The Superiors Read Free Page A

felt nice. She’d gotten all covered in sweat and dirt from running in the streets half the night.
    The man Superior talked to a lady Superior for a few minutes, and then the lady came to take Aspen away. She’d seen the lady a few times, but only the Superior guards inside the fence were familiar.
    The man Superior bent down in front of Aspen so his face was right in hers and his curly hair almost touched her forehead. “It was a pleasure to meet you,” he said, that amused smile still on his face. She knew he was smirking at her, thinking he was so much better. So Superior. “Now promise me you’ll keep out of trouble, little sapling. We can’t have you wandering around in the streets getting picked up by criminals. You know some Superiors would bite you if they found you out there.” He smiled at her, and winked, and stood up.
    She fought the urge to giggle as she walked back towards the door that led out to her home in the Confinement. She couldn’t wait to tell her sisters all about her adventure. She’d run away, been brave, and gotten caught. But she hadn’t been punished. She’d been bitten, and she had a secret with a Superior. And he’d winked at her. A Superior really honestly winked at her. Who knew they could be so snarky?

 
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
    Draven didn’t see Aspen again for over three years. He’d changed jobs, again, and gone back to work with the health department, this time as a restaurant inspector. He had done this job many times over the years, and it was the most enjoyable of the many jobs he’d had. Otherwise, nothing much changed in Draven’s life from year to year.
    “What can we get you tonight?” the hostess asked, the night he would meet Aspen for the second time. The waitress smiled, showing exceptionally long teeth. She had short black hair under her hairnet and a heavy accent.
    “How many do you have on tap tonight?” he asked. He could have flashed his health inspector card, but he preferred to do his work unobtrusively. It was easier to get a true picture of a place by using the amenities first. Like a secret shopper.
    “We have twelve table, but only eight open at the moment. Would you to like have look around, or would you prefer to make this quick stop? We have many varieties at the bar if you’re pressed for time.”
    “Do you have the new flavors?”
    “Of course. Why don’t you come back to bar and our server will help you.”
    He followed the tiny hostess back to the bar where a neon sign filled the glasses with reflected light. The bartender wore a vest with nothing under it, a habit of bartenders that Draven found particularly distasteful.
    “What can I get for you, my man? We got bottles, we got cans,” the bartender called out in a familiar way. Draven regretted that he couldn’t give scores based on poor wardrobe choices and lack of manners.
    “I am undecided. What flavors do you have?”
    “If they make it, we got it, that’s our motto,” the vest-clad man sang out. “We got hot sap, cold sap, old sap, new sap. We got maple sap, caramel, Coca-Cola flavor. We got strawberry, vanilla, cherry-vanilla. You name it, we claim it. You got a thirst, we got the quencher. So what’ll it be?”
    “I may just look at the tables,” Draven said, sliding off the stool. Too many bartenders adopted the pushy air of salesmen, which they were, but Draven didn’t want to listen to the bartender’s yammering while he did his job. He walked around the end of the bar, through the heavy curtain and into the restaurant part of the establishment. He roved through the grove of tables, noting the required six bouncers for twelve tables, their appropriate watchfulness. The most common mark against a restaurant was inattentive bouncers, but these were standing against the walls, watchful if a bit bored. Slow night at Estrella’s.
    Draven noted the clean tables, the sterile atmosphere, the clean trays on the corners of each table. Then he surveyed the