The fields and farms around the Amity faction of the city are my favorite place to look at. It makes you feel calm and an overwhelming sense of contempt fills you every time you watch the sun rise or set over them. It only makes sense, my faction is the one of happiness, of kindness, more specifically. It only takes a second here for everyone here to pitch in and have fun. My little sister at the age of twelve sitting on the dark wooden steps next to me. She smiles as my best friend braids her dark brown hair. Sometimes when she's climbing trees with me, and the sun is starting to set, the light catches her hair at the right angle and makes it look like strands of gold. My sister has a small heart shaped face, big bright green eyes, a small soft nose, and soft cheeks. Her eyes deep enough for her eyelashes to brush up to the bottom of her thin eyebrows. All while the sun has put freckles on her face, just over the bridge of her nose.
I will admit I am envious of my sister, my little sister has taken after my mother. Her name was Veronica. I look at my sister as my friend Samantha jabs me in the ribs a few times, making me giggle to them. Samantha smiles at me, "May I have the rubber band for her hair?" My eyes find my wrist, which has a thin pink rubber band around it. I nod and hand it to her. I watch as she ties the end of the fish braid in my sister, Angela's hair. "All done!" Samantha says gleefully. Angela giggles and launches up to her feet.
She twirls on one foot, her long braid whipping around, she stops suddenly and looks at me with big eyes, "How do I look Aisi?" I bend my arm and tap my finger to my bottom lip, eyeing her down. Pretending to criticize every little thing about her. After a moment of this, she starts to look worried, "You don't like it?" She asks me, I narrow my eyes at her but soon put the biggest smile on my face that I can. "You look absolutely gorgeous Angel," She grins so big it looks like it hurts. "Thank you!" She squeals and jumps up and down. "I'm gonna go show papa!" I nod at her and smile as she runs into the house.
After a moment, Samantha looks at me with a strange expression, "What is it?" I ask, "do I have something on my face?" She drops the expression and laughs at me, "No silly, I was wondering how you're doing, with your dad and sister," I go quiet,
"We're doing just fine, thank you, what of your baby brother? Is he a handful yet?" She smiles at me,
"Yes, an eight year old Logan from my family is a handful! He just has so much energy! I don't know what to do with him half the time!" She explains laughing.
"I can only bet, if you ever need help I'm sure Angela will be more than happy to play with him,"
"Oh you would do that? For me?"
"Yes of course," I say with a smile.
"Oh! Thank you, thank you so much!" She says with relief as she throws her arms around my neck and pulls me in a tight hug. I laugh a little, "You know I'm always here to help you out Sam," my hand absentmindedly pets her hair, it's so soft. Her hair is soft waves of light blonde hair, where the ends of her hair are almost white from not being cut. Samantha breaks from the hug with my hands on her shoulders. I look at her in her bright blue eyes, like the sky in midday. How her nose is thin but slightly pointed, how her lips are thin, her skin tanned from days of work in the fields. She's got a beauty spot under her left eye, she's so pretty.
She reaches and rubs my cheek with her thumb, while her palm cradles my jaw. My eyes widen as she leans in. My lips part in surprise as I feel her soft lips on my cheek. We stay that way for a few seconds. I had no idea, how could she like me? Girls even? She kept it hidden so well, I never would have guessed. She pulls back so I can see her face, she's blushing so hard the tips of her ears are pink. I'm about to say something when Angela trots over with a smile. "Aislin, papa wants to talk to you," I nod and look over to Samantha once more to see that she already stood up.
She fixes her red jacket, and brushes the dirt from her legs and butt, her yellow dress flowing with the wind. "I'll talk to you later Aislin, see you tomorrow," she smiles and then hugs my sister goodbye. Then she walks off into the dirt road towards the city. I get up, brushing off dirt that isn't there from my jeans, I smile at my sister to reassure her. Placing my left hand on her right shoulder I kneel in front of her, "Angela, can you go and collect the other children from the field? The hall bell will ring soon, and everyone in the field won't be able to hear it," She nods and giggles, hugging me as the top of her head is just under my chest. I place my hand atop her head and pet it softly. "Now go on," She pulls from me and jumps off the porch stairs, running to the other kids, her jacket flapping in the wind behind her.
