Bliss

12 - Ingrid

The thunder coming from the dark clouds shakes the house. I can almost feel the rain beating down on the roof. It is so loud; I imagine the rain bucketing down on my head.

I can't stop thinking about Siena. She despises them, the thunderstorms. I really hope that she is okay. As well as Sky. Where is she? I turn on the t.v. to calm my nerves. Lily is sound asleep, as well as Maya. I sit on the couch playing with my bracelet. We all have them. Our bracelets are quite simple, they have red rope around them (black for the soldiers) and in the middle is a large bead with our initial and on the back it has our date of birth. I don't know why we have to wear them, I guess it proves that we are citizens of Oceania.

Someone bursts through the door. I turn around hoping it is Sky, but it isn't. It's Roger, one of the soldiers. The rudest one to be exact. I look him over; he's soaking wet from head to toe. He doesn't bother to take off his muddy shoes, but simply walks through the house. He looks at me with disgust in his eyes.

"What are you lookin' at?" he growls. I don't answer, but I keep watching him. Roger makes his way to the kitchen and opens the fridge. He seems to be looking for something, throwing various good items out of the fridge. I glare at him for some reason.

"Where's the beer?" he asks.

"We don't own beer," I spit at him. I shouldn't be talking like this, especially to a soldier. But my gut tells me to let it go. Why would he want beer? Wasn't it outlawed as well, or have I forgotten? I've never seen it or tried it before. I only know it does bad things to you.

"Dammit," Roger says through his teeth, under his breath. He leaves and goes upstairs to the bedroom. Someone else bursts through the door.

"Ingrid!" Sky exclaims and I whip around. She's soaking wet as well, gasping.

"Whatever happened to using an umbrella?"

"Something happened out there," she exclaims, then she orders, "Turn up the T.V." I walk over to the black box and press the plus sign. The volume gets louder. Sky explains to me what happened, how she heard glass breaking and police sirens and everything else. She describes the events that happened and I can feel myself worrying. Over her voice, I hear the news repeat what she's saying but more formally.
"Who could have done that?" I ask. Sky shrugs. This never happens. Not in Oceania.

"I don't know," Sky says. She looks shaken up. "Possibly a soldier. The man I bumped into was huge."

"Never accuse a soldier," I say quickly. "It couldn't have been one. They serve for our country, you know."

"Just because they do, that doesn't mean that they don't commit crimes."

"They wouldn't. They're noble, and you could get in big trouble for saying that," I tell her.

"Noble? How can you say that?" Sky demands. "Most of them treat you like dirt. Wake up, Ingrid, soldiers are a suspect. Not all of them can be trusted."

"Yeah I get that, but we can't just accuse them," I say. "It could have been--"

"It was one of them," Sky insists. "And once everyone knows, they'll see the soldiers shouldn't be above us. We can be equals."

"Equals?" What is she talking about? The tone of her voice seems like she wants to fight with me. I don't want to fight with Sky. Not after today and everything happening now.

"Yes," Sky says. "We shouldn't have to be forced to live with them, or sleep on the floor or let them disrespect us. We are still human beings and they can't just order us around."