The birthday party

Hope opened up her door and grabbing her trash marched towards the community trash. Quite proud of herself for only using one bag this month she hoisted the 20 pound bag into the metal bin. Adjusting her mask, she dashed to her little hut for she couldn't stay at long for she wasn't wearing her protective gear.

For the umpteenth time this month, she thanked the powers that be for her little hut. Most the kids from her class weren't so lucky. They all lived in 'sky-apartments", that was what they called them. When they first built the sky-apartments the owners of them hyped them up as if they were some LUXURIOUS first class apartments but in truth they were actually shotty. Her great grandmother told her about kamini Green and these didn't seem much better than those were.

With a solid shove, Hope shut the door firmly behind her. The air was a little worse today so she adjusted the air purifier up a bit to compensate. She could only use it for about 15 minutes, then she had to shut it off to save power, but at least they had power. The poorer communities could only use their power for a couple hours on average. Electric bills had gone up so high that most people could only afford to use it so much.

Her daughter Eloise was still in bed but the sun was coming up so she needed to get busy. Today was her daughter's fourth birthday. She had to get the house, if one could call it that, as clean as possible. She couldn't afford decorations so she would be making them herself out of old clothes she had grown out of. People didn't gain weight, they lost it.

" Eloise sweetie. Wake up. It's time to get up. You need to eat breakfast and put your new dress on for your birthday my darling birthday girl!"

Elli sat up slowly and rose her stick of an arm and swiped at her eyes. "It's my birthday mama."

Hope's heart swelled. "Yes it is, sweetie. Yes it is." Later when she was alone she'd indulge her memories of the day Eloise was born.

The door swung open and in walked Icarus, her rock. "Hello family!" announced her man of 5 years

From the bedroom, which was little more than a closet, Hope smiled. "Did you get it? Did you find the one she asked for?" asked Hope in hushed tones.

Icarus unzipped his plastic-looking outer jumpsuit and reaching in to his pocket pulled out a swatch of cloth neatly folded into a square. "I did," he said proudly.

Hope took the cloth and opened it taking out its contents. "ICARUS! Shell love it!" Tenderly she touched the gold locket.

Icarus unzipped his jump suit. "You really think so?"

"Oh yes, she'll love it. Now go find a place to hide it while I make the decorations. "

With a nod, Icarus hung up his sut in the coat closet along woth his mask and went to take a shower after putting away the locket.

Hope was pleased. It was exactly like the one Eloise had been wanting. She wondered what it had cost him, but she dare not think about it.

She wouldn't have much time to make the decorations. The scissors that she had were well taken care of but decades old. Metals of any kind were a hot commodity, so it meant something as some as a child's pair of scissors were too expensive for the average family to buy, at least more than once every 5 years.

Eloise's mother started by drawing the outline of the three shapes she wanted. Then she began cutting. It only took an hour but she had to get up midway to get Eloise started on her schooling.

Next she made the banner, and at last it was time to hang them up. Icarus came to help and the two were finished with just a few minutes to spare.

"Well, let's go and get the birthday girl," announced Icarus. Since their cottage consisted of one room it wasn't as if they could hide it but with Eloise being so intent on her studies, she hardly had time to notice.

"Eloise, come and see what your father and I did for your birthday darling."

Hope's daughter placed her tiny hand in her mother's and walked into the main room. "Oh mama! Its so pretty. You made those for me?" Eloise asked pointing to the hearts, dolls and teddybear shapes.

"We sure did my love. Just for you. And I'm gonna make your favorite meal for dinner and your father and I both got you a gift. Here open mine first," said Hope because she wanted to save the best for last.

Eloise unwrapped the colorfully decorated cloth wrapping tied with an old bright pink shoe string to reveal a beautiful baby doll with pink yarn hair and a matching punk dress woth blue eyes. "Oh mama! I love her!"

"I'm so pleased sunshine. Now before you play woth her, open your father's."

Mother and father shared a tender look as Eloise unwrapped the simple dirty blue velvet cloth. "S-sorry about the dirty cloth Loi."

"It's okay papa."

Just as Hope had dreamed she would, Eloise's eyes lit up upon seeing the gold locket. "Is this really for me?"

Icarus bent down next to his daughter. "It most certainly is my beautiful baby girl. A special gift for a special girl."