Loveless

[07.06.00] » by The Natural

The rain was coming down hard on the asphalt hitting it like tiny bullets of water spattering in all directions at once. The air was frigid, each breath felt like inhaling freezing water into your lungs. Another night in Midgar, another lonely, cold wet night in this so-called "city of promise" this "World".

Nadia found her apartment in the dimly lit section of sector 3 called E-town. She fumbled through her purse with her long slender fingers looking veinly for her the key to her door.

"Damn it where are my…" she remembers that they are in her pocket. She pulls them out of her pocket with a jingle that seems to echo through the thick, cold, wet air like a cannon burst. Opening the door she steps in puts her bag on the floor. Her long black hair in dripping with cold rain water. She looks in the mirror next to the door and sees her slender features shiny and wet in the well-lit apartment.

"Stupid train just had to be late on shopping day," she said squeezing the water from her hair. Picking up her groceries she heads in to the kitchen to put things away. She pauses seeing the flashing light on her answering machine.

"Wow, someone actually knows I'm alive!" She presses the button to receive the messages. A cold dry voice comes on telling her that she has 3 messages. The first is a call from her landlord telling her that the pipes in her bathroom won't be fixed for another week. The second is a call from Shin-Ra, where she works telling her about her assignments that are needed ASAP. Feeling like she is ready to give up on life she turns off the machine before the final message can be relayed.

"Just once I wish it were a pleasant call, like I won the All Sector lotto or maybe a call from the man of my dreams telling me that he has finally found me and that he'll be here later tonight. Just once I wish it were something other than that fat, offensive landlord, or the office telling me they need more work-ups." With that she went into her little under decorated bedroom and began to undress. Looking into her mirror she sees her naked body and wonders why she can't get a date. Of course it was a well-known thing that if you work at Shin-Ra you don't have any personal relationships with anyone outside of your family unless Shin-Ra wants you to. Slipping on her nightgown she decides that she must be valuable to Shin-Ra because they don't want her dating anyone with the fear that it might distract her from her work. Laughing quietly to herself she falls asleep.

The next morning she is up and ready to by 7:15 and heads out the door. She doesn't have to be at work until 8 but the way the trains have been running it's not worth the risk of being late. Outside her apartment she turns to lock the door and notices the puddle of water on her step. Instinctly she puts her keys in the pocket of her worn-leather coat. She turns around and sees that the sun is shining, or at least shining as well as it could considering that she is standing in one of the narrowest alleys in this part of E-town. With that thought she remembers that she is a valued member of Shin-Ra.

"That's why I'm living in this hovel," she thought to herself with a huff and even a little puff.

* * *

Out on the main street she looks up again to see the bright blue sky filled with promise, and then looks down at the street filled with cars and people. Hundreds of people all seemingly not caring about anything except that they get where they are going. Letting out a sigh she begins to walk south along the sidewalk noticing each building and each person that she walks past. She stops in at a small café called "The Hot Choco Stop". It was a nice little shop owned by a funny little man named Cid. Cid was short and had white hair that was all frizzled around his head like a big dust-bunny. Only he had a bald-spot in the middle. The one thing that you had to know when talking to Cid was Chocobos. He loved them. He was always talking about raising them out on the prairie or the most recent races out at the Saucer. As a matter of fact people who were new to the store or just plain didn't know Cid often wondered why if he liked chocobos so much why he owned a coffee shop. Well the answer to that was simply if there was one thing besides chocobos that Cid liked it was chatting with perfect strangers over a hot cup of coffee, and according to Cid himself chocobos stink too much to be round all the time.

"G'mornin' there girlie, and how might you be this fine Saturday morning" Cid asked with a big bright smile on his face.

"Well Cid I'm here and I'm…did you say Saturday?" Nadia asked Cid surprised at what he said. It couldn't be Saturday she just knew it.

"Yes dear I said Saturday. I believe someone has gotten caught up in her busy schedule and forgotten all about the days of the week, and which ones she has off. Now why don't you have a seat over here with me young lady and I'll make you a special cup of my world famous hot Cocoa. It's on the house. I've a nice little story to tell you that I heard from a gentleman not five minutes ago about a couple in Junon that were blessed with twin baby blacks' (black chocobos)." Relieved that she didn't a have to go to work today Nadia sat down and waited for Cid to come back. All at once life didn't seem as bad as it did last night.