I watch for a moment as her head disappears in the green, then turn and walk into the cottage style house, made of nothing but dark wood and nails. My boots make strong thumps on the wood as I walk into the kitchen, my father sits at the table, with a pen in hand and a few books scattered on the table. He was Erudite before he transferred. "You wanted to see me?" I ask as I sit down, he nods and removes his glasses, looking at me with his brown eyes. He opens his mouth to say something but stops and thinks, "Is it about the aptitude test tomorrow?" He sighs and sits up, lacing his fingers as he rests his forearms on the table. "Yes, it is,"
"Is there a problem?"
"Honey, I need you to tell me your results. When you get them of course,"
"We aren't supposed to tell anyone," I say quietly, putting my hands between my thighs, "I know that," he says, "but I am old, and your sister needs a mother figure-"
"What about that nurse you've been seeing?" I cut in, I can't stay here, not forever. He stares at me a moment, in awe I'm guessing. "Yes, I know about Teresa,"
"Then you know she can't talk care of Angela,"
"What about Samantha? What about her mother?" I ask quickly,
"Aislin, we are not Abnegation! We do not ditch each others children on our friends!" I flinch, my father has never yelled at me. Not so openly. We are lucky no one heard him, "Besides, that girl has enough to deal with," Samantha's mother, he means. His dark eyes find my face and he sighs then scratches the side of his head that is topped with curly blonde hair, as if disappointed. It makes me put my hands into fists on my lap. "When you get in the test, choose the cheese, when you get to the man being beaten, defend him by taking a hit, when you go to the man on the bus, lie," I don't want to look at him, so I don't, I look down at my hands, where my knuckles have turned white. "Why?" I ask.
"Because I told you to, you will stay here, and you will look after your sister. If you don't, you will never see or hear from her again. You will never be welcome here in Amity," He threatens. My eyes find his in a cold glare, I rise from my seat, slamming my hands down on the table, creating a loud bang. "You," I say lowly, "do not control me, I will see my sister, and unlike mom, you may find it extremely difficult to keep me under lock and key father," His eyes are wide and his mouth agape, like I struck him in the face, or someone else. I stand up straight and tuck the stray hairs behind my ear. "I will see you at supper," I say quietly before walking out the front door.
Part II
I walk quickly to the tree that my mother would sing to me under, and eventually I stand beneath its branches. With a huff I reach for the branch that is closest and start to climb, unlike most girls in Amity, the only apparel I own are pants, flannel shirts, boots, and jackets. I climb the tree swiftly, feeling the deep ache in my shoulders and arms as I climb. My chest heaving for air as I hoist myself up to the top of the tree. The air is stronger up here, I look down, seeing that I'm almost 20 meters up. If I fall, it won't be pretty. Moving my butt to a wedge of two branches to sit, the tree groans softly under my weight.
A sigh escapes my mouth as I lean back against a branch. I close my eyes and feel the warm sunlight on my face and chilling air whisking through my hair. My eyelids a soft red rather than black, think, think Aislin. I tell myself. You're not amity, there's no way. I keep yelling at myself until my fingers go cold. My eyes fly open to see a darkening sky, my lips are dry and cold, my ears are frozen, and the wind makes my eyes water, I push myself so I'm sitting up all the way. My eyes scan our neighborhood, at the warm welcoming yellow lights in each cottage. The street, a dirt road that splits into four roads, leading into four surrounding orchards for fruits and vegetables.
