The final letter
When she woke up, the other side of the bed is cold. Her fingers stretch out, seeking her mother's warmth but finding the rough canvas cover over the mattress. She must have been too nervous to be asleep and went to take out some Aquaponics fish. Of course, she did. This is the day of the last invitation letter.
She propped herself up on one elbow. There's enough light in the kitchen to see her. Her lovely mother, Mrs.Solane, looks younger, in the golden stride of daylight, still worn but not so beaten down. Her mother was very beautiful once, too. Or so they tell her.
Right in front of the bed, on the table, is the world's ugliest family picture consisting, obviously, Her, Mrs.Solane andー yeah, just them. Because it's torn down, never knew what Mr.Solane looked like. It's not like she was ever curious about him, someday, quite randomly her mother would tell her about him, that he went against the system to protect us and got executed, he was brave and smart.
"Was it so heroic? All I can say is it was stupidity," is what she always thought.
She swings her legs off the bed and slides into her boots. Supper leather that has moulded to her feet. She pulls on trousers, and a shirt and her black braids hug her face, highlighting the beauty of her face. Other than the brilliant white of her August smile and the pink of her lips, she is a perfect blend of browns from her skin to her almost everyday wear, and grab her bag as she slips outside while taking her breakfast.
Her home, Sector Five, nicknamed Vistancia, is usually crawling with Aquaculture and some other farmers heading out to the morning shift at this hour. Men and women with hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles, many organisms, tissue or organ damage, and the lines of their sunken faces.
But today, the streets of Vistancia are empty. Shutters on the houses. The letter isn't arriving until twelve. May as well spend their time with kids. If they can.
Her home is almost at the edge of the Vistancia. She only has to pass a few gates to reach the main field of Ixtal. Separating the Ixtal from the woods enclosing all of sector five is the high walled boundary topped with glass and mirror pieces or whatever you call it. That's all they can afford in this sector. Though maybe other high-earning sectors like one and four have a high chain-link fence topped with barbed wire loops. In theory, it's supposed to be electrified twenty-four hours a day as a deterrent to the predators that live in the woods- packs of wild dogs, lone cougars, bears- that sometimes travel from the woods to Ixtal and then to the streets just to threaten them.
Anyways, Ixtal is where her school is located. No one was outside except for her making the playground seem abandoned and haunted. It was one of those sunny mid-winter days, all glittering frosty fields and long low shadows. She rushed inside the warm and not-so-bright school building.
The hallways are dark marble floors and white walls-which does not seem white anymore, maybe off-white? Filled with chatter and teachers trying to control the crowd of overly excited students. She wondered if they were eagerly waiting to get selected.
The doors are glossy black, numbered with silver digits that match the globe-shaped handles. It is not just the materials though, it's the dimensions, the width being at least twice that of- not like it matters, it's broken anyways.
As soon as she was in her seat, the bustle of chatter and flowing of friends, the seat became a steady stream of order, each of them not even leaving two meters apart. Talking about the letters, and how great is our sector.
"Sector five. Where you can starve to death in safety." She mutters. Then quickly rolled her eyes over everyone, worried someone might have heard her.
When she was younger, she scared her mother to death, the things she would blurt and slew off slurred insults out about sector five, about the people who rule our country, Ellesmere, from the far-off city called the Silver and the Gold. It is more like Gold rules over the Ellesmere, make decisions and whatsoever and Silver manages all of it. So, they both are equally important.
Eventually, she understood this would only lead them to more trouble. So, she learned to hold her tongue and turn her features into an indifferent mask, so that none could ever read her thoughts. Do her work quietly in school, make only polite small talks in the crowd, discuss a little more trade in the black market where her mother makes most of the money. Even at home, she avoided discussing tricky matters like studies, cadet test, food shortage or the invitation letters.
"Back to us Lue?" Eve said, bending towards me, mockingly.
Maybe she is the only person with whom she can be herself. Eve. She feel the muscles in her face relaxing, her head turning towards her as she raised her eyebrows, their eyes met, the sight of her face itself makes her smile. Eve says Lue never smiles except when she is with her.
"hello? lewd?" says Eve. Her real name is Lue Solane, but when she first told her, she had barely whispered it. So she thought She'd said Lewd. Then when this crazy started following her around in school looking for hangouts, it became Eve's official nickname for Lue. Like this Eve bulldozed her way into Lue's life. There was not a single thing she could do about her, she accepted her destiny.
"I was always here with you. "
"No, you were with your lewd thoughts," Eve gave her a hysterical smile.
Sometimes, Lue want to cut open that small head of Eve's and look what trash and utterly ridiculous thoughts she is still hiding.
"Yea, thoughts about you," Lue said and gave her the best fake smile she could come up with.
"Sometimes I want to punch that pretty face of yours,"
"WHO STARTED IT? YOU IDIOT," Lue said, getting annoyed little by little.
"Oof! Dude, chill! Anyways, you heard that Mr.Kael won't be here today. So, I will be getting the whole morning to tease you, Peace"
"I don't really know about the teasing part but I guess it was Mr.Kael's turn to read out the invitation letter today. So, I guess he would be in the students association office."
"Are you, by any chance, nervous?" Eve asked, with a seriousness in her voice.
"Me? No way, you remember right, I was disqualified in the Cadet test. So, there is no way that my name would be there." Lue said, swinging her wrists up and down.
"yea..." with a sigh, Eve continued, "correct, to get an invitation you need to pass both the test with wonderful marks just like me. The fairy Eve."
"heh. You sure are excited for it, you won't miss me?"
"I will just put in my bag and take you with me, you midget"
The clock was ticking, chitter-chatter never stopped, as been said their Homeroom teacher, Mr.Kael didn't show up and wasn't seen the whole morning, maybe he was really in the student's association office.
The sun was at its peak. The clock struck twelve. Its time. The whole school went quite. The students, teachers, everyone froze on their places.
"Good Afternoon, everyone. The Ixtal student's association got the final letter of invitation, and I'm pleased to announce, its a girl from grade 10 E, Lue Solane."