The Moments I Recall

CHAPTER THREE

*TW* *Mildly Scary Content*

When I finally make my way back to the campground, I end up on a bench near the playground watching kids run happily. I let the mystery of the fence leave my mind.

"Just four days." I sigh.

The sun colours the ground a dark yellow as it sets. All the kids start to leave together, so I follow. They lead me into a giant hall lit up with artificial orange light. Inside many wooden tables with benches to sit on either side stretch along the hall. Food has been placed in individual ceramic bowls for everyone. I sit and eat like everyone else, tuning out the noise around me.

Looking around, I can't find a single adult. The hall is almost filled with kids, kids that were not on the bus I came with. Dozens of multi coloured heads moving in the sea of voices, all with the same skin variation.

When I turn back to my table, I notice the orange-haired girl from the bus had been sitting next to me this whole time. Her head facing towards a blonde girl besides her.

"Hey, when'd she get here?" I ask the orange haired girl, tapping her shoulder.

"She was already here." She replies.

"What's your name?"

"Charlotte." She answers.

"And what is your name." I ask her friend.

"What?"

"Your name?" I repeat raising my voice. Maybe she doesn't understand me. Most will just repeat the sentence to correct it.

"My...name?" she says confused. Like that.

"She doesn't have one I don't think," Charlotte calls back. "When did you get here?" Charlotte asks her friend.

"Get where? What are you talking about?" The blonde girl asks back confused.

"How old are you?" I ask irritated.

"Old?"

I leave the table to look for an adult. Stepping outside, I cover my eyes to block the light of the setting sun. No one was outside, I stood alone.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

I wait until it is dark before I return inside. The orange haired girl has left the table, but her friend was still seated.

"Where'd Charlotte go?" I ask tapping her shoulder. She does not reply. Her body is still. "Hey, you seen the orange-head girl you was talking to before?" I ask tapping her a bit harder. No reply. She didn't even flinch. I grab her shoulder, turning her towards me, I move up onto the bench so she can see me. "Hey...." I start, but I stop at the sight of her face.

Her eyes seem stuck wide open, and her thin lips paused in a small frown. The pupils of her eyes are so large only the rim of her dark brown iris is left. She remains motionless staring directly at me, but I do not think she knows I'm here. She is completely paralysed. Her spine stiff, now seemed to be made of steel.

My lips part, but no sound leaves them. I move my hand from her shoulder and clasp my mouth. I don't think I can move. I can't tear my eyes away from hers.

A man with navy overalls approaches us. He is not the same guy as the man before, he is shorter, and fatter. He lifts the paralysed girl into his arms cradling her, then walks away.

"Wait!" I call out louder than I wanted to. I see a few curious eyes drift towards me, but the man continues walking. "Mister, wait!" I push myself off the table and run after him. Reaching out to grab his arm, my hand passes straight through his upper body. I stop instantly and watch as the man walks down the aisle and leave through a side door. Heavy breaths leaving me as my body starts to quiver. My jaw hanging in my hands, gravity's hook pierced through my tongue.

A white woman comes out of the side door the man just left from. She's tall and skinny and wears her silver hair in a messy low bun. She places her bony hand on my shoulder and moves me to the side as she makes her way to the front of the hall. My body jittering more at the thought of her skeletal hand and the remains being left on my shoulder. I don't look, but manage to turn to face her instead. She stands with her long fingers intertwined, the skin on her hands still there hugging her bones. The children fall completely silent.

"Welcome to a new year!" she announces, then makes her way back down the aisle and through the side door.

☆☆☆☆☆☆

The kids start to leave together. I am shoved through the front entrance of the hall by the crowd of kids. I follow them to six cabins where they start to divide themselves into them. I enter the third. Inside, there are dozens of bunk beds in rows, but the whole cabin seems empty like a dark, hollow box. The rumbling and scuffling of dozens of feet against the wooden floor echoing around like dramatic pounding against the walls of my head.

"Four days," I remind myself as I lay back on an empty bed, but my cheeks are already wet. What makes it worse is that in the faint light of the cabin, two deep blue eyes stare at me. A chubby boy on the top bunk of my bed blinks at me. His dirty blonde hair hanging from the edge of the bed as his round cheeks start drawing colour.

"Hey." He says. "Why are you crying?"

"I, I." A lump rises in my throat. His blue eyes wait, staring at me for an answer, but I can't give him one.

"My name is Theo, what is yours?" He continues. I part my lips, but I cannot form the words.

"Have you forgotten your name too?" he asks. I furrow my eyebrows.

"No I have not" I reply.

"So you can talk." I hear him smile. 

"Do you know your age?" I ask.

"What is your name?" he asks back.

"Xylia." I reply

"Why were you crying?" He asks. I swallow hard. "You saw someone space." Theo says.

"Space?"

"Yeah, like spaced out." He explains. "I walked up to this girl who was sitting on a swing by this massive tree and she was stiff. Her eyes were huge, and she couldn't like, see me. She was spaced out, she spaced." He lifts his head up off of the edge of his bunk.

"How old are you?" "When'd you get here? Were you on the bus?" I ask. He laughs and looks at me again. "What?" I say.

"You talk funny." He smiles. I cross my arms tuning away from him. "I'm eight," he tells me, "I got here on the same bus as you, I saw you kneeling on your seat. How old are you?"

"I'm...." I start to answer but I realize that I had forgotten that it was my birthday. I leave the bed and search the floor.

"What are you looking for?" he asks kneeling beside me.

"A rock." I answer back. He turns away. He's about as tall as I am, but he looks much older, he acts older too. He turns back to me and hands me a small, jagged stone. I hop back on my bed and scratch my name into the wooden wall.

"That's a good idea." He says from behind me. Under my name, I carve my age too.

"I'm eight now too," I tell him. "Today's my birthday."

"Happy birthday." He says. I hand him the small rock and he jumps back up onto his bed.

"I miss my momma." I sigh. I knew I should had stayed.

"I don't have a mom." He replies. "I'm a foster kid."

"Oh..."

"It's ok."

"You know what?" He continues, "I will be your family if you promise to not cry anymore, It's kinda "

"Deal." I reply.

"Good." He smiles. "Don't space out on me Xylia." 

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□