Fortune Favors the Bold

1

There is said to be a time when humankind wasn't segregated by matters of currency and wealth. When the rich man stepped into the streets of his neighborhood and found the poor man residing in his proximity. It is said that he would offer the poor man a respectful nod before beginning on his way to his plentiful work.

They were equal.

Mankind is equal, but not in the ways we think.

It was never like that. For, the way I imagine it to be, the only reason the poor man and the rich man lived so close was because the poor man's sleeping bag happened to be placed beneath the rich man's mansion. When one saw the other, there would be no greeting waves or polite smiles. It was the opposite in fact.

You see, the rich man would scowl and order the removal of the poor man by any means necessary. The poor man's appearance, size, and color would determine the cruelty with which he was treated.

Were he unlucky, he would die. No passersby would stop to help him, they wouldn't even blink in his direction. When he died, not a single person would ask for him.

It is a lie to say that, in history, there was never segregation. If it wasn't the color of their skin then it was their wealth, their beliefs, their body shape, the way they spoke, or the way they dressed. There was always a reason for segregation. If you weren't the white man, society would pick you apart for an imperfection so they may hate you.

Kalani flinched when a sudden hand came down on her shoulder. Her eyes shot up to peer into the mirror, but she already knew who it was who made their way into her room. Where she was, Eleanor always found her way in. She smiled up at the dark-skinned girl who always wore her hair into neatly combed box braids. Eleanor's crystal blue eyes always bore a sharpness that even Kalani couldn't shake off.

"Your sister is getting dressed," Ellie spoke into the mirror, a teasing grin on her lips. "Don't you have a job to do, fair maiden?"

Kalani looked toward the round clock. Time had fled from her as it always did when she picked up the book she'd read more than once before. "She'll be another thirty minutes," she shrugged at the idea of her younger sister's preparation. "I have time."

Ellie stepped back when Kalani rose from her creaking seat, pushing it into the small vanity. "Do you ever wonder how different we would be if we grew up in those times?" She laundered around the room, lazily stepping from side to side until she reached the window. "I would have liked to live before the third war. It would have been fun."

"It's fun now."

"Agree to disagree. I'd rather be able to look out of this window and see trees and oceans instead of this dirt path." She looked away in disgust when a horse passed by, relieving himself as he walked. "Ew."

"Not everybody lived between trees and on oceans, you know. Assuming something like that is as stupid as the times when they assumed we'd be driving in floating cars." They both met each other's gaze from across the room in a shared remembrance of Roletto's tragedy; Kalani had only learned about it in school a few weeks before. "Besides, those ages were littered with murder and problems. Did you know people our age used to kill themselves?"

Kalani snorted. "The Intermediacy should have been born in those times. They would have thoroughly enjoyed it." She utilized the new words she remembered from the previous page of the book.

"These times are simple."

"Not as simple as we like to think," Kalani shook her head.

"Quite simple considering the way you're dressed at the moment," Ellie snickered, looking over Kalani's clothes. She wore a black sleeveless top she'd cut herself until it reached her belly button beneath a large, washed brown T-shirt. It was the type of shirt one's father would save for gardening. Loose green pants fell straight to her feet. "Do you have no decent clothes to wear?"