Mist (youngwritersshortstory)

Mist Part 1

Copyright © 2014 by user @idontknowthewords

This is my entry for the Young Writer Prize by Hot Key Books on the theme of rebellion. Please read, comment and vote (only votes from Aug 17 will count though)!

Word count begins here:

Rebellion: the action or process of resisting authority, control, or convention.

She was limping when they found her, with one arm bruised and the other clutching the crooked branch of a bush. A lone biker had seen her.

"She was... shrouded in mist," he said eagerly.

The officer raised his eyebrows, unamused.

"I'm a budding novelist."

He rolled his eyes.

But he was right - the girl had been found in the northern hills, an area that had been abandoned by the farmers with the sudden boom in factories south of the region. All that was there was nature, revelling in her solitude and surrounded by a layer of mist. And it was in that very mist that they found the child, hidden from the lurking eyes of the rare visitor by the leaves of undergrowth and a bluish haze.

She had eyes that glanced at everyone and gleamed with terror, as if she had just been woken from a deep slumber. But she was no savage. Her diction was flawless - as flawless as it can be for a six year old - and she spoke with such reverence no one could tell she was a forest girl if it weren't for the purple blotches that marked her skin. No clothes, they had said, not even a note. Dunford had never had abandoned children, so when word got out; she was thrown into the spotlight. She never liked that.

Keith and his wife Bella, both clerks from the local paper, decided to take her in. They got a lot of praise for that, as well as a few quizzical looks from friends and neighbours. But their family knew that Bella didn't - couldn't - ever give Keith what he wanted. Even fewer knew that her infertility was slowly tearing their marriage apart. Maybe this girl was their second chance.

Of course, the couple were scrutinised vigorously by Pritchett and his band of blue-shirted bucks that called themselves officers of the law. Apart from the usual, parking violations and the long-forgotten possession charges from their younger years, the couple were suitable enough to please the police and the locals.

"What should we call her?" Bella had asked on the night of the adoption. Although the girl could talk, the only moniker she claimed to have was Izhi; and for a small puritanical town like Dunford, that name just wouldn't do.

"June," Keith replied with a faint smile.

"Like your mother? Really?"

"No - like juniper."

"Oh. The bush."

"Right."

They weren't happy with her origins. But within their walls they could pretend, at least, that she was truly theirs.

*

Dunford was a town for families; the biggest building was the local school. June was quickly enrolled. She had an agile mind, and caught up with the others in no time, but the concept of walls, of chairs, and domesticity was foreign to her.

"Why do you cage me?" she asked one day upon returning from school.

Keith spun around, almost dropping the porcelain dish in his hands. "What?"

"Seven hours I am in a room, they won't let me leave. I come home, and you won't let me leave. Why do you cage me?"

That was the first time Keith knew that this - whatever it was - was not going to work.

Over the years, June grew smarter than all her classmates, yet each day, Keith and Bella would receive word from the school.

"She slapped the nurse while getting her flu shot."

"She broke the window in detention."

And finally,

"She's gone."