Jessica, Tessie, and Amy live in a place where everybody wears a color-coded tasseled identification braid from their right sleeve, signaling what they do for a living. The system works well, except for the people wearing yellow identification braids. These people sell illegal braids to those with bad reputations, so they could appear as someone better and make a living. The people wearing yellow braids are the one problem in this otherwise perfectly organized system. The three friends learn that those with yellow braids are disrupting the economy, too, but Amy has other thoughts about these people. The girls’ suspicions are aroused as Tessie and Jessica spot Amy talking to someone with a yellow braid. The don’t know what to do with this shocking discovery of their friend breaking a strict social rule. They decide to ask her about it, but only discover that their friend has gotten a job. She is wearing a yellow braid.

Are you new to this exciting story? Welcome! Make sure you catch up on the exciting twists of this short story by reviewing the previous four parts. Happy reading!

Read part one of this story here!

Read part two of this story here!

Read part three of this story here!

Read part four of this story here!

The next morning Jessica wriggled under her sheets. She was still in bed, the blanket kicked to the side, her stuffed rabbit on the floor, and the pillow completely displaced. She yawned and stretched, opened her eyes and blinked them against the morning sunshine coming through her window. She bared her feet and studied them, wiggled her toes, scratched a place on her leg. She started to sit up and then remembered the day before. Amy wearing a yellow braid. She hadn’t told her dad, she hadn’t told anybody, she hadn’t even told herself. It was too scary, like her best friend had turned to a monster. She couldn’t see Amy anymore, then. She imagined her friend camped out on the street with her tablecloth and her boxes and her false braids. She imagined her friend making a little empty circle around her in crowded spots because nobody wanted to stand with her. She imagined Amy dropping something and people all around her, and nobody would even say, “Hey…you dropped this.”

Jessica’s dad opened the door. “Tessie’s here. She wants to see you. Says it’s an emergency.”

“Let her in,” muttered Jessica, not really thinking about Tessie at the moment.

“Okay.” His face disappeared behind the door as far as his nose, then reappeared quickly. “Is everything okay?”

No. “Yeah.”

“Okay, then.” He went away and soon Tessie bounded into the room. She was fully dressed, her hair was neat, her teeth looked brushed.

The first thing she said was, “You’re still wearing those pajamas?”

The second thing she said was, “Isn’t it so sad about Amy?”

“Yes,” responded Jessica.

The girls were quiet for a while. Tessie sat on Jessica’s bed and hugged her knees to her chest. Jessica retrieved her stuffed rabbit and tinkered with it. “She’s a bad person,” Jessica finally said, flatly.

“She said she wasn’t. She said it didn’t make her bad.” Tessie hopped off the bed and went to the window, opening the curtains wide.

Jessica squinted away from the light. She pressed the nose of her rabbit in, then let it squish back out. In. Out.

“There she goes.” Tessie suddenly spoke.

Jessica looked up from her rabbit. “Who?”

“Amy.”

Jessica got up and looked out the window, and there was Amy walking down the street. She wore a white shirt and dark blue pants, and her yellow identification braid swung from her shoulder as she walked slowly past Jessica’s house, looking at it with sad thoughtful eyes. She held her tablecloth and her boxes in her arms.

Tessie abruptly left the window and headed out Jessica’s room. “Where are you going?” Jessica called after her. Receiving no answer, she followed her friend and found her opening the front door and going down the porch. Jessica followed Tessie as they headed towards Amy. Amy noticed, and stopped, and now Jessica was no longer following. She quickened her steps and Tessie went faster and then they ran towards Amy.

Amy stood and watched and watched with her sad thoughtful eyes. The tablecloth fell from her arms and collapsed like a wounded animal on the street, and Amy did not notice.

Jessica reached Amy first and bent and picked up the tablecloth. She held it out to Amy and she smiled, and Tessie, coming up behind, also smiled, and Amy smiled and the sad thoughtfulness weighed less heavily on her.

“Hey,” Jessica said. She held out the tablecloth. “Hey. You dropped this.”