her voice detached.
“Colin Martin,” I answered.
She looked away, lost in some trance. “Good. The Martin boy is strong.”
My initial reaction to seeing my name was shock, almost too shocked to react at all. Colin acted so brave after he’d read his name, proud that he was going to be doing this service for our colony. I tried to hide my fear. I tried to pretend that I wasn’t afraid. After seeing my name on that paper, I held my head high nodding in agreement. But really, I was terrified my limbs were shaking. “Mom,” my voice trembled. “I’m afraid.” Who wouldn’t be afraid of an empty, unpredictable world? I felt like my death certificate had already been signed.
My eyes were drying up and I was starting to get used to the fact that I would now be out on my own in a deadly wilderness with Colin Martin. At least I wouldn’t be alone. That made me feel a little better. When I peered over at my mother, she was the one who now had fear in her eyes. She focused on the dirt wall, eyes searing with x-ray vision. It was like she was looking through the wall, observing what was behind it.
Waving my hand in front of her face, I tried to get her attention. It didn’t work. She didn’t break concentration. Then I positioned both of my hands on her shoulders and shook her, gently. “Mom.” She still didn’t respond. I shook her harder, desperate to snap her out of this catatonic phase. “Mom!”
She came to attention, blinking her eyes repeatedly. “Oh, Georgina. What is it, dear?” she asked.
I didn’t get the chance to answer her because, less than a second later my father walked into the room. “What’s going on here?” he questioned.
My mother turned toward him, sneering. For a second, I thought I actually heard her growl at him. “Nothing.” It was a short answer, but the way my mother said was full of brutality. She thought my misfortune of getting selected first was all of my father’s fault. She pulled me back into her arms, resting her chin on top of my head.
A frown spread across my father’s face. His youthful features aged in a matter of minutes. “Is someone going to tell me what’s going on?”
“You mean your beloved council members haven’t told you?” my mother snapped.
“Told me what?”
“Georgina’s name was pulled for that stupid lottery.”
“What?” A baffled expression replaced the frown. “They weren’t supposed to draw names until the end of the week.” That seemed to be the statement of the hour.
“Yeah, well apparently they don’t stand by their word.”
I peeked up at my father, who remained silent. He gazed at me intensely for a minute or two, then left the room.
My mother pressed her lips into the top of my head. “Don’t you worry sweetheart, I’m going to get you out of this.”
But she couldn’t get me out of it. I had to admire her efforts though. Never in a million years did I think I would see my mother resort to begging. That just shows you what lengths a parent is willing to go to for their child.
She collapsed onto her knees in the mess hall , yanking on Mr. Baker’s pant leg. “Please Mark. Please. I’ll go in her place.”
Mr. Baker’s eyes washed over the room, giving people a reassuring smile, and a nod. “Get up, Marcy. You look ridiculous,” he said, not breaking his smile. The last thing he wanted to do was look bad in front of the colony.
My mother rose to her feet and brushed her sandy, blond hair away from her face. “You have kids, Mark. Wouldn’t you be doing the same thing if they were selected?”
“No,” said Mr. Baker.
“Then you’re heartless and you don’t deserve to be a parent.” I didn’t expect what happened next to occur. My mother pulled her hand back and slapped Mr. Baker across the face.
Whispers broke out through the mess hall and several kids at my table turned to look at me, Colin included. “Now I know where you get your spunk from, Georgie.”
Mr. Baker held his face, and my father grabbed my mother by the shoulders. “Come on Marcy, I’ll take you back to the room.”
My mother dug her elbow into my father’s stomach and pushed him away. “Don’t touch me, Doug!” she shrieked.
My father remained hunched over, exhaling slowly.“Marcy.”He grimaced.
She spun around, pointing her finger in his face. “This is all your fault!” That was the last thing she said before she stormed out of the mess hall.
Grace glanced at me, her eyes worried. “I think your mom has seriously lost her mind.” I was beginning to think that too.
In my room, I took some time to myself to think. Pulling my knees to my chest, I wrapped my arms around them, hugging them. I looked up to see my father lingering in the door way. “What’s up dad?”
One tear drizzled down his cheek. He wiped it away in a hurry, hoping that I wouldn’t catch him crying. “Can you ever forgive me, Georgina?”
I smiled, half-heartedly. Technically, this wasn’t all his fault. There were fourteen other members of the council who had just as big of a part in this as he did. And seeing that solitary tear on his cheek made me realize that he was sorry he voted in favor of the lottery in the first place. “It’s okay, Daddy. You’re forgiven.”
“I just hope your mother can forgive me too,” he sighed.
“Give her time. You know Mom, she’ll come around eventually.” The only problem was I didn’t know when that would be.
When my father left the room, I got up from my cot and walked over to a small table in the corner of my room. The round, unsteady wooden table had a half-folded over white piece of paper resting on top of it. Georgina, was scrawled across the top of the paper in messy handwriting.
Picking the paper up, I flipped it open as I brought it closer to my face. I scanned my message. It was short, simple and to the point.
Meet me in the rec at midnight.
Even though I knew meeting him like this was risky, I went anyway. The first to arrive, I sat in the back of the dark classroom. The silence cut through the room like a sharp knife cutting through a block of cheese. Suddenly, I felt something move behind me.
Squinting, I tried to make out the presence as my eyes adjusted to the blackness that engulfed me. “Hello,” I whispered.
Arms slipped around my waist from behind as a warm chin nuzzled my neck. “I knew you would come,” Colin whispered into my ear.
I removed his arms from my waist and turned to face him. “Is this what you wanted me to come for? A midnight fling?” I still couldn’t see him clearly. It was way too dark. Reaching out, I brushed my fingers along his face. When I finally realized he was about six inches away from me, I dropped my hands at my sides.
He scooted closer to me. “That’s not why I asked you to come,” he said.
“Then why did you?” The heat from his body poured out of him and radiated onto to me. I enjoyed basking in the warmth of him. Sometimes, when you lived this far beneath the earth’s surface it got a little chilly.
“I wanted to talk.”
“Talk?”
“Yeah. To see how you were holding up.”
“What do you think, genius?”
“I think you’re scared.”
“Of course I’m scared, aren’t you?”
“Not at all. I would have volunteered for this if they would have let me. I happen to think it’s kind of ironic that I got selected in the first round.”
