M’ill and H’ill: Part 1

This story was published in the Heart of Flesh literary magazine on November 15, 2024.

In a daze, I fingered the door handle without getting out of the taxi.

“What did you say this city was called?”

The driver looked at me through his rearview. “M’ill.”

As I got out, he drove off almost before I could shut the door. I brushed lint off my dress and smoothed down my hair. I didn’t seem to have my handbag with me. If it was still in the taxi, there was no getting it back now. I began to walk down the wide city street.

I hadn’t gone far before my stomach began to growl. I spotted a convenience store on the next block. Perhaps…oh, that’s right, no handbag. I walked in anyway, past a large “No Stealing” sign. I searched the depths of my pockets. Only some lint and a paper clip. Hhmm, not very handy. With a sigh, I moved toward the exit. I felt a tap on my shoulder.

A woman with long, straight hair and the reddest lipstick I’d ever seen gave a me a lopsided smile, “You must be new here.” She winked and grabbed two apples. She linked arms with me and walked calmly past the line at the cashier’s and out the door. She tossed me one of the apples and took a large, juicy bite from the other. “You can do anything you want here.”

“What about the signs? Won’t you get in trouble?”

“I don’t worry about it. If the owner finds out, he might retaliate if it’s worth his while, but I’ll enjoy the apple now.”

I really was hungry. I took a bite. My apple seemed mealy and bland, but it was something. Strange, hers had looked so juicy. My new companion began to walk, and I fell in stride with her.

“Why didn’t the cashier object when you took the apples?”

“The cashier only works there anyway. Even if he’d objected, he couldn’t have done anything about it. I wanted them.”

“You can get anything you want here?”

“No, you can’t get anything you want necessarily,” she paused to take another bite. “I mean, it’s not like you can wish for anything and it will come true. You can’t fly or have a million dollars fall in your lap. You can just do what you want.” She tossed the apple core away.

The streets became more crowded as we went further into the city. Milly (for so I began to call her in my mind) spoke up again, “I’m going to a party tonight. You should come along! There will be good fun and some laughs. Look, we’ll catch this bus.” I meekly followed her onto the back of the bus, underneath a sign which read “No Lying”. Tickets didn’t seem to be an issue for Milly. The bus was crowded, but Milly pulled me over to where a large man sat with an empty seat beside him. She turned on the damsel in distress act. “We’ve been walking all day. I don’t suppose you could let us sit.”

The man looked at her for a moment then slowly turned his frown to a grin, “No reason we can’t all three sit, baby.” He patted his lap. A wedding band barely fit around his thick fingers. With an exaggerated sigh, Milly slid onto his lap then flirtatiously began to play with his hair. I sat on the edge of the vacant seat, trying to give them space. Things seemed to happen so quickly here. No need for inhibitions or social customs. It was nice, in a way.

“Pardon me,” I heard at my shoulder. A tall, good looking man in a suit tipped his hat, “I couldn’t help noticing your ring.”

“Oh, thanks,” I blushed. “It was a present years ago.”

“Beautiful,” he said, gently lifting my hand to look at it more closely, “Genuine emerald, I imagine?”

“Yes, to match my eyes.”

He smiled and nodded his head. Then, very smoothly, he slipped the ring from my finger, held it to the light admiringly, then put it on his own finger. It was a strange sensation. I felt in possession of all my faculties, yet I could not stop him from taking the ring or make any kind of protest. He kissed my hand, winked, and got off at the next stop. I tugged on Milly’s arm, “That fellow just stole my ring!”

Milly disengaged momentarily from her stranger, “Hhmm, what? Oh, dear. Well, don’t worry about it. There will be some way of getting it back or getting even which will be just as good. You’ll see.”

“How could he take it when I didn’t want him to?”

“He can do anything he wants as well. Sometimes two wills are at odds. In that case, one perseveres temporarily, but there is always the chance to get even.” She suddenly sat up, eyes fixed on a short, heavyset woman with a purplish bruise around her eye, just getting on at the front of the bus. “Oh Lord, there she is! Quick, out the back!” She scrambled up from the man’s lap and prodded me toward the exit. “Quick, push them down!” In a mad scramble for the door, (I fear Milly might actually have pushed a few people down) we alighted on the sidewalk at a bustling intersection.

As the bus pulled away with the short woman still inside, Milly loudly exhaled, “Whew! Lucky thing this is our stop anyway.”

“What’s the matter? Did you give her that black eye?”

Milly looked at me in disgust, “What kind of girl do you think I am? I never resort to violence.” She tossed her hair. “I only made her husband think…well, it’s a long story.” She pulled me into a crowded shopping area. She seemed to be perusing people walking by as much as she was examining the displays in shop windows. “There!” she said suddenly, gripping my arm and pointing across the courtyard to where an elegantly dressed young woman was chatting with her friends. “It’s the perfect color for you and you’d wear it better than her anyway. She hasn’t got the figure for it, really. Too skinny.”

I mutely nodded my head. The long dress the girl wore was stunning. Perhaps Milly was right. It really would look better on someone with a fuller figure and the plum color would complement my eyes so nicely.

“Well?” said Milly. “Do you want it or not?”

“Well, I do want it, but can I really do anything about it?”

Milly rolled her eyes, “I’ve told you…”

“I know, I know. This is Mill. But what about…?” I nodded toward a poster “No Craving Others’ Belongings.”

“That doesn’t matter. No one will stop you. You want it. Take it.”

With Milly nudging my elbow, I made my way over. To my relief, the girl was just parting from her friends.

