The Outside (#wattys2016)

The Beginning

    My eyes jolted open. "I'm awake, I'm awake." I told myself, "It was just a dream." I got up, put my work clothes on and ran outside. I felt something cold, wet and hard. I immediately knew what it was. Hail.

     "Everyone inside! Everyone inside now!" I knew it was good and bad to have hail at the beginning of the season. Hail is a sign of the coming of an snow season. The snow season was amazing. It covered everything in a soft, cold layer of white. We would dig out holes in the snow banks so when the snow season ended, the white would turn to a slick sheet of ice, forming our homes. We called it the Ice Age.  Sometimes, there wouldn't be a snow season, just the bitter cold. Other times there would only be the snow, but we couldn't make homes out of the light fluffy snow.

     Everyone was running from their work, gathering everything they had and running to their cabins. I, who had just gotten up, ran out to help my parents gather their materials. We all had the same jobs, depending on the seasons, except for the children. At 16, you were considered an adult and started The Rotation. The Rotation is the cycle of jobs we had that changed with the seasons. Right now we were miners, to mine copper and iron for the Ice Age. I grabbed the bag with my mother's pickaxe in it and helped my father pick up his things. We ran to the cabin.

     Hail may not seem like a big deal to you, but where we live in the forests, the hail is so big it could kill someone without the proper gear on. We have lots of disadvantages out here. One thing is that everyone has to work to survive. Father has a motto: If you don't feel like working, you don't feel like eating. But the thing is we all rely on each other. It sounds cheesy, but it's true. The adults did most the work in The Rotation, but the children did the basic work: girls learned how to cook and picked berries and boys hunted. At the age of 4 you were required to do those jobs. At 6 you went to a year of school, to learn the history of our land.

     I was an angry and reluctant child. I didn't get our tiny province. I hated the history. Maybe it was because it was so horrible. Our history didn't start or end with any war; there was never a need for one. We were greatly overpowered. We gave in. We gave up. Our history was short and simple. A long time ago, the Insiders just kicked our ancestors out. They had armed forces and I guess living here on the Outside is better than being dead. So now, we've formed what we call the Outside. I think my problem was that I thought it was just so unfair. I needed someone to tell me life isn't always fair. I learned that the hard way though.

     I fell into depression. I was a little child who couldn't have what she wanted. I was so jealous of the Insiders, I wanted to be just like them. I didn't work at all. My parents tried to support me but I was an only child. That meant I was the only one to provide food. That was the flaw in our system. My jealousy got so bad that I ran away. For a whole week my parents starved to death, getting only bits of spare food from neighbors and close friends. My mother became sick and almost died. My dad had to go to work starved. Just because of me. I can't forgive myself to this day.