The Locket

If it were not for the CleanBot, Sara would have done nothing the entire week. Ironically, a robot made to save you time, would cause a flurry of time-consuming activities...ending with Sara desperately holding her breath while hiding in her sub-level storage locker.

The day before, Sara had woken up around eleven, just as a languid orange sun peaked over the tops of the city's buildings. She made her bed and flipped it up, securing it to the wall to access the kitchen module. During the night, the FoodChain bot had delivered her breakfast and lunch packs. Yogurt, granola, and raspberries, she emptied each pouch into her favorite bowl. An old porcelain bowl, glazed with blue and white Asian motifs and a four-footed dragon. The bowl had to be washed by hand in her mini sink and took up a water ration each time – but it was her one luxury.

Sara tripped over a shoe on the way to her chair, juggling the precious bowl and spilling some granola. A second later the CleanBot could be heard whirling up to start on the clean-up. Sara sighed, it was like the bot was a predator living under the cabinet, lying in wait for crumbs. That is why Sara had nick-named it “Dog.”

As a teenager Sara had had a dog. Well, it was her mother's dog really; a small dog that barked too much and made the neighbors angry – partly out of jealousy. Few families were granted permission to own a dog. The dog had been a gift of the State, a gift given to the family on the death of Sara’s father in the service of the War. The first night they got the dog Sara’s mother cried that it was a poor replacement. Gradually the dog came to mean more to her mother, who would walk it in the halls of their building, letting it bark and making the neighbors wonder how the Goa family could afford such an extravagance. In fact, they could not. As the dog aged, its vet bills ate up all her mother's savings. Sara’s mother had nothing left for any special treatments of her own when the need came. She had died of breast cancer a little over a year after the dog had failed to survive its nineteenth year. Sara never missed the dog – but the hole her mom left was never filled. Although the physical space was soon filled. Sara stayed in the family apartment but lost two square meters of space due to “family downsizing.”

Sara came back from her daydreaming. The CleanBot was making growling noises. It seemed stuck on the floor’s air grate. She rolled her chair over and turned the bot off.

The bot’s bushes were tangled in hair caught around the grate. She de-tangled the bot and pulled at the small mat of hair. The grate came up with the hair. Sara got off her chair – there was barely enough room for her to kneel on the small patch of tile – to replace the grate. Then she caught sight of something shiny in the duct. She strained to get her arm down the shaft to grab the gold object. Her fingers could feel what felt like a fine metal chain. She wound it around her fingers and pulled gently. The chain was caught, and she felt it bite into the edge of her hand as she pulled harder. Suddenly it pulled free, and she heard a metal object slide along the bottom of the duct as she removed her hand.

It came up perfectly shiny – a gold heart-shaped locket on a broken chain. Sara placed her thumbnail at the clasp and opened the locket. Inside there was a small photograph of a young man. He had spiky blue hair, a strong jaw and a scar running along his cheek. He was exceptionally good looking. Folded up into the space behind the photo Sara found a small fortune cookie slip. On one side there was a list of six numbers. The other side read, “The love of your life will appear unexpectedly!”

Ha, thought Sara, very unlikely. She closed the locket and examined the surface. It was covered in delicate swirls which at first looked random, but on a second examination seemed to be distinct symbols.

Sara removed the chain and threaded the locket through and old shoelace she had kept and tied the locket around her neck. Then she logged on to Social – to see what her friends were up to. Most were still sleeping although it was now well past noon. A green glow around Gigi17 avatar indicated that she was online. Sara taped the video icon.

“Hey.” Said Gigi17, opening her video feed. “What's up?” “Hi,” replied Sara. “Look what I found while cleaning.” And she held up the locket to the camera on top of the wall screen. “Cleaning?” Gigi17 replied with an incredulous tone, “Who has the energy? Hmmm interesting – it looks antique. And those look like Hanzi woven into the design.” “Hanzi?,” Sara asked. “Yeah, an old Chinese script, used before the wars,” Gigi said sounding bored. “It might be worth some Bit.” Then she switched the topic to her makeup blog.

After she was finished chatting about makeup for 30 minutes, Sara decided to log into the WikiWorld library. After a couple of false leads, she found an online Hanzi translator being maintained by OxfordWiki. Sara discovered the first symbol translated as “5”. The second as “2” and the last as “0”. Five hundred and twenty – what did that mean? A little more digging indicated it was slang for “I love you.” Cute, thought Sara – what else would it have been? A secret code or something? Ha! Thinking of secret codes, Sara opened the locket and took out the folded fortune. She typed following 6 numbers 22. 38 98 114. 18 33, complete with the decimal points, into her browser. WikiMaps brought up a location: Ten Thousand Buddha Temple Tower, located right here in her city.

