Maintenance Window
Corina has been laying in bed awake, staring at the tiny picture frame for more than an hour. She should be sleeping. Tomorrow is a big day. But she can’t stop thinking about the meaning of what she’s holding in her hands. Callie would tell her that she’s a hopeless romantic. That’s what she always tells her, and frankly sometimes it bothers her a little. Wanting a spark, or at least some connection doesn’t make her a romantic. Yes, she knows that the purpose of Maintenance Window is the survival of their tribe, but you can have both survival and a connection. That’s not hopeless, is it? But Corina knows not to make a fuss. There’s no point in arguing with Callie: she will never win the argument. If they lived Above like the ancient ones, Callie could have been a lawyer. Corina tells her that, but Callie hasn’t read the books, so she doesn’t know what it means and when Corina tries to explain, it all sounds too foreign to her friend. For Corina, that’s hard to fathom. Why wouldn’t you want to know what the past was like, when people lived Above? Callie is a practical one, maybe a little too practical in Corina’s mind; she claims that reading the books only creates longing for what they can not have so she hasn’t even bothered to learn how to read - and won’t admit she enjoys being read to. Instead she plans for the future, while Corina thirsts to understand the past, to give some meaning to her existence. They complement each other like that, and maybe that’s why they have always been such good friends.