The Blue Handkerchief

All of our water, gone. It all started five months ago, and today, we only have one last jug of saved water left. I woke to this the next morning, opening my dry eyes to my parents packing leather bags with our essentials. Their faces were flushed red, my mother with dry tear lines marked on them. Once I sat up, both of my parents looked at me and my mother came to my side.

“India, we are leaving the village today. We don’t have much water left. We’ll have to...,” She looked back at my father and he nodded, “We’ll have to move to the city, darling.” She looked at me with a look of despair and rested her hand on my knee. I was confused. My parents had made this village a year before I was born and the purpose of it was to get away from the city world. My father told me that the people in charge of the cities were very dangerous. “Mother, we aren’t supposed to go to the city, there’s bad people there!” I begin to cry. After all of the stories that they have told me about the World of the Cities, I vowed I’d never go. Never ever. Not even when I turn their age, I swore I wouldn’t.

My father sat on the other side of me. “India, I know all of those things that I’ve told you and they are true. But, that is our only option. We have nowhere else to turn. And we need water to survive.” He patted my tears away with his special blue handkerchief, the one Grandma Emma stitched up for him. “But if we go, we’ll have to get—“, my father interrupted me, like the word was a curse. “Your mother and I have talked about that. In order for us to stay together in the WOC, we have to take it. But India, it won’t hurt us! You won’t feel a thing—” I couldn’t hold back my tears and I ran outside. We can’t go there! My vision was blurry from my tears as I ran down the rocky road. I wiped my watery eyes clear to look at all of the vacant homes around me. We were the last people in the village. When the rain stopped coming five months ago, only 6 of our people left to the city. But then that 6 became 15, then 44, then 57, then 72, and finally, the last eight people left. My best friend, Lela, was a part of that group. They were a family of three 3 boys, 3 girls, and then Rica and Jameson. I cried for days after they left. It’s just me and my parents now. I walked down the rocky path, looking at each warping, cottage house passing me by. Our trees we once climbed were now wilted and leafless. I sighed and sat on a bench in front of a huge hole where a patch of water used to live.

I woke up with drool hanging out of my mouth. I sat up and rubbed my forehead, “I must’ve fell asleep.” I got up, stretched, then marched my way back home. The scorching sun beamed over my head, and I was almost there until I heard a loud noise coming from my left. It was only a speck in the distance, but it sounded like “a vehicle?” I said out loud. I heard the machine busting through the brittle trees, and I had a feeling I wasn’t safe. My heart raced as I ran as fast as I could back home. Once I got there, my parents were already done packing the Jeep. “Mama, Papa, there’s a huge car coming towards us! Through the-- the trees!” I pointed in the direction, and they immediately looked at each other with a worried expression. My mother quickly picked me up and placed me in the back seat, then got in the front with my father as he started the engine. He pulled off and we flew down the dusty road. I was worried, too, and I couldn’t help but look behind us. The vehicle was closer, but instead of one, there were three of them. “Papa, there’s three of them!” They were coming so fast, it wasn’t even five seconds before they completely surrounded our car. My mother reached for my hand, and I grabbed it firmly. “Everything will be alright, darling.” She said reassuring me. My father rammed into the car next to us, but it was no use. Their vehicles were all black and heavily armored, with tinted windows and huge, thick wheels. Then, one of their windows rolled down revealing a man wearing dark shades in a black armored suit, like the war soldiers father was a part of in his younger days. “Stop the vehicle or we will use force!” His voice. It sounded like he was speaking in a megaphone, but there was no megaphone in his hands. “Papa?” I tensed. He took a deep sigh then slowed down the car. “Boone, we could’ve—“

“Joanna, there is no other way! You know the technology they have.” Father was furious, but defeated. There really was no other way to escape. They were just too fast. My mother looked at me anxiously, “India, come up here, quickly!” I climbed over the tunnel console into her lap, and she hugged me close. I rested my head on her shoulder.

“What will happen next, mama?” She sniffed, “All I know is, everything will work out how it’s supposed to, and in the end of this, we will see the light of the day.” She kissed me on my forehead then quickly pulled a shimmering red necklace out her overall pocket. “Here. This is a symbol of--!”

“Out. Now!” The loud voiced man yelled at us outside our window. The soldiers were now around our car. “Just get out slowly. We’re going to be just fine.” My father reassured us and squeezed my shoulder. We followed his direction and got out of the car to see the armored men surround us. “Thank you for cooperating.” The man with the loud voice declares as another soldier cuffs my mother’s hands behind her back, as the same is done to my father. “Check the vehicle!” The megaphone voice again. I watch as they dumped everything out of our bags. One of the soldiers find something in the trunk and pull out our very last water jug. “They have water, Sergeant!” The loud voiced Sergeant looked at my father infuriated, “You told me you had no water!” My father looked him in his eyes, “It’s for my family.” The man squeezed his fists aggressively and yelled into the air, his veins popping out his neck. “You will regret that, Boone!” He threatened as he pointed in father’s face. Then he turned to his soldiers, “Tear this car apart!” One of the soldiers took father and shoved him in the back seat of a vehicle. “Papa, no!” The car door was slammed shut before he could reply. “Alright, alright, it seems there’s nothing else here! Put them in the vehicles,” He commanded as he pointed at the woman soldier behind mother and I, “And you two, burn all of this to the ground!” The soldiers did as he commanded, but something was wrong. I was being separated from mother. My mother tried to come to my rescue, but she was being pulled away herself. “India! Don’t worry, darling! I love—” She was cut off by the car door slammed shut between us. I was picked up and seated in the vehicle by the woman soldier. “Your parents are a disgrace!” She sneered, slamming the car door. I was left all by my own, and held my necklace tightly as I cried myself to sleep.

“Come on, little girl!” I feel my body yanked up and I open my eyes to blinding lights from the sun. I don’t know where I am. I look around eagerly to see if my mother and father are here and I remember everything again. A tall metallic building stands in front of me. A soldier is holding firm onto my arm as he pulls me into the building. Once inside, we walked down a narrow hallway that led straight into a lobby. The room had chairs on both sides of us, and a woman sat behind a desk in front. She looked at the man beside me with a smile, but when she looked at me, it was a face of disgust. “How very disappointing you’d bring me this, Rerjo. You know I don’t handle children.” She scowled. Rerjo chuckled, “I suspect you have the new QRD.” We walked up closer to the desk. “Of course. All doctors are required to get it. It works wonders, truly.” The woman stood up and motioned for us to follow her to a silver wall on the side of the room, then it slid open without even pressing a button. I was dumbfounded. I was then pulled into a long white hall with a huge white door on the other side, and when we got there, she looked back at Rerjo with a dull expression, “I’ll take her from here.” He nods and lets go of my arm, then turns around back towards the sliding door. I glance back at the lady and when he’s finally gone, she types a code on the wall. “There’s no—”

“Keypad to type on? That is because we have high security, honey.” She crosses her hands in front her and waits patiently. All of a sudden, under my feet it feels like the room is going up. I look at the woman with uncertainty and she raises her eyebrows, nodding, “High security.” It wasn’t even a minute when the moving stopped and the door next to us opened. The woman put her hand on my back and led me into the room. “Have a seat on the blue table.” She pointed at a long, cushioned table. But as I looked, I began to panic. There was a huge machine hanging above the table. It had tweezer-like objects, scalpels, and tiny claws; like arms sticking out of it. I couldn’t even gulp because my mouth was dry. “Um, wh-what is that?” I fiddle my fingers anxiously. She grabbed a tray and shiny green box out of a brown cabinet, then opened it. “You will be getting your marvelous implant today by that machine,” She explained while she pulled a small blue item out and rested it on the tray, “And what I have here is your anesthesia that you will take so you won’t feel a thing. Now, please sit on the table.” Despite my feelings, I obeyed her order and hopped up under the intimidating machine. After the woman put the green box back in the cabinet, she walked over to me with the tray. Up close, it looked like a tiny, clay pebble. She cleared her throat, “Go on, eat it. But don’t chew it, it will dissolve.” I hesitantly picked it up and glanced back at her. I watched as she took the tray back to the cabinet. “I-,” The woman spun around with her finger up in the air,

“Young lady, you must take it! I do not have all day!” She exclaimed, then finished setting the tray next to the green box. I wanted to cry again, but there was no time. The woman was unpredictable, so for that reason, I mustered up the remaining courage and ate it.

Although the pebble had no taste, the effects were already hitting me. My eyes were getting hard to keep open. I heard the woman’s heels walk towards me, and she gently laid me down. And as the pebble quickly dissolved, I slowly faded away, clasping on to mother’s locket, before I was engulfed into darkness.