Christine helped serve the lunch, holding back her anxiety. When lunch was over, Christine hurried into the hallway. Matthew smiled at her. He held out his hand. Christine took it tiredly.
"Has the commander been asking you fishy questions?" Matthew muttered into her ear as they walked outside.
Christine smiled and laughed, "yes. I suppose you too?"
Matthew nodded and smiled weakly, "I wonder what makes him think that, eh? Don't slip."
Matthew tried to speak in a code.
Christine grinned, "I never slip, James. Don't worry about me. I'm fine. I can take care of myself perfectly, independently. I'm not a mere child who goes to his mother when in stress or in crucial times."
Matthew nodded and winced, "I'm not used to this type though. I'll try not to slip. By the way, your ex-boyfriend, what's up with him?"
Christine sighed, "I knew him ever since I was little."
Matthew blinked. Christine bit her lip.
'He's my brother,' Christine mouth quickly.
Matthew nodded. Christine shrugged nonchalantly. Matthew looked around with a sigh. Christine looked at the ground.
"So, have you any friends?" Matthew asked.
"Oh, well, not exactly. There's this one girl who keeps on talking to me and now the commander thinks we are best friends. He said that she's been elected for a promotion and that he heard from someone that we're best friends. I think the girl's name is Nina Idi," Christine replied quickly.
Matthew gulped back a gasp and hide his emotions, "Nina Idi. Funny name. So, she's been elected for a promotion? Do you think she'll get it?"
Matthew tried to hint. Christine smiled.
"I don't know," Christine said.
Matthew nodded. A boy came out of the building.
"James! I've been watching you for a while and all you do it talk!" the boy exclaimed loudly.
Matthew forced a laugh, "and what's wrong with that, Jimmy?"
The boy frowned, "well, when are you going to do some snogging?"
"JIMMY! HURRY UP AND GET THE BALL!" a boy shouted from the other side of the fence.
Jimmy whipped around and raced back. Matthew looked at Christine with a frustrated look on his face.
"Snogging is-"
"I know what snogging is!" Christine snapped, "and I don't plan to go along with that idea!"
Matthew shrugged and sighed, "Jimmy is a loud mouth. He'll talk about this for weeks. The commander might hear about it and find it very fishy. We've got to do something about this situation."
Christine sighed, "then let's pretend to break up. Blame everything on Jimmy. Tell them I went back to my ex-boyfriend so that they won't try to get me as their girlfriend. Stop being so daft and start thinking of ways, unless you want to get killed!"
Matthew frowned, "don't snap at me!"
Christine glared at him
"This is hopeless!" she hissed.
"What's hopeless?" Matthew asked softly.
"This! 'Don't give up hope,' Nina said. What hope do we have? People believe that Dark Children are illegal… What hope do we have when many believe the lies of the Population Police?
"To have hope, you have to cling onto something. What are we clinging onto? Nothing. We are clinging onto nothing. Everyone else believes in things that are not real. I prefer to face facts. We are clinging onto nothing.
"All of you guys, you want to have hope. You want to survive. But why? Why do you want to survive in this tortured world? This mutilated world that we live in? There's nothing good in here. Nothing worth living for. It's empty, this world. It may as well succumb to what the Population Police believes because no one will understand us Dark Children.
"We're going to be gone. In a few years, we'll all be dead. No one will try to silently resist them. No one will take our place. The adults will not dare to cross the rules after their Dark Children are dead. All the other Dark Children will not dare to go out and they will die without sunlight and exercise," Christine whispered.
Matthew's face darkened. Christine turned away, tears threatening to flow out. Matthew sighed.
"Christine-" Matthew started.
"Never mind! Just forget it! Forget it. Forget everything I said. You'll just loose hope if you listen to me… I can't do that to do… I forgot innocence a long time ago… It is good to see innocence again, but… Oh, never mind…" Christine whispered quickly as she dashed into the buildings.
First Person View (Maria's View)
I cannot believe that I actually said that! I just hope Matthew forgets all of it.
Why did I have to share my thoughts when all my life I kept to myself? Why now when we are in a crucial time? What is wrong with me? I cannot be scared. Not now. I cannot give in and break down to stress. But I am frightened and I am frightened to admit it. I do not know what to do.
I am drowning in this mud pit that lies inside a dark dungeon that has not been visited since it was built. Everything are me is cold. Terrifyingly cold! I cannot move. My fate is fixed. I am here with no one to save me; no one to help me get up; no one to hear my cries for mercy. I hear the happy shouts and words of Light Children while I fade, slowly and painfully. Why?
Third Person ViewChristine hurried through extra chores that the thin lady gave her. The bell rang and she helped serve dinner with Nina. Matthew walked up with sad eyes. Christine refused to meet his eyes. When James came, she smiled at him. He smiled back, joyful. James moved on along the line.
"I heard that you and James Roberts broke up and that you went back to your old boyfriend," Nina commented casually.
Christine nodded.
"And I heard that you dumped James Roberts. Why?" Nina asked airily.
"Not your business, Nina. People should keep their nose right where their nose is and nothing unexpected will come to them," Christine replied evenly.
Nina nodded, picking up the hint.
"Have you a boyfriend?" Christine asked with a smile.
Nina quickly faked a blush, "I was going out with Roger Symmes once. We haven't been contacting each other much, though. Isn't he going to be back around noon tomorrow or something like that?"
Christine nodded, "yeah. Officer Jason Barstow is taking him to some rebel hideout to spy on the rebels. How come you got lucky to be picked by a good guy?"
Nina shrugged, "I don't know. What, do you have bad luck?"
Christine shrugged. Nina glanced around.
"Do you like poems?" Nina asked softly.
Christine nodded, "I know quite a few by heart."
"Can you recite some?" Nina requested.
"Tired with all these, for restful death I cry, -
As, to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimmed in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And gilded honor shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And the right perfection by limping sway disabled,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly doctor-like controlling skill,
And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill;
Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save, that, to die, I leave my love alone."
Nine frowned, "who wrote that?"
Christine smiled, "William Shakespeare."
Nina nodded as all the servants started bringing the empty bowls back into the kitchen. Christine frowned.
"Why did-"
"Do you know a poem for sleeping or nights?" Nina cut in.
"Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night,
Brother to Death, in silent darkness born,
Relieve my languish, and restore the light,
With dark forgetting of my cares return.
And let the day be time enough to mourn
The shipwreck of my ill-adventured youth;
Let waking eyes suffice to wail their scorn,
Without the torment of the night's untruth.
Cease, dreams, the images of day-desires,
To model forth the passions of the morrow;
Never let rising sun approve you liars,
To add more grief to aggravate my sorrow.
Still let me sleep, embracing clouds in vain;
And never wake to feel the day's disdain."
Nina nodded, "come on. Lights out soon."
Christine frowned, "why did you want me to recite poems, Nina?"
"Everything felt so tense. Today seems like an unlucky day. Everyone needed something nice and quiet. Poems are nice. It helped smooth out the tension," Nina explained as they hurried to the room.
They lay down on their sleeping bags just as the lights went out.