The Color of Her Heart

Roop’s eyelids fluttered gently as she woke up to the rays of the morning sun. The sunlight made its way through the rips and tears of the old shawl she pinned over the glass square in the wall. The glass square is locked in place and does not allow any outdoor noise or fresh air to come into the small square room. It is meant to let in light only to wake up the room occupant. It is not supposed to be covered. It should not be covered.

Roop turned on to her side and faced the other way, flinching a little with pain. Her body was worn out from completing clay orders till late in the night. She toiled away molding pots, pans and utensils, wiped the sweat off her forehead while she let her creations bake. After sundown she brought the items back to her “room” and painted them black, white and grey. The only colors the Unit administration made available to use in the NewAge.

She finally sat upright and wrapped her grey sheet over herself and looked over at the vent in annoyance. Cold air from the vent filled the space up. Her room, like everyone else’s in the Compound, had centrally administered air that no one other than the Compound maintainers assigned by the Unit had the right and ability to control. Roop knew the sudden blast of cold air meant that she ran out of time to have a warm shower. The cold air and cold water were all tactics the Unit had installed when they created the Compound for the NewAge citizens to live in. The low temperatures would give no reasons for the workers to be late to their shifts.

The Compound was constructed to house and employ all those who agreed to work for the Unit. The Unit administration rewrote a framework for the workers and they formed the NewAge citizenship. Those who did not want to work with the Unit, were left to fend for themselves. Roop was born into the Compound. She did not remember her childhood though, neither did her colleagues. All she knew was that the Compound was her home, her workplace and her whole life. The only thing she knew about those who were not the Compound’s citizens was that they barely survived in little clay houses in the desert. She never cared or felt the need to inquire more about them.

Roop finally brought herself to her feet. She knew she only had twelve hundred time units to make it to her shift in time. She always made it in time. Afterall, she was aware of how citizens who did not show the effort and commitment to work as the Unit expected of them, were taken away. Roop liked to spend some time alone in silence before her shift started everyday. She would usually wake up with enough time to sit in the sunlight and observe how her hands were made. Her ability to make useful things out of clay was all she remembered and every morning she would try to figure out where she learned how to craft clay into items. The subsection Roop served was part of the House section in the Compound, where items used by citizens in their rooms were made.

Roop skipped showering, straightened her hair and threw on her overalls, not having time to ponder by herself today. She walked to the elevator which would take her down three hundred floors to the House section. The Compound had seven hundred floors in total and the rooms for the citizens were on the last two hundred floors. Roop lived on floor 502 and did not know who lived on her floor or above or below her. All except two of the floors below the rooms were different employment sections. The two reserved floors made up the School section. The workers were not allowed in the School section. They did not even know what was on those floors. No one asked.

The elevator passed floors and Roop felt a quick fleeting sensation of breathlessness and fear. She shook it off not wanting to divert her attention from the clay orders she had to complete today as well. When she got to her floor, she still had a couple minutes before her shift started. Her lips slightly curved into a small smile, her record was still intact.

She carded in and briskly walked through the floor full of people to her cubicle, one of the last ones on the floor, close to the emergency stairwell. Although there were about fifty people working at once, there were no sounds of conversation. The only sounds on the floor were the mundane hums of the spinning pottery wheels and the kilns, and the occasional clang of metal tools falling onto the metal wheels.

The small smile returned on Roop’s face once she got to her cubicle and saw her pottery wheel. Being able to make things out of clay was her job but for some unknown reason she would always feel a sense of attachment to the things she created, even if they were simple objects everyone needed to use. She sat down and quickly adjusted her hair bun. Her hair was dark brown and covered most of her back but it was wavy and she needed to straighten it every single day. Straight hair, among other aspects, was what the Compound and the Unit overall expected of the citizens.

Roop got to work. Sculpting away, making all kinds of pots and pans. She tapped her foot gently as she fell deeper and deeper into her work. Time escaped her as she got lost in the hum of the spinning wheel. Her undivided attention on her wheel, clay and tools kept her mind focused. The trancelike state she was in was broken all of a sudden when she felt a set of eyes on her from the side of her cubicle. It was an usual feeling. She lifted her head slowly and was both confused and shocked to see an individual looking over at her shaping the pot she was working on.

