Page 13 of The Compound

Four

In the flare of morning light, I could see the other couples in bed: Andrew and Candice were sleeping next to each other, each keeping to their own side of the bed.

Jacintha was with Marcus, his arms wrapped around her.

Mia and Carlos were sharing a bed now, lying so far apart that they were both hanging partly off the mattress.

I slipped quietly out and into the girls’ dressing room, where, in the absence of air conditioning, the heat hit me at once, cruel and abrasive. I sat at my station and brushed my hair, trying to erase any semblance of sleep from my face. I pressed on my screen, and my Personal Task litup.

Task: Skinny-dip in the pool

Reward: Lip balm

I moved through the house, tying my hair up as I went. In the hallway, I found Tom sitting by the arch where the door should have been. He had brought one of the dining chairs inside and was facing the outdoors. He turned back to look at me.

“Hey,” I said.

“Morning,” he said.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“I wanted to keep an eye out. It’s not safe without a door. Any kind of savage animal could walk in.”

I had been planning to do my task quickly, before anyone else woke up, but there was a direct view of the pool from where he sat.

“There’s a spider in the bathroom,” I said. “Would you mind getting rid of it?”

“Of course not,” he said, and got up at once.

I walked quickly toward the pool, taking my clothes off as I went.

I hesitated at the lip of the pool for only a second, then jumped in.

I gasped at the cold, as painful as it was refreshing.

I pulled myself out and dressed as quickly as I could.

When I glanced up, I was startled to see Tom back in his seat.

He didn’t react when I saw him watching me, but he didn’t look away either.

I didn’t want to walk by him, so I moved toward the swings we had found last night.

I kicked my feet off the ground and swung for a while.

It was shaded, and I felt cool and clean.

When I heard the others up and about I went inside for coffee.

—

The house was in general disarray again. The kitchen was messy, grimy counters and dirty dishes in the sink. The sheet doubling as the bathroom door now lay in a crumpled mess on the floor. I saw Jacintha and Gav arguing about the best way to keep it in place and left them toit.

I changed into my day outfit, shorts and a bralette, and went about cleaning the kitchen.

There was hand soap and a sponge, but no gloves, and no washing detergent.

After a few minutes, Becca appeared beside me and silently dried the dishes I had washed.

I had seen her this morning, in bed with Sam, sleeping curled in a ball while he had been lying on his back, close to each other, but not touching.

Gav entered and rooted through the fridge. There was still plenty of food, but not a lot that we could eat for dinner. “How are you lovely ladies this morning?”

“Fine,” I said, and Becca said something I couldn’t hear.

He took out a carton of orange juice and drank from the carton. He drank in long gulps and made an ahh sound when he finished. He put the carton back in the fridge. “Sorry,” he said. “I’ll use a glass next time.”

“Please do,” Becca said.

“I got a razor this morning,” he said. “Man, was I delighted. All I had to do was tickle Susie until she cried.”

He didn’t understand why we were staring at him. He opened his mouth, then closedit.

“Good morning,” the voice said. “Discussion of Personal Tasks is forbidden. This is the last warning before action is taken.”

A handful of others piled into the kitchen. It was obvious who was at fault from the stricken look on Gav’s face.

“Idiot,” Marcus said.

—

The first task was to talk about pets we’d had and how they died.

For this we got a long tube of glue. I wasn’t particularly excited about that reward, but Jacintha shouted with glee when she saw it.

She ran to the bathroom, and I followed her.

“Here,” she said, holding one side of the sheet.

“Hold this up—put it right there.” I did as instructed, and she glued the sheet to the frame of the door.

I could only see her vague outline through the sheet as she continued to apply glue liberally.

“So,” she said. “You and Ryan?”

I looked down the hallway to check that we were alone. “He’s great,” I said.

“Did you…?”

“We kissed.”

I could hear her smile. “Good for you.”

“Did I see you with Marcus in bed last night?”

“Yeah,” she said. “We had so much fun yesterday. He’s a really funny guy.”

“What about Carlos?”

“Carlos is great, too. I’m keeping my options open.”

“That’s smart.”

She moved the sheet aside and looked at me. “You should keep your options open, too.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve seen Sam looking at you. He seems nice. And he’s gorgeous.”

