NINE TIME MACHINES: Do you want to undo your entire life on planet earth?

CHAPTER 8

Father Paul drove Ebony and I here under the cloak of darkness. I only knew that we were in her country when I stole glances out my bedroom window and saw people who looked just like me. I thought it meant I could finally escape my lifelong hiding place. But Ebony would have none of it. And I soon learned why. The Dahlyxians are a race of people dark grey in complexion with ash grey hair and eyes, and a grater texture of skin that smoothens out over time. But for some that never happens. So they are ostracized in their own country. Yet, even among these are those who think themselves better than the hopefuls, all because their skin is a chessboard of smooth and rough, since they can't afford the camouflage to fit in. Every cent they manage to scrape is usually spent on food, or trying to escape like we all would if we could afford it.

Ebony soon found herself in the same position. Frivolous spending was now a thing of the past. As such, she had become the first hopeful with smooth skin, her last claim to the fame she once enjoyed. And since only a few boxes of the camouflage Ebony bought remained, she didn't want to risk anyone finding out that her clandestine daughter was among the incomplete. Then she died and left me in our castle to keep up the pretence alone. For a while I was a baton slipping from all who tried to help until Father Paul saved me, turned me over to Matron Caine's Bunny House for safekeeping. Then I got to see almost all of Leer Island; the zoo when Father Paul gave me money, the library which was free to all, and my precious park filled with towering trees and playful winds.

Sometimes, along my trek, I would imagine that I worked in those fancy buildings, ate in fine restaurants. Then I finally did and got to experience other parts of the island that remain a memory today. But I also experienced injustices, corruption too, which taught me why everyone wanted out of Leer Island. On this island, survival belongs only to those willing to take it by any means necessary. And the ones most sullied by imperfection claw their way to the top. Most remain there today by sucking the good out of those naïve enough to still expect change. So in my eyes, Leer Island is a sky on the verge of crumbling, shaken out of place by angry hands. And sometimes I think the hopefuls exist simply as a reminder that karma awaits. But then I see them succumb to the rusty key like everyone else and don't think them as frightening as Ebony made me believe. In the end, it appears that Leer Island swallows us all, even those pesky Dream Killers.