The Wall

Chapter 1

A strong, short gust of cold wind blew my hair into my face. I tucked it behind my ear and continued walking. I absolutely hated walking to and from school. Normally, I ride the bus, but today they were cancelled because it was too cold. I had a long day, first thing in the morning I had a test in Math, then we were forced to run around the courtyard for Gym even though the snow was up to our knees. This was normal for us. There's never a warm day here in Locria.

I turned the corner to my little sister's school, watching the cars drive by. Some of them were going my way, while others turned the opposite direction and disappeared into the icy fog. My sister's school looked like a large, dark mass from here, but it became more discernible the closer I got. I walked through an opening in the chain-link fence, which was separating the playground from the parking lot, and sat down on a bench underneath a tall spruce tree. I checked the time on my watch. It was 3:19 PM. There's just one more minute until she's let out for the day. I laid my head back and looked at the grey, overcast sky and began to close my eyes. I was thinking about everything that happened at school today: learning about the Wall separating the five countries, the chemistry teacher yelling at the student who almost made chlorine gas, and the toilet water freezing for the twentieth time this month. An ear-piercing, shrill sound echoed across the courtyard and snapped me out of my trance. That was the bell; all the students should be coming out by now. A few minutes later, I saw some kids open the door and run outside screaming. They seemed to be playing a game of tag in the basketball court. More kids flung the door open and took off like they were just released from prison.

My sister stood out from everybody. She was slowly walking toward me, in contrast to everyone else hastily scattering from the building. This was normal for her. She is a very quiet person and would rather keep to herself. She wiped the snow off the bench, sat down next to me and started rummaging through her backpack. I asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Nothing. Just my waterbottle. I'm thirsty."

She pulled out her bright pink thermos, and took a sip from it. She pulled it away from her mouth with an annoyed look on her face. "It froze", she said, and proceeded to roll her eyes and sigh. "The heater wasn't working today. I thought my backpack would keep it warm!"

"Elja, calm down", I said. "We're going to walk home now. It won't take too long. You'll survive." I got up from the bench. "C'mon, let's go", I said to her.

It was only a ten minute walk from Elja's school to our home, yet it felt much longer with her complaining and the fact it was -57C outside. The frigid air stung my face. My fingertips were numb. I had a painful headache from the cold. The snow got deeper the closer we got to our house. Nobody ever shovels here. I noticed a dark shape laying in the snow ahead of us. It appeared to be a coat, but the closer we got the more apparent it became it was actually a person. I was used to seeing people frozen to death here, however, Elja wasn't, so I held her close to me as we walked past it. The fog started to clear up, which made finding our house easier. Every house in this neighbourhood looked the same. The same layout, the same shade of sickly pale green, and the only things differentiating them were the house numbers. We found our house and let ourselves in. Our parents wouldn't be home for another hour and a half. I took off all my snow gear, went up to my bedroom and started doing my homework. Elja went into the furnace room to heat her thermos back up. She didn't like having to throw the ice out when her water froze.

I heard the door open. "Elja! Sunneva! We're home!", a voice yelled from downstairs. That was my mom. Elja ran upstairs from the basement. I heard them talking, but I couldn't make out any words. I finished my homework, picked up a book and started reading it. I've read this book many times and I had completely memorized the first paragraph. It wasn't my favourite book, but it was all I had for now as I had given most of my books to my friends. I heard Elja running up the stairs. She opened the door and peeked her head in. "Did you finish your homework? Mom wants to know."

"Yeah, I did."

"Where did you put it? I was going to bring it down for you."

"It's on my desk." I sat up, reached over and grabbed it. She took it from my hands and ran back downstairs. I smiled and continued reading.

A few hours later, I put down my book and went to go take a shower. I had to wait for the water to heat up, so I absent-mindedly wandered around the bathroom, looking at myself in the mirror. My black, shoulder-length hair appeared messy and unkempt from the wind. I scanned all of the bottles on the counter, which were organized in a row. One of them was leaking, creating a small puddle of shampoo dripping from the counter onto the white, tiled floor. I looked around the bathroom, found a towel and wiped it up. After I cleaned the shampoo off the towel, I checked to see if the shower was working yet. I turned the handle and a steady stream of hot water came from the shower head.

After I was done showering, I got changed and went back to my room. I looked through the window. It was pitch black outside, with the only source of light coming from an old street lamp. It was illuminating hundreds of snowflakes falling from the sky. I sighed, knowing that I'd likely have to walk through two feet of snow tomorrow. I checked the time on my watch. It was 9:34 PM. I needed to get some sleep, so I turned off my light, got into bed and stared into the darkness until I fell asleep.