I am a Hacker

1.

"It's time." Orva exhaled slowly. After hours of meditating on the Presence of Nature, she opened her eyes and watched her father's Willow Tree wave goodbye.

How she wished she could be as content as the nature in her garden.

She wished to be like the Willow Tree and sway and dance with the wind like they were old companions; to be the Roses that climbed the wooden fences that separated the trio of houses as it conspicuously greeted the Ivy; or to be the old swing set that swung back and forth one after the other, reliving the childhood memories Orva and her brother had made there- the left one always going slightly higher out of confidence. She even wished she were the blades of grass that ducked and rose as if doing some sort of tranquil exercise to express their contempt. It was only Orva that didn't fit in to this colourful atmosphere because she had the thoughts of inevitability probing her mind.

She sighed deeply and stretched her legs against the warm concrete, the stones in-between the cracks marking engravings in her hand. The Willow shook viciously to scold her for procrastinating, but she didn't mind.

The longer she stayed away from the Reveal, the safer she felt.

She closed her eyes and embraced the darkness that emptied her mind. She closed her eyes to embrace the Soul of Nature and hope that it will guide her through her torment of the Reval. Shr believed that by focussing on only the darkness and blocking out everything around her, life didn't seem so pressurising and forceful.

She meditated for a good 20 minutes before the slap of heavy footsteps infected her left ear.

"Orv, Ma is insisting you come in now. You can't avoid it forever."

Orva blocked out the sound of her brother and tightened her lips with irritation. She heard the crunch of stones next to her as her brother bent down,

"Look. I know how scary it is. I was afraid of not becoming a Willower and not living up to being the Heir to the family. The Heir. Now, I know it seems scary at the moment... but it's 5 seconds of your life right? Please come with me and I'll be there for you. At least you're not the heir! You can't avoid it forever." Aaric attempted to laugh to make the situation more comfortable.

"I can try." She didn't open her eyes and continued to bask under the purple sun. All enthusiasm and support drained from Orva's brother.

"Seriously, she'll get angry. What's the worst that could happen? I am a welder. I hate metal. What could possibly be worse than that? I'm don't even have the Heir's Gift! I'm not like father. What could be worse than that?" He sighed and stood up again.

"You have no idea."

Orva finally accepted she couldn't avoid the Reveal any longer and so she opened her eyes to look upon 18 year old brother. He smiled in that annoyingly kind way you would feel guilty to ignore and stretched out his hand in an informally formal manner.

"I hate you," Orva joked, and she took his hand. She took one last look at the garden that was waltzing in the wind and she envied its independence. The Willow threw its leaves up into the bare sky to serenade her wise decision, and she stepped inside the Glassery where her mother was waiting for her.

***

"Are you nervous?" Ma Grace attempted to make conversation with her unusually quiet daughter.

"Mm." She looked forward.

"Have you any idea what-"

"Mm." She interrupted again as an information to stop asking questions.

"It will be fine, my dear. It must've been quite a shock finding out your power on your own, am I right? Why, your brother broke the lamp in his room and the shade snapped- he tried to fix it but ended up welding a new shade! What a complex and incredible gift." She chuckled to herself.

For the rest of the journey to the Social, the trio remained silent. Aaric had been quietly listening to the conversation with a mixture of pride and embarrassment.

When they finally came across the door to the Snug, very subtley Orva's eyes widened in fear. The Adminstrators had arrived. The practises were over.

"Orva Melodie Willower." The Administrator looked at his checkboard and then up at Ma Grace and Orva.

"I'm here." She said with fake confidence. She did not know what she was meant to do. If she failed... she would be disowned and sent away. If she succeeded... she would be feared.

"Please choose one of these objects and show us your Gift." Before her lay a hammer and a piece of metal, a plant pot with seeds but no water, and a mysterious silver box with a bold black question mark on it. The way that the Gift worked was that the children of a couple would either have the power of the mother or the father. Orva's brother Aaric, for example, had his mother's gift of welding. Everyone assumed Orva to have her father's Gift of growing seeds anywhere, however they were wrong. But she didn't understand how she had her Gift.

Orva stared at the Box distastefully knowing that sooner or later, someone would work out what her power was. When she stood there for more than 3 minutes, occasionally throwing glances at the Silver Box, one of the Administrators finally got the message and pulled his two companions into a small huddle. Orva heard a few pieces of conversation escape their enclosed debate.

"It's not possible..." "300 years..." "May be mistaken..." "The box is an alternative..."  They finally emerged from their conversation with a disgruntled, yet formal look on their face.

"Orva Melodie Willower, please choose the object that shows us your Gift."

Without any other option because her family was blocking the door, Orva clutched her brown woollen jumper with one hand and with the other, slowly pointed to the Box.

She was ready.