To Be Alone

Bring me back

The wind was chilly, and it nipped at my skin as I held my thin clothes closer to my shivering body. The day was dull, and cloudy, and I looked longingly out, past the barbed wire fence, over the many houses below the hill and into the distance. I felt so different, there is no one like me, there hasn’t been for a long time.

A chill ran down my spine as I remembered…

The smell of ash and smoke, being pushed and pulled, shoved and tugged as we all bustled around trying to get off the boat. I was in a much different place than I was used to, where I come from, we have beautiful flowers, long, green, flowing grass, the scent of the flowers so strong that you can almost taste it, and the feel of the grass between your toes, so soft and welcoming, I miss it. Now where I was, it was dark and dull, the smoke from the many factories tainting the once perfect air, the stink of ash and smoke from men’s cigars tampering with my ability to breath. I turned to look at him, little did I know that it would be the last time, “I don’t like this place is smelly and unclean, and we are all alone, there is no one like us, nothing like what we used to have” I said to him, a voice pleading, I wanted to go back home, back to my friends, to the plants, the warmth, the fresh air, everything. “I know you hate it here, but we’ve no choice, we lost our home, now this place is all we have” he responded knowingly, he missed home to.

Suddenly a man grabbed him and began dragging him away, “No, brother!” I yelled. He dropped to his knees, and said “Shhh, I’ll be okay, just remember, as devoid of hope as you may feel, remember, you are not alone” and with that her was dragged away.

Suddenly I was brought back to the present, by a push. I was knocked to the ground and grazed my knees on the rough dirt. I pulled myself back up and looked my assailant in the eyes. “Here is you’re lunch, make it last, it’s your last free lunch for a few days” He said, eyes cold and hard, looking down on me as if I was nothing more than a dog that needed a good kicking. He threw the back at my feet. I said nothing, and made no effort to retrieve the back, I simply stared him down. Finally he left, but not before spitting at me, “Other-lander pig” he said, turning on his heel, stepping on my lunch as he left.

I bent down and picked up my lunch, travelling further up the hill, to a small patch of grass under the tree in which I lived.

I sat down and looked out, into the distance, longing for home, for my brother.

“Don’t worry brother, it doesn’t matter what they throw at me, what they take from me, what they do to me, I will never lose my spirit, I will never lose hope, I will get your revenge, I will get our revenge, they will pay” This was my last thought as I lent up against the tree, and drifted asleep, food in hand, remembering my home, my brother.