The Heart-Shaped Locket

The AZ Corp drone buzzed into the hut, alarm blaring, but Ramma was already awake. She had eaten her portion of leftover cassava and cactus juice for the morning. She had swept every atom of sand from the hard stone floor. Now she was getting dressed into her work wear of brown hessian trousers and jacket with a hood to protect her bald head against the scorching sun.

On the bed Razpie did not react to the ear-splitting beeping except to turn over. The drone’s alarm turned up louder and Ramma joined in, shouting at Razpie: ‘WAKE UP LAZY WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE FOR WORK.’ No response from Razpie. Ramma distracted herself from her bubbling anger by taking off her mother’s glass heart-shaped locket from around her neck and kissing it. Here glass was especially treasured as only plastic survived the earthquakes and sandstorms. Ramma didn’t take it out of the hut in case it got damaged. The paper drawings of her and Raz that had once been inside had long since been worn away by the dust and the heat. Their parents had been gone for six years now, since Ramma was seven and Razpie was five. Before she could put the locket in its protective box Ramma felt something hard hit against her head and she heard Razpie giggle. She whirled around, furious.

‘Raz what the drak! You know how much I hate that ball. Give it to me now.’ She climbed onto the bed. ‘I’m confiscating it. Give it. You are making ME late for work and I will not sacrifice credits for you.’ Razpie just carried on giggling, hid the natty ball under her and pulled the bed covers over her. The ball was greenish-grey and a strange fuzzy texture. It wasn’t that heavy but it hurt just enough to annoy Ramma which was always Raz’s target. Ramma fished around under Raz but that just made her giggle more and wriggle away. Ramma pinned her, pulled back the covers and looked into her little sister’s brown eyes, the same as hers but in a pudgier face. For a second it seemed Ramma might laugh or tickle her but then she paused and checked her WristX. She was late and would have to run to the vineyard to avoid having her credits docked. ‘Fine. Keep it. I’m leaving. DON’T hit me again.’ And she left the hut with the drone still beeping angrily at her sister.

Looking at her ball and thinking about her sister Raz said, ‘Play with me,’ very quietly, under the covers.

Ramma scanned her WristX just as the observation drones’ “Start Working” alarms went off and she narrowly avoided a late fee. She was known as a fast picker and so the drones mainly let her alone. This meant she could sneak looks up at SkyIsland which was orbiting directly above her today. If she stared hard enough at the glistening golden-white dot in the sky (before her eyes burned from the sun) she imagined she could see the towers. They had castles called sky-scrapers and she pictured herself perched at the top of one in a huge golden chair, draped in a white gown being fed grapes that someone else had picked for her. Maybe her terrible little sister. Sometimes she would pause and surreptitiously smell a grape but this was never fruitful as grapes don’t smell of much and if a drone saw her she might have more debt added to her WristX. If she was caught eating one she could be disappeared, like Mig, who had worked next to her every day, until one day she didn’t. Ramma was interrupted from a blissful fantasy where Mig and her were having their feet washed in cold fresh water by a hard pain against her head. Raz and her horrible ball again. She turned to see Raz meandering along, picking sack held loosely over her arm, still giggling and an hour late to work. This incensed Ramma who shouted: ‘YOU ARE SO LATE. I AM NEVER GOING TO GET TO SKYISLAND WITH YOU AS MY SISTER.’

Raz responded with, ‘No one ever makes it to SkyIsland anyway.’

Ramma shrieked, ‘THAT’S NOT TRUE. YOU – YOU GILLIT!’ Razpie inhaled quietly. She said, ‘You shouldn’t use that word’ and ran away through the vines, breathing heavily.

The ‘G-word’ was a slur reserved only for fish people. No one Ramma knew had ever seen one but they were known to be monsters. Disgusting, lazy, deep sea creatures that were a threat to the SandLanders’ way of life. They were everything AZ Corp stood against. To use that word at her own sister was a low blow. But Ramma was dedicated to one day paying off her full debt and getting on a rocket. With or without her sister.

By the end of the day Raz was far from Ramma’s mind as she deposited her 6th sack of grapes. 120 credits of debt were removed, which she smiled at as the drone made the numbers go down on her wrist. She decided to walk down to watch the daily rocket launch. Watching the rocket wasn’t obligatory but it was encouraged as a sign of devotion to AZ Corp, plus it was a very impressive sight. The shiny white and red rocket blasting into the sky always inspired hope and dedication and kept Ramma focused on her goal.

This time Ramma decided to take the costal path. The coastal path took longer than the new direct path and using it wasn’t encouraged as it went right by the sea. But as she was a model citizen Ramma felt she could take the minor risk. Despite being deadly dangerous and full of evil sea creatures, looking at the ocean had always calmed Ramma. Not that she would ever go near it but she did like to look occasionally. As she surveyed the raggedy scrap of beach she caught sight two figures talking to each other on the shore. The beach was a restricted zone. This was highly illegal. If she told the drones they would surely wipe a few credits worth of her debt. She looked around but unfortunately and unusually there was no drone following her. As she watched one of the figures dived. Into. The. Ocean. Ramma audiably gasped. That must be a fish person. No SandLander would put their little toe in salt water. Ramma felt her stomach turn over. She would definitely get credits for reporting this. The other figure turned and began walking towards the cliff. Ramma squinted against the setting sun - if only she could just get a closer look at who it was. As she watched the figure pulled a ball out of her pocket, threw it high above her head and caught it.

Ramma ran down the coastal path towards the launch pad, head swirling. She knew Raz’s behaviour was illegal, and dangerous, a threat to the village and AZ Corp. The fish people might eat her, or brainwash her into going in the ocean. So what was the right thing to do? Report her to the drones obviously. But it was her sister. Even if she drove her crazy and was lazy and selfish and openly hostile towards AZ Corp, that was her only sister - her only family. Who knew what would happen to her? But what if the drones found out Ramma knew and didn’t tell them. The longer Ramma waited without reporting her the more she became complicit and also a suspect, also culpable of crimes of treason and deception. She couldn’t think - it was all too much. The rocket launch would calm her, as it always did.

…

By the time she walked home from the launch (along the new direct path) she had made up her mind not to report Raz. If she did Ramma would be alone in the world and although that would make it much easier to pay off her debt it would make the nights a lot colder. As she stepped into the hut, however, she saw something was wrong. Raz was sitting on the floor, her face streaked with tears, and two halves of her mother’s glass locket in her hands. ‘I’m so sorry Ramma I was playing with my ball and it just fell, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.’ Her words bounced off Ramma who could only see red and only hear her ears buzzing with rage. She ran out of the hut and shouted at the nearest drone, ‘I SAW HER ON THE BEACH TALKING TO A FISH PERSON. HER. IN THERE,’ and she pointed into her own home. Immediately six nearby drones went into high buzzing alert and flew into the hut. They grabbed Raz with their claw hands as she wriggled and screamed.

‘HELP! HELP ME RAMMA please. Don’t let them take me. I said I’m sorry. AAHHHHH.’ Ramma could only watch as the drones flew her sister away towards the rocket launch site. Perhaps she would be taken up to SkyIsland, where Ramma had always wanted to go, she thought idly. A drone flew to her wrist and removed 1,000 credits from her debt.