Naming Week Project

Chapter One

She glanced down to make sure all ten fingers were still intact. Check. Her gaze then moved to the fridge where her eyes focused in on a copy of this year's Naming Week schedule. She never really understood why it was necessary to send out a schedule every year. Nothing ever changed.

Naming Week

Unity, Equality, and the Good of All

All events to take place at Unit Center

Friday, 8:00pm Welcoming Home Ceremony

Saturday, 10:00am Given Name Day

Sunday, 10:00am Elder Name Day

Monday, 10:00am Family Name Day

Tuesday, 10:00am Profession Name Day

Wednesday, 8:00pm 21st Year Name Day

Thursday, 7:00am Send Off Ceremony

Each week began with welcoming home those who had just spent the 21st Year away from the Unit. It was always an emotional night, filled with hugs and tears, not to mention a high level of anxiety and an uncomfortable amount of curiosity. The year away was what officially marked the end of childhood and the beginning of life as an adult in the community. However, it wasn't a popular topic of discussion. It wasn't that people weren't interested in sharing their experiences and learning of others'; There had always been an unwritten rule of sorts that forbid it. The 21st Year was an experience shared only with those in your Unit Group, which was comprised of all Unit members who shared a common age, and was not to be brought up after returning home. Leda found it odd that such an important part of life was so isolating. It was odd that children left the home for an entire year and once they returned home they were just supposed to forget the year ever happened. She knew it couldn't be healthy, but she also knew she wasn't going to question how the Unit handled it. At least not out loud. They were aware of the enormous elephant in the room and for some reason chose not to address it in the slightest.

Leda was all too familiar with those uneasy feelings and unanswered feelings. This Naming Week, she would be 20 and begin her own 21st Year. She had spent the better part of the past year trying to figure out how she was going to handle this massively mysterious change in her life. What she came up with was a high level of anxiety, a mastery of the art of procrastination, and no idea how to face her fast approaching future. She had less than a week until she'd leave her family for the first time. She had seen her elder brother venture off and return home a stronger and more confident man, but she also knew that not everybody returned as new and improved versions of their old selves. In fact, not everybody returned. Those cases weren't terribly frequent as far as she knew, but they always lingered in the back of her mind no matter how hard she tried to shut them out. In just a matter of hours her brother, Jonathan, would be returning from his 21st year. They were only a year apart and had been extremely close growing up. Leda had missed her brother every day he was gone and could not wait to wrap her arms around him once again. But it was bittersweet. Leda had so many questions about Jonathan's time away but couldn't ask a single one. She knew, however, that his face would do all the communicating that his voice could not. She had always been able to read her brother like a book. Words weren't necessary between the two of them. Seeing him tonight would be the greatest relief or her biggest fear. Chances were, she had to admit, that it would be a little of both.

***

She scooped up the fruit, gently dumped it into a large wooden bowl, and set in on the dining room table, just as she heard a quick knock on the door. She knew it would be her brother, Andrew, and his family and that the knock was more of a formality than an actual request to enter the home. Leda let him open the door himself and pulled the chicken from the oven, turning it off just as the timer sounded.