Dear diary,
The strangest thing happened the other day. Phoebe came up to me and asked me if I would like to go for a walk with her. In all these months we’ve been living together, that was the first time she actually asked me to accompany her to one of her regular walks. I agreed immediately of course as I rarely go out these days. Alex and Max are usually preoccupied with something and Phoebe is almost never in the Ark and I hesitate to set off on my own. This city is so vast and overwhelming that it intimidates me.
I secretly hoped that Alex would join us but he said he had to meet some guy named Flavius regarding some thruster business. And Max was too busy working on a new invention idea. So it was just me and Phoebe.
We set out for the city centre and then got lost into some quieter little alleys and neighborhoods full of stylish shops, restaurants and cafés. I kept staring at the other people. They all seem so wonderfully strange with their bizarre clothes and colorful hair. They have earrings and tattoos in practically every part of your body and they are not shy at all about displaying them in public.
Phoebe is like that as well. Short hair in the colours of the rainbow. Torn jeans and t-shirts, two tattoos already and ears full of earrings. I prefer simpler clothes with no holes on them, even though they still make me exposed. I wonder sometimes what would father think if he saw me dressed like that.
I still haven’t managed to figure out Phoebe. I can never tell what she thinks and she hardly ever speaks to me. Still, during our walk I glimpsed a different side of her. A more relaxed, cheerful and chatty side. While strolling the streets, she narrated the story of Virtus and of how the present world came to become what it is. We wandered the shops and did some shopping -Phoebe helped me pick a beautiful new dress! She even took me to this lovely antique shop where they sold actual books! Old and withered they looked, yet, written so many years after my time in Cambridge! But still it was amazing to be able to run my figures through their pages and inhale their distinct smell.
We ended up having dinner at a tiny restaurant in a plaza full of flowers. A young man was singing and playing his guitar. He had a truly amazing voice. He even smiled at us we walked on by. All in all it was the best evening I had in ages. I just wish Alex would have been able to join us. Maybe next time.
The important thing is that I think I am beginning to win Phoebe’s trust. Finally. A great victory for me!
Till next time…
Love,
Rosie.