Aqua Jewel

Chapter 3 - A Voyage by Train

I was stunned. I couldn't move. Tears welled up in my eyes and my breathing became unsteady. Many thoughts and emotions were swimming around in my head. This was not what I had expected.

I had wondered my whole life up until then what my talent would be. But I didn't have one. I was untalented.

I felt as if my insides had fallen off a cliff and left my body behind as I realized ... I was going to be taken away. I would never get to finish my life with the people in my little village that I'd grown up knowing. Mira, Oranah, Mrs. Roy, Bya, my mother ... I would never see any of them again.

I felt a hand on my arm and I came back to reality. It was one of the guards from the main village of Mencia – a guard was sent to watch over the Talent Gaining in every village. He transported the Globe of Tarahabi from village to village and collected the untalented. The people like me.

The guard led me through the crowd towards the door. The audience parted to make a path for us. We were walking fast. I turned around to look at Bya, who looked back at me helplessly. With a jolt I realized that this was what she had tried to warn me about. The tears in my eyes finally poured down my cheeks.

I must have been walking slower because I tripped, but the guard kept a firm grip on my arm. Just before we reached the door, I looked back at my mother. Her ocean blue eyes sparkled with tears. I wanted to run over and let her squeeze me in a tight hug. I wanted her to tell me that everything would be fine – just like she always did – then all my worries and troubles would disappear. But now things were different. Now that I was untalented, that wouldn't happen anymore. I managed to make eye contact for only a second before the guard pulled me out the door.

I could only hear the teachers closing their classroom doors so their classes wouldn't be distracted by me, as tears blurred my vision. Nobody cared about me. Not anymore. Now that I was untalented, they wanted me to get out of their lives. I cried harder.

The next five minutes were quite possibly the most miserable of my life. I could hardly see where we were going because of my teary eyes. I was lost in my own horrible thoughts. It was like falling down a long black hole. I couldn't see the bottom but I knew that soon I would reach it. A kind of death awaited me.

When my sobbing decreased enough to allow me to take in my surrounds, I saw that we were nearing the train station. I walked a bit faster, and less carelessly so that the guard was no longer dragging me along. He simply held onto my arm while hurrying along beside me. I could tell the guard was trying not to look at me. It was his job; to take children away from everything they loved and send them away to who knows where. It was the only way for him to earn money. But why should he care? He should be glad, for he wasn't the one being sent away. He wasn't untalented, like me.

At first, I was confused when we passed the ticket booth without stopping, but of course you couldn't just buy a ticket to the place I was going.

We walked all the way to the very last track. In all my life I'd never seen a train there. But, today, my eyes were met by the smallest train that I'd ever seen. It consisted of just two compartments that looked like big boxes on wheels. I wondered where I was supposed to sit. As we got closer, I saw a door on the side of each box, but there were no windows.

The guard spoke to me. "You're lucky," he said. "There are a few of you this time, so you won't be alone, at least." I was surprised. It was rare to be untalented, and I hadn't expected anyone else to join me on the journey to wherever it was I was going.

We reached the small train and the guard led me over to the door of the second compartment. He slid open the door. There was no light inside other than the faint sunlight coming in through the doorway, but I could still just about see four people sitting along the sides – two girls and two boys. Judging by what the guard had said, there were more of us than he had expected, but I was too depressed to wonder why.