The Way I was Raised

Chapter 4: Meeting Strangers

(Elijah)

I awakened early in the morning as always and almost had forgotten where I was. My view of the sun rising was so beautiful and different from the farm sunrises I was accustomed too. It was almost as if it was wrapped around the statue on the water and just peaked around all of the tall buildings.

After I finished watching the sun rise I made my way into the kitchen. I wasn't at a complete loss on the modern technology and learning how to use the coffee maker wasn't so hard. As the coffee was brewing I heard knocking on my door and remembered I told Nathaniel and Pearl to come to my room when they woke up.

"Come in guys." I told them and walked back to the kitchen. They sat at the kitchen table and I fixed us all a cup of coffee and and sat down with them. We sat in silence for a moment sipping on our coffee.

"So what are we going to do today?" Pearl finally spoke up.

"I really don't know." I said.

"Well I for one want to go exploring. I refuse to sit in a room all day when we have New York at the palm of our hands." she says.

"We need to be careful though. We can't just jump out there. What if we get hurt?" I say to her. She shrugs her shoulders and sips her coffee again.

"I am leaving whether you go or not. We are surrounded by shops filled with clothes and books and everything around us. Were here to experience and I plan to enjoy this whole month of it before we have to make the decision on whether or not we want to stay or leave." she says and stands to leave. Before she leaves to turns back to me and stares.

"Elijah, you need this experience. You believe the only home for you is back at the community. You could be wrong." she says and walks out the door. I sit in silence for a moment and look at Nathaniel. His head is down and I could barely see his face because his hat was a little to big. I lift his hat a little and he looks at me and smiles.

"What would you like to do Nathaniel?" I ask him.

"I would really like to explore to Elijah." he says and looks down again. I nod my head and gather everyones coffee cups. I put my suspenders on my shoulders and grab my hat as well. Nathaniel stands as well and we leave my hotel room.

"Did you lock your door Nathaniel?" I ask him. He nods his head and we continue walking and ride the elevator down to the lobby.

"Did you grab your credit card just in case you see something you may want?" I ask him.

"Yes and so did Pearl." he says.

"I figured she did." I say and he laughs.

We walk out of the hotel and stepped out into a foreign world. Cars were speeding down the road and loud horns were blaring. The noises were so intense and I could smell all kinds of different scents. People were knocking into each other and a few spared glances our way. Nathaniel and I huddled close together and began walking down the sidewalk. Our eyes opened even wider at the different shops that were lined up and at the people performing different things on the street. Some were creating things and others were playing instruments and singing songs unknown to me.

Nathaniel pulled me into a shop that was almost pitch black and had blue lighting illuminating it.

"Why did you pick this shop?" I ask him.

"It interests me." he says and begins looking around. I shrug my shoulders and begin looking around myself. The store was covered wall to wall with posters of people covered with markings and ear rings in different places than their ears and shirts were folded and layed on shelves. Black, blue, red, white all different colors of pants were hanging up and I immediatly went to look at them. I have secretly always admired others clothing that I was forbidden to wear.

As I made my way over to the racks of pants I wasn't paying attention and ran right into someone knocking us both to the ground.

"Shit." I hear the person say. I rub my backside and pick up my hat and look up. In front of me was a boy with the bluest hair and storm gray eyes looking at me like I was a creature. I stand to my feet and hold my hand out to him.

"Pardon me. I wasn't paying any attention. I'm sorry I ran into you." I say. He grabs my hand and I pull him up to his feet.

He is still staring at me. Looking me up and down and I begin to feel uncomfortable under his gaze.

"Um it's okay. I should have paid closer attention to where I was walking." he says. I nod my head and begin to walk away when he grabs my arm. I look back at him comfused.

"Yes?" I say.

"My name is Trevor." he says.