Secrets

Meet Levi

"Levi, get ready for the learning program!" Levi's mother hollered from the basic kitchen.

Since the world was fair and perfect now, everyone had the same homes, clothes, hair styles, and even the same food they ate. Levi lived like everyone else.... Brown square house, a white shirt with blue jeans, slicked back hair, and a breakfast of eggs, toast, and orange juice. He went to the "learning program" with every other kid that lived in state 9, county eleven. Every state now had a number instead of a name because according to the government, one state may not have a cooler name then another. The only thing that was aloud to be different was your name. You could have the craziest, strangest, coolest name around and congress could not do a thing about it. Parents took advantage of this, they named their precious children the most unique names they could think of. Elanzah, fara, and jadalyn were only some of the plain names. Levi had a common Jewish name, a name that represented him, a name that said he was not like everyone else. Levi was 12 now, and he had grown up living with the rules of the world, his mom grew up learning the rules, his grandma, and great grandma had grown up with the same rules. He didn't know anything more than the food he had eaten his while life. He didn't have a clue that long ago, there was some freedom in people's lives. He liked his life just the way it was, and felt that there was nothing wrong with it.
" Levi!" His mother called again. "Your breakfast is ready!"
Levi rolled out of his blue plaid bed covers, and pulled them back up to the top. He took the sides, and tucked them under the mattress. Then, he placed his plain white pillow on top. His queen sized bed was made, and now he could go have his breakfast. He flew down the stairs, and started to sprint down the narrow hall. He was trying to beat his little sister, jamillia, to the table. There was only one seat near the window at the table. Levi and Jamillia loved to watch the deer grazing in the field behind their house. The other three chairs faced the way opposite of the deer window. Usually Jamillia got the seat because she got up super early just to beat Levi, but today Levi was determined to get to the window seat first. He heard the tiny feet of his sister scrambling down the stairs. She reached the hall, and started running. She was gaining on him.
"You are not getting the window spot today!" Levi called over his shoulder.
Jamillia didn't answer.
Levi didn't hear her feet anymore. He didn't hear her frantic panting behind him. He could not smell the plain flower smelling perfume that all girls had to wear. He turned around to nothing. His sister was no longer in the hall.
"Alright Jimillia, come on!" He called, walking back down the hall. He sauntered up the stairs calling her.
"Jamillia, please come out. I don't want to play hide-and-seek today."
No answer. No smell. No feet. No panting.
Levi began to get worried. He didn't know where his sister went, and there was no trace of her anywhere. She couldn't have gone anywhere, though. The last place she was in was the hall. The only place she could have gone is up the stairs because there were no windows in the hall and Levi would have known if she had passed him. He peeked his head into the pink room that all little girls had. He searched the room, and left still without knowing where his sister was. He searched the whole second floor with his mind racing about where his sister had gone. His mom had called him for breakfast about ten times now, and Levi had ignored her all those times. He finally gave up on trying to find Jamillia, and bounded down the white carpet stairs.
"Hey mom have you seen..." Levi stopped himself. He did not want his mom worrying about the sudden disappearance of Jamillia.
"Have I seen what?" His mom asked curiosity burning in her amber eyes.
"Umm, have you seen my, umm, pale blue tie?" He stammered.
He knew immediately as he said it that it was the wrong thing to say.
"Are you feeling alright?" Mrs. Jenter asked, coming over to feel her sons' forehead.
Levi yanked her hand away, and snapped
"I'm fine!"
His mom still looked at him wierd.
"You must not feel right because we only wear pale blue ties on Sunday morning worships. Here, take your breakfast with you to the learning center, you are going to be tardy."
She scraped his breakfast into a lunch box, and put his orange juice into a sealing cup. Handing it to him, she added.....
"Oh, and can you take Jamillia's breakfast too? She must have snuck past me on her way out to the learning center. She probably wanted to ask her teacher about a numbers learning question before the morning bell rang." His mom handed him her eggs, toast, and juice. She planted a wet kiss on the top of Levi's slick hair, and waved to him as he slipped his tennis shoes on and walked out the door that looked identical to everyone else's.
As Levi sauntered down the driveway, he spotted two kids from another grade at the learning center walking together. They were two girls with the same white blouse, a blue skirt, and hair in a tight high ponytail. Their book holder sacs were the same pink color as Jamillia, and all her little grade three friends. Levi was one of many grade seven students at the state 9, county 11 learning center. He was friends with everyone there. That was the law. You must be friends with everyone, and you must be kind to every single soul. Levi followed the rules just like his fellow piers did. Even though, he would maybe like to pick his own group of friends to hang out with, he couldn't. It just wasn't allowed.
Levi sped up a little when he saw the time on his watch, it was already 7:30 am, and school started in twenty minutes. He had to hurry if he didn't want to be tardy. He tried to make conversation with Sadie, one of his classmates, but he still couldn't keep his mind off of Jamillia. Where had she possibly have gone?
It was like the world was keeping a secret from him.