The Hourglass by Casey Donaldson Page B

was
lowered to the tube in his hand and Sarah noted that he had surprisingly long,
dark eyelashes for such white hair. Sarah wanted to prod him, to find out what
it was that had happened. She wanted to know more about him, but she didn’t
want to force him to share obviously painful memories if he didn’t want to.
Especially in a room full of people who might overhear, no matter how quietly
they spoke. Boulder would definitely hear, for one. Also there was the
possibility that he wasn’t going to tell her because he had done something bad.
Something really bad. She hoped that wasn’t the case. She had already decided
that he was like her; someone who should have been sent to the farms instead
for a relatively minor crime. But what if he was actually meant to be on the
ship? What if he had done something terrible? Finn looked up and caught her
staring. She blushed and looked back at the tube she was clutching onto,
inspecting it far more minutely than any of the other tubes that had passed
through her hands. Or maybe, she thought, he just doesn’t want to tell her
because it was her listening. After all, what did they really know about each
other? A loud thud reverberated close to her and Sarah jumped. One of the
guards had whacked his truncheon against the leg of her stool.
    “You’ve been
staring at that tube for three minutes. I get that it’s fascinating,” he said
sarcastically, “but we have a quota to meet. Move on.”
    Sarah quickly
discarded the tube she had been playing with and picked up a new one. Her
fingers fumbled under the guard’s gaze. He watched her work for a minute and
then ambled off. She sighed. The next two hours passed monotonously and Sarah
grew increasingly hungry. It was all the worse because there was nothing that
she could use to distract herself. A bell rang throughout the factory floor and
everyone around her stopped working, dropping whatever it was that was in front
of them. Most of them had already left their stations and were heading in the
direction of the cafeteria.
    “Please tell me
that means lunch?” asked Finn.
    “Yup,” replied
Boulder, walking away from them.
    Sarah stood up
and stretched. Marland, and to Sarah’s slight surprise April, joined them from
their station further along the conveyer belt. April stood comfortably at the
edge of the group as if she belonged there, her arms crossed in front of her
chest. On an impulse Sarah looked around the room, searching for Heather, the
only other girl that arrived on the boat with them. Marland beat her to it. She
whacked Sarah on the shoulder and pointed across the room, her eyebrows raised.
    Sarah followed
Marland’s gaze. She felt her own eyebrows rise as she saw that Heather was
having another interview with the Queen, only this time Heather looked a lot
more pleased.
    “That can’t be
good,” said Sarah, matter-of-factly.
    “I know,” agreed
Marland. She shivered theatrically. “Every time I see Heather happy, I feel
sick inside, because you know it’s going to be bad.”
    “C’mon,” said
Finn, walking past them with Justin, “let’s go get lunch. I’m starving.”
    Sarah and
Marland both tried to keep an eye on Heather’s meeting with the Queen while
they followed Finn off the factory floor. April followed their gaze curiously.
    “That girl is a
cow,” said April flatly, once she realised that they were looking at Heather.
    “Exactly what I
said!” said Sarah. She glanced at April out of the corner of her eye. “So, um,
are you alright?”
    April shrugged.
“I’m fine.”
    “It’s just that
last night I thought I heard a thud coming from your cell.”
    “Oh,” said
April, “that.” She looked down at her shoes, her expression difficult to read.
    “So that thud
did come from your cell?” added in Marland. She shared a look with Sarah.
    “What happened?”
asked Sarah.
    April shrugged.
“My brain-deficient cell-mate decided that she needed to prove something.” She
looked up at them.