The World As I Precieve It

Chapter 2: When Curiosity Got The Better Of Me

     The wind howled outside my window as I laid in my bed watching the trees sway to the whistling sound the wind created. The moon was the only source of light that glared into my room, making shadows dance before my eyes. Illusions, what created them? My father told me that our brain was constantly tricked by our eyes and that not everything we see, or think we see, may be true. It was about 10 o'clock at night and I couldn't fall asleep.
     I stared out the window and I heard a noise in the distance, like a constant beat of a heart. I grew up listening to that exact noise but never knew where it originated from. I even stored up the courage to ask my parents when I was about nine years old, but all they said was, "Don't pay attention to it, focus on school and becoming a great scholar like your brother." I starred at them to see if they were hiding something, but I didnt detect any sign of nervousness or panic. At the age of fourteen, I overheard a conversation that my father was having with one of his colleagues from work as I was walking up the stairs from the kitchen. I could hear their voices coming from the living room, I slowly crept towards the door that separated them from me and tilted my ear towards the door so that I could listen.
     "...of this generation have a constant feeling of curiosity about the wall, how are we supposed to prevent them from asking questions and bringing their focus back to their scientific side? I'm just worried that one of the kids would try to pass the wall and-" My father cut him off with a booming voice yet trying his best to whisper at the same time, "Don't you dare even think of that possibility, we will not lose someone from this community to those low living, non-educated..."
     "What do you think your doing?"
     I whipped my heard around to see my mom staring at me with her arms crossed over her chest and tapping her foot on the ground as if demanding an explanation.
     I could still hear the whispers of my father and his colleague, but I tried to block it out in order to think of an excuse of me suspiciously standing with my ear pressed to a door.
     "Um... I was just... I...," I looked around the room to find something to blame my presence on and my eyes discovered a pencil on the floor that was pushed against the wall next to me. "I was looking for my pencil, " I said while looking straight into my mother's eyes as if testing whether she would doubt me. I bent down to reach the pencil on the floor and picked it up and showed it to my mom as a sheepish grin slid on my face, "Here it is! I was looking for it!"
     My mom looked at me incredulously, not believing even an inch of the story I just cooked up.
"Go to your room, and don't ever sneak about and listen to your father's conversations. You know curiosity is forbidden, if the society finds out about it, who knows what they would do to you. I won't let them take you! I won't lose another. " she said, her voice overflowing with emotion as tears threatened to escape the corners of her eyes. She had whispered the last sentence so quietly that I wondered if I had actually heard it or my mind was playing games with me.
I raised my eyebrows as if to ask her what in the world she was talking about, "What do you-"
     Just as I was about to ask my mother, the door to the living room opened. My mother quickly wiped her eyes and made a sharp turn towards the kitchen.
     I was about to go after her when my father put his hand on my shoulder and turned me towards his colleague, "You've met my daughter, Aria, right?"
     "Of course! How are you?"
      "I'm good," I slowly walked backwards as I said, "I'm going to have to excuse myself. I have some...business to attend to. Hope you have a nice day!" and with that I quickly walked into the kitchen to confront my mom about what she meant. But, as usual, she played dumb and said that she said nothing of the sort.
     Three years have passed since that day, and I started to think that maybe I did just imagine her say that because if our family had lost someone I would know about it, right? If it were true it obviously must have been a family member, but none of my parents ever talked about their sides of the family. I decided to leave those thoughts for another day. My eyes started to feel heavy as they slowly closed, just to be reopened by a soft whisper.
     "Pst. Psssssst. Aria. Aria!"
     I groaned in protest as I turned towards my window to find one of my friends, wait, scratch that, my only friend, standing outside the window of my room.