Tense

3 - Future? - What kind of wonderland is that?

•• Here we are at the end of the road.
A road that's quietly caving in. Come so far to pretend we don't,
Don't miss where we started ••

"Leah, will you come by to play later?" Suzi, a ten year old girl from 'the village' as we call our place of living, but which was more slums than anything else. Malis gave me the acronym Leah as nickname just a few days after she decided to let me stay with her. I liked it, so it stayed with me ever since. Suzi was a sweet girl, always cheerfully running around the village, playing with the animals or trying to get me to tell her a story. I really enjoyed spending time with her. With her I could forget the time around me and the work I have to do in order to survive. Malis had passed away in the last winter, after getting  pretty sick and never fully recovering. I really miss her, as without her I wouldn't be here and I considered her family. I may have not much in comparison to my Life as Princess. No luxuries, no one to dress you, no one to make your hair, no hot water, no three meals a day. Only the basic human needs are barley fulfilled. I have to manage to survive on my own. Which I am okay at. I try to babysit a lot of children around the village for food or for money in Drummer's State. Even the Mayor Heißenstein will let me look after his grandchildren, while I still remember the day he would have rather let me die than let me into his house.  Babysitting was the safer one of my job options though, as sometimes I manage to sell herbs and mushrooms I found in the forest at the local market when non of the police officers were looking. They are mostly lenient if it didn't concern theft or worse offences. Even though sometimes they will take your earned money for themselves if you were not careful to avoid them directly. A mistake I had to experience first hand more than a couple of times. But I needed the money, as much as I could get, since depending on my neighbours' help was a rare possibility. Not everyone could share and even if they could for them their own survival came before anyone else's.  Our part of town was the poorest, most dangerous and probably also the one with the highest death rates in the county of Drummer's State. But I have to stay strong, just as my family wanted me to be. I miss them dearly. Not a night goes by without my thoughts and dreams of them. It has been five years now. Five years since the ambush. Five years of daily struggle. Five years of constant night terrors. Five years of surviving and i had to continue, even when I felt like never waking up again. I don't know what happened to Spain, but I hope the people are less affected then my family was.
Five years - such a long time period, but it felt so quick. Just living day to day, turning into weeks, months, suddenly years. Just two years ago I started to learn about forrest fruits and herbs from Malis, she taught me the difference between various herbs and mushrooms their effects and where to find them. It is good to know, as I would have no other medicine or remedy for colds and injuries.  That is of course if I don't need money for other things and have to sell my stash. My life is sadly all about money. I often think I grew up too fast. I missed having it easy, not having an empty stomach almost all the time, only food being tree bark to snack on. No worries about sickness which could lead to my death - if not by the illness itself then through starvation or dehydration it caused if I couldn't sustain myself. Not having to worry about showering and hot water, not having to freeze in your bed when trying to fall asleep. My hair had lost its shine, now it's tied to a messy ponytail most of the times, sometimes a bun. Living in dirt, always being covered by dust or having a smudge of grime somewhere was normal for me and the rest of the village. And yes, I'll admit, I often feel jealous of the town girls dressing up and having perfect curls for hair, having flirty eyes, being able to work properly, for real money and not just for half or less. Most of the girls in the village started to work at a brothel on the other side of the town, but I could never bring myself to work like that. My pride as former princess was too big. So that left me to struggle with no real escape in sight. My life seemed to be planned out. Work to survive, get a man somewhere on the run, get kids, still work to survive, and at the end of the day collapse just like most of the people do from the village. How could people just not have any future? I often debated to travel to Canada, knock at the doors of the palace, tell them who I am and end this repetitive nightmare of my daily life. Unfortunately, I knew how people reacted to me telling them about my former identity. Mayor - ended really badly. And Malis, doubt. I don't think she ever believed me. She never asked me about my royal life, I think she just assumed I was an orphan with a creative mind. I couldn't blame her. Not even I would believe my story, just because it sounds so absurd and unreal. When I, in my dirty work clothing, dirt covered body and scars just dare to knock at the palace doors of Canada, they would send me away, just like the mayor did, and I wouldn't blame them for it.
After Malis I never told anyone who I was. The name Lilliana was no longer mine. The nickname 'Lilly', my sister gave me, haunted my nightmares only.
I was now Leah. Leah Amarett, for people who insisted to know my last name. And I was an Orphan. People didn't bother to know more, and I was glad. I could leave my past behind me.

I really wanted to play with Suzi, but I was afraid I couldn't. I had to work late for a family in town. The Gerald's were a small family with one son, Edward. He was seven, and could be pretty clingy to his parents, especially when his parents decided to go out without him. I felt sorry for the little one, when he was pouting and frowning. I tried cheering up with playing games. It usually works, especially good with hide and seek, as they have a pretty big house with a lot of possibilities to hide. Other times we would watch cartoons and when I tucked him into bed I often tried to find a news channel, but it seemed as if there was none, like it was inexistent for America. At least I could watch some documentaries, which had always been my favourite on TV. The world had always been troublesome it seems, but the past just seemed so much more simple and advanced. Before technology and chip making halted and mankind reverted to a less digital life to stop climate change, with the only major technology being used by governments for strategic planning and communication. Some people had a cellphone but it's only use was to communicate. I had never seen a computer anywhere since leaving my father's office for the last time in Spain. Going back to a time in these documentaries where the world seemed so much more advanced always fascinated me. Back in the 21st Century the Americans elected a president, the 45th and 47th, Trumph I believe his name was. He was thought to be a good president till his politics got more and more nationalistic, and the rest of the world followed suit disbanding most democratic structures. Back then they also had something called 'the European Union' it was interesting because all states of Europe were connected and citizens had the same currency, making traveling and moving within the continent pretty easy. I think this was a pretty good concept, but for some reason they had made mistakes which made their democratic empire of a continent crash, leaving behind a lot of right wing or conservative-nationalistic countries. While the countries all over the world started having wars against each other in the 22nd century. The progress the countries had made backlashes and they did something like an opposite evolution, where everyone went back to the 20th century. That's the world we have been living in up until now, the year 2412. Progress was almost eliminated, people were to focused on wars, rebellions or rearranging political offices within countries that it seemed that the world was going to stop evolving. It is crazy, I think. But even if I had a chance, once upon a time, now my life consisted of no future for anything, problems of the world weren't my concerns anymore. Instead I could only watch them through the looking glass that was the occasional TV I came across. Crazy to think that one moment in your life could turn around all of it. 

I stared blankly onto the screen of the TV as the documentary ended and the channel announced the end of it's daily run. Switching the channels lazily I was utterly astonished by the mindless programs I found instead. American TV had problems on its own, consisting of a girl complaining about how 'Peter forgot to get a present for her dogs birthday' or something like this. Most TV programs were not informing at all, since they only have one national news show per week which is issued by the government. Apparently People don't care that much about politics anymore. Maybe that's why someone took the role as a leader and democracy failed in its own.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The action is finally about to start and as always I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

If you did, don't forget to VOTE and leave a COMMENT, I would really appreciate your support for the story!

See you for the next chapter,

~STARGAZRR

Song Suggestions:

Quote : 'Kids in the Dark' - All time low