Down the Road

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

Dear Diary

Today is the 4th of May. The day of the perfect creation of Sublime and the day I was found on the doorstep and declared as my birthday. The day known as Prefer- Cection Day. You know, the first people of the town couldn’t decide between the names ‘perfection’ and ‘creation’ and simply decided to create a name using every letter of both words. And that’s how we get the name Prefer- Cection. Isn’t it just tedious how inarticulate people can be when they think everything about them is perfect? Well, this is the day I most contemn. I am loathsome of his day. Every year, we attend a celebration in the morning and go to a massive feast. The Dearths sit at the head table, as do I and I am always to sit in the centre as they announce my ‘wonderful’ birthday to the whole community again. This is the only day that every single person in the entire town must be nice to me. If they weren’t, they were excused from the feast and were not to return, ever, again. The Dearths think highly of me, and anyone who disrespects me in front of them, are shamed. I hate this. I prefer it when the people treat me terribly, because then I know they are not pretending. This happened once, several years ago, I mean somebody getting kicked out. It was my 5th “birthday”, the year I first became familiar, because I started school. One man didn’t think any unspoken rule was in place and didn’t care about respect and announced in front of everyone and right in the face of the Dearths, “Why keep the trash, make your own diamond and give the town its complete perfection without tainting it with vermin.” The Dearths got so unbelievably angry that they actually banished the man from the town its self and he was never seen again. The Dearths didn’t like being told they’re wrong especially when others make accusations about their private lives. The man was safe to say those things anyway, he had no family, not a great home and his time was coming soon. I guess he probably wanted that to happen. Either way we’ll never know. As the day wore on people made conversation, ate or just sat in boredom, mostly the children. This is the day when everybody catches up on all the gossip, all the events and all the plans in each other’s lives. I think this day is more an invasion of privacy, if you ask me. Nobody comes up to me to chat. They leave me alone and I like that. With the exception of the Dearths dragging me into their conversations to make me feel more accepted. If anything I feel more hated. As the day was coming to an end, a strange looking man came up to me and asked how my day had been. I replied,

“The usual”.

At that he smirked and said,

“Well now, I hardly see this is usual. You never speak to anyone.  I consider myself a little special.”

 In answering I said with a smile on my lips,

“You may be special for being the first person to talk to me, but you still haven’t won the medal of being the first person I’ve spoken to.” He laughed.

“You know you don’t seem as bad as they say you are.”

“They don’t even know me. They just have a label on me saying ‘Scum. Owned by the Dearths and therefore cannot be touched, especially in front of the Dearths themselves.’” I said with a sad smile, looking down.

 He could obviously tell it was time to change the subject and said,

“Why don’t we go out sometime and have a little fun, away from this nasty crowd.” In reply I said,

“I’d like that very much.”

And before we could say anything else the Dearths cut in.

“Found some friends huh?”, said Derek Dearth. “It’s good to see my girl having fun on her birthday for once.”

“Thank you father” I replied and with that, off they went.

 I looked back at the man and said, “I didn’t get your name, mine’s Cassandra, but you can call me Cass.”

“Alec, pleasure to meet you Cass.”

“Why don’t you sit down and we can talk,” I offered.

 And the night went on in bliss. As I lay in bed after we got home, I couldn’t help feeling joy, that I was fitting in somewhere in this town, and maybe finally having fun for once. That night I fell asleep with a smile on my lips.

Cass