Stellar Objects

Chapter 1: The Heap

Andra could stand the stench of the world's third largest rubbish dump, but not the sight of the rats – which had to be the world's largest.

As she scavenged through the freshly dumped trash, a giant rodent scampered to safety. She froze; just to be sure it was gone. Rats carried disease and she knew if she got sick, there'd be nobody to look after her little brother.

It was just the two of them.

George was a few years younger (she never knew how many) and always wanted a pet, even if it was a rat. He'd threatened too many times to invite one into their tent. Grunge, as he preferred to be called, would probably never have done it, but it didn't stop him from winding her up. It wasn't fair, and he knew it, but nothing was fair on the Heap.

"We'd be like a family," he teased; as they started their pre-sunrise scavenge.

The pickings were best before sun-up. Andra roused George before dawn to sort through what the hellees had dumped each night. She was old enough to remember when rubbish arrived in trucks, but since the hijacking and kidnapping (and killing) of two lorry drivers last year, the trash rained down from the sky at about four in the morning.

The whirl of the hellees always woke her up, and Andra listened carefully to plot their position on The Heap, which had once been a supposedly Great Lake called Ontario, and was now home to most of Indian North America's garbage. And it was home to about a million scroungers with nowhere else to go.

"We are a family," she said. "You and me. That's all we've ever been, all we ever need."

"Not all we've ever been," George said, ever optimistic that their parents would return to claim them. "Mum and Dad will—"

"Will never see us again," she snapped. "They left us here; probablee to die. We was mouths to feed, and that's just what a pet is. Just another mouth that'll ask for food we don' have."

"Stop!" cried George.

Andra felt bad for being so harsh with George. The sooner he rid himself of the notion that their parents might ever return, the better it'd be for both of them. But as George threw his hand across Andra's front, stopping her mid-step, she knew something else was up.

Or down.

"Look!" George squealed, pointing at the ground. "Still in package!"

Andra glanced down to see she'd nearly crushed a shrink-wrapped treasure. She licked her lips at the sight and instantly regretted it. Her top lip tasted salty and tart – for she'd ventured out without her brask, her breathing mask – and Andra now had the putrid taste of the Heap's filth on her tongue.

She knelt down and scooped the plastic package. It was covered in bright letters that she couldn't read, but the picture showed a yellow cake with white filling.

"What does it say?" Andra wondered.

"It's called a Twinkee," replied Grunge, reading the pack. He had taught himself to read from the books they burned to keep warm in winter. "But what's a Twinkee?"

"A kind of cake, I think," she guessed. "But why would anyone throw one away?"

"Maybe it's the kind that makes you small," said Grunge.

"Just like Alice," she said with a smile. Last year, she'd found an old book (the paper kind) about a girl who somehow fit into a rabbit's hole and fell into it. After Andra had made it clear that no, they could not have a rabbit as a pet (especially one big enough to create a hole that a person could fit through!), George read on.

This Alice girl fell down into a strange room where she'd guzzled little drinks and ate cakes that she knew absolutely nothing about. Stupid girl, Andra had thought, they could have been poisoned!

The drinks and cakes either made her grow or shrink. "Serves her rite," Andra had said, "for chowing down on strange stuff."

But she was also sympathetic. Andra knew that Aliss was probably just as hungry as they were, especially since she never managed to trap that that yummy-looking rabbit.

Andra looked at George. He was too thin. She worried that he might not ever grow to be man-sized. "Or maybe it'll make you grow big," she said, optimistically.

George grabbed the package, examining it see how it opened, and Andra snatched it away. She tucked it into her satchel, away from prying eyes. The Heap had eyes. Someone was always watching.

"Simmo's gang would kill us for that," she warned, as they continued kicking their way through the trash, scanning the ground for more treasures.

"We'll have it in the tent tonight, I promise."

They should have been looking for more food, but Andra knew George was mostly looking for batteries to power the small light he'd found last week. He wanted to surprise her with a light so she could read at night. He was always after her to learn to read, but Andra never saw much point in it. Reading wasn't going to keep them alive on the Heap.

"Maybe we should join them," Grunge said.

"We don' need 'em," Andra shot back. "I toldja, all we need is each other. It's just you and me."

"But it'd be nice to have a family," he said. "Since we can't even have a rat or a rabbit."

George bent down again, spotting something shiny. It wasn't a battery, but a shiny silver gasket. He picked it up, wiped it on his trousers and held it up for his Andra. She admired it and offered him her wrist. George slipped the gasket around his sister's left wrist and smiled. Andra held it up, letting the rising sun reflect off her wrist. She put her arm around George, leading him through the fresh rubbish.

"They're not a family," Andra said. "They're a gang. And they're nothin' but trouble."

The pile ahead of them stirred. Andra heard a nasally laugh.

"Now don' be bein' like that," the voice called.

Andra pulled George close and moved her satchel behind her back. She knew that voice anywhere. 

It was trouble.

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