Roop was stunned for a lot of reasons. The individual had features on her face resembling Roop’s own. They were smaller in size than any of her colleagues, or even any citizens she had ever passed in the Compound. The overalls they had on were a bright color, nothing like the ones she worked with. On top of that, the individual’s hair left Roop speechless. It was anything but straightened and left open to rest on their shoulders. They smiled wide when they caught Roop’s eyes and she pushed her own smile back for a second before mirroring the mysterious stranger. She never knew anyone else knew how to do this, let alone have a smile so big. Roop only smiled at times to herself and kept them unnoticeable so no other citizen saw it. And she never saw anyone else’s smile. But then there was this person.

The individual timidly and slowly came closer to Roop, making her freeze a little in place. As they got closer, Roop noticed the richness of the color of their overalls. It was a color she had seen before but never on overalls. It was the color of blood. It reminded her of a time she cut her skin using one of her sharper sculpting tools. The individual also had a miniature object dangling from their neck. It was a distinct shape, Roop had never seen this object. The individual got closer and held out the object to Roop, realizing she was intrigued by it. They glanced over to Roop and said in a soft tone, smiling gently still, “It’s a heart.”

Roop’s own heart dropped. This person just spoke to her. She had never heard any of the citizens speaking to each other before. “Conversation created disorder and chaos,” the Unit preached to all citizens. Roop was afraid but also curious and reached out to touch the object. The individual smiled and spoke quietly again, “I’m Pearl.”

Roop smiled, a little less tense now, and started mustering up the courage to introduce herself. Just as she was about to, the sounds of multiple rushed heavy footsteps were heard down the floor. Pearl pulled back immediately and looked around quickly as soon as the sounds reached them. Before Roop could even make sense of the situation, Pearl bolted out of the cubicle and headed towards the back of the floor.

Once again Roop felt puzzled. She stood up and carefully watched from her cubicle. The emergency stairwell door just closed and she felt worried for Pearl. No one uses those stairs. Or do they? Before she could think of anything else, her heart started beating fast as she saw a couple Unit officers run past her cubicle and examine the back of the floor. Roop turned around and went to sit back down discreetly at her station. She heard their footsteps approaching again. She heard the footsteps get quieter as they walked past her station to the elevator. The Unit officers were after Pearl. A sweat broke on her forehead. In a split second, her eyes widened and a gasp left her as it dawned on her. Right next to the heart-shaped locket, there was a logo on the breast pocket of Pearl’s overalls. “Compound School Section Child-058.”

Roop could not settle her thoughts for the rest of her shift. The events of the day kept replaying in her head. Did those things even happen? Who was Pearl? How did they leave the School section? Why did they talk to Roop? Questions kept floating around in her head as she mindlessly completed her orders. As she painted the pots and pans, black and grey, she missed the precious, vibrant color Pearl wore. The color of the locket.

Once she was done with the orders, Roop sculpted a tiny heart shape with some leftover clay. She had never made anything like this before. She decided to paint it grey. She smiled and thought to herself, “to match with my overalls.” She tucked away the heart in her pocket and carefully left the floor. As soon as she got to her room, she took out the little heart and smiled to herself, bigger than she ever did before. It was the first item she ever brought back from work. Her face lit up as she sat down on the bed and was reminded of the child she met today. Pearl was the first and only child Roop ever saw. Their hair, their smile, the lightness and happiness in their voice, all left Roop feeling warm inside. She wondered if she was like Pearl once and she just could not recall. She imagined herself learning how to use clay when she was as small as Pearl. Her thoughts wandered until she realized that there may be more people like Pearl on the floors of the School section. She wondered why citizens like her were not allowed on those floors. And would she ever meet Pearl again?

She held the heart she made over her chest. As the thoughts and ideas kept running laps around her mind, she looked over at the square glass on her wall, waiting for the next morning. Somewhere in her mind, she wanted to meet Pearl again...or maybe even someone else from School. Roop wanted to know more.