Do Good, Be Good

Ilona knew she could never return home, it was a pain she felt deep in her chest every single day. Not that it was ever the happiest place, she sometimes felt silly for missing it. She had survived a rough childhood living with her parents and two older siblings, her brother and sister. Ilona was always jealous of her sister having pin-straight and manageable hair as opposed to her own mane of curls that, no matter what, always looked messy. She and her brother looked more alike than anything, but he always kept his hair short and kept his appearances at home even shorter. Her mother always joked that she was her carbon copy to her youthful annoyance, but in recent years she found herself avoiding mirrors because they just reminded her that her original is missing.

Now, sifting through her in-home garden that took up the majority of her living quarters, she found herself remembering the few bits of advice her father had ever given her; their most positive exchanges had always pertained to his excitement regarding a new growth or the health of a plant. Vegetation outside was scarce, livestock and game even more so. After the atmospheric change, many life forms had struggled to adapt. This included humans as well. One could say there was a mass extinction, save for those who were saved or sheltered long enough to learn how to coexist with the now-toxic air.

Any remaining humans were identified and transported to their new homes: hotel-like facilities equipped with air locks, forced oxygen, and windows doomed to never be opened. Ilona was found alive, albeit unconscious, and shipped to safety. The only things she had left of her previous life were the items on her person: a few packs of vegetable seeds from her father that were kept in her pocket, and a now-dull sterling silver heart-shaped locket from her mother that hung around her neck.

After all this time, the now 26 year old had never been able to pry the necklace open (not for lack of trying, she'd broken many fingernails over the years). It lay resting on her kitchen table as she currently tended to her garden, she was meticulous about not getting any dirt on it. Lost in her own mind, Ilona was disturbed by a sudden crash outside and the mini-quake that followed, shaking the whole building and jolting her slightly across the floor. She made her way over to the window and peered outside. On the ground was a large carrier aircraft that had made a rocky, but otherwise safe landing.

There was a glimmer of hope inside her that she might see her family again… She shook herself away from the thought, "Ilona, you stupid idiot. You know you saw their names in the roster of the deceased after you first arrived 10 years ago." Her heart panged with guilt and pain after the thought crossed her mind, she knew that despite facts, she shouldn't have shamed their memories or her hope that they could still make any more together. For a minute she missed everything about her old life, even the mundaneness of her high school life and after-school job.

Schools and jobs alike were pretty much as nonexistent as most natural life on Earth now. All education occurred on-site in the same living facilities, and there wasn't much of a society anymore to instill the need for any labor that wasn't already being executed by machines. That and, the only jobs available were those in the building, the scientists, engineers, teachers, and physicians needed for survival and health. Currency had become obsolete, each person was simply provided with enough food, clothes, and hygiene products needed to survive somewhat comfortably with nothing expected in return, living was more important. Food for the most part was grown and/or raised by machines and irrigation in a large warehouse-like space below all of the living quarters so that the structure was ideally self-sustainable.

Ilona herself had stolen a few bags of dirt as well as old containers from that very floor when she first arrived just so she could try for a garden of her own and was surprised when her seeds still grew. She wondered how many other structures there were like the one she felt trapped in. Ilona thought to herself "I should become a botanist here, it would finally get me talking to the others and give me a reason to be here". With only having a high school education and little faith in herself, she shook off the idea and decided she probably would fail at it and end up causing a whole other disaster.

Exhausted from talking to herself all of the time, she wandered over to her tiny kitchen for a glass of water to refresh herself. After getting her drink, she sat at the kitchen table for a break and wondered if she should dare try to venture outdoors to investigate the aircraft. Upon resting her weary head in her hands on the table, she noticed something:the locket was gone.

Frantically she sprang up and started searching, going through all of the papers on her table that were nothing but scribbles of any recipes she could make with the contents of her garden and the supplied rations, hoping the locket had slipped underneath. She found nothing, until one of the papers fell off of the table and landed underneath. Ilona crouched down to retrieve her much-used recipe, and discovered the locket which had fallen under the table and landed comically open facing down.

Still under the table, she sat and stared in disbelief at the necklace that had opened upon impact as if it had been mocking her all this time with how easy it was to do. She brushed her curly hair out of her face and reached over to retrieve her prized possession and the secret it held. The locket held a tiny note, and her eyes welled with tears as she brought it closer so she could read it. "Do good! Be good! Love you!" Ilona chuckled to herself at the phrase her mother always used to recite whenever she was leaving home for the day, tears of joy and sadness trickling down her small face. She couldn't help but utter "I'm trying, Mom. Love you too."