Jack and Jhillika

Jhillika stood by the open window and looked into the street below. Her eyes darted from shadow to shadow, looking for movement. In a city that once was bustling with life, even at night, the only thing moving was the occasional rat. The moon was bright, casting shadows on the piles of rubble and burned out cars. Across the street was a dead oak tree in an abandoned lot and something was moving along a branch. When it stopped she could see it was a cat with white patches on its face. It sat on the branch, motionless, peaceful. She recognized it as one she had made friends with a while back. She would often leave tidbits for it when she could. It reminded her of a kitten she had when her family lived in Mumbai.

Someone moved in the room behind her. She turned to see her sister Jiera get up to use the bucket in the corner they used for a toilet. She finished and came over to stand beside her, stepping quietly over the others.

"Everything okay Jhilly? You want me to watch?" she whispered.

"No, I'm good. It's quiet, nothing moving but a cat."

Jiera reached out and touched the heart shaped locket that hung around Jhillika's neck.

"Every time I see this I think of mom," she said.

"I know, me too. I like to wear it when I'm on watch. It's like she's here too. Stay with me for a while?" she asked.

"Sure," said Jiera, taking hold of her hand.

Jiera didn't know that the locket would soon be gone and the thought of selling it gave Jhillika a sinking feeling, but their pod needed medical supplies. It was too bad their immunity to Covid-23 didn't help them with everyday cuts and scrapes.

"J & J," as their parents called them, were the only two survivors in their family. They were both children when their father brought them to Los Angeles to live with their cousins. That was ten years ago. But they all got the virus soon after they arrived, and then they were forced to flee further and further out of the city, away from the death and chaos. They ended up in Old Pasadena, and then the quake of 2043 wiped out everything north and west of them. It had been bad, very bad, and they had barely survived. The government had collapsed, there were no police, and people lived however they could. The two sisters had been fortunate enough to find a group that took them in. Jhillika led them now in a relatively stable area. They lived on the outskirts of the city, and they had enough members that they could defend themselves.

Jhillika looked for the cat again. It had moved further out along the branch and was peering at something on the ground. Maybe a rat?

"See that cat in the tree?" she pointed. "It's looking at something."

They both looked below the cat. Something moved, big, in the shadow of a crumbled wall. Then a man darted across the moonlight and ducked behind a car. Jiera gasped and covered her mouth.

"Shhh!" whispered Jhillika, gripping her hand tightly.

Alarms were going off in her head. Was he a scout for an enemy pod? That was a tactic often used before they moved in to rob or scavenge. It was startling because there hadn't been any activity in over a month. She was about to tell Jiera to wake everyone when they saw him again. This time there was a large open stretch that he was crossing. He crept along, the moonlight showing him to be tall with black skin. He had a green pick in his afro and a green bandanna on his arm. It was Old Pasadena colors!

"Hey," said Jiera. "Isn't that Jackson, the leader of Dayton Street?"

"Yes, I think it is," said Jhillika.

"Didn't you two have a thing last year when our pods were negotiating our water boundaries?" Her eyes sparkled in the moonlight.

Jhillika grinned. "You know we did," she said.

Then, as if he knew they were talking about him, Jackson paused in mid-step and looked up. Seeing them in the window he waved. He looked up and down the street and then pointed at his chest and then at them, and gave a questioning thumbs up.

"He wants to come up," said Jiera. "Should I wake the others?"

"Yes, I don't know what he wants, but we should still be careful."

She gave him a thumbs up out the window, and she could hear Jiera waking the pod. She picked two of her enforcers and headed down the stairwell, passing other guards as they went. She wondered what Jackson was doing so far north and then had a thought. Perhaps they were having trouble with their water source. She smiled, remembering her teasing sister. Maybe they would need to have some more "negotiations."