Shaneen

Every time something good happens to me I think about it and I feel bad. Not a day goes by where I feel like it's a piece of me that doesn't deserve what's happened. Just a year ago I was a class 3 citizen and now I am a Class 1 citizen. With all the rights and privileges of the elite.

From being hungry and homeless to living on the 310th floor of a mega building. From my window you could see above the clouds and almost touch the sun as a greeted you every morning. I do not believe I’d ever seen the sun but twice before my 21st birthday.

Only if Steve Could See Me Now, he wouldn't believe it. Yes, Steve. My partner in crime. We would rob people of their possessions and package the act as surviving or necessary means of eating. I believe that Steve enjoyed taking from the fortunate. It was his power. And we had tons souvenirs to prove it.

Every morning we would stand by the same spot and watched all the class one and two citizens go into the buildings and in and out of the train station. I would always wonder where they were going. How much fun they were having thinking about they're good lives.

“And here comes another one”, Steve would whisper as he picked out the perfect marks. It wasn't the usual mark this time. This guy just seemed a little different. “Okay you know what this is. Give me everything you have”, Steve would yell out. Not the most unique of phrases. I mean you would think he could say something more colorful. It was his catch-all phrase. It was the thing he would say to everyone. It was his routine. I believe Steve was a serial burglar and I was fascinated by it. Usually, people would give what they had, or they would run screaming but this guy just said, “no”. Steve and I were too small to take by force so he would brandish an old revolver from the Constitution days. It was an antique he kept as a souvenir from somebody he robbed a couple of years prior. A scuffle ensued in the gun went off. The man went down and out dropped his wallet. Like some kind of vending machine. And he had something in his left hand. “Get it!” Steve saw how frozen I was. I couldn’t let him think I was weak. I didn't know what it was, so I reach down and open his hand and he was holding some kind of necklace. It was broken and on the necklace was a heart-shaped locket. We ran off as fast as we could.

My heart was about to jump out of my throat. We made it back to our recoup spot in the behind this hotel where we would divvy up the goods. Normally Steve would keep souvenirs of people he assaulted. But this one was special. Steve-o killed a guy. I mean he killed before. But I was never with him. He told me to keep the locket to remind me of my first kill. I was just as guilty of that man as he was. So, I guess I killed him too.

It wasn't but an hour that passed by before Billy the Kid wanted to do it again. So, we hopped the train and went to a different part of town. This was a park. As we stood waiting for another victim, I managed to get the locket open and it was a picture of the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. She looked happy. She looked safe. What was her name? How old was she? I bet she never went to bed hungry, or sad, or……………….

Steve sees another guy. And this time I just could not do it. I could not stop thinking of the girl in the locket. I wonder if she was the daughter or wife of the man we just murdered earlier. I wondered if we destroyed many lives. Yes, I all of a sudden developed a conscience I tried to stop Steve. “What the hell is wrong with you”, he asked we argued right in front of this old man who stood there and watched us. “Let's go I don't want to do this today:, I said and then strangely Steve turn the gun on me. Stop being the guy I knew. For over a decade, he had never turned on me. And then out of nowhere I hear a sizzle. Apparently first-class citizens are allowed to carry stun guns and the old guy just stun the hell out of Steve. He laid there, fried, smoking, dead. The smell was awful.

The man thanked me for not robbing him and for standing up against Steve. “My name is Jole”. He said it like I was supposed to know who he was or something. Then he motions to a billboard behind me. It was a picture of him.

He was a shot caller Apparently, this man was powerful. He figured I was a nobody and took me up under his wing and pull strings to make me a first-class citizen and get me a job and turn my life around. He was so thankful of my integrity that he introduced me to his granddaughter. And wouldn't you know it she was the girl in the heart-shaped locket. Her name is Shaneen and she was the same age as me. She was mourning the death of her fiancé who died suddenly while on his way to a drug dealer. Apparently, he had a drug addiction.

I didn't tell them about the truth. I didn't tell them about how I got the locket or that I even had it.

And today I married her. One year from the day Steve and I fought in front of Jole in the park. And I feel bad on the happiest day of my life. My wedding gift from her which was specially made. A customized heart-shaped locket. I opened it and there was a picture of the most beautiful woman that I ever saw.