The Brand of Anem

Chapter Three

"And to think, you'll be having your very own Ceremony in a little less than a year!" Kayla said excitedly, clapping her hands together as if she was an ecstatic little girl.

    Carson wasn't sure he was looking forward to his Ceremony. Everyone that had their "Ceremony of Adulthood" changed. They were never themselves again. Like with Fiona; her personality — who she was — seemed gone completely and replaced with a more stoic, quiet, serious, daunting Fiona. 

Carson didn't understand what it really was, let alone how to explain it. He supposed it was just a part of growing up. It scared him, if he was being honest. It wasn't the growing up part. It was the change, the Ritual done during the Ceremony, the Ritual of an Immature transcending to a Mature. He didn't understand how it happened because it was such a private ordeal, and perhaps it was that part that made him nervous.

    "What would you like your color theme to be, Carson?" his mother asked, reaching her hand up to his forehead to move his black hair that fell over his eyebrows to the side. "We need to start planning it out. Also, you need a haircut this week."

    "I really don't care about colors," he told her softly, shrugging. He wished she wouldn't pester him about his Ceremony until later. He was preoccupied with his thoughts, and she kept interrupting them. He said regarding the haircut she mentioned, "If I get a haircut, I was thinking about doing something wild." One eyebrow raised on Kayla's face. He just smiled crookedly. "Just kidding, Mom. I'll be a tame young man, I swear it."

    She rolled her eyes. "You are a handful, Jerry Carson. A handful, I tell you." Then she puckered her lips in thought and her piercing sky-blue eyes wandered away from his face. He had let his chocolate stare wander from her too, looking around the room at the people crowding into the recreational hall at the temple for Samuel's Ceremony of Adulthood. 

    Samuel Vickers moved to their city only a year before, and that was halfway through their last year of schooling. He was quiet like Carson, so naturally they were friends. Well... perhaps the word friend was stretching it a bit. Carson could count on one hand how many conversations they'd actually had, one of them being that very day, just a few moments before Samuel was escorted into a private room by multiple people of different occupations—three officers, a physician, a nurse, the prophet, and the judge—to perform the Ritual. 

He had left with brown eyes, and Carson knew he would emerge with piercing sky-blue irises. Everyone did when the Ritual was completed. The bright electric blue represented the Mature. Any other color represented the Immature. Carson's question of what the Ritual actually was burned in the back of his head. No one was ever allowed to ask, and it drove him to the brink of insanity not knowing.

    "What about green and black?" Carson's mother ripped him from his thoughts once again. "You like those two colors, right?" 

    Suddenly, Carson's eyes caught sight of caramel hair pulled back into a tight bun and the laugh of one Miss Margaret James. He'd forgotten his mother had spoken to him.

    "Carson," she addressed, snapping her fingers in front of his face, making him start slightly. 

    He looked at her. "Yeah," he said, nodding quickly, glancing over at Maggie who had gathered a few people around her—old schoolmates that Carson recognized. "Sounds good, Mom. I'm going to go talk to my old schoolmates now, okay?" As he started to leave, he gave her a quick side-peck on her temple so she couldn't complain later about him just leaving her hanging. Kisses and hugs always worked with mothers.

    As he approached the group, Carson overheard Margaret talking to her old friend that she had been closest to in school. Fiona. "I know!" Maggie exclaimed excitedly, "It feels just like yesterday we were graduating school! Look at us now! Everyone's getting their job assignments and Ceremonies are happening back-to-back!" She sighed and then smiled.