Back Then
“I simply can’t understand why go so far for a single tree.” Anon let out an exasperated groan. “Construction began a while ago, you can’t go making changes like that on the fly. Cut that thing down.”
“Y-yes, we are well aware, mister, but we can’t…” The foreman tried his best to keep a confident smile. Anon was not very good at reading other people, but the nervous man in front of him was clearly trying to come up with excuses.
He was getting tired of going in circles and turned to the engineer he had called to aid in this discussion. “What is your take on this?”
“Anariba is right, cutting that tree would be too problematic. There’s nothing we can do. I hope you can understand…” the engineer said.
“Yes, mister, please hear him out! I know you could help us a bit…”
Anon looked to the side and sighed. Sometimes people just made his work harder than it needed to be.
***
A drop of sweat slid down Anon’s neck as he watched his step over the roots sprawling on the ground. Summer lasted long in his country, and famously longer in his city, so he had to suffer the fact that banana trees were not particularly helpful at repelling the heat.
When Mr. Alcántara informed Anon about the plan for an American to assist under him it crossed his mind that he would have to stop sneaking around the limits of the plantation fields, but it seemed like the practice still had a bit of use left. Anon would have really preferred not to, but from time to time he made time to witness the state of things for himself, a precautionary act of skepticism for everyone’s accounts of their work. The fact that he could infiltrate comfortably was a complaint that could wait just some more; he wanted nothing to do with the fluffy—and muscular—security staff. It was hot enough to know the imprudence of scolding them, in the off-chance they did hear him out.
A similar matter echoed in his head, that of Anariba’s pleads to be taken seriously. He could have been angrier at the shamelessness, but the humble anxiousness of the man who asked for more time and budget struck in Anon’s weak spot, his ignorance. “I can’t call him out on his bullshit unless I have a ground to stand on,” Anon thought to himself. Whatever the big deal was, a project like that could not possibly require starting over, regardless of their nonsensical excuses. Sure, he was still too embarrassed to ask for Anariba’s first name after two years of regularly meeting with him, but he also had the slightest common sense when it came to dealing with incompetence.
In any case, Anon walked for a while before getting close to the site. He wanted to take a peek and return to his office at once, to put an end on the matter before Mr. Alcántara had to get involved. However, a certain buzzing took a hold of his attention.
Above his head, a swarm of Honey Bees flew right towards his destination. Their sudden appearance froze him for a second, and his first impulse was to reach out for his repellent as he hid below the thick leaves nearby. Checking with quick glances at their direction, Anon only came out once he made sure they did not notice his presence.
Safe, Anon slightly leaned from the tree trunks towards the bare field. There, the foundations of a building laid before his eyes, surrounded by all the equipment and material that could go into its construction. As he had thought, the work was halted, and just a few workers still remained nearby without much to do.
Anon glared in annoyance at everything that they would have to take down and redo if Anariba got his way, a complete waste in resources where Bee women loitered.
“Unthinkable… Where is this tree that they just can’t move?” Anon looked around, until he realized that the tree they had been talking about was not actually a tree. It was a flower.
He blushed, covering his face at the sight. A beautiful brown-skinned woman blossomed out of giant pink petals, half of her legs taking root inside. All the Honey Bees formed around her, getting close enough to her vines to squeeze a bit of nectar into small individual jars.
Anon took a step back until his feet were away from any surface roots, realizing again that, despite his position, to unrelated mamono he was nothing but prey in the wild. Nonetheless, getting a glimpse at a little bud behind the flower lady made his fear melt away. A bud that had not yet turned into a flower, he understood why they could not move the plant and get done with it.
“Anariba, you…” he said in recognition of a noble enterprise. Anon almost choked thinking about his mistake. The only thing holding him back was the only piece of the puzzle that did not quite made sense. Everyone had obscured his knowledge behind pretexts, and he could not understand why.
“Honey!” the flower girl called. She turned around and waved at someone as the Honey Bees giggled. Someone walked up to them, brushing them aside with a cheeky smile and an embarrassed voice. “Daddy’s here, everyone.”
Anon saw how stupidly happy he was and grumbled “Anariba, you piece of shit…”
***
“He just had to get himself claimed by an Alraune, after all we’ve done to avoid Dryads or mana getting into the crops…” Anon complained in his office. “Oh, he still has to hear all of it!”
He thought about all the twists and turns they would have to make to build the storage somewhere else, yet after mulling over it he could not get upset, he closed his eyes and smiled. It was not his place to decide, Anon was a supervisor—an assistant at that—but he would be sure to make a proper case for the change. There were always times when one had to feign ignorance, no one could truly avoid it all from happening under their nose. Sometimes the right thing to do was looking the other way.
But right then he looked to the side, at his coworker. “All of this trouble happened because you refused to speak about this. We could be ahead in this had I known in advance.”
Forrester stuck out his tongue. “Sorry, I implored Anariba to come clean, but he was too embarrassed to do so apparently… What is supposed to happen now?”
“We truly can’t do anything there for the next months, not until the baby is old enough to be taken somewhere else. We need to find somewhere else to place the building…” Anon deplored. “Remind me again why we can’t just discount this out from Anariba’s pay?”
“Still, I’m glad you changed your mind,” Forrester spoke out. “Everyone else thought you’d take it the wrong way and fire everyone involved.”
“As if,” Anon dismissed. “I’m not indifferent. Anariba shouldn’t doubt I’m involved to a reasonable extent.”
Anon said that, but soon he wondered himself if he would have taken things that seriously had he been in the same position a few months prior. Back then, holding to his detachment, would he have cared? He would probably not be proud to admit his own ignorance out loud.
“At least I try to think things a little more through now…” Anon muttered to himself, getting started with a draft for the requisition.
“Mr. Anariba… I have been thinking, what was his first name again?” Kassandra asked.
“Ugh! I hate him! Working with him is nothing but pain!”
