What's the Worst That Could Happen? - Awareness Story

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟓

      

     Esme sprang up, her eyes snapping open, her breathing hard. She placed a hand against her chest, feeling her heart hammering. She took in her surroundings. She was on her bed. Her curtains were not covering her windows, and she could see outside clearly. It was bright, the sun was up. The weather was clear.

"It was all a dream..." she huffed to herself in disbelief. Or is it?

She shot up from her bed, put on her flip flops, and hastily opened her bedroom door. Evi's door was open as well. She grabbed her phone and quickly though hesitantly rushed down the stairs. All the bathroom lights were shut, there was no one in Evi's bedroom nor her parents' bedroom. No one in the living room either. She peeked her head in the kitchen, and was met with her parents and Evi only. No uncle Bram.

"11 PM." her dad mused, sipping on his coffee.

"She must've been tired." Anne replied, giving Esme's dad a glare before facing Esme with a smile. "Good morning sleeping beauty."

"Morning." she said quietly, trying to think of what she could ask to justify where uncle Bram is. "...How... How's uncle Bram?"

Everyone was clearly somewhat surprised by her question.

"Still in Palestine... But he's okay for now." Abe answered.

"Right. Good." Esme exhaled, "We need to bring him and aunt Dalia here as soon as we possibly can."

"Well, it's not up to us-"

"We can still try."

Even Evi was shocked by her sister's demeanor at the moment.

"Honey, is everything okay?" her mom asked.

Esme nodded at her.

"Yeah, yes, just... Actually, can we talk for a second mom?"

"Of course we can."

Esme nodded quickly again, and gestured for her mom to stand up from her seat, which no one else at the table really understood at first. "In private."

     "...And you're telling me you dreamed all of that?"

"Yes! It was all a dream but it felt so realistic, and I don't know what got into me all of a sudden." Esme lightly shrugged.

"It's probably because of everything you read last night."

"Well yeah, but that's not the point." she rolled her eyes, "I don't know, it just... Felt like a sign. Like a warning, you know? The event with Zora I saw, all the other different scenes... They have all actually happened. They're real. A lot of them are recent too. Wars happen all the time, uncle Bram is in danger right now as we speak, so is his family, so are thousands of people in Gaza. Which is why we need to bring him back here fast, and help as much as we can with them."

"How exactly...?" her mom scoffed a little.

"I don't know. Donations, awareness, spreading the things we see online... Anything. We just have to help." She emphasized.

The tension was thick in the room now. Esme hadn't ever had a conversation as such with her mother before nor had she pressed her about something as such. At first it seemed like she was overreacting, but soon enough her mother understood and nodded in agreement.

"Okay. You're right. We should do something."

And Esme gave her mother a gentle smile, now pleased and more relaxed.

"I need to talk to dad too. And go visit Millie." she murmured to herself, now glancing at her mom one last time before leaving the room, not replying to her mom when she called out to her about breakfast. 

Esme first of all went to Millie's house. She had to make sure she was okay, first of all, and second of all she wanted to have a chat with her about the idea she previously had. She didn't discourage her about it or stop her from doing it, she instead told her that even though she should do it if she feels like she wants to, she should be ready for a negative reaction, a very negative reaction, and be okay with it. Be okay with the fact that there's people, a lot of people, who in our time and date still will have a problem with the way she is. But that doesn't mean she should stop feeling proud. This is who she is - and if people don't like it, then they should learn how to deal with it instead of Millie having to hide it. And Millie liked that response. She decided she would tell her brother anyway. Esme also talked to Millie about the dream she had. And together, they said they'd start raising awareness and fight against homophobia as much as they could, in any way they could. Homophobia and racism. They would help Zora as much as they could, in-school and out of school, because she shouldn't have to adapt to any of the treatment she was getting, it was wrong. The very same day, which was a day off for all the students in the school, they went and talked to the principal about the incident that happened, reporting the group of people who mistreated Zora and asking for something to happen to prevent this kind of behaviour.