2389

Everybody

Everyone - Toria's Account

I can't shake the feeling that something's coming. You know that feeling? When you can just sense an imbalance in the structure of everyday life?

My parents have been even more closed off than usual. Last time I saw them was back at our family home on the west side of the centre of Barros. They spoke in short, clipped messages. Told me they'd be away more than usual. Wouldn't be back at all really. Long nights to come at work. All highly confidential. Best if I stayed with a friend for a while.

The whole exchange lasted almost twenty minutes and there was no love lost. I told you we're not close. I don't dislike them, on the contrary, I do... they're just more like acquaintances to me. My relationship with my parents is purely business: I'm grateful for the food and the clothes and everything else but at the end of the day there's nothing else I ask for and they've asked for nothing in return but to exist. All officials have to pro-create; as an example to other citizens.

I'm moving on now though. I know they said it would be just for a while but I'm 17, it's time I left anyway. I'm not going to stay with a friend, though I tell my parents I am. I have a place of my own in West Barros, a little native house I built with friends in the summer last year. It's where I disappear to most days, where my 'real life' centres.

After my parents leave, I pack everything I need to relocate into bags and a few boxes. It isn't much, mostly duplicates of things I already have in West Barros.

Half way through my relocation I'm greeted by Noah sitting on the ground outside my doorway, his fingers skimming the surface of a branch that he's neatly whittled down into a little rabbit. Sat staring up at his working fingers inquisitively was Lissa, a tiny little girl of six years with long blonde hair tucked behind her ears. Lissa's Noah's little sister and has the solely unique ability to manipulate him into doing anything. I've known Noah all my life and no-one can break through his scheming streetwise exterior like her little grey eyes can.

Years ago, I'd wandered off into a street market where I saw him steal a bag of apples off the ground beside a fruit stall. As he'd glanced around to cover his back he saw me watching him. Quick as a flash he'd run across the road, dragged me into an alleyway and made me swear not to tell anyone. He gave me an apple from his haul as a bribe and we sat munching them there in the alley. I remember recoiling from the dust covering the apple's green skin but Noah brushing it of lightly, promising me that it's taste just the same as a freshly picked one. I remember the smell too, the sweet smell of my first taste of unlawful practise. When I asked why he hadn't just bought the apples he'd very solemnly told me about his family, how they couldn't afford to buy everything so he and his siblings stole to keep them afloat.

I yell out to Noah now and he smiles, turning back to his sister briefly. He hands her the little rabbit figurine gently, tenderly pointing out the ears. Her face lights up as she turns it carefully in her hands and for a moment I'm allowed to see the real Noah as he watches her with amusement before her pats her head and stands.

"Toria, looks like you're moving in here full time! Parent's finally cut you lose?" He asks, a touch of irritation at my well-funded background creeping into his voice. A blunt smile follows however so I know he doesn't wholly blame me.

"You could say so," I say, putting the box down to clasp his hand in a more formal greeting, "They suggested I stay somewhere else for a while. Something's brewing at work."

"Trouble in the monarchy?" Noah smirks devilishly.

"Always," I chuckle bending down to hug Lissa, "You been good little one?"

"Little rabbit," she says quietly, "Mama says little rabbit now."

I smile as Noah explains that their mother's been calling Lissa little rabbit for hiding in the woods when she should be at home.

"We should celebrate," Noah says nodding towards the boxes inside my house, "We were getting together anyway but this'll be great for morale, you joining the independent world at last."

***

Hours later I find myself sat around a campfire with drink and nearly everyone I care about. Barros is a place of celebration so even the smallest occasions, like this, are events filled with life.

The open fire casts a warm, flickering light over the clearing in which we're gathered, shadows falling outwards from the feet of figures too happy to do anything but dance as the rest of us chant and sing around them.

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Bec's leading the singing, her beautiful envied face sparkling with elation that only company can bring. Tamsin and Parker dance round her, pulling others up from sitting positions to join in. I met Tamsin and Parker through Bec, the three of them having grown up in an orphanage in East Barros. Such an upbringing can only lead to a street life here and the three of them formed their own family by trekking across to the West and meeting the Simuls after they were released from the orphanage.

Damon and Faris, the Simul twins, make up the backbone of the society we've formed here, organising large scale thievery for the less fortunate of us and running any other shady operations they can to keep life interesting.

Staring around at the friends I've made over the years lets me slip momentarily into a state of alienation, almost as if I'm watching them from the outside. Bec with her dark skinned elegance contrasting against Tamisin's sickly pale skin. Parker's wild eyes and infectious laughter jumping from ear to ear like sparks on wood. Rafe's permanently grave expression, a symbol of his absolute control, which I have never seen either altered or matched by another in all the years I've known him, slipping to allow just the glimpse of a smirk at the dancing before the graveness returns.

Damon and Faris, eyes alight as they stare into the flames, undoubtably planning something, their facial expressions as identical as their looks. There are many others here, our little society being less than little really. Across from me sits Warren, his eyes sealed shut in rest with his chin fixed upon his upright palms, his expression making me all the sleepier along with the aromatic scent of the fire.

Shrill children's voices wake me from the dozing state I'd nearly slipped into. A group of youngsters, all siblings to the older ones here, playing together on the edge of the clearing have disturbed me. Lissa's twirling the little wooden rabbit Noah carved earlier and talking animatedly to Zamia, Damon and Faris's sister. The little rabbit has the whole group of small people's attention fixed, so Lissa carefully holds it for them all to see, much to Noah's delight who is of course right near her, as always.

I later find my way back home and collapse on the bed but the last thing I remember is being surrounded by everyone I care about, just the way I'd spend every night if I could. Then there was nothing but the coolness of the night air through my window and the sounds of distance nocturnal animals moving in the forest.