The Insurrection

Chapter Three

"You see, you closed your eyes. That was the difference. Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too--even when you're in the dark. Even when you're falling." ~ Mitch Albom

Silence.

That is what happens when someone asks you whether you are okay with how your life is, how your life turned out, and how it will continue to be until the day you take in your last breath.

There can be multiple reasons for that, but the worst of them is distrust. Distrust and fear. The stories that our parents tell us as kids, and stories that they have gotten from their parents, and their parents' parents, are about humans in a world so different from ours.

Humans and how they interact with one another, how they care for and trust each other. How neighbors help in times of need and celebrate in times of joy; how friends and family visit the sick; how the young show compassion towards the elder simply by helping them cross the street; how strangers defend one another against injustice.

As kids, those little acts of goodness were foreign to us. Our motto was trust no one, help no one, and mind your business. To look away and turn a blind eye. Soon we were so isolated from one another that we became indifferent. We stopped caring.

So, when Taika asks what is supposed to be a simple question, the room fills with bottomless suspicion.

She could be anyone testing us to say something against UniFed because they ultimately control how our life goes. There were so many incidents of people denouncing one another to get into the good graces of UniFed.

Nobody has answered yet when she speaks again, "I am going to take a risk and tell you why I asked this question and what I am doing here in the first place. If one of you decides to turn me in then I hope your conscience can live with that."

Leon shifts in his seat as if to prepare for the worst and I wonder if he knows anything. She takes a deep breath and starts telling her story,

"When I was a little girl, I had parents who cared for me. A mother who loved me unconditionally and a father who once told me I was his entire world. I was twelve when everything changed. When my mother started neglecting me and my father started becoming more aggressive. Even as a girl I saw the changes in my parent's relationship and in turn, their relationship with me. At first, I thought nothing of it, it was just a phase that would pass. Only it was not. My father worked as a Finnish representative, nothing glamorous but it was enough to keep us all satisfied and happy. One day, he came home with an official letter in his hand and a bright smile on his face as he announced him being promoted," her voice breaks before she continues again,

"That was when he turned greedy and was only satisfied when he became the Chief of Finland. The cream of the crop. The highest he could get. I saw the power transform my little happy family into something black, soulless, and unrecognizable. Father started abusing his power not only at work but at home too. Mother could not handle it anymore; she became suicidal and was diagnosed with multiple mental disorders. The doctors said there was still a chance for her to get better if conditions at home were better, but my father only locked her up to hide her from the World as if she were an embarrassment to him. She attempted suicide four times and on the fifth, she succeeded. It was a drug overdose that finally took her. For a long time, I despised my mother. How could she leave me behind when my father was spiraling out of control with power? Was I not enough for her to keep fighting? That was the breaking point for my father too; after my mother's death, it was like he did not even know who I was. He was never home, and when he did come back it was always in the middle of the night with a different bimbo every time. I wished it stopped there. His business companions harassed me nonstop and father dearest would do nothing to stop it because he knew it would benefit him in the end. I was abused repeatedly up until last week. Last week I decided I was not going to live like this for the rest of my life. I knew I had to do something, but I also knew I could not do it on my own. Which is why I came to find you, Alan."