Empty

Town

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  The dust clouds up behind us as we depart from our shack, the only thing we could afford. As I watch my mother wave farewell to me, and my younger sister, Ivy. We both know as soon as we fade from her view, she'll head straight back to work. She can be frustrating, but I still love her. It's hard, yes, but I can manage. I feel bad, she never gets any relaxation.
But, Ivy and I have to work, too. Every mourning, we wake up early, fix ourselves, and leave for town on the carriage that brings us milk. I fear the man who drives the carriage every Monday. He's old, and gives us looks.
Of course, Ivy and I don't sit inside the carriage, we ride in the back. The people inside are usually the ones who are able to get to the carriage before us.
"Mom said there's going to a ceremony, is it true?" Ivy asks.
"I don't know, I'll have to ask."
"Who ya gonna ask?" A voice says from above the carriage. It was Noah, the little boy who was lucky enough to ride inside the carriage, but chooses to ride on top. He was a strange kid, but he's worth speaking to.
"Probably the idiots xat work." I answer.
"Man," he sighs,"I wish we could have better jobs. Better ways to earn money. I'm tired of feeds the pigs."
I laugh, Noah works at the cafeteria, that's where everyone eats, of course. But Noah has,"the honor," of feeding the rich. His brown, dusty hair glows in the hot sun, and his skin is dirty, like the rest of ours, like everybody in this part of the kingdom.
"Who new!" A voice calls back to us from the carriage."Before the Dust Age began, kingdoms weren't named after flowers!" It was Sparrow, a little girl who loved climbing trees and reading about life before the dust age rather than what is expected of her from her mother. Her mother is one of the rich, and she expects Sparrow to be like her. Obviously, her expectations are too high for her. Sparrow shows us the books she's reading,"Life before us, a book about all the secrets held that came before us!" We read the paragraph, explaining how past kingdoms weren't named after flowers. It's not very surprising, by my age, we've learned about all the wars, fights, and people called,"presidents."
"Isn't that cool!"" Ivy exclaims, while tugging on my arm.
"What's not cool is you ripping my arm off."
"Oh, sorry." She lets go, and soon, we arrive at Ivy's stop, in which she hops off and starts dashing for the farm.
Noah and sparrow continue to talk about,"nations," and other things from the book. But my social battery died, and I'm no longer in the mood to socialize with others. Sparrow is dropped off later, as did Noah, and I'm left by myself. I sit quietly, only hearing the chattering of different people and the rolling of the wheels. Finally, I arrive.
  I enter, and I'm greeted by friendly comments from other people. Just talk to others, then your social battery will recharge, I think to myself.
  "Hey, Willow," Ash says to me,"Uhm," he pitches his voice rather high," Can I have a sword without the handle thing?"
  "Oh Ash, what happened now?" Jay says, sarcastically.
  "Well," Ash starts," This lady, who was obviously a rich comes in, and takes a sword from off the shelf, hands it to me, she says, and I quote,'I want this but without the handle thing!' Ok, so I ask her,'Oh, so do you just want to bye a blade from the other side of the room?' You know what she tells me? She says,'No, I know how you poor folks are, this is cheaper, you just want me to bye it because it'll get you more money,' and then she leaves."
  I hear others begin to laugh at this ridiculous rich story. Ash was known for being a story teller, all his stories in which make others laugh. He's enjoyable, and fun to be around. Jay, on the other hand, would rather keep to himself tan tell his stories, but he'll gladly tell the to people he's close with. Like Ash and me.
  "Oh, I almost forgot! Ivy mentioned to me about a ceremony tonight, is that true?"
  "It's seems to be 2 days,"Jay answers.
  "Ok, thanks Jay."
  I have to admit, as much as I hate working here, at this shop, the other people who work here make it a lot better.
  Finally, the end of the day approaches, Mr. Becket calls me back to his room, and hands me 5.65. "Thanks for the laundry run, I'll pay you for that tomorrow. Get sleep, hygiene, all that stuff." I wave goodbye and head for the stop, and I see the milk carriage come into view.
