A cool breeze brushes over my face. My my brain starts to tick. I'm a clock. Every time the hand moves a new thought. 12:00; what time is it? 1:00; what day is it? 2:00; why is there wind in my room? 3:00; I should open my eyes. 4:00; it's the last day.
I open my eyes and gasp for air. The clock stops. It waits on the edge of 4:00 wanting to move on but knowing that it can't. The last day.
The last day I will be free. The last day of my normal life. The last day before I marry.
Questions. So many questions. Who will it be? What will it be like to see a boy for the first time in 5 years? I grip my sheets. Will it be as magical as they say?
The room is pitch black. I Fill my lungs with air and release cautiously. I have a strange heaviness in my stomach. I sit up and reach under my mattress for the only comfort near me. The picture of my parents. The tightness in my throat and stomach floats out of me. They seemed to be the only good part of the Wedlock. I would get to see them.
I lay back down on my back with the picture resting on my heart. I close my eyes and try to move the hand to 5:00.
Suddenly my thoughts are interrupted by a silky familiar voice.
"May, are you awake May? "
My hear skips a beat and I feel the same tightness in my throat and stomach. This time I like the feeling. It soothes me and makes me feel exited. Almost like 20 butterflies are fluttering inside me.
I call out to her. "Yes I'm awake"
"Oh good I wanted to show you something." She says as she diligently climbs up the ladder to my bunk.
"Look" she hands me a paper. On it, is my name and the information of my unit along with my picture. The picture taken at the separation ceremony when I was 13. You would think such an important day would stick to your memory well, but for me, it was the opposite. Next to my name on the paper is Wedlocked to Peter Castrof from unit 2.
This is who I am to marry tomorrow. "Peter Castrof." I run his name through my mind again.
"How did you get this?" I ask.
"Oh you know me. Secret's got her secrets."
I can see through the window that the sun is now rising. I gaze into her eyes. They always intrigued me. One hazel and the other blue gray. The light from the newly born sun shines to reveal her face to me. She had wisps of black hair that laid against her cheeks. The rest of her hair is pulled into a messy bun. I could stare at her for hours.
"I also found mine" she says " and look," she points to both of the papers where it says unit G. "we are both in the same unit!". She smiles at me. I get a warm feeling in my belly. "Here she says." She tears the fold of her grey shirt off and ties it around her wrist. "Now you will always have a piece of me."
She climbs down the latter and scurries away to her bed. I want to chase after her and make her stay. In my bed with her is the only place I want to be. My only desire is to keep Secret. To keep pace.
