Programmed: Raine's Story

.02

I feel my disheveled hair fall in it's long waves down my back as I tilt my head back. In the mirror hung on the wall a few feet from where I sit, I see my reflection smile back at me, cheeks wide and dimpled. The room is beginning to fill with the soft morning sun rays. I have the window cracked open, welcoming the sweet smell of morning dew.

"Happy Birthday," I sing softly to myself as I tug tangles from my hair. I look at myself for a moment in the mirror, admiring how long my hair's become. It's color is a deep brown with tints of gold gleaming when hitting the light just right. It falls straight as an arrow down my to the small of my back.

The smell of eggs and cooked meat fill my senses as I near the kitchen. Isaac loves to celebrate any occasion, especially when it gives him an excuse to buy real eggs and meat from the market. With money being tight, as always, Issac often would budget months ahead for glorious occasions as such. He struggles with funds, as all of us who live on the mainland do, but manages off of funds he collected before the division. He tells me stories sometimes about how life was before the division. There was a middle class, he'd call it, but soon after the beginning of the programming technology, it disappeared and our society was divided between the poor and the rich. Only the islanders had money. The islanders lived in lavish luxury as we mainlanders scavenged for each meal. This meal though, showed me the luxuries of the islanders. Nothing could beat the egg and meat cooked by sweet Isaac.

"Happy happy birthday to you," his smile is full across his cheeks as he sings the words to me, "happy happy birthday to you, sweet Raine!" He wobbles to the small crook table in our main room holding a plate full of peppered scrambled eggs and thick bacon slices. He gleams down at the food, excited and eager for me to enjoy them.

"Thank you, Isaac," I look up at him from the table, "this looks amazing. You're too sweet!"

"Anything for the girl who survived the night!"

Our breakfast was lively as we hummed and chatted of stories of his youth and stories of his young adulthood. Hearing the tales of his childhood before the division sparked a sense of hope in me. Hope that one day the divide can be rid and once more all classes can work in harmony for the certainty of our world's wellbeing. 

"No mainlands, no islands, no nothin' at all," he'd exclaim as he looked out the cracked window to our left, "we'd live just how we pleased. We'd spend nights out lookin' at the bright yella' stars. There was them rich folks who'd live in the same neighborhoods as them poor folks. We was all the same then." His eyes grew a sadness as he continued, "then them rich families created the wipe. That wipe changed people. This terrible technology used to wipe folk's minds. It'd change 'em, Raine. They become bots of their own." He pauses, voice quaking, "then them all rich families picked up and moved to the islands. They'd control our society from there. That's why we have them bots that kill. Even them drones which blast that retch tunes are controlled by 'em. Them rich people are murders, Raine."

My mind races as these words fall from his mouth. They killed my brother. They killed Evan. I feel my face turn wild and red. How dare they. I look up towards Isaac as he pulls himself out of the distress.

"Sorry Raine. It's yer birthday and its not okay for me to speak of that wickedness now... especially since you lost your brother to them bots." He gave me an apologetic smile and then drew his attention to the now empty plates. "I'll take care of these. Go rest up and enjoy the day, I'll give you your gift later today."

I picked myself up, still frazzled by what he had said. The stories revolving around the islands have always come across as fictitious. Almost as if they were simply just explanations to why we live the life's we do.

"Ah, Raine? Check on top of the shelf in yer room. It's a little something that Catherine had before she passed. I do still believe that her spirit sent me to you that dark night. It's something that'll keep her near through your troubles. She'd want me to pass it you ya." Isaac's voice trembles slightly, not as if he is frightened, but as if he is nervous.