  The man driving the carriage hauls to a stop, and waits for me to get on. There are people inside the carriage, all chattering to one another. It was kind of the milk company to come pick everyone up. About 2 or 3 hours ago, they're free to leave and go home, but instead they pick up the people who they dropped off earlier.
  A bit later, Noah, Sparrow, and Ivy board with me, and we continue to talk, like we did this morning.
  After about 30 minutes, Ivy and I arrive at home. We step through the door, and Ivy runs to hug our mom.
  "WE'RE HOME, MOM!" Ivy exclaims happily.
  "mhm." She replies."What did you bring home?" She doesn't even look up to talk to us, she's still focused on her work.
  "I, uh... I brought home 3.50, and Willow brought home 5.65." I see Ivy's smile fade to a frown. She heads to her room, after handing mom out money.
  I turn to her angrily,"Mom, what is wrong with you? Your daughter comes home running to you all happily, and-" She's not listening.
  I pull her chair out from her, and she stands up,"Willow, I have to work!"
  "The least you could do is say hello to Ivy when she comes home!" I yell.
  "Say hello? I have work to do!"
  "That doesn't matter! Does that work even get us money?!"
  "Yes! 1.25!"
  "For every paper?"
  She hesitates,"No, for every 45 pages I fill out..."
  "Get a job where you're not at home! Maybe a job like Ivy and I have, we make more than you do a day." I say, a little quieter."maybe then, you could love on Ivy."
  She ponders for a moment, and says finally,"I'll see what I can do."
  That's not the answer I wanted. A loud ding strikes, its 5:30.
  Ivy runs out of her room,"Can I go this time, mom?"
  "No."
  "Yes," I say."lets go Ivy."
  "She can't go! She's to-"
  "Wow, look, you care. For the first time."
  "I- uh, well.."
  "Come on, Ivy. Let's go."
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  After we dashed to the center of the kingdom, we made our way to the front of the crowd.
  "What's going on?"Ivy mouthed.
  "Around this time of day, we head out and pick up food."
  "Oh, that's why I don't see you!"
  "That's also how food's set on the table."
  A voice pierces my ears, It's Noah! He's standing on the Platform, in front of a microphone. And behind him...
food! Lots!
  Noah unfold a paper, and begins to read it,"Tonight, we're able to give enough food for everyone! Meaning people won't have to go home hungry, Well duh, common sense! Who wrote this?"
  The crowd erupts with laughter. It's hard to break this crowd, not after everything that's happened to us, and to the others around us.
  "Anyways," Noah continues."Well... actually I don't need to go on. Plus I don't want to." Again, the crowd chuckles and laughs.
  "Enough is enough, Noah," and old lady, plump, with her hair up in a bun hisses.
  "You're right, Ms.Hozier. Anyways, Get some food, everyone!"
  Everyone is handed food, packages of cooked steak, wrapped in plastic wrap. Ivy and I head towards the back, just until the crowd dies down... completely.
  Half and hour passes, and Ivy and I head up to receive our meal. Noah hands us our package,"It's 'bout time. I thought ya'll died.
  "We did!" Ivy says, giggling."You're just seeing us!"
  "WoooOOO!" I say, going with what Ivy says.
  Noah jumps back,"Oh no! Ghosts! Please! Take this offering of food! And leave!" He tosses me the steak, in which I hand to Ivy.
  "Ivy, don't stray to far, but I need to talk to Noah, alone." I get a glimpse of Noah's face light up red, he quietly looks away.
  Ivy smirks, evilly,"Oh! Is that so!"
  Ms.Hozier comes toward us. She sighs,"Willow, I could take Ivy home, if that's alright with you."
  "That'd be fantastic, thank you." I watch them fade from view, Ivy sooner than Ms. Hozier. Ms.Hosier seems to be passive aggressive, at times she'll be chill, others more aggressively.
  Noah turns to me,"So, uh, I mean, y-you needed to talk to me?"
  "You're cute when you stutter." I say, smoothly.
  "S-shut up! What did you want!"
  "Can you shut up and follow me?"
  "Dude, Willow, you're scaring me!"
  "Chill, man." I smile, shyly. Soon, he joins.
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