The Twins

Chapter 4: Honour

(Part 1: Silver)

    It was two days later that the annual event called the Saru Tokai festival happened. The festival was so important that it was a city wide holiday. Everyone would spend a day going to a parade, eating food, and going to memorial services for all the previous Saru Tokai sent to the surface. Although Edis didn't have an official national day, the Saru Tokai festival was wildly regarded as "Edis day" as well.

   Last year on this day Marie had done everything there was to do. She ate all the different kinds of food, went to the parade, participated in the culture festivals in different sectors, went to the memorial services, did the 1 hour activity camps at the art club and more. Matthew had gone to the parade and the services. That was it.

    Marie was going to try to get Matthew to participate in the other events. He knew it. Luckily for him, Matthew had a plan to hide from Marie so he could go home early. This plan mostly involved going to the most crowded places and sneaking away when Marie wasn't looking.

   10:00 rolled around and Marie barged into his room to wake him up. There had been no school that day so Matthew had slept in.

   "GET UPPPPPPP!!!!!!" Marie yelled causing Matthew to fall out of bed with a high-pitched scream and to swear at her once he realized what had happened. Marie just laughed. What a great sister.

    Matthew grumbled something Marie couldn't make out and rolled back into a ball under the blankets he had pulled down with him in his panic. Marie nudged him with her foot,"come on kid. The parade starts in 2 hours and we need to get there early enough to get good spots."

   Matthew mumbled again and Marie pulled the blankets off of him. Her brother didn't respond. The older twin sighed and spritzed her brother with a spray bottle.

"Alright, alright I'm up! Go away!" Matthew yelled. Marie smirked triumphantly and walked out of the room. Slowly Matthew got dressed and ready for the day. It wasn't long until Marie's friends showed up and chatted with her. It took 30 minutes minutes for Matthew to get ready and 30 minutes more for the group to make it to the parade grounds. Marie and her friends got funny hats and glasses. Matthew took a string of beads to marie's surprise. He told her it was so he could strangle someone with them if he needed to.

    At exactly 12:00 The parade started. Streamers and confetti were thrown around filling the air with colour. People in sparkly outfits danced around and laughed. It wasn't very hard for Matthew to push his way through the crowd unnoticed. Soon he was on his own to watch the festivities.

   It was the same as any other year. Bright and loud but joyful. Matthew found himself enjoying himself and even danced a little bit himself. It was 2:00 when Matthew finally left. He had planned to just go right home but something caught his eye. Off in one of the meeting halls there was a memorial service.

   Matthew had been to many such services. They were slow and got pretty boring quickly. Everybody always said the same things; we will miss them, they are so brave and selfless, let's never forget their sacrifice. Matthew understood how important it was to honour the Saru Tokai but lately he hadn't been attending the services. This one caught his attention though. The people were singing.

   Music wasn't uncommon on Edis, but it was uncommon for a memorial service. Matthew found himself walking inside the hall. Soon the voices of the people surrounded him and he found himself singing along to the lyrics on the screen.

    The songs were slower paced, but undeniably beautiful. On another screen, pictures of all the Saru Tokai were being showed in a sideshow. He recognized a few, having seen their pictures years prior. He paused as suddenly the picture of his former teacher Ms. Mortal appeared. He should have expected it but the picture still surprised him. Matthew spent the rest of the service in a daze. He couldn't tell how long it lasted. Soon the anthem of Edis was being sung.

                                         "One nation formed from many,
                                                  in a city all our own,
                                           where now we will remember,
                                            when right path we did roam,
                                            all the pain our race has seen,
                                              and inflicted on each other,
                                            may we not repeat the cycle,
                                      and take up arms against our brother,
                                         so now dwelljng from surface far,
                                              I salute the name we bear,
                                           people of the city in the stars,
                                               Edis our home our love."

______________________(later)_________________________

Amani: hey you said your teacher is a Saru Tokai right?

Matthew: uh.....yeah. why?

Amani: I was wondering if you saw her.

Matthew: on the screen yeah.

Amani: must have felt weird. Are you ok?

Matthew: yeah. I will be.