Affliction

Chapter 3- Time to Go

The word did get out. He must have told. He'd told me that he wouldn't,but he did. Soon it was everywhere around the area,"did you hear that Nausicaa Pickthorn escaped the area?" ,"She must have done it for more food" ,"Dear me." I hated the gossip,whispering whenever I walked down the street the girls at the end of the road who usually smoked weed said that they were very proud of me,and that I was setting a good example to all the women in the nation and the world. But my mother,oh my poor mother, she wept and wept all day. And I knew it was all my fault.

One day there was a huge clamour in the street, apparently the Guardians were marching through the area. I heard the clunk,clunk,clunk of their leather boots. They were coming for us. They had sent us letters of warning,asking for a payment of a huge fine which we couldn't dream of,let alone pay. Mother was at the table,tears spilling down her face. The twins were in the garden where you could only fit two people. They were playing with the dolls that they had made from clothes pegs. I could hear their faint mumbling as they pretended that their dolls were talking. The clunks go closer and closer,mother had her eyes closed waiting for the curse to come. My eyes met hers and she shot me a look of pure hatred. I flinched,and looked back at my scuffed converse trainers. Suddenly there was a noise at our door and it was flung open. A man of about 25 looked at me hungrily,there were two other Guardians behind him. He was dressed all in the orange uniform and had the Guardian coat of arms on the breast of his jacket. He clunked into the house. I moved to get the twins but he said "you stay where you are." I stopped and stood where I was. The twins were still outside,they were speaking louder now. One of the men moved towards the door to the garden. "Please,no! Don't hurt them!" I cried. The first man stopped the other in his tracks whispered something in his ear. The man one stopped and stood back behind the first one. I let a breath out. Suddenly the first one spoke,"Mrs Pickthorn,we have received information that your daughter,Nausicaa Pickthorn, has exited the area 249's boundaries. We have been trying to contact you so that you may proceed to pay the fine of 500£. Unfortunately you did not reply even after the final warning that you received last week. I am now forced to put you to death at the order of his majesty King Robert the second. Anything you say may be held against you in court." "NO!!" I screamed I ran for mother as they handcuffed her. The first man gestured to the other one and one of the men dashed to me and pinned me up against the wall. He looked about nineteen. His breath was hot on my face. He was what some people would call handsome,but I could only see someone who disgusted me. I screamed again but this time he clamped his hand over my mouth. He looked at me in the same hungry way that the boy in the field had looked at me,as if I were a piece of meat. Then the first man said in a sly tone " your mother may just get away with a ten year sentence if you do something for us." Mother managed to say. "Don't!" But the other man pulled at her handcuffs and made her face crumple in pain. I looked around desperately. "Okay." I said. The man who had me pinned to the wall smiled. Then he murmured into my ear,"kiss each of us." I looked at him,shocked,twice this had happened. Then I looked to mother. She was shaking her head. I had to. Otherwise she wouldn't live. I lifted my face to look at the man and then I leaned into his face and kissed him. His mouth opened and his tongue started dancing with mine. When he finally pulled away he was still smiling and stepped aside for the next man. I kissed all three of them. The last man tried to put his hand up my shirt,I didn't know why. I pulled away and he shrugged. Then he took mum by the handcuffs and lead her to the police car and I followed. "She will come back to see you go to the institution for young ladies." I was traumatized and the tears spilled down my face as I watched the police car skid away on the dusty street of area 249.

The next day I received a letter saying that my mother had been found guilty. I didn't know how. The last night the twins kept asking: "where's mummy?" And I just told her she had gone to stay with the fairies. This was all my fault. The hole in my heart where my brother was supposed to be was duplicated where my mother was supposed to be. When mother had gotten sold as a wife,like all the girls of 14, to a purity she had given birth to son. The process she went through later was the process in which all mothers went through. She gave the son to the birth house for small boys. She knew that from there he would be adopted by a man when he turned four who would send him to school and soon it would be as if she never existed. They wouldn't tell him about her until he was 18. He would become a lucky ,educated intellectual. Later,mother received a letter with a Locket enclosed with a lock of the little baby's hair in it. All the mothers were given one of these,I had seen most of the women in the area wearing them around their necks. They were a proud symbol that this woman had given birth to a son. If a man wanted to have another child,they would contact the board of birth and they would send a letter to one of these women because they showed promise. If a woman gave birth to a girl,they were allowed to keep them. I was born 2 years after my brother. My mothers locket contained his name engraved on the steel," Andrew Pickthorn." My mother was contacted before I was born by her buyer, William Pickthorn he asked for another child she bore me. After that he didn't call back but another man contacted her and that's when she bore the twins.She was then classified as a housewife and sent to the area to live with her children. Now she would never see them again.

The next day mum came back to say goodbye,and I knew that I wasn't ready for the big change about to happen in my life.