“So is Ryan.”

“I know, but it’s only been a couple of days. Don’t limit yourself.”

I wondered if she thought that Ryan didn’t like me. It stung to think so, but I saw the sense in her suggestion. “I guess it probably wouldn’t hurt to get to know him,” I said.

She looked at her handiwork. It wouldn’t last for long: it would likely have to be fixed and reglued at least once a day.

But it was a degree of privacy, for now.

I had seen Evan’s bare bottom as he used the urinal and had been shouted at by Sarah when I stumbled toward a toilet in the middle of the night to find her there already.

“Talk to every boy here if it keeps you safe,” Jacintha said. “Now isn’t the time to be sentimental.”

—

We made better progress that day: we completed four tasks that morning, and earned toilet cleaner, a ladder, scissors, and a new towel for each of us.

The tasks were easy, and we were happy as we did them, though a little deflated when we looked at our spoils, all sickeningly practical.

We had lunch outside—bread and tiny portions of ham or cheese.

After lunch we napped in the bedroom, still the only room in the house that was cool.

Jacintha climbed into my bed, and Ryan went into hers.

Carlos came into the room, looking for Jacintha.

I held my finger to my lips and pointed to her sleeping form beside me.

He nodded, and hung around for a couple of minutes, as though hoping she would wake up.

Then he said, “Don’t tell Mia I was here,” and disappeared.

I enjoyed the cool air and the quiet. Before I went to sleep, I thought about how easy everything had become.

At the same time, everything here felt new and exciting.

I felt, now that I was fully removed from it, that there was nothing for me back home, only the same drudgery, day after day.

I didn’t know what might happen in the compound in the following weeks, but I knew that there would be opportunities for more.

One simple, even fun task, and something new would appear.

What tedium I would have to go through to get the same things at home: standing on my feet for hours, faking smiles, pretending to have energy and enthusiasm.

When I slept, I dreamed of prizes falling from the sky, and all of us standing in the desert with our arms outstretched, waiting for them to reachus.

When I woke, the rest of the compound was in the living room, sitting on the brand-new, enormous, L-shaped couch, facing the big screen. They stopped talking when I entered.

Task: Choose one person to banish from the compound

Reward: Freezer

“Look,” Andrew said, and put his hands on his hips. “This isn’t going to be easy. But we need to be quintessential about it.” In the corner of my vision, I saw Jacintha roll her eyes.

Mia said, “It’ll be worse when we’ve become friends and forged relationships. As it is, we don’t really know each other. We should do it quickly, and not make a spectacle about it.”

We had no pen or paper yet, and debated for a while on how to vote.

In years past, they usually had writing materials by now.

Instead, we went to the edge of the compound, to the dustiest section where no trees or flowers grew.

We spent a while looking for rocks and sharp, pointed pebbles; once we had one of each, we scratched the name of the resident we wanted to banish on the rocks using the pebbles.

We all spread out, as though we might try to peek at each other’s answers.

We then placed our stones in the designated circle.

When everyone had voted, Tom entered the circle and turned the rocks over, revealing the letters etched on each.

We crowded around him, all trying to get a glimpse.

Becca received six votes and Gavin had the rest. No one felt the need to speculate, or justify themselves.

Gav had broken one of the rules in a moment of carelessness, bringing us closer to some unnamed punishment, and because of Becca we almost didn’t have our L-shaped couch.

“I knew it,” he said morosely. “I knew it would be me.”

We stood around uncertainly for a few moments. I wondered if Gav would kick up some kind of fuss. They often did on the show. I couldn’t think of anything more humiliating than being the first to be voted out. But Gav just said, “I think I’ll get a glass of water first.”

We went back to the house, unsure of what to say. Gav went to the kitchen and ran himself a large glass. He drank it in three long pulls, his throat bobbing, his eyes on the ceiling. We watched him, all seventeen of us, piled in the kitchen.

“Okay,” he said when his glass was empty. “I’ll go now.”

We went out with him. When we reached the southern perimeter he looked nervous.

“It’s not like coming in,” Tom said quietly. “There’ll be someone waiting for you along the way. They’ll show you where to go.”