Hush

Part 1 - Gift Giving

Silent.

That is all I could be now, all I was allowed to be, thanks to my newfound "birthday gift": my curse. Whenever someone in our society turns 17 we get a gift from the Elders; no one knows whether the gift is going to be good or bad, for they either bring pure joy to your life or pure misery. Today is my 17th birthday and my entire family has been given blessings when they turned 17 so I hadn't been worried, but I should have.

*Earlier that day*

I woke to my mother shaking me gently while singing happy birthday to me. I smiled my eyes still closed, "Good morning mom".

"Good morning my sweet Mya. Now you must get up you don't want to be late to receive your gift from the Elders now do you?" she said slightly scolding me.

"No, mom," I sighed and pulled myself up from bed, "I'll be down in a sec just let me change first."

My mom smiled at me and nodded walking back to the doorway, but before she left the room completely she said, "make sure to wear that blue dress you were given". Before scurrying out the door.

I groaned internally I really hated wearing dresses, but rules were rules, and I was considered disrespectful to wear jeans and a t-shirt to a gift giving ceremony. I got up and took a quick shower to freshen myself up. Then pulled the blue dress over my head and quickly ran a brush through my hair. Once I looked presentable I practically ran down the stairs, giddy with excitement. I couldn't wait to find out what my gift was, would it be adoration from others like my mother, unexplainably smart like my dad, or dashingly beautiful like my sister. My whole family had received blessings from the elders for generations, I couldn't wait for mine.

(45 min later)

My mom ushered my family into our car to take us the center of the city where I would receive my gift in front of the rest of the community. When we got to the tall grey stone building I stood taking a breath wanting this moment to last forever.

We got the the main doors where the guards gave us our seat numbers and lead us inside the ginormous building. The room was full with stained glass, tapestries, and paintings that filled the walls of the room. The seats were all made from fresh pine, foresters make these specially for today. Each seat has a ribbon for the family to sit together, all the seats where my family and I would sit had a red bow on the back of the chairs. There were others with blue, yellow, orange, indigo, white, gray, and any other color you could possibly imagine.

It only took about 10 minutes for everyone to take their seats and then the Elders came on stage. We all clapped out of respect for them, it was customary, a normal part of our lives. The Chief Elder raised his hand signaling for us to quiet down.

"Welcome community to our annual gift giving ceremony" his voice rumbled out over the audience like a tidal wave. Again we clapped till his hand raised for the second time. "I is my honor to give these young hearts a gift to help them along their life journey, now I know that some gifts are less welcomed than others, but every gift is just to harness the power inside each young mind. So with out further ado let us begin the gift giving ceremony!"

"I'm so nervous and excited!" I whispered over to my sister she just shushed me and continued to listen the things the Gift Giver was saying, but I already knew what he was saying. He would tell us that when it was our turn we would go on stage and a box would appear, we would then place our hand on the box and it would open reveling a single word: 𝕮𝖚𝖗𝖘𝖊𝖉 or 𝓑𝓵𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓮𝓭. Once we saw it we would have the option to read out what our gift was to our community or wait till we get home and the sheet with each persons cure/blessing.

Finally they called up the fist person, "Luke Winters," the Gift Giver called out, "Come receive your gift". Luke walked on stage and placed his hand on the box it opened reveling the word 𝓑𝓵𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓮𝓭.

He visibly sighed with relief and read out his blessing, "You shall be succeed in whatever you attempt," Luke's face lit up as he read these words.

"Congratulations. You may return to your seat," the Gift Giver announced.

This went on and on, by the time they called my name 17 people had gotten a curse and 56 had been given a blessing.

"Mya Johnson, Come receive your gift," the Gift Giver called out.

With shaking legs I walked onto the stage my nerves beginning to take hold of me. I stepped onto the vast stage and attempted to walk as confidently as I could to the box waiting for me in the middle of the stage. Each step felt agonizing and painfully slow.

When I finally reached the box I placed my hand on the bright red box, that matched the bows on the back of my chairs, I sucked in a breath as the layers fell away leaving one word looking down on me as if it were taunting me.

𝕮𝖚𝖗𝖘𝖊𝖉

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