“Excuse me,” I said as I felt Milly dig in my ribs. “That’s a lovely dress you’ve got on.”

The girl had been smiling and easy, but now her face froze in suspicion. “Thanks.”

“I don’t suppose you’d let me… I mean I’d like it very much…here, let’s trade.”

The beautiful face contorted into something of a snarl. The girl walked with me into a nearby restroom. She slipped the dress off and callously said, “I see what you mean. I wouldn’t want to wear those old rags any more than I could help it.”

I steeled myself to this retort as I pulled the dress over my head. Lovely, absolutely lovely. Yes, this was what I’d wanted, and it had really only been a trade after all. The girl hastily put on my old dress and with a parting glare over her shoulder, walked out and away into the crowd.

“Perfect!” oohed Milly, who had somehow accumulated a stunning pair of earrings since I had stepped away but a few minutes ago. “Let’s go. They’ll be starting dinner soon. We aren’t actually invited, so we’ll need to be early and have persistent wills, understand? Remember what you want.”

As we turned a corner, I caught a momentary glimpse through the close-pressed buildings to something beyond the city. Milly would have ploughed ahead, but I held back. “What is that?”

Milly looked around and finally followed my gaze to a rounded hill which seemed to be a long way off. A few houses dotted the hillside with a large cluster of them at the top. She made a depreciating gesture, “Oh, that. That’s only H’ill.”

She would have pulled me on, but something held me to the spot. “Wait, what’s over there?”

“You don’t want to go there. No one can do what they want there. They have to do what the rule writer wants.”

“Have you been there?”

“Ha! No. Some people from M’ill have though and they’ve told me about it. Sometimes people from H’ill come down here, but they are all a bit strange and don’t usually stay long. You have to be crazy to live in H’ill. Come on.”

It did not seem to matter that we hadn’t been invited to the party. It seemed that a few others were in a similar fix, but had sufficiently strong wills to have forced an entry. There was certainly plenty of food heaped upon the table, though this seemed to disappear at an alarming rate. The dinner had not proceeded very far when not a few guests were either asleep on the floor cradling their stomachs or highly intoxicated and swinging from the proverbial chandeliers. One bold young woman had taken the host by the hand and led him out with a casual, “Don’t mind if we use your bedroom do you, darling?” over her shoulder to the hostess. Instead of smashing the china to bits (I thought for a moment she might), the hostess began to tell the most slanderous, disgusting story I’d ever heard about the exploits of her disfavored guest.

Just at the climax of the story, in walked the handsome gentleman from the bus.

As the fates would have it, the only empty seat was next to me. I noticed a slight flinch as he recognized me, but then he was all charm again. “How nice to see you. What a beautiful dress!”

“Yes, and I am only lacking my ring to complete it.” He did not seem to have it with him. I had already had a bit too much wine (extraordinarily cheap tasting stuff) and emboldened, I slapped him. For good measure, I pulled on his flashy tie until it fell into his plate to soak up the gravy. Chastened, he removed his tie and began eating dinner quietly. Milly nodded approvingly and the gentleman across from me laughed appreciatively. I felt that the dinner was going extremely well.

Milly and I were about to leave when the gentleman from the bus pulled my arm, “A moment in the garden, please.”

Milly sighed, “Sorry, dearie. We didn’t leave soon enough. I’ll see you outside.” Deserted by my friend, I could do nothing else but follow the man and wonder what revenge he willed. The house boasted a large walled garden which was now quite dark. We walked until we reached an alcove against the back wall.

The gentleman reached for the zipper on the stunning dress and began to undo it.

“Now really!” I protested, but once again I was somehow left without any choice.

When every stitch of clothing I had been wearing lay in a neat bundle on the stone garden bench, he leaned in for one long kiss. Picking up my clothes and turning to walk away, he said, “Goodbye, dearie. It was a delightful evening.”

Oh, if I could only do something, I’d tear him apart. I supposed I’d have to wait until I saw him again, though I didn’t really want to see him ever again. What to do now? How was I going to get some clothes? Just then, I heard the unpleasant gentleman’s voice call from the house, “It’s a beautiful night for a stroll about the garden, gentlemen. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. I spotted a dryad a moment ago.” It was answered by a chorus of drunken laughter and a clatter of well-polished shoes.

Unless I wanted to pose as a Grecian statue, over the wall was my only option. Fortunately, there was a thick vine growing along the wall and I quickly climbed up and over into an alley. I followed the alley to the corner, where I saw Milly, playing with a stray cat on the sidewalk. I tried to get her attention without stepping into the street when there was a sudden screech of tires. I ducked back around the corner. A tall man in a uniform got out of a large black car. Even Milly seemed temporarily awed. The man held up a piece of paper, “Ma’am, you are arrested on the below mentioned charges. You are to be taken into custody until your court date.”

“What?!” protested Milly. She grabbed the paper (which unfolded into quite a list) and perused the contents. “This is ridiculous!”

“Sorry, ma’am. That’s not for me to decide. The rule writer reviews the cases.” He firmly took Milly’s arm and placed her in the back of the car while she protested, cried, and eventually screamed. The car drove down the street quickly. As it passed the alley, I saw Milly’s face pressed to the window, eyes and mouth wide.

I sank to the ground and hugged my knees to my chest. I looked in the direction where the ominous black car had gone. As I did, I saw lights…far away. I realized they must have been the lights on Hill. Strange how just a few small lights could compete with all the glitz and neon of the city. I was drawn to them.

Part 2 available here.

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash