Raki Is In Timeout

Raki usually disliked being in timeout. No one else went to timeout, and she thought that horribly unfair. Along with the beatings for whenever Mother or Father or Auntie or Uncle or one of her many cousins got angry, or how she got only the leftovers from the rations once the Lords and Ladies shared their wealth with the Commoners, and when she had to sleep outside as lookout every night, all added to the unfairness of her life.

“And that’s forty-nine! That’s what you call a sneak attack!”

Life wasn’t fair, Auntie always told her, but Raki always believed everyone could at least try. Raki felt herself to be fair, but since no one ever told her she was, she was likewise unsure.

“For a ‘Chihuahua’, that’s a whole lotta brain! Forty-two!”

Sometimes, Raki turned around when in timeout. Usually, some tattletale cousin would rat her out, but sometimes she got to see her big family partying like Royalty. Although Raki only saw Royalty party on the Monitor, donning magnificent clothes without a single tear or hole, of every color other than the brown of her sack, she felt as far away from her family as she did such Royalty. Thus, they partied like Royalty.

The Monitor only ever showed Royalty. Whenever they were about to give rations and for what subdivisions, when they were looking for servants, or when they were looking for people to play in their scary games like the Maze, that was when the Monitor would flash on. The black-clad guards patrolling outside would make sure everyone inside the windowless, doorless houses were watching their screens. If anyone was found not watching, they would be taken away. Sometimes Raki saw them on TV in a scary game.

Raki apparently didn’t count. A guard, big black boots stomping, would look at the large heart-shaped locket on her neck. They would click it open, and inside there was something everyone called a ‘barcode’. The too-bright red light of a scanner would check the ‘barcode’, and the guard would nod and leave.

Sometimes, Raki wanted to be taken away- on a day they didn’t take people to a game, of course- just so that she could get out of timeout.

Still, Raki liked this timeout.

“Crowd-favorite Giantess has fallen! Hard did she fall! Thirty-eight!”

A very large Monitor with the invisible man screaming played somewhere out of her sight. Without seeing all blood and guts and eyeballs and intestines flowing and flying and popping everywhere, Raki could appreciate the invisible man’s intermittent yelling. She could make up stuff to the words.

“Thirty-seven! Where did their arm even go?!”

A traveling Jester with their Lady, pinching off their multi-colored sleeve to have it flutter in the wind.

“It’s raining blood! Thirty-six!”

A popping toy sputtering out red ribbons, stolen by the children on the street, who said Raki was too old to play with.

“She’s running! Will she escape? She found a machete! Between a machete and longsword, which shall prevail?” A moment passed. “A machete! What a surprise! Thirty-five!”

The much older kids playing with sticks. They said Raki was too old to play with, too, but many of them gave her candies. The biggest one, the one they called Boss, told her, “Don’t tell nobody in your house. This is all yours, okay?”

It seemed to Raki that everyone outside the house and their sparse yard wanted to be nice to her more than they wanted to be unfair. If only she could leave, if only she had somewhere she knew she could be safe.

“You hate to see a child lose so soon. Thirty-four.”

Raki imagined a cute little person falling over, bopping their noggin on the ground, and being escorted by a round mama to the side, so that their boo-boo could get kisses.

Raki’s received more boo-boos she could keep track of, and a doctor from outside the house would come and put burning liquids on them. Never any kisses. The last time she’s gotten a kiss was when Cousin Jackie gave her the locket.

Cousin Jackie was a no-no word in the house. She was in the Maze game, but Raki didn’t get to watch. Instead, guards locked her in a room and gave her all the cake she could ever want. Everyone was so mad that Jackie chose her for the cake room, instead of herself or her mother or Uncle, and they beat her so much after she came back. All the same for Raki, for thinking about Jackie made her cry, no matter how much time passed. They said she got her head cut off in a game. The thought of a headless Jackie made Raki want to jump into the Pit, and she tried many times, but guards always stopped her. Now the locket zapped her with electricity whenever she passed the subdivision gates.

Luckily, that meant she didn’t have to watch executions anymore. She got the house to herself when everyone else had to go witness. Not even a rabbit could hear the long screams that cut short so suddenly from that far away.

“Someone’s headed for Raki! As always, the Fourth Spot does wonders. Will this absent-minded birdbrain cowering in the corner finally become a part of the game? Will she bring the number down to half, in some way or another?”

There was someone with her name in the game! That’s never happened before. There had been a lot of Jackies, or Jacks, but never a Raki. She wished to see them, but at the same time, she didn’t want to see someone with her name get their head cut off, and she couldn’t see anyone or anything from her spot between the bushy walls.

Three pops that sounded like toys, but also sounded like little guns, made her jump, then she forgot about them.

So many different flowers fluttered all around her, and the grass on her bare feet felt like a carpet thrown from a Lord’s Charity Case. The nearly stifling smell seemed to come straight from a Case full of perfume. It all made sense, since Father found a ticket for a game in such a Case, and although he found it, he gave the pretty golden paper to her.

“When they come ‘round lookin’ for it, you say ‘I found it’, or I’ll beat ya ‘til you can’t breathe no more.”

So when the guard came around and told them to stand in a line, as the guards always did after a Charity Case was delivered, she said exactly that: “I found it, or I’ll beat ya ‘til you can’t breathe no more.”

The guard narrowed her eyes and looked down the line before asking again, “Did you find it?”

“I found it, or I’ll beat ya ‘til you can’t breathe no more.”

The guard sighed, and made a complicated face. Raki didn’t know what that face was telling her- it wasn’t angry or sad or tired- but she found it similar to the expression Jackie made when choosing her for the cake room.

“You want some cake?”

Once more, she was given cake, until "It was time", as the guard announced.

“Where does this door go?”

“….A garden.”

“Can I bring my cake? All of it?”

“Sure thing. Oh, and Lady Jackie told me to tell you that you’re in timeout.”

“Oh,” Raki had said sadly, having long lost the will to argue.

“Eighteen! What a bloodbath! As always, Spot Fifteen is an end for many a contestant.”

Still, she was curious.

“Who’s Lady Jackie?”

“Lady Jackie is the Lady of Subdivision 22.”

That was the kind of information she would not remember, and she didn’t for a while, but she did like her timeout, where she could have cake in a garden, but she was full now, with loads of cake left.

She heard someone breathing hard, and she turned around and saw a young man. He held a loop of guts close to his stomach, and a small gun in the other hand.

“Boss! What are you doing here?”

“Raki…” Boss fell down, leaning against the grass wall. “Do you know what’s happening?”

With complete certainty, Raki answered, “I’m having cake in a garden. But you’re hurt, and I can’t make you better.”

That complicated expression, and then Boss asked, “May I have some cake?”

“Of course!” She put some next to him. “Do you need me to put it to your mouth?”

“If you would.”

“I would.”

A short time passed and Boss chuckled, and said, “Please do.”

“So that’s why Kapitan was running headfirst into danger,” cried the invisible man. “To find Raki and protect her.”

“It’s weird that what’s happening in that game is kind of like what’s happening here, right, Boss?”

Boss laughed again, whispering, “Yea. This is good cake, too.”

His laugh cut short when someone else came running down. When he saw them he yelled, “Fuck yea! Easy pick’ns!” and charged at them with a spear, the ones Raki usually saw in games, the ones that made screaming people shut up faster than a fall in the Pit. Even more quickly, Boss spun out his gun and shot the man right in the middle of his forehead. That was fair; he looked dangerous.

“We’re down to the top ten! Will Raki’s luck hold?”

“You should run somewhere else, Raki. When there are five left, they’ll start saying where everyone is.”

“But I’m in timeout, Boss.”

“Time…Timeout? Someone put you in timeout?”

“Lady Jackie did, of Subdivision 22. Oh! I remembered!”

“22 is our ‘vision, Raki. Don’t you remember-”

Invisible man interrupted, “Another bloodbath! Five more to go! You know what time it is!

“Two near Spot Four, one near Spot Fifteen, one at Ten, one at Seven- oops! Seven is out! Surprising she had lasted so long with such a head wound! Top four!”

“Back in timeout, Raki,” Boss ordered. “I know the one at Ten has a gun.”

Raki didn’t understand what those two statements had to do with one another, but Boss gave her cake back, so she figured it was fair.

“Don’t you turn around, or I will take your cake.”

That was unfair, but she faced the bushy wall, picking flowers angrily.

She heard Boss walk away, but not how far, so she stayed in timeout, hoping he would stop being angry soon.

One pop.

Two pops.

A long time after, the voice above yelled, “By Our Royalties, playing dead worked twice! That wound really helps Kapitan fit in. But now it is just him and Raki. What will he-”

Three pops.

“….A tale of love if we ever saw one folks. This…This makes me feel good. Does anyone else feel good?”

Usually on the Monitor, a bunch of people would be all around screaming, but Raki only heard the silence of the garden.

“Let’s welcome our new Lady! Lady Raki!”

Then she heard the crowd. The noise so abruptly surrounding her made her slap her hands to her ears. When someone forced her hands away, it was that same guard, smiling more happily she’s ever seen someone happy. They were back in the cake room but walking out towards a long black hover car, in a house! A big house with a nice floor and walls with pretty pictures.

“Lady Raki. Would you like to be in timeout at Lady Jackie’s castle? It’s very pretty there.”

“I’ve seen the castle! Can I have cake?”

“Sure can.”

“Can Boss have some?”

“Boss?”

“Oh, his stomach is hurt, so he needs to see a doctor first.”

“Ah. He’ll… He’ll go to the doctor first.”

They entered the car, and cool air breezed across her. It felt nice. She’s been in timeout for a long time, but she liked Lady Jackie’s timeouts. They were very nice, very fair, almost unfairly good. Lady Jackie reminded her of her cousin, and it hurt a lot less to think of her now.