The first time I saw a man die, and the first time I ever stole an orange, I was only six years old.
It was also the first and only time I ever saw Aunty Gaia lose someone. It didn't matter if that person was a teenager arriving late long after curfew, a toddler trying to sneak into the cupboards, to have sweets before lunch or even Tam Shinith who was a master at hide and seek. Aunty Gaia never lost a kid in her care, nor anyone she met, it was like they all had strings attached to their backs. Despite other kids whispering, I never once questioned the fact that my sixty year old, almost blind carer could find a pack of six kids hiding corn field faster than a dog to food.
It was that day, after another amazing cornfield sweep, that Gaia handed me a bundle of home sewn cloth and told me today we were going to the city. I had raced upstairs and flung on the new dress, not even thinking about how long it took Gaia took make it. We were going to the City!
Only the older kids got to go with Gaia to the market there, and this would be my first time.
You had to be on you best behaviour at the City. Back down stairs, Gaia placed a large hand, rough from years of work, in mine and walked with me through the town to the roadside. The old road went right through our town, and led straight to the City, sometimes you would see wagons and carts from the town over using it to get to the City as well. Gaia always got a lift from Mr Torgo, who brought his bread to the City to sell it. Gaia had seen me practically jumping on the spot in excitement and shushed me. She turned and stared me right in the eye, warning in a grave voice,
**"Fai, you lis'en 'ere an you lis'en good. When you at the City you behave, an' never let go a ma hand, or I ain't taken you wi in a huner' yards a the place ever again."
I had nodded and tried to be still. I had heard it was very busy at the City, and didn't want to embarrass Gaia by acting wrong. Eventually Mr Torgo pulled up and we got in the back of his cart. The road was long and bumpy, but the cart's wooden top gave us shelter from the blistering sun. Eventually we reached the city, a huge mass of steel gray wall reaching up towards the sky, towering ominously over the busy cluster of buildings and street stalls below.
No one was allowed in the city.
But people did come out. Mr Torgo let us off at the first of the tightly packed buildings, and with a tip of his hat to Gaia, went to find somewhere safe to keep his cart.
Gaia gripped my hand tighter than before and led me through the streets crowded with people, into tight, cool, shadowed alleys between clay buildings to the centre of the market. It was a wonderland in the morning sun, strange scents I had never smelled before, exotic food and bright cloths from other communities, or even the City itself. The people were even better, in amongst the dusty cloak clothed desert village dwellers, there was the bright, beautiful people from the City. They wore the strangest clothes, made of costly fabrics, with styled hair and accessories to the extreme. I loved every moment of it.
It was after we had been browsing this exciting place of trade, getting everything Gaia needed, that I saw it.
A small ball of golden wonder. I strayed closer and heard the vendor harking about them being oranges. They smelled beautiful, looked even better and I knew they would taste fantastic. These could never have come from the desert crops, I decided, magic like this could only be from the City. There was a whole rows of them but I only needed one. I can't remember exactly when I dropped Gaia's hand, it was as if I couldn't stop myself. I easily slid through the crowded street, without even thinking and sidled up beside the stand. Neither the vendor nor the curious customers noticed me. I barely felt the flow of people around me, heading to the entrance of the street. My had drifted out towards the closest ball, and before I knew it my hand snapped like claw around the orange and pulled deep into my sleeve.
Suddenly the vendor saw me, eyes turning red with rage, he screeched “Thief!” and lunged over his stand. I took a step back and suddenly the flow of the crowd felt far stronger than it had been. I was swept away, with a flow of excited shouting people, down the alley. The flow suddenly became a swarm, as people swept out on all sides of me.
Panicked, my screams of Gaia's name went unheard over the crowd and I flung myself sideways, pushing, scrambling and flinging myself forward until my shaking hands reached a solid clay wall.
Suddenly a bang! So loud it reverberated inside my head, rang across the area, silencing everyone. I had never heard anything like that before.
People stopped moving, me included as I heard a voice start to speak. What he said I'll never know, for from my position at the back of the crowd, I heard only muffled sounds. I didn't try to listen either, casting my eyes around for Gaia, a woman who had never ever left me alone before. There was a solid crate next to me, and after a while, with the help of a window ledge, I pulled myself on top of it deciding that up there, I would see Gaia far better.
I had then been surrounded by a sea of heads all staring at one dazzling scene in front of them. At this sight, any thought of Gaia and my own situation slipped, from my mind. Right in front of the gates to the City, two dazzling soldiers, armour gleaming bright white, helmets with dark visors and heavy weapons in hand stood on either side of a man clothed in beautiful red clothes. He looked magnificent, and incredibly important. In front of them, down the stairs from the gate, closer the throng of people was another dazzling soldier, and in front of him, on his knees was a man dressed in the dark cloaks of the desert towns.
I was too far to see faces, but I saw the man in red raise his hand high. The front soldier lifted his weapon and a single bang! Clear as a whistle, and just as loud as before, echoed across the silent crowd.
I gasped, frozen as with a sickening thump, the man's torso hit the ground. Red was everywhere, blooming out from a point on the man's back across his clothes. It splattered the ground and ruby red drops showed clear on the soldiers white armour, as if they were studs. The man lowered his hand and as I was now completely fixated on him, I heard him state,
“Do not forget this.”
The soldiers closed in around him as they headed back into the City, and the crowd erupted into voices, shouting, arguing, calling, shushing. Some vendors even started hawking their wares again. Gaia found me in a rage, and swept me back through the streets to a cart that would take us home. She never spoke to me, silently fuming.
I didn't care. It felt like someone had poured ice into my very bones. I gripped the orange crushingly tight, forgetting I was even holding it, as the sight of that man, slouching to the ground, buried itself into my mind as an image I wouldn't forget for my entire life.
**- If you read this bit like it sounds, you should be able to get Gaia's and the other desert people's accent.
A/N: I am really, really sorry I was this late. I just spent so long trying to get a good idea. This was the one that was always on the fringes of my mind but I had no idea how to make it work. This was based on an idea I had for another story, about people lying in the post-apoctalyptic dystopia world, where certain people had actually mutated to have powers, but they are shunned by the normal humans who live in a City with a far better quality of life. If you were wondering about a couple of the things in there hope that explains it. I was trying to go for a first time thing, as the theme is time, but I don't think it came out to clearly...