How cool is that, thought Sara. She yawned feeling suddenly sleepy. She decided to forgo dinner and get ready for bed instead. She put her robe into the Washer bot, rubbed her face with the cleansing putty and put it back into its cleaning dish. She brushed her teeth careful to collect the water she used by spitting it into the collector bowl. As she got ready, she wondered if the numbers where really the latitude and longitude of the Ten Thousand Buddha Temple Tower or if they were just random. The building’s website mentioned the tower had been built on the site of a former Buddhist Temple of the same name and the building itself was styled like a giant Stupa. It looked posh. Very Posh.

Sara finished and pulled down her bed. The lights dimmed and she quickly fell asleep.

She woke super early. The sun was still too low to be visible, but the sky was lightening. The locket was lying on her collarbone. Sarah ate her breakfast and got ready for her day. She was thinking about doing something radical. Going out.

She grabbed her G0phone and face mask and took the elevator to the lobby. She quickly walked across to the MuskTubes. The tube’s pod was comfortable snug and smelt like lavender. “Destination?” Asked a soothing bot voice. “Ten Thousand Buddha Temple Tower,” answered Sara. She half expected the TubeBot to ask her why, but of course it did not and in only a few minutes Sara’s pod was opening in the huge golden lobby of the Tower. One of the walls consisted of a long series of images of a golden statue of a fat bald man projected in various aspects down a line towards an infinity. Sara realized this statue was obviously the Buddha, reproduced ten thousand times.

The first Buddha turned to look at Sara and asked, “Who is expecting you?” His voice was kind and soft and yet the effect was disturbing. “Um,” Sara hesitated, “unit 520?” “Calling cell 520.” replied the Buddha. And a few moments later, “Please take elevator three.” A door opening in the wall next to the tube gate. Sara hurried in, if only to get away from the gazes of the smiling Buddhas. The elevator opened in front of a large wooden door the number 520 inscribed on the door. There was no visible access panel or keypad. But the distinctive beep from her Gophone told her the unit had reached out to validate her identity. She waited another moment, gathering up the nerve to knock. She could not remember the last time she communicated in face-to-face with someone. She tightened the mask on her face and knocked. Nothing. She knocked harder. She thought she heard a shuffling from inside the unit. Still nothing. She waited another second listening at the door. Nothing. She turned around and headed back to the elevators. By the time she got into the lobby, the Buddha had called a MuskTube for her. As she walked across from the elevator block to the tube entrance, the projected Buddhas put their collective hands together in front of their chests. “Namaste,” they said.

Sara was happy to be back in her own modest lobby. Only a small screen greeted her with “Hello Sara – owner of 1042.” A second pod came in behind her as she waited for an elevator. The person inside remained in the pod. Many people did their best to avoid meeting other people in shared spaces since the War and since the series of plagues that followed it. The viruses were kept in check now by routine mandatory vaccinations administered by NurseBots. But some people chose to remain socially isolated.

The elevator stopped on her floor, and she walked to her door. A second elevator arrived but remained closed – waiting for her to get into her unit. So, a neighbor then. She closed her door a checked her GOphone access to the security cameras. No one was in the halls. Must be a super shy neighbour!

Sara was both hungry and tired – but her bed had been left down and it was too tempting to pass up!

A little while later she was woken by a knock on her door. Nobody ever knocked on doors– they used the intercom. Was there something wrong? She checked her Gophone. No one was in the hall. She got up and investigated the hall. Still no one. Strange. The elevator indicated someone was taking it down, past the lobby to storage floor 4. Her locker was on level 4.

Curiosity got the better of her, she put on her mask and headed to the elevators. The elevator opened to an empty level 4. She walked down the long hall to her locker. Using her Gophone key app she opened her locker, everything seemed in place. Just then she heard the elevator open. She squeezed herself into the small space of her locker, shut the door and held her breath.

Someone walked up to her locker, paused, and then knocked on the door. Sara did not dare move.

“Hello?” Said a male voice outside, “Can I talk to you in person?” “Who are you?” Sara's whispered back. “I live at 10,000 Buddhas. I saw you there yesterday and you dropped this locket.” Sara put her had to her neck. The locket was gone. She opened the door a crack. She could see the gold heart locket turning on the end of the shoelace. She opened the door a little further. A young man, looking much like the portrait in the locket, looked back at her. “Hi,” said the man, “I am Li Wei.” He smiled and held out his had to her. As Sara reached out to Li Wei, she realized that the fortune inside the locket had come true.