The dim light above our table provides us with just enough light to verify what we are eating. The sound of metal hitting glass fills the silence at the dinner table. My older brother and sister sit motionless gazing down at their grayish slop we had to eat for dinner that night. Mother and Father sit upright with amazed faces as they read today's edition newspaper.
As they reach the final page of the newspaper, blaring horns sound making all of us jump a foot off the ground. We all rush out the door and into the cold, brisk air.
The horns echo through our dull town, wind whistles and bites our skin as the sun hides behind the gray clouds trying desperately to come out. The horns are instructing us to gather at our state's community announcement building.
A blast of heat welcomes us as we try so desperately to squeeze into the narrow, cramped building.
" Hello," the leader of our state yells into the microphone.
Murmurs of greeting echo in return through the slim building. " You have been summoned here for an important announcement." Another pause to ensure she had our attention for the big announcement.
" You know the terrorist numbers in the Indomitable state have grown rapidly and the the number of deaths, specifically murders, are growing faster than ever before."
This time she pauses to let the horrid words sink in. A shutter goes down my spine as I hear the word terrorist leave Joanna's lips.
"Members from our state were chosen by the president to go under cover and observe the Indomitable state's wrong doings," Joanna further explains. Glances are shot around the room as the community that surrounds me is covered with a blanket of fear.
"For all those that have been chosen, will come great pain, endurance, strength, weakness and possibly death. The members that have been chosen will meet here Friday's evening at five o'clock sharp," Joanna now holds the attention of everyone in the room, for anyone could be the chosen one. The Committee stands with great pride behind Joanna. Their reflections in the marble flooring mimic their every move.
"A letter will be sent out to those who have been chosen," Joanna continues. My already sweaty hands seem to be their own ocean as I have the sudden realization that I could be one. I could be a chosen one. The honor must be great although Joanna did say that one could be facing death if assigned to a deadly group. The room starts to spin as the ground seems to get closer and reality seems to be further away.
~~~
I wake up with the feeling that I am being swept away by an enormous wave coming out of nowhere. With that I wake up with a jolt and choking on the water they used to wake me up from the realization of reality.
"Are you ok, Tucker?" my mother asked quickly. I struggled to reply with full sentences. I get up slowly trying to not draw attention to myself. Joanna looks strangely at me as if I have two heads and four bodies.
~~~
Back home we go straight to our separate rooms to go to sleep right away. I don't I go into my room and lay desperately seeking sleep but it doesn't come. I try not thinking about the future that could lay ahead of me. Slowly I drift to a stressful sleep.
I wake with the outside still black like the cats that wonder on Halloween. I sit in a pool of sweat soaking the sheets on my bed. I look over to my older brother noticing that his eyes too are open. " Thomas," I started. " Do you think we will be chosen to go spy on Indomitable?" I ask worriedly.
"I don't know Tucker," he replies while trying to hide his fear and weariness. " I bet if you try to sleep, you will worry less. We have a big day tomorrow and you need your sleep," he continues. I nod in agreement. I can't believe that I almost forgot that tomorrow is the Harvest.
The Harvest is when every farmer, so everyone, gets to go to the town center and sell their goods to the rest of the city. The Harvest is my favorite day of the year because I get to see my friends that I never get to see in the rest of the year and we get to miss school! This year my family is selling our capacious amount of cantaloupe. Our crops were very successful this year hopefully providing us with a surplus of money to help us make it through the rest of the year and setting us up for next year when my older brother and sister attend the University.
After the excitement of tomorrow sweeps over me, sleep comes easily.
~~~
My father rushes in while trying to compose his excitement but some sneaks through in his words. "Come on boys! Let's go, get up, get ready! Today is a very important day that determines the next year of your life," he announces like one of those game show hosts. I've never heard my dad so excited about the Harvest. My sister bounds into the room wearing her new sleek silk red dress with her hair tied back in a tight ballerina bun on the top of her head. Her shoes sound like a horse running along the sidewalk with horseshoes on. My brother and my dress pants and shirt hang across the room on the closet handle.
"Would you get up already!" Mychael yells and me and my brother. She never had been very patient with us, especially on Harvest day. My father mimics the same phrase with more urgency. I finally flop out of bed on to the floor unwillingly. The hardwood floor is cold on my body. Slowly I stand up examining the room in which my family gathered on this glorious morning.
My pants are tight. My shirt itches. My shoes are to small. My tie is too short. Sometimes I can go with dressing up for special events but today of all days I cannot. Today most kids get a break from the constant dress pants and shirts but not me. Not our family. Not this year.
We quickly eat our dry toast for breakfast and scurry out the door. My brother and I try to hide along the way to the tent but my mother or father notices and snatches out ear and drags us through the city. As we march to Town Center we get many sideways glances due to the way Thomas and I are acting. My mother and Mychael, my older sister, shoot us many looks of hate do to their reputation in our state. They seem to be the perfect girls with the perfect clothes with the perfect house and the perfect family. Maybe they do that to get treated well. Only them and us know the truth. Our lack of space, food ,and money. We are pretty good actors I would say. We've been acting for several of years, but our mud stained clothes and faces give us away to those to pay attention to us. But the Harvest can sometimes turn that around for us. Don't get me wrong, I love the Harvest but sometimes it is a bit overwhelming.
The city is ugly. The bland streets and buildings absorb all of the happiness that could ever come into the city. Dust and plastic bags linger above our heads. The city smells like death and garbage. I'm pretty sure our state's leader built this thing on top of a landfill which was on top of a cemetery. My family agrees.
Finally, we reach the Harvest fairgrounds and squeeze through the crowd of sweaty dirty people.
