Puzzling Mysteries: A Gemme Anthology

Zealia

Written by soulful_sojourner

We all have certain mysteries that we have yet to unfold, things that would be very energy draining to find out about. Like the this-was-never-supposed-to-happen-mysteries. You know cold cases?

That's what I think of the missing case of Zealia, who is aged same as me and still in university.

The news pods statements of her friends, a week old, stare at me beckoning to unravel the meanings behind them.

"She never gave any vibes of being an Auroraist. She was cheerful and ever helping and concerned to parents and big broski's needs. She was a poster model of a good Helili upbringing girl until this missing thing."

I would almost agree with this statement, if not for our last encounter. Before I delve into our last encounter I might need to give a few gist of how things are in the place I live.. Luthra.

Being a citizen of Luthra, I have seen the nation being in a weak grapple between the two major governing forces of Aurora and Helili.

Helili is this new age religion which is based on applying control to the mini scale lives and its backed up by observable, repeatable, measurable results that has wooed most of Luthrans to vote for them both as a religion and a governing political party. Aurora on the other hand is based on freedom from such Helili means of controlling measures.

Her friends back in the newspaper heading were meaning to defend her as a part of Helili since her missing case has made the Auroraists doubt she ran away from home since it's not possible to be missing out of a Helili house with such equipped security. Zealia's parents and friends claimed that she was kidnapped.

Our families, both Zealia's and mine were strong Helilists and so every weekend we had our gatherings called Leap. We had our Leap school starting from grade 1 and in our class it was just Zealia and me.

As I have been seeing her at our Leap meetings since forever and if anything, she looks like the opposite of a missing-able person. I have to agree with the news pods' statements of her friends.

I took a glance at the newspaper when I should have been correcting my cram school students' test papers.. Zealia's smile spoke of something that I knew.. A subtle sad smile that only those who are trying hard to suppress their thoughts would recognize..

Our last encounter made my assumptions even more firm-er than ever.

What happens usually during a Leap class is as follows : I, like a doubting Thomas of a skeptic, would wonder of making a talk with Zealia but in the end I overthink to the point of nothingness. Surprisingly, it seems like she understands me? 'Cause after each class when I tried to initiate a conversation she thanked me.. Needless to say this never stopped astounding me.

The genuineness in her eyes, cascading waterfalls of her voice, all used to make me forget what I was, even going to speak. Yet each class I kept trying to initiate—much so that this became our routine, our personal ritual, unseen by her brother or anyone or Leap teachers.

When we were 25, we were both chosen as Leap volunteers for maintenance of seats. Our ritual continued as good as ever.

But last Leap was the first time I bent our routine a bit.

She was handling the seats from the row next to mine and we both took a mini break. I scrambled up my inner fearful voices and took a big breath before passing her a piece of paper with these words.

hey, zealia, if we are really good members of leap standing for their motto of ultimate peace for all, why is it that we haven't had an ounce of quality talk? let's ignore the superficial frivolities for a while. yes I'm fine and you're fine by our helili efforts. But what are u and i afraid of?