Ellie Quin Book 2: The World According to Ellie Quin Read Online Free PDF Page B

laughing
at
her. She could be thoughtless, thick-skinned, sometimes even downright offensive, but to date, she had never laughed at Ellie. Never derided her. Never looked down at her for being a naïve
farmie
. Ellie wondered if that precedent was about to be set, and whether this little outburst of scorn would prove to be the very beginning of the end of their short friendship as Jez tossed Boring-Pay-The-Bills-Ellie aside to replace her with some other lost sob-story waif to be next month’s pet charity project.
    ‘My little cube-buddy,’ Jez said leaning forward and cupping Ellie’s small chin in one of her hands. ‘Don’t you see, this is not a bad thing. It’s not a disaster. It’s a
good
thing!’
    ‘Uh?’
    ‘It’s the kick up the fanny-buns we
both
need. It’s good medicine.’
    It certainly was a kick up the behind. Mind you, she was struggling however to see why they both
needed
it, and why Jez was looking so upbeat about the situation.
    ‘When I picked you up Ellie, you told me you wanted to get the fregg off this cruddy little planet. And so do I. Now, see, the way I look at it….the problem with that job at Dantes was that I was earning
too much
. You and I were getting too damned comfortable sitting on our fat buns, splurging the money away on drink, fancy food templates for our FoodSmart and rinky-dink clothes. It’s time to refocus girl. It’s time to turn our eyes upwards and
focus
.’
    Jez swung an arm around Ellie’s shoulders and pushed her forwards so that with a dull thud, her forehead was now pressed up against the scratched plexitex window. Jez pointed outside at the people passing by.
    ‘These fools, these lifeless walking corpses Ellie, are all worried about bills. That’s what
they
worry about.’
    One of the passers-by, a middle-aged man, haggard and worn down to a stump by the burden of too many years of struggling to make-do in the city, met Jez’s gaze. Seeing her finger pointing directly at him, he smiled hopefully, the last of his libido lifting his sallow face into something he must have been hoping approximated a rugged yet attractive smile.
    Jez grimaced and flipped the finger back at him.
    ‘Ellie, look up there! Look at the tops of these buildings, the dome and space beyond.’
    She obediently looked up, her breath steaming the window so that she had to rub it clear to see. She suddenly realised that raising her eyes like this to gaze up beyond the very tops of the city towers, was something she hadn’t done in quite a few days.
    ‘Up there in that big purple sky are the things that the likes of you and I should worry about. Bigger things, better things,’ Jez said, staring wistfully up at the faint line of the Veil. ‘You can waste time way too easily here,’ she added. ‘I came in five years ago and I wasn’t planning to stop for long. Just enough time to charm my way into enough money to get the fregg out of here.’
    Five years ago.
    With a chill Ellie realised that one day she too might wake up and realise she had been stuck in the city that long. Probably longer. Too busy pulling every shift available, washing dishes and serving repulsive gunk. Too busy to dream any more. Too busy running just to stand still.
    ‘I propose two things, my diminutive little cube-chik,’ Jez announced, settling back on her stool and clasping her hands firmly. ‘Firstly, the start of a
two year plan
.’
    Ellie drew her eyes away from the darkening night sky. The lights all over New Haven were winking on as the last of the natural light from the world outside slipped away. Advertising holograms began to wink into existence up along the sheer vertical walls of the tenement blocks that towered over and shadowed the narrow street outside.
    ‘Go on,’ said Ellie.
    ‘The two year plan is this,’ Jez continued. ‘We earn as much money as we possibly can. And I mean, we do anything, literally
anything
we can to get that money. And our goal is to have earned enough within two