Acropolis

Domain Private

"If those boats were alive and working I could escape," Acacia Alexander thought to the ancient riverboats, steamers, and skimmers lining the river's shore. The boats were Domain's reminder of past pillages which sent the town under. But Acacia had no time to dwell on the past. She raced from the warm, sleepy bakery into the chilled night, passed the dim glisten of apple trees, passed the belfry tower, and across the campus lawn. Being last in line at the bakery meant watching the students scatter like sweat bees.

Domain Private College set strict guidelines with late-comers, sometimes counting "tardies" as absences. The warm oak of the classroom did not make the first day of English Mythic class any less chilling. With the town plummeting into poverty, and beggars lining up after their shifts some days, Acacia became worried about her one slip on the first day. She feared someday becoming a beggar. Her pegged "loose" reputation by teachers and parents did nothing to humor the situation.

No matter how many times she tried to convince her parents she didn't have troubles with concentration they either accused her of making more excuses or feigned confusion.

"ADD is only a libelous and labeling statement. It over-simplifies the human experience," she said each time.

Her parents thought she was twisting the words of her teachers. The truth was she only meant to mimic her upright friend Kazimir (who happened to be loved by many town adults). She may have been making things up, but the truth remained she didn't know her genuine self. She gave up the argument after they turned their attention back toward the television. This is the way it had always ended.

"You don't have to invent stories. I don't know what your grandmother has done to your mind. We know the state you are in and we have tried to be accommodating and we know how tough it is, but this escapism has to stop."

Those were the last words hanging in Acacia's mind to every conversation starting with "why aren't you trying harder?" Her mom repeated them many times, so she decided to divert to another thought. This one made her slow down. She raced harder and noticed a plaque on a stone which only brought another plague of memories.

'We are in grand transition. Much hope and progress lie ahead for Domain' but as for me, how would I know where I'm going? Acacia remembered the college's mission statement with derision. She thought about becoming an explorer and how she would go about earning a degree in Exploration if not Literature, and if not Literature, Myth in-translation. However, she didn't know how much hope or progress lied ahead for her.

When she snapped out of it, she raced harder to Mythology and Lit. in-translation. The mixture of rain, her medication, and hot kava made her shake. The faster she ran, the less she shivered but the harder it was to hold the umbrella, tea, and donut bag still.

She wasn't nimble-minded. I have too much to think on—the truth about these boats lining the shores as skeletons, and why, like me, they were forgotten. This town has been left behind but I am more-so out of sorts and out of place.

She thought about Dominium Church after her grandmother Daphne Markopolis-Alexander died just three months prior and how that loss could affect her chances of staying at Domain Private.

The town will look at me less or look at me as less with Grandmother Daphne gone. I don't want to work at the Alexander Family Fishery my whole life. It smells of mercury...or much worse!

Then, she thought about the town losing its grip on the economy and whether their relative isolation had anything to do with the matter.

No matter how settled in I become in class, I doubt my thoughts will shut up.