on this project and she knows she
would never address a team leader in these terms back home.
    ‘May I remind you,’ Father says, still smiling coolly from the couch, ‘that here you are Mother?’
    Penter walks further into the room. ‘My name is Penter Ulliel,’ she enunciates. When she embarked on her path, she was assigned the name by the senior Node Ministry Commissioner
himself. He told her that she was named after an auto-loading haematology analysis device which he had admired on a visit to the Wards, but after he was depreciated, she realised that he had
mispronounced the word, so now she has a unique name. Despite its idiosyncrasy – or perhaps even because of it – she’s proud of her name.
    But, she realises, this is another extraneous conceit that won’t worry her when the assignment is finished and she goes back home and has her penetration renewed. She won’t be
arguing with her superiors either. By the look on Father’s face, he’s enjoying the unusual exchange as much as she is.
    ‘That notwithstanding, Mother,’ he says, ‘your organisational role in this project team is to behave as the female head of an upside nucleated family does, which the research
has clearly shown’ – he indicates the television set in the corner – ‘definitively includes victual preparation. Nourishing, comforting victual preparation.’
    She shakes her head but she knows he’s right. Still tingling with the thrill of disregard, she goes downstairs to find the tame brown and send him out for some proper ingredients.

Chapter 7
RYAN
    ‘You wanted to see me, Mr Duvenhage?’ Ryan says. As expected, he managed to sneak in while everyone was religiously at assembly and drop Duvenhage’s flash
drive on the floor under the desk, as if he’d just mislaid it himself. He looks forward to seeing the man backtrack. ‘My landlady said you came to visit last night, but I was out. She
said you didn’t leave your name but described you, and, well... you’re the only person I know who—’
    ‘Yes, yes, okay, Mr Devlin.’ Duvenhage’s standing in the doorway, clutching the doorknob. His skin is as pallid as ever, but even more sweaty. ‘I, uh, I have a
meeting.’
    ‘I just wanted to check, sir. Was