* * *
It was Saturday. And I was happy. There was no school today – my favourite meals were on the menu for rotation at both lunch and dinner – I’d done all of my homework – and the door buzzer had just announced that my best friend, Scarlett, had arrived at our apartment.
“Hello Scarlett,” I heard Mother’s voice as the door was answered.
“Hi,” Scarlett replied in her usual cheerful lilt. My face expanded automatically into a wide grin at the sound.
Scarlett had joined our class at the start of the year – apparently she’d been a year below us, but her academic skills were so advanced that they’d moved her into our year group – it made the class an uneven eleven students, when they were normally even numbers of boys and girls, but that didn’t matter really. We’d been placed as partners on some of the team projects and after doing them so well, had been pretty much inseparable ever since.
“Hey!” Scarlett greeted me as she wandered into my bedroom and flopped onto my still unmade bed.
“Hey,” I nodded in response, glad when I was reminded of the fact that our relationship was so easy – so natural.
“So, are we still going to do what you said today?” Scarlett asked me, absently twirling a sliver of blonde hair around her finger. Sometimes she looked a lot younger than seven, but she was still smarter than pretty much anyone else I knew. It was almost scary.
“Sshhh!” I hissed, trying to remind her without proper words that this was a secret expedition. Mother knew we were going to the park – but I didn’t think she’d approve of the wild-looking one I’d selected. I’d never been to Park 42 before, but from what I’d seen on the station information channel it looked perfect for a bit of exploring – almost like a real place instead of the carefully designed, man-made parks, I’d spent the rest of my life visiting.
“OK – sorry!” Scarlett shushed back at me, before whispering her question again. “So, are we?”
I nodded, yes. Then had to giggle mutely when Scarlett began waving her small hands around in the air and giving a silent cheer of celebration.
“Do you two want any breakfast before you leave?” Mother asked politely from the doorway, her head half-way into the room. Her sudden appearance interrupted my silent laughter and Scarlett abruptly dropped her arms.
“No thanks, Mother,” I replied recovering swiftly, “we’re going to grab something on the way to the park.”
“OK – well make sure you do,” Mother said, drawing back from the room and heading off in the direction of the kitchen.
Once Mother’s footsteps had faded away along the corridor, Scarlett leaned close to me, her small hand rising up to cover the side of her mouth as she whispered, not that anyone was watching us now. “Is it still just us?” she asked.
I nodded once to say yes.
“You didn’t ask Cassie then?” Scarlett sounded a little huffy. “You said you were going to invite her to join us.”
I didn’t need reminding of the promise I’d made. For some unknown reason, Scarlett really wanted to be friends with Cassie.
“I’m sorry – I was going to ask her,” I said, before Scarlett pulled a face. “I promise I was going to ask. But, it was too difficult – you know how popular she is – there were always other people there.”
“I don’t know why you’re so shy,” Scarlett muttered, half to herself, “You should give her a chance, Cassie would love to be friends with you…and me,” she added herself as though it was an afterthought.
“I’m sure Cassie’s just dying to be friends with me, the super-brain!” I shook my head, still packing up my bag.
“Yes she would. I know it.” Scarlett’s normally gentle voice was surprisingly insistent.
“Yeah, well – it’s not happening today.”
“You did promise,” Scarlett pouted a little.
“If you care so much, next time you ask her to come.” I grumbled in response, my face screwing into a frown. Why was it such a big deal whether Cassie came or not? This was supposed to be our adventure.
“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Scarlett apologised when the silence began to stretch out.
“It’s OK, it doesn’t matter.” I told her truthfully. “And next time, we will ask Cassie, if you want.” Scarlett smiled at my words. “Just don’t be surprised if she doesn’t say yes.” I muttered to myself.
“Come on – let’s get going,” Scarlett said, not hearing my last comment, and bouncing eagerly from the bed to the door. I paused only to grab my day-sack from the floor – I’d packed all of our explorer supplies into it – and followed my friend out of the apartment.
“Check that out!” Scarlett exclaimed a few steps ahead of me up the hilly path.
Gulping in a deep breath of air I pulled myself up the last few steps to join her atop the steep rise we’d just climbed. It was amazing – I’d never been so high up before and I could see everything inside the space station from here.
“Slow coach,” Scarlett teased me, as she took in my ruddy cheeks and heavy breathing. Oddly, she looked no different at all, as though we’d been for an easy stroll around Park 23 not trudging up a steep hillside.
“Nothing wrong with me,” I disagreed, a little testy from having been outdone by a girl who was younger than me, “you’re not human or something!” I finished, rather lamely. Scarlett only grinned wider at my words, as though they had some meaning I didn’t get. I shook the thought away. “So – what are we looking at do you think?” I asked trying to change the subject.
Scarlett happily obliged and we spent the next hour or so pointing out various things of interest and wondering about what the other quarters might look like, beyond the grey walls at the edge of the Family Quarter. We broke out the picnic supplies whilst we talked and munched our way through the various snacks I’d brought. I noticed that I did most of the eating: Scarlett was too busy chattering away.
We dropped into a companionable silence, as we focused on eating over talking. Well, as I focused on eating …again I noticed that Scarlett hadn’t even touched the food I’d brought along for her: the small pile beside her remained intact. Quite abruptly Scarlett disturbed my quiet musings. I paused mid-chew, hearing the odd tone of her voice. I looked over but Scarlett didn’t see me – she was staring into the distance, towards the station wall.
“Have you noticed that?” Scarlett repeated, curiosity infusing her words.
I turned in the direction she was pointing. Several feet above us it looked as though the rocky outcrop disappeared completely and became a part of the station wall again.
“What – the rocks?” I replied, unable to work out what had caught her attention.
“No – above the rocks – just there…” She pointed again, leaning closer to me so that I could follow the line of her arm.
It took me a moment, but as I squinted in the direction of her gaze I think I saw what Scarlett was talking about. “There’s something there…?” I asked uncertainly, trying to work out what the slightly darker area on the wall was.
“Looks like it.” Scarlett grinned at me, a wily light entering her eyes.
“So?” I shrugged, swallowing my mouthful and taking another large bite of the apple I was holding.
“So?” she echoed mockingly, shaking her head at my lack of interest. “What kind of explorer are you?”
“What do you mean?” I replied, bristling at the challenge in her words.
“Well…we were just talking about what the other Quarters might be like… We’re as close to the Married Quarter as you can get and that – to me – looks like an access panel of some sort…” Scarlett’s words trailed off mysteriously as she planted the seed of an idea in my mind.
“No!” I exclaimed, certain that she couldn’t be suggesting what it sounded like she was. “You seriously think we can open the panel up and get through to the Married Quarter? That’s just crazy!”
“I don’t necessarily think th
at,” Scarlett argued lightly, “it’s probably just some infrastructure…pipes and stuff, but…”
“But what…?” I asked when she shrugged off her own words.
“You never know – don’t you want to see what’s through there? Don’t you want to see what exists beyond the Family Quarter for yourself?”
All I could do was stare at her – half in disbelief and half encouraged by what she was suggesting – I was sure that no one else living in the Family Quarter would be proposing this kind of dangerous, prohibited activity. But then, Scarlett was different to anyone I’d ever met before. Sometimes I felt that she was a foreign creature, deposited randomly into the Green Zone of the Family Quarter just to make me question myself and work harder at understanding the world I lived in.
Scarlett’s eyes were hungry: glimmering with excitement and challenge – but surely she was joking? Even Scarlett wouldn’t seriously be considering this.
“We couldn’t do that,” I dismissed, trying not to sound disappointed. “There’s no way we could get up there – it’s too dangerous.”
“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Scarlett taunted me, grinning once more. “I thought we came here to explore? Let’s explore!”
“What if we can’t get up – or more to the point – can’t get down?”
“You worry too much!” Scarlett laughed with a shake of her head. “Anyway, maybe your parents don’t care about you, as much as you think they do.”
Her flippant remark about my parents hung heavily in the air between us for a moment or two. I genuinely didn’t know how to respond. It sounded as though Scarlett was joking, but at the same time there was an odd weight to the words as though she meant to tell me something I couldn’t see.
It didn’t really matter anyway, as I only had a few seconds to wonder about this before Scarlett surprised me again. In one swift, fluid movement she was on her feet and moving towards the rock face behind me. I turned to see her go, thinking that she was just kidding and would stop when she got there. But she didn’t.
By the time I was on my feet, Scarlett had already hitched up her day-suit, to loosen the material around her knees, and was clinging tightly to the rugged stone pulling herself up.
“What are you doing?” I asked pointlessly. I could quite clearly see what she was doing.
Scarlett just grinned and carried on climbing. By now she was more than halfway up the wall and showed no signs of stopping. “Be careful,” I called, my voice breaking a little over the words. I was in two-minds: did I follow her up there or stay where I was? What if we both got stuck at the top?
“Are you coming?” Scarlett shouted down to me. She was just two metres from the top now – or what looked like the top from where I stood.
“I’m waiting to see what you find,” I yelled back. “Anyway, you’ll need me here if you get stuck!”
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” she muttered, sounding dubious.
“Fine! Have it your way!” I conceded grudgingly. There was no way I was going to let a girl get the better of me – especially when it came to being an explorer!
My hands were reaching upwards and my feet had found neat footholds at the lower edge of the rock mere seconds after I’d admitted defeat. The climbing was harder than Scarlett had made it look – not that I’d confess to that – and I had only climbed up about three metres from our ledge when I heard a short gasp from above me. I looked up into a shower of dust and small resin stone chips. I didn’t see Scarlett until she dropped past my right shoulder an instant later.
“NO!” I screamed grabbing out uselessly at the empty air her small body had just fallen through.
I swivelled, pulling my shoulder painfully as I tried to grip the wall and turn to look downwards at the same time. Scarlett had twisted around as she fell and was looking right at me when her back and head crunched sickeningly into the ledge we’d been sat on a few minutes before. The sound was grotesque, surely nothing natural should ever sound like that? My hand reached out pointlessly towards her, as though I could still stop her falling. I was helpless.
It felt like an hour had passed by the time I forced my shaking body to move. My fingers slipped several times during the descent and I almost fell myself. But I didn’t fall. Scarlett did. Scarlett had fallen. Scarlett was… I couldn’t finish that thought. One halting step at a time I got closer to the bottom until I could jump the rest of the way.
Landing flat on my feet, it felt as though my shins jarred straight into my ankles as I hit the ledge. I ignored the burning in my joints and lunged across the ground, falling to my knees beside Scarlett’s silent body.
Scarlett didn’t move. She didn’t cry, she didn’t breathe.
I reached out with trembling fingers to feel for a pulse beneath her jaw and it was only then that I realised that her neck was twisted at an odd angle compared to her body. My hand brushed over her soft skin as I searched for her pulse, but as I pressed on her throat there was nothing. Unlike my own thin skin, covering the flesh and bones of my body, Scarlett’s did not yield to pressure: it was hard and firm more like a muscle. I reached behind her head to feel for blood, but my fingers came away oddly dry.
“Scarlett,” I whispered to her. Then I began to shout: over and over again I yelled her name, but there was nothing. Even though she looked completely normal, I knew that Scarlett was dead.
What I did after that is unclear. One minute I was there on the hillside and the next I found myself sat at home in my bedroom, the picnic bag placed neatly beside me, fully stocked with the things I’d taken to the park. I was gazing steadily at the blank wall when Mother popped in to check on me.
“How was the park?” she asked from the doorway.
“Not bad,” I shrugged, my voice monotone.
“Did Scarlett enjoy herself?” Mother asked, not appearing disturbed by my lacklustre response.
My heart froze in my chest. What could I say?
“I’ve just seen her coming past the Green Zone junction with her father. I thought you might have stayed out later than you have.”
I swallowed thickly, my tongue filling my mouth uncomfortably. “What?” I managed to croak in disbelief. It wasn’t possible – I’d seen Scarlett fall, seen her body. There was no way she could have been pretending. And why would she play such an awful prank? We were friends. “Where did you see her?” I managed to ask, speaking more coherently now.
Mother appraised me with curious eyes. “She was with her father heading towards the central area, just a few moments ago.”
