Cedar
Ingrid Barnes

The sky-bus soared over the harbour on its single rail. Inside, Cedar watched the people, all so different, but somehow all the same. Today she realised why: they were all clean.
The sky-buses were reserved for first class citizens. Second class citizens used trams. Third class citizens could not use any government services.

Cedar had often been told that people were in third class because they were bad people. She was told of robberies and gruesome murders. If the government supported the third class, her teacher said, they were supporting this.
But how, Cedar had asked, could anyone escape?

Maybe there would be a revolution. In the past there had been revolutions which had eradicated sexism and racism from society. Cedar’s history teacher described slum warfare, how people walked down the streets shooting anyone who was not their colour. How racial groups had taken over areas of the slums and barricaded them with pile of the bodies that filled the streets.

The sky-bus stopped and Cedar stepped onto the pavement, ten stories high.

~ ~ ~


Cedar lay on her bedand stared into the fish-tank. She was trying to do her homework, which was spread on the pillow in front of her, but she had ended up watching her fish Bobo swimming around the tank that was set into the wall at the head of her bed.
Her homework was about atoms and their shells of electrons. If an atom had one electron in its outer shell and another atom had one electron missing from its outer shell then they could bond. Cedar wondered, if Bobo was an atom, what sort would he be? Well, he couldn’t survive by himself, so he must be an atom with an incomplete outer shell, one that needed other electrons. From her. Did that mean she needed to give? Could she stop feeding Bobo and watch him starve to death? And her mother, what type of atom was she? Cedar realised suddenly that she knew more about Bobo than she did about her mother. And she decided to do something about it.

However, Cedar did not go and talk to her mother. Not much in Cedar’s life had been achieved by talking, and anyway, her mother was too busy to listen. The note on the table read, “Good morning honey. I’ll be home at 7.30. Love mum.” Cedar dropped the note into the bin and sat down at her mother’s computer.

To: Todd
Sender: Jacq
We’re planning the release of 936 for Tuesday 23 (three days away) at 12 noon.

To: Jacq
Sender: Todd
The sooner the better because Richard says the situation in the slums is getting to crisis point. Most people would welcome a revolution. But are you sure 936 won’t harm anything on Earth?

To: Todd
Sender: Jacq
We’ve tested 936 many times and there’s not a chance. It might not kill everything else in the galaxy though, but it will be enough for us. Do you want to come to my place on Tuesday to help send it off?

~ ~ ~


Cedar lay on her bed and stared into the fish-tank. She wished she was a goldfish. It seemed as if a light had just shone into the corners of her life and shown her things she didn’t want to see. Why? Why? What were they going to destroy? What would they do when they had destroyed all those beings? What did it have to do with the third class? Would they move to a new planet? Would she go as well? What was it they were going to release? And who were they anyway? The questions were like enraged bees stinging the inside of her head.

That night Cedar had nightmares. A voice was saying, “It will kill everything else in the galaxy,” and there were screams of things dying. She saw her mother in her red jacket and the jacket turned to blood. The blood of every non-Earth being in the galaxy.

On Sunday Cedar didn’t get out of bed. On Monday she said she felt sick. On Tuesday she lay on her bed and stared into the fish-tank. Bobo stopped swimming and looked at her. She had to do something.

The email had said that whatever would release the killing thing was in her home. But when Cedar searched the house, she found nothing.

Cedar lay on her bed and stared into the fish tank. Bobo stopped swimming and looked at her. Then he swam to the top of the tank to the button that allowed the tank to be removed for cleaning. Cedar removed the tank and carefully felt in the cavity. She found a catch and pressed it in. A rectangle of wall folded down, revealing a small control pad. The largest buttons were labeled RELEASE and SELF DESTRUCT.

Cedar realised that the SELF DESTRUCT button would destroy the world. She also realised that she had to press it. Her finger hovered above the button. She looked at Bobo. He was floating upside down at the top of the tank.Cedar pressed the button.

Bobo opened his eyes. Cedar was suddenly struck but how amazing the world was as it was reflected in the tiny black eye of a goldfish. It was a miracle.

Then it was gone.

A billion, billion stars twinkled in the dark sky.

Yes, it was a miracle.