After a long breakfast that consisted of three courses and a lot of different stories told by Cid, Nadia left The Hot Choco Stop and began walking uptown towards the tower. As she was walking admiring the view and smiling at every stranger that she passed she thought of what she was going to do with her new found freedom. If the office needed anything they would have called so there was nothing, thankfully, there. Then she thought, "It's been awhile since I've been to the mall." The mall she spoke of was in the first five or six stories of the seemingly infinite Shin-Ra Tower.

* * *

Shin-Ra tower boasted a height that easily conquered the clouds in the sky but also rose high enough to look down upon them in god like reverence. The shopping mall was located on the first 5 floors. It had to be big because it made everything it supplied.

Nadia walked to the second floor to her favorite clothing store "Tommy Highwind", it was a good store with really nice clothes with not so nice prices. She was looking at some new black dresses because she needed a new one. Shin-Ra dress code was strictly enforced and part of it was that black bottoms were required of all employees. She glanced over and saw a woman trying on a nice green dress with flowers on it and wished she could where something pretty like that to work. Then she remembered that there was no reason she couldn't just buy one for the hell of it and where else where. Happily she walked out of the mall satisfied that she had done something for herself and not for her job.

Getting on the bus to the train station Nadia started to think of what to do next. The Slums. She hadn't been there in a long time.

The Slums were the little settlements under the superstructure of Midgar and were home to most of Shin-Ra's blue-collar workers. The name she thought suggested way too much. Even though there were actually no paved roads and everything was made from the refuse of the world above it was quite well put together. The people were generally nice and there was no hustle and bustle that was rampant twenty-four seven up top. Plus, and this is a big one, it never ever rained. Never. There was a bar that she liked going to in the sector slum called Wall Market. The bartender was real friendly and was the inventor of one of Nadia's favorite dishes, the "Cold Bomb". It was a special kind of cake that was shaped like a bomb creature but when you lit it on fire it would glow bright blue and actually cool down. Staring at the bright blue flame, or rather staring through the bright blue flame she pondered about times if any that were as tranquil as this one.

"Ugh…!" Nothing came to mind. So she sat and ate her cake and enjoyed the smooth cool texture of it as it slid down her throat.

* * *

After leaving the bar she said her good-byes as she left wondering what to do next. It was about lunchtime and that meant the last train leaving from the slums was probably going to be pulling in to the station soon. She never understood why on the weekends there were only morning trains and not evening trains. She guessed that they had a hard time finding someone willing to work that kind of shift on a weekend. The slums weren't a popular place to spend your precious weekends. Most people went to Costa del Sol for its sun and relative closeness to the Gold Saucer.

"Did that make her weird", she wondered. After all she did actually spend most of her off time in the slums. It was the one place in the whole of Midgar that she truly found peace and contentment. Then again she hadn't been anywhere else outside of Midgar.

On the train now, she watched as the slums disappeared in a cloud of smog that filtered down from Midgar. There above was the city, no world itself. The tower highest of all a symbol of all the glory and wonder that was synonymous with the great "World" called Midgar. Nadia didn't see that though. She saw a cold place where she worked and a place where life wasn't an easy thing. That thought depressed her a little. She wondered again why she didn't just move somewhere else. Then she remembered that as soon as the thought came to her, she only knew this world.

* * *

She arrived back at her stop mad at herself for thinking so sadly. Depressed Nadia walked home down the same street past the same people. Then as she approached her alley she had an epiphany.

"If life isn't so easy here then why is it that I can still find the good in the little things and why is it that Cid can still love his life? Because we are strong, determined people. Life is only hard when I let it be". She turned away from the alley and looked at all the same people on that same street and saw something that she had never before noticed. They were smiling. Some talking some laughing some both. That made her smile. Nadia looked down at her watch and saw that she had five minutes to get down to the Choco Stop and watch the afternoon races with Cid. So glancing once again down her little alley she smiled and had only one thought "Better hurry!".

Note: This is my idea of what the play mentioned in FF7 might be like. Or at least the story. I invite any and all to write their own interpretations and post them here. 'Til then see ya.

- The Natural