Magnets

Moon Colony B, 2213

Former Ponzi-schemer Mary Pillar digs through a trashcan. It smells like rotten eggs and milk. She is elderly and homeless, living in an alley between two eco-efficient skyscrapers. Dust particles dance around her. She has lost everything she has stolen. Her arthritic hands throb.

Jack Pillar, her partner in crime, helps her collect debris. His hair matches the black-gray ash and dust surrounding them. He uses a teleray to pick up plastic, metal, and glass from the gutter into their hovering cart. Selling cans and bottles is illegal. Everything is biodegradable now and organic. Metals, plastics, and glass have been outlawed but they bring in a lot of money on the black market. Although they had completed prison sentences for their crimes, their actions follow them like a bad odor, preventing them from making a living any other way.

Lights emerge from a pile of trash on a nearby corner and Jack points his teleray, putting it on the microwave setting.

“Wait!” Mary cries.

A trash-compactor robot emerges from the rubble, excited to have company. “HELLO!” He hums, “I’M ROBOT MODEL ALPHA ANDREW M3234!” He is short and squat, covered in a yellow plastic case. He looks brand new.

Mary bends down on her weak knees. “Hello, Andrew M3234. I’m Mary Pillar.”

“HAVE WE MET BEFORE?” Andrew M3234 asks.

“No,” Mary has a terrible tremor. Even her metal neck-brace cannot restrain her movement. “But you might have seen me on a handheld screen.”

“DOUBTFUL!”

Jack chuckles at the robot’s response. The sound seems amplified by Jack’s oxygen helmet. Mary grimaces and bends down to point her teleray at more trash. Sweat pours down her temples. She crouches near the ground and gives up, sitting on the sidewalk. Anti-freeze stains her gravity-lock pants.

“Who knew that the moon would get so dirty?” Mary asks Jack, but he ignores her and continues gathering trash. Silver particles slowly