Memories - Chapter 2

“The heat is getting me!”
“Yo, I know.”
“Stop complaining, boys.” Rienna demanded while catching another group of grapes.
Mick grinned and didn’t even mind in cleaning the grape he had just caught only to put it in Rienna’s mouth.
“What are you doin’, moron?” her mouth was full of tasteful grape juice.
It had been like this since we were really young. My brother joined the family (me and my mother) when I was 9 years old, one year after my robotization and Rienna joined us when I was 11 years old. She has got no parents left: her parents were killed by sintists a long time ago, since they were thought to have a mortal disease, so they quickened their deaths, so she had been changing families till ours. My brother shares the same hate feeling due to his experience while robotizing, so she and my brother are real close, but they were in that time of life where you have to bug with everyone to be valued as cool.
And then, apart from my mother, there was another person who was living with us. She was now arriving to the grape camp, bringing a nest ready to collect the grapes.
As she was walking to join us, I noticed her aura: the sun, almost disappearing, was shining from behind her. An angel, some would say… Light blue eyes, hazelnut hair, that brownish skin, due to the sun and the tender lips. She was my childhood friend, the one who helped me when I needed. I own her too much…
The warm smile greeted us. “Wanna do a pause?” Her ideas always please me.
Eventually, she handed me a tuna sandwich. We were sat in the place we have always loved: under the tree from where we can see it all: our village and its busy people, our cereal field, the dark cliff, the sintists’ fortress and the mountains that separate us from the other countries. In fact, we do not know a thing about what’s behind that mountain: the sintists do not want to contact any other community. We don’t even know if we’re the only ones living in this world.
“A glass of grape juice, maybe?” the melodious voice suggested. I couldn’t deny.
Serena is her name. The name of the one who cares about others.
“Well, let’s continue?” she stood up when I was still enjoying my juice.
Me, Rienna and Mick stood up not convinced to finish the grape collection. But it ended up being fun: she has that effect in me.
Time passed quickly so we were forced to leave the field. The sun is our clock and it was almost disappearing. Mom should already be waiting for us, and she hated when we arrived late. But something happened behind me. When we were carrying the nests to the house, I heard someone falling in the ground.
“Serena!”
My breath stopped. If she was scratched in some place…
“Serena” I faced her. “Are you alright!”
She answered me not worried. “Sure, thanks to your gloves.” Her warm smile melted me.
They made the way home trying to cheer me up. That didn’t help me though. I know they regarded me as sad so I felt shame for myself for making them worry. But Serena was feeling really bad. She knew that my dream was her becoming a sintist. Only the ones who hadn’t been robotized yet could become sintists and she was fighting so that my dream could be fulfilled. But, at the end, I was the only one fighting for it. The sintists have the best life we could ever have. And I want her to be happy…
“I want to stay with you…”
I was totally shocked. Rienna and Mick were almost reaching home so they did not hear us.
“No, you don’t…”
“I don’t want to become a sintist! I don’t want to leave you!” it was the first time she had decided on her own. Due to my selfish feelings, I ignored her and continued my way.
She only came in the night and followed silently to the sleeping room. Mom hadn’t arrived yet from the counsellors, probably from some unusual explanation. Rienna and Mick did not argue with me. They felt something was wrong but here everyone has his own problems, I don’t blame them.
If at least I had let her be free…