Part 003 - The Vacancy (cont.)

Gina walked into the boardroom of the Kamunita Kabinet. She was unsure what to actually expect. She knew a lot would be asked of her. The Kamunita was not a place anyone got invited to join. It was the elite status all of the working commoners of the surrounding city, Menacky, wanted to join. Unfortunately, not just anyone could get on the list as possible candidates. It is commonly known that one must either know someone who is already within the Kamunita, or one has to get extremely lucky. Gina happened to be the latter of the two.

She wasn’t sure how she got on the list, but she did. And she had been chosen to join. She was honored and a bit scared at the same time. No one in the city knows what goes on in The Kamunita. All they know is that The Kamunita runs the world they live in. All of the major decisions – laws, policies, finance, education, government - everything the city of Menacky knows comes from The Kamunita.

A fountain of marble stood majestically outside the boardroom door. The statue contained within the fountain was a scene Gina couldn’t quite make out the significance. There were a lot of figures standing in rows looking up to a larger figure with arms outspread. All of those looking up were smiling as if they didn’t have a care in the world.

The secretary who was leading Gina through the Kabinet section of the Kamunita smiled as she opened the door to the boardroom. Gina smiled back and walked in hearing the door close silently behind her. There were thirty individuals sitting around an oval-shaped, marble table. At one end of the oval, the table was cut flat as if the oval was missing its bottom portion. Gina saw a large, empty chair sitting at the flat end. The Kabinet members were sitting along the perimeter of the table. There was a large, ominous man at the head of the table. He motioned for Gina to sit down.

Gina was unprepared for the next hour. One by one each Kabinet member introduced himself. There were no women in the Kabinet, and Gina was curious as to why; yet didn’t let it show. After the Kabinet member introduced himself, he went on to tell Gina one of the expecatations she would need to fulfill to completely integrate herself into The Kamunita. Some were rather petty and small. Others were rather outrageous and unbelievable.

Gina sat there awestruck. What was she getting herself into? Was it so much better to be part of The Kamunita or stay a worker in the city? Regardless of her final decision, she could not turn back now. She was in front of the Kabinet, and she was the next one in line to enter the community. She was the Environmental Specialist - the liaison between the Division of Environmental Affairs, or the DOEA, and the Kamunita Kabinet itself. ‘How could she possibly turn down a job such as this?’ she thought as the meeting adjourned.