“Thanks Mother.” I called over my shoulder, already running to the front door of our apartment. “I forgot to ask her something today, I’ll be right back.” Perhaps Mother called out for me to stop – she didn’t like running indoors – but I didn’t really hear properly and I certainly didn’t stop.
Pumping my legs as fast as I could, I raced towards the Green Zone junction. There was no one there. Passing straight through the intersection, I carried on running, heading to the central area. After a few minutes I saw Scarlett’s small figure ahead of me, walking beside her father. I sucked a deep breath into my lungs – chilled a little by the sight of her – but continued after them.
When I found myself only a few paces away, I slowed to a walk and tried to match my speed with theirs. I wanted to shout out to her: make Scarlett speak to me and tell me what had happened, but I didn’t. I could tell from the tilt of their heads and hushed voices they were having a serious discussion. I crept closer.
“From my time spent here, I cannot see any real benefits from including children as Keepers. The main influence comes from their parents and other adults – we do not fit in well as children.”
What was she talking about? Scarlett’s words to her father confused me. She said: “we do not fit in as children,” as if she wasn’t a child herself. Their conversation was the least of my worries, though. The fact that Scarlett was walking and talking – at all – after I’d see
n her fall to her death was what I was really interested in. What I was seeing was impossible.
How could Scarlett have gotten back? How was she even alive?
The same questions rushed through my head for the thousandth time in a minute.
As her name ran silently through my mind, Scarlett turned to look at me as if she had heard my voice. I froze mid-step, frightened by the coincidence. Her eyes caught mine. In that instant it was as though everything else around me stopped: there was no other movement, no sound, no one else in the plaza. All I saw were Scarlett’s eyes…and then I heard her voice.
“There is more to life here than we’re told, Balik. You will find the truth of what is happening – I know you will – and you will need Cassie to do it.”
The moment ended. Scarlett was walking away from me, as I remained locked in place. It was as though nothing had happened. Was it possible I was hallucinating? First what happened in the park, and now this…? Was I in shock? I shook my head, trying to clear the confusion and fog from my mind. I could still hear Scarlett’s voice, but it was inside my head: her lips hadn’t moved.
Blinking ferociously, I tried to focus. If it was my imagination, something was still happening, because I could see Scarlett and her father ahead of me. I had to find out what was going on!
They were nearly at the edge of the plaza by the time I stirred my feet to follow. There was a narrow space between two buildings and I watched them turn into the dark passage. I was moving again – running now – and raced across the square, determined to speak with Scarlett and find out what was happening.
As I reached the corner of the building I slowed to a walk and turned down the same path Scarlett had taken a few moments earlier. Ahead of me was a tall grey wall, with a door cut into the base. A member of The Council stood beside the entrance – I recognised him by the silver coloured day-suit he wore, even though I’d never seen a member of The Council in real life before, only onscreen.
“Can I help you, young man?” The Councillor asked as I approached.
I tried to look behind him at the doorway. There was nothing else there and nowhere else to go on the narrow path. Scarlett must have gone through the door.
“I was looking for my friend. She came down this passage.” I replied, glancing behind me, then nervously back at the Councillor.
“You must be mistaken,” he smiled kindly. “No children are allowed through here, it is one of the entrances to the Married Quarter.”
“I saw her come down here. It was only a moment ago – with her father – they must have come by you!”
The Councillor merely shook his head, despite my raised voice.
“But I saw her! I saw Scarlett from the Green Zone walk down this way. You must have seen her!”
Without warning the Councillor reached forward and placed his hand on my shoulder. He didn’t hurt me, but I found myself forced to look up into his face. “You saw nothing. Now go home.”
I closed my eyes tightly as a sudden pain burst inside my head. I’d never felt such a bad headache before.
“Are you unwell?”
As if from a distance, I heard the man’s voice once again. I didn’t open my eyes just yet; the pain was still sharp in my head.
“Yes, a sudden headache.” I replied. “I want to go home.”
“That’s a good idea,” he agreed. “I’ll have an adult from the Green Zone escort you home, so you get back safely.”
The Rainbow Maker's Tale Page 7
