Making a mock attack, I clapped my hands and shouted at them. Spooked, they hopped backward giving loud protests, but I ignored them and picked up the bottle, which was made of a thin, hard material and wrapped in a glittery surface. Turning it around, I studied it, wondering what kind of material it was made of. It was heavier than the biodegradable bottles we had here in the Motherlands. My eyes lifted to the wall in front of me.
Could it have come from the other side?
There weren’t many brave enough to live this close to the Northern border. Not even the century-long peace treaty between our two nations could make people forget how the savage Men of the North used to hunt down and kidnap women here.
Except for a bit of trade there was no contact between the men living on the other side of that wall and us regular people living in the Motherlands.
From what I knew, our Council had meetings with their changing leaders every few years, but for the most part, it was like the world ended at that wall and it was imprinted in us to keep our distance.
I put the light bottle down again and stood back up. Still, my curiosity wouldn’t let me back away from it. What if it really was from the other side?
Don’t pick it up.
I looked around but saw no one.
There was a security camera on the wall. I only knew that because I’d walked here since I was a child and seen the wall before the thorn bushes overgrew the wall and camera. Now the whole area looked forgotten and neglected.
Nellie lay down next to me, her tongue hanging out and her eyes fixed on the two brave crows who were still on the ground watching us.
“We should leave the bottle to them,” I told Nellie, who had been my sole companion for these last days. “Right?”
The only sound from her was her exhausted panting from chasing off the competitors to this foreign object.
“I think there’s something inside it. Look.” I pointed to the see-through bottleneck. “It looks like a letter.”
For the first time in days, I wasn’t thinking about my loss, but felt excitement at finding something unexpected.
“Okay, I agree. We should open it. It’s not like the crows can read anyway.”
Picking up the bottle, my hands shook a little when I unscrewed the lid and pulled out a rolled-up piece of paper.
To the Motlander who finds this letter,
My name is Wilma Green. I just turned fifteen.
I’ve always been curious about what it’s like to live on your side of the wall. Will you please answer me? Just put a letter in this bottle and throw it over the wall. I live close by and will check every day, but hurry. In three weeks, I’ll be moving. Not because I want to but because my bridal tournament is coming up. Large warriors will fight to marry me and I’ll have no choice but to move to my new husband’s house.
Wilma
A loud gasp escaped me. A child was being married off to one of those large scary men against her will.
“Nellie, this is awful.” I stared at the wall, which had to be more than forty meters away from me and at least twelve meters high. How had a girl that young thrown a bottle this far? And what was she doing on that side of the wall anyway? Had she been kidnapped? Did she need help?
Three weeks… How long had the bottle been here? From the look of it, not long.
I wouldn’t want to be stuck in the Northlands and I could feel my heart race as I reread the letter again. Wilma was the same age as my sister Hannah had been. The thought of her being forced into a marriage made me angry. It confirmed that it was still true: the Northlands was a place with primitive and savage men who abused women.
I studied the wall that had protected us from them for centuries. In school, we had learned about the awful years that followed after the Toxic War. In 2060 women had taken control of the world after power-hungry men almost annihilated humanity and destroyed most of our planet in that three-year war.
But not all men had been willing to accept the leadership of our all-female council and they had gathered up north where they fought among themselves for power. It had been a bleak time back then when the brutal men from the North would kidnap women to breed for them.
My family would have never dared live this close to the border if it hadn’t been for the peace treaty of 2073. Now, sixteen decades later, we still supplied the boys that were needed for the Men of the North to sustain their numbers, but never girls. There were only two possibilities. Either Wilma was a descendant of some of the original unfortunate women who had been kidnapped or caught on the wrong side of the wall, or she had been kidnapped recently and needed help.
I bent down and picked up a stone, giving it my best throw, but it landed in front of the wall. There was no way I could get an answer back to the girl, unless…
“Nellie, come on.” With quick steps, I began jogging back to the house while she ran ahead with her tail wagging.
In the corner of Justin’s room under a pile of his clothes, I found what I was looking for. His slingshot catapult. When I bumped against his bookshelf, a bit of dust fell on my face and made me sneeze. If he had been here, I would have told him to clean his room.
