Crystal Banaba - 8

They worked till dinner time, chatting about their hobbies, weather on the island, and gardening techniques. When 6 pm struck on the Completion Center clock tower, they finished up, put away the gardening tools and went back toward the dining hall.

“Would you like to seat at my table for dinner tonight?” Linda asked.

“If Laura doesn’t mind, I’d love to,” Rachel replied, happy about the prospect of not sitting next to Laura, which was becoming increasingly awkward.

“I’m sure she wouldn’t,” Linda responded. “It’ll also give you a chance to mingle with others.”

Rachel went back to her room to wash up before dinner, and when she came to the dining hall, Linda was waiting for her outside. They went in and sat at the table with a large family. Linda was the only one not related to them by blood.

“We kinda adopted Auntie Linda,” Sofia, the mother of the family, said with a big warm smile.

“So that you could inherit her diamonds?” Rachel blurted out without thinking.

The table went silent, with everyone putting down their soup spoons.

“Here on the island, the crystals have no commercial value,” Sofia’s husband Jim explained calmly. “Only commemorative, and we would be very happy to inherit Linda’s crystals.”

“Well, get in line,” Linda said lightly, trying to diffuse the tension. “I hope I will not outlive my younger sister. I will bequeath my crystals to her.”

“Of course! We can’t wait for Auntie Ruth and her husband Richard to join our community!” Sophia said reassuringly.

“Do they fully know what they are getting themselves into?” Rachel asked, genuinely curious.

“They sure do,” Linda said. “We’ve had multiple conversations with them about life here. It’s not like we are a secretive society. We are completely transparent…”

“Conversations?” Rachel harped on the word. “Have they ever visited the island?”

“No, never. They will just permanently move here,” Linda responded.

“But how did you have multiple conversations with them if the island only has a radio connection with the mainland?”

“Oh,” Linda’s eyes darted with fear for a second, as if she said something she wasn’t supposed to.

“We have a state-of-the-art video communication system at the Completion Center,” Jim came to her rescue. “But it’s for community members only.”

“Oh, I see,” Rachel said quietly. They spent the rest of the dinner time in silence.

***

Author's note: I don’t think I will be able to continue working on this until July but for those who were following the story, here’s the plan for the rest of it:

Rachel will befriend Linda, and will take all the ageing tests with her. The tests will show that Linda is experiencing slow decline that will only get worse and she will decide to go through completion that Rachel will be vehemently against.

I’ll take Rachel to the crematorium where she will stumble upon the discovery that the commune converts into diamonds not only its own members but also unclaimed bodies that the governments from all over the world send to Crystal Banaba. It is actually a large revenue source for the commune that allows them to improve the island and their technologies. Rachel gets even more unsettled by the fact that the diamonds made from these unclaimed bodies enter the regular diamond market without proper disclaimers.

I’m thinking of bringing Rachel’s husband to the island. He will be fascinated by everything in the community. I’m not sure yet if they will see eye to eye with Rachel about the morality of crystallization. Still not sure if I want to leave this as Rachel’s unresolved personal conflict but she will eventually go home.

Where would you like me to take the story?

Previous parts are linked back one to the other here: