Nature Rules - 2022 WATTY'S SHORTLIST

A Pile of Garbage

I wake up to Elody pulling on my arm and shining a candle in my face.

"Stop it!" I yell.

"You've been sleeping for forever!" she says. "It's suppertime. Aren't you hungry?"

My growling stomach lets me know I am.

"Oh. Okay."

Mom and Dad let me sleep a long time. Getting up I shield my eyes from the bright candle flame.

"Want to get that out of my way?" I say crossly to my small blonde sister.

"Sorry. I thought you'd want to see."

Now I feel bad. She's young and thinks she's helping me. I grab the lamp sitting in the corner of the room and light it off Elody's candle.

"Tell Mom and Dad I'll be there in a moment."

"Yep," says my sister, who is always a bundle of happy energy. "I'm going to eat all your bread if you don't hurry!"

With that she takes off down the stone hallway.

"Don't you dare!" I playfully shout at her. That makes her giggle and I can hear her chortles echoing off the walls.

Despite the Waterstealer telling me I wouldn't sleep, I had a rather good rest. Rubbing my eyes to get them accustomed to the light, I pick up the lamp and go out to the main room. Squeezing in between my two sisters at the table, I look at what's prepared for our dinner. Supper is always just a snack. Our biggest meal is breakfast. Lunch is usually a good size too.

Tonight my parents had bartered for some shelled nuts and a chunk of goat cheese. We each get a piece of bread. I want to save mine to eat last because it's so good but I never can wait to the end of the meal. I gobble it up in an instant.

"You eat like an Unmentionable," says Crinae, who has managed to keep her piece of bread until the end of her meal.

"That's rude! Mom, Crinae called me a rude word."

"Did not. It's the truth!'

"I'm Aeternian and you're not," I say to Crinae.

"You definitely are a turnip," says Crinae, "With your pinched-in face."

Crinae really knows how to make my blood boil. I reach over the table and flick the tip of her pink ear with my fingers. She starts howling, holding her ear like I had chopped it off with a rusty knife.

"That's it, girls," snaps Mom. "I'm tired and I don't want any fighting tonight. You both get Common Pit duty for a month. Starting with Naia."

"That's not fair!" I protest. "Dad, that's not fair."

"You shouldn't have hit your sister," says Dad, shrugging his shoulders.

The Common Pit is a short walk to the east of 33. The ground there is too unsettled for anyone to build in or on. The rock opens up into a giant hole where settlers throw their rubbish.

Often there are scavengers (also known as "food sources") sitting around the garbage dump. Rats scurry into hiding when they hear footsteps. A lone vulture flutters only a few metres away. Once I saw a woman begging at the edge of the trash abyss. She was sitting so close to the edge of the crater. I don't know how she could do that. The smell of poop and rotting stuff makes me throw up if I linger too long.

The woman was old and incredibly thin. Her white hair was straggly and didn't cover her scalp and bald patches showed through. Her dark eyes looked like looking into the Common Pit itself – black and never-ending. I didn't dare go near her but she crawled over to me on her hands and knees.