We finished dinner and the Eltsina's took us to the square. You may be thinking that this is like a town square back on Earth, that there are a lot of shops surrounding it and lots of people coming and going. A square in the outlays is just the square. A large tiled square meeting area. The terrafarmers are equipped with everything they need for self-sufficiency. They produce everything they need for survival, are equipped with all the tools and repair equipment they need, and their cars can travel great distances in short amounts of time. The only thing they can't provide for by themselves is community. Therefore, one of the first traditions of terraforming mars was the creation of "squares." They are precisely like a town square in size and purpose, that is: a meeting place for community in a central location. But there are no shops, no one lives there, and it is surrounded on all sides by trees and flora and fauna. It is a vacant terraformed bubble. Hosting duties are divied up between the closest terrafarmers per martian terraforming quarter, roughly three months out of the year. The local community of terrafarmers meet there for festivals, commemorations, weddings, birth celebrations, and funerals. These were the first areas to be adorned with beauty in mind. They are all unique and crafted with artistic flourishes. Just as the outlay terrafarms are formed with a single-minded purpose of survival and expansion, so are the squares created with single-minded beauty and celebration.

We arrived at night, approaching from the vast flat plains one solitary and vertical black wall against the sky. This was what terraformed bubbles looked like at night from the outlays. Shapes grew into trees as we approached, and as we entered the little forest lights began to glitter in the immediate distance. It was like a fairy tail we were taught in the early grades at the orphanage. I imaged our car was ushered in by forest gnomes and serows. Our square was a large green tiled expanse, with red concentric cirlces emanating out from the middle. It was flanked by great red rocked pillars carved out of the martian landscape into Roman colonnades. Atop these pillars were lucent globes of green and gold and red, each color sublty waxing and waning in brightest. It was magnificent. The trees seemed to pulse like thick irridescent veins, throbbing with beautiful blood pumped from the square.

All around people were milling, coming toward the square; in from their cars, or wandering about talking with friends, setting up instruments and fiddling with consoles on the pillars. There was a soft and deep hum of voices hovering over the square, punctated every so often with a slight high laughter or deep bass chortle. David pulled out an instrument case from our car.
"Ready for the party, boys?" He said and walked toward the group of men with the instruments.
I saw Demetris with Edwin and Fairfax in one corner, huddled together, leaning against and glancing at all the people coming in with furtive eyes. They must have been as awed as I was. Natural, joyous celebration sprung from a spontaneous appreciation of life and beauty was foreign to us, and though I felt warm in the cool evening, I was still scared by the thick mirth flowing from the square. They were wearing their dress uniforms, their arms were shined and buffed and reflecting the light in swirls along the curves of the sinuous joints. They were fops. But they were smart and vindictive. It was best to be on their good side to avoid needless problems.

An old man stepped out of his car followed by our general in turn followed closely by Abbot, Daffyd, and Orestes. They were three of the highest performing students in our class at the orphanage and were often the figureheads of our class. It was no suprise that they would arrive with an old man and our general. This man must have been one of the first terraformers.