Compassion Day

The outside world was unknown to Zee, but she was determined to climb up the walls of the Unit to get a glimpse through the Solders’ window. She wasn’t ever supposed to go up there - if you were not the Designated you were the Natura, the lowest of the low in the hierarchy of this society.

She served Odessa, a widowed socialite amongst the Designated, who didn’t make as many demands on her as other Designateds, or so she was told, as Odessa was half drunk most of her days and often dumped her emotional turmoils onto Zee as if she were her own.

“It’s just like this, you know,” Odessa would slur, “I’m a Designated, but you, my child, with your pretty face, you could have been mine! You could have been a Designated, but alas, your hair was just not quite right. You almost could have, I could have adopted you but I didn’t. You are the daughter of my father’s Natura and you are almost pretty enough to have gotten away with it, you could’ve almost been adopted but your hair, your hair is too rough. You can’t fool anybody with that hair, you are and always will be, Natura.”

Odessa would then signal for more Allure Potions, and Zee would turn on the robot bartenders to fix it up.

“If robots are our already our servants, then why should I have to be Natura and you are the Designated?” Zee would sometimes dare to ask Odessa in her drunken state. Odessa laughed and cackled, “Because society doesn’t run on equality, my dear. Life is full of light as well as shadow. The Haves and the Have Nots. We, the Designated, we have. And we take. And you, Natura, you are the most unfortunate. You are not even as lucky as a robot. You have to feel the pain. You have to sit in your suffering. And you have your ancestors to blame.”

It didn’t feel fair. Zee held her tongue from what further she wanted to say, as all their conversations were recorded by The Walls anyway. If anyone dared to speak out of line to a Designated, the Walls would alert the Soldiers, and someone like Zee, a Natura, would be taken away to a much more sinister place. Even more sinister than being held hostage in a Natura state.

At times in her sleep, Zee would dream of galaxies and planets far, far away. Almost as if it were lifetimes ago, a world of peace and stability, a world where there were no Designateds or Naturas, but a world where all humans would be free, and there weren’t any robots. No technology – a myth, and in the fantasy movies. Usually Natura wouldn’t even get to watch movies, but Odessa in her drunken state, bended the rules for Zee, “Come on over, just watch this with me.”

Sometimes Odessa bent the rules so far as to let Zee have some vitamin candies, the most expensive, decadent kind. The Walls would watch, but it wasn’t until one day when Odessa told Zee, “You can stop sitting up so straight, here, just put your feet up with this cushion” – the Walls sounded an alarm, “Not enough fear in this Natura, you have been warned, Odessa.”

Odessa had rolled her eyes, “Fine. Just go to the kitchen and prepare dinner for me.” Zee left to the kitchen to power on the robot chefs. All she had to do was place the vegetables from the fridge into their tummy baskets, select the menu from their screens, and the meal would be prepared. Further instructions had to be input for setting the table – decisions such as what theme, how many attendees, and what background music.

Zee would often sigh to herself at the monotony.

She didn’t get to see what happened at the end of the movie. And she couldn’t discuss it with other Natura, she didn’t see or hear from any of them for most of the year.

Once a year, the “Compassion Day” – Natura are allowed to be “free” – visit their family, sit in a park, talk and catch up. All within the walls of the Unit. All under surveillance, nothing goes unnoticed.

Even as a picnic occurs under a tree, if a Natura starts complaining about their Designateds and has gone too far in their speech, the tree branch will fall on their head. Immediately, the blow would cause the robot Ambulance to arrive and take them away, never to be seen again.