"Aisi!" I hear my sisters voice, I rise to my feet, my eyes quickly finding her next to my father on our porch. Our little two story house unpainted, now looks dark and grey as the sun disappears. Angela has her hands around her mouth, so she's louder, my father stands with his arms crossed in our screen doorway, the cuffs to his white button down shirt undone and rolled to his elbows. He's angry, I know that look, all too well. It has taken me years to hide it from my sister. It wouldn't surprise me if I got Abnegation on the test. "Aisi!" My sister calls again, I press my lips in a thin line and work on climbing down.
When I'm half way down I start to feel the burn in my shoulders, but I still can't feel the tips of my fingers, the wind has calmed some, but the air is still chilled. I huff and struggle to keep my breath steady as my hands become sweaty, I'm nervous. I'm going to fall. One step follows grabbing a new branch and lowering down. Grab a new branch, my fingers tighten around it. I step to a new branch, and let go of everything else, lowering down slowly I try to balance. Slow steps, my breath catches as my foot slides to the side and off the branch I'm standing on.
A gasp and short scream escapes me as wind is knocked out of me, the left side of my ribs hits the branch and knocks me left. Where I feel my body do something else, my legs come close to my head as my back slams into another branch. A rough gasp fills the still air and my body lurches forward, making my chest hit another branch. I cough and throw my arms around this one. My legs are dangling and I still can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
My eyes widen and water. "Help," I try to say, but I end up wheezing. I kick my feet to find a branch while my neck scratches against the bark, my chin rubbing the top of it. I can't find a branch and I'm 7 meters in the air. My fingers feel hot as they grip the bark. I'm slipping, I'm going to die. I'm going to die! I bite my lip and sigh, closing my eyes I lower down slowly, hanging just by my fingers. I pant as the pain spreads through my arms and back. I grunt and whimper to myself, I pry my eyes open slowly. They gaze over the tops of the orchards, the tops of darkening greens to the now greying darkening blue sky behind it. The earth bending and curving, I can almost make out a forest at the end of the fences. This wouldn't be a bad sight to die to.
I stop and breathe in, slowly, forgetting the pain and how I'm only on one hand holding the branch. Something warm drips from my left hand, a soft cold breeze blows through my hair and my clothes. Making my jacket flow. I breathe out as I'm on three fingers, I look up to my hand and see it's bleeding, the crimson slowly moving down my wrist and under my jacket sleeve. I shiver and let go.
My body stays suspended for a moment, my clothes whipping up to grab what it can. My hair flying up with the rush of wind in my ears. Then the feeling of plummeting to the ground sinks into my stomach and for a moment I'm scared as my face turns towards the sky. The tree branch getting farther and farther away. My back collides with what I'm guessing is the ground and a half sob half groan or croak escapes me. A ringing fills my ears and the echo of the defining thud of my body hitting the ground fills the air. I feel like my lungs were ripped out.
I can't breathe.
I can't see. My vision starts to darken and my face gets hot. My muscles start to relax themselves. I hear some sort of screaming, and it doesn't take long from me to understand that I'm screaming. I try to move, arching my back might help open up my lungs.
It hurts!
It burns!
My heart is pounding at a million miles per hour and everything is throbbing, my face is hot and my ears are ringing. I gasp and wheeze, struggling for air as I lose my senses. My head's pounding, I can't think I can't think! I need to think!
Get up, I tell myself, or, I mouth it. If I said it I can't hear it. I've stopped screaming, and my throat aches. I try to move but that results in more pain. Okay, on the count of three, one... Spread your fingers and push up with your hands...two... Try to breathe...three... Roll over, push yourself with your feet. With a short groan and a gasp I'm on my stomach. I pant and push up to my knees with my hands. I slowly climb to my feet and moan or gasp with each movement. I stumble over to my house and attempt to climb the stairs, but my body wants to shut down, I can't feel half of it. I can see the clouds of my breath now. I collapse on my porch and the last things I hear as my world goes black is shouting and the door swinging open, foot- steps pounding and a name, but all of its muffled. At last I see black.
Happy Halloween everyone. I'm spending the night with my boyfriend, who is incredibly sweet. Almost as sweet as the caramel I'm eating. But, stay safe. Good night everybody.