Yared Zerezghi — 2125
Although Yared Zerezghi was treated with the deference that was afforded to those who had attained such honors as he had, he was also regarded with the wary eyes due to anyone who might be considered hero and villain both.
+The flights to Yakutsk was dull, but it was that singular type of dullness that allows anxiety to build and grow. He stared out the windows at first, watching the cities and towns that built up around the transit hubs, and then, when all was replaced with desert or windswept grass or bare mountains or burnt husks of forests, he would stare instead at the pages of his book. He could not get the symbols on the pages to line up into words and sentences, but it was better than looking out at the world he was leaving.
+The book remained unread when he finally landed in Yakutsk and, as he was about to pack it into the small plastic bag that was his only luggage, he thought better of it and shrugged, handing it to the passenger next to him.
+“Want a book?”
+She frowned. “Are you…just giving me your book?”
+He turned it so that she could see the cover. It was something on politics. Pop drivel, mostly. “I guess I am, yeah.”
+“Why?”
+“I won’t need it.”
+A look of understanding bloomed on her face and her expression shifted from confusion to a cautious smile. “No, I suppose you won’t. Well, thank you. I’ll give it to the library if I don’t wind up reading it.”
+Yared nodded and gave a gesture of thanks. It was only after the conversation was over that he felt a hotness in his cheeks. He had been lucky that the woman spoke English so well! She was very white, and while that might not mean anything, he was flying into the Sino-Russian Bloc, and she could just as well not have been a native speaker.