Cloaked - One World

Chapter Two: Life goes on (part 1)

The Hibernator did not feel the same upon their return. The single bland white colour was more noticeable, the quite atmosphere was penetrating, and the sense of loss weighed on Bridget's mind.

True that, families of their world were not like the ones of the old one. Families of the new world, functioned on perfection rather than happiness.

Yet, that feeling of completion remained. A Mother, a Father, and the children, but now that the Mother is gone... That sense of completion was definitely lost.

And Bridget felt lost, or did she feel she had lost something? She wasn't sure which feeling ran through her, or which was stronger.

It felt like an itch she had to scratch, but she was not sure where the itch was, so frustration turned into anger, and it burnt hot in her blood.

She walked to her room and threw herself on her bed, clothes, shoes and all. If her mother had been around, she would have been brutally scolded.
But she wasn't, was she?

The thought was a bitter one, and she hated herself for feeling selfish. But she couldn't help herself.

Bridget didn't know when the tears started leaking, but she felt the hot trail it left on her face, she also felt her comforter get wet from it.

"You know she had to go"
She jerked from the sudden intrusion, how did she not hear him come in.

"Father... "

"Your mother has always been a hard worker Bridget, and this is what she wants".

To leave them and go live her life elsewhere?

The bitter look in Bridget's eyes did not go unnoticed by Brutus. In fact, if he was being truthful, he knew that look very well.

Every single person, in their world had had it before, it was natural after all. And he knew, all too well, that his children will suffer the consequences of the rules their world was run on.

"You can't blame her alone" Brutus words had Bridget sitting up, he watched the child chew her lower lip in deep thought, and when she finally gave a sigh of defeat, he knew, he had gotten through to her.

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Her father was right, her mother didn't hold all the blame, in fact, she wasn't to be blamed at all. She had been sent to the next City, because she was good at what she did.

Had she slacked, she would have been demoted to the previous world, and in the end, she would have left, where exactly she was sent didn't matter, they would have still lost her.

She felt the anger leave her steadily, like the tears, and the heat that came with it left too, leaving her cold and vulnerable.

Although, she had consolation, she hadn't fully come to terms with the situation, but she had accepted it.

So right there and then, Bridget vowed to work hard and move up ranks, she would one day, meet her mother again, or from afar, catch a glimpse of her.

********
That evening, Bridget took a long bath, making sure to massage her tear streaked and swollen face. Weak, isn't a word allowed in her book anymore. She had a vow to keep.

She had dressed up in a beautiful flower patterned dress, brushed her hair until it shined, then pulled it into a high bun.

Practicing her 'happy smile' in the mirror wasn't easy. First, she didn't want to stretch her face to accommodate a false emotion. Second, she just wasn't ready to smile. She was drained emotionally.

'Weak isn't a word in my dictionary'. She would tell herself when she was about to give up, and get back to practising.

But whenever she got near to what could be called a smile, she would look at herself in the mirror and cringe.

"I look like a wild rabid Boar with fangs"

So for almost an hour, she kept trying, and failing, and trying again.

"Pull your lips into a semblance of a smile, crinkle the corner of your eyes, then bring a bit of shine into your eyes"

Her self-instructions seemed to have worked. So she gave a last practice, then gave herself a thumbs up when she got it right.
Or so she thought.

Hushed whispers drifted to her when She walked in on her Father and brother in the family room, and her practiced 'smile' came  alive,  but it died a second later when her brother cringed and avoided eye contact.

That didn't go according to her plan, they were supposed to smile back. She awkwardly stood in front of them, and fidgeted until her Father cut the silence short.

"Had a nice nap?" A nap, she should have had one, yet she wasted time forcing her facial tissues in the act of forming and reforming.

"Yes Father. I did. Did you take a nap too Father." They didn't have to know the truth.

"No. I was in the projection room with your brother" Bridget was surprised by her father's words. That can't be true. A look at her brother and his affirmative nod washed away her doubts though.

The projection room was one of the rooms in every Hibernator, It had a floor to ceiling glass that projected images. It was called television, or movie theater in the old world.

There are no movies though, just a few connected street cameras, that got them live feed of what was going on in their city.

Her mother hated the idea of it, called it boring and had the room closed down.

So for as long as she could remember,her family never made use of that room, why the sudden change?

"We cleaned it up. Maybe its time we spend more time together when I am not on duty... you are the first family I  have had, and even though I had an inkling that your mother would be the first to leave us  because of her hard work and dedication, I never expected it to happen so soon. "

Brutus rubbed his face, and at a really close look at her father, Bridget realised, her father had been affected too, more than he let on. He looked tired, and there were frowns at the corners of his lips, his eyes we're bloodshot, and there were little tremors in his fingers.

It was these things she noticed, that had the bubbling protest die in Bridget's throat.  The change, was how her father planned to survive.

"I think reopening the projection is a good idea. Personally, I will like to watch the City's Kitchen all day, oh, or the transport station, oh how about the City Guards Training Center.? "

Ash's words had Brutus smiling, and that smile got Bridget's lips tugging up in a smile too.
Doing away with her self taught smile, now she knew, all she had to do was picture her father's smile, and she will smile too..

Her mother was gone, never to return, but she had her father and brother. She thought  about it, and concluded, her mother's departure, might actually be a blessing in disguise, she knew then, to accept it fully and move on.

After all, life goes on.....

That thought had barely left her mind, when their hibernator door siren went off.

She couldn't have accepted her fate sooner.

Bloom