Okay, what to write? Hmm, I'll make it short.
...
I still remember that day. It was dark and cold. The clouds were gray and the wind was quite strong. I didn't see the sun, but its light still shined through the grays. It used to be the day I had always waited so that I could play on my phone, watch some YouTube videos, and then sleep in a warm bed with gloomy windows, leaving all my homework behind. I guessed it would not happen that day, obviously. It was not an ordinary day. All citizens were commanded to line up in the city center to do something that I still don't really understand till now. Like, for what? I heard some news about it but never understood why. However, I just followed the instructions anyway.
Wow, such a long line of people. They looked like a school of thousands of sardines. I had never seen such a huge crowd gathering in a small open space before. I lived in a city that was not big, but yeah, it's overpopulated. I stood in one of the hundreds of lines waiting to get closer to the checking point.
As a sixteen-year-old short boy, this was the thing I hated the most. It felt so boring to wait for such a long time. I saw all kinds of people waiting to get their turn at the checking point. Old and young, big and small, pretty and ugly. All, literally all. They showed no emotions, and all slowly walked with unenergetic steps. They looked so pale, sad, and depressed. Anyway, I tried to see what the end of this line looked like, but it almost seemed impossible. There were too many people. I was not even that tall to look at the next five people in front of me. My feet began to feel so tired standing up, so I started to do some little jumps. I sat down for a while, then stood up again. It happened for like 5 boring hours until I saw that weird boy holding a tree branch.
He was in the line beside me, and there were two people behind him. I could see his feet shaking, and his pants seemed wet. He looked so terrified and so pale. Who is this boy? Why isn't anyone acting like this boy? Was this boy sane? What is he holding again? Right, a branch.
Since then, I couldn't fix my eyes on other things, he seemed to be so spotlighted to me. Some minutes had passed, and my line eventually moved faster than his. I got closer to him and could hear his heavy breath. His heart was beating so fast, it almost sounded like a giant stepping its big feet on the earth. I was so confused and tried to figure out why he was so terrified. What would happen to him? Why was he the only one who showed that emotion? I tried to approach him, but I was kind of afraid. What if this boy was insane? He would attack me and no one would react a thing.
I moved my head around to see if anyone was acting like this boy. But, no one did. Now, I realized I was surrounded by men, like literally fat old men, with their stinky breath and acidic smell. However, only one man there who looked quite young. My eyes were quickly fixed on his appearance. I don't know, He looked smart to me that day. The good thing was, he had now moved to my left, literally beside me. I really wanted to ask him about all of this. But, was it really important though? However, my curiosity made me touch his hand anyway, wanting to get his attention. He didn't notice the touch, what a weird man. I was thinking that, probably, he also was terrified inside but didn't want to show any emotions. He seemed intelligent to me, and his eyes always moved around. What was this man thinking? He seemed so stressed out in a war inside of his brain. I decided to hold his hand and shook it quite hard, hoping that he would notice me. And yeah, his eyes stopped moving and he started to move his sight towards me.
"Who?"
"Um. Hi uncle"
"Oh, no talking, no talking"
"Why, Uncle?"
"Shhh, don't talk boy, lower your voice"
I don't understand, why in an open space we have to talk with such a small voice? Who are these people terrified of? Lining to register your identity to the government is not terrifying to me. Or maybe there is one thing I am missing here?
Anyways, I needed him to talk, I needed an answer. Answer me, people!
Okay then, I'll whisper.
"Mr. Why are we here?"
"Eh? You don't know why we're here?"
"No, why?"
"The earth has finally found peace. We will unite with one heart and love for one god."
"Um, yeah, I know that. But lining?"
"Didn't your teacher tell you that you have to say two sentences to register yourself to the government?"
"Huh? Two sentences?"
"Yes, after that you will be named according to the name of the three almighty men."
"Oh, what do you mean sir?"
"These three men are our heroes. They bring peace to the earth."
I don't understand. What are these two sentences, and who are these three almighty men? Do I miss something here? I always come to school, but why hasn't the teacher told us anything about it? And now, I am so confused. I hadn't even asked him why some people were terrified of the lining. Should I ask him again? Yeah, I think I should.
But this time, I needed to think of the best question to ask, this might be the only chance I got. He looked so annoyed at me. But, I guessed I should take the risk.
"What if I don't want to?"
Hearing that question, he slowly looked at me with anger. I didn't expect to see his eyes popping out like that. Bruh, that man was scary. He did not answer my question but kept staring at me like a possessed creepy doll. It was really scary, I couldn't look at him for more than five seconds.
What is wrong with my question? Why does it make him so mad? Anyways, is he still looking at me?
I collected my courage to look at him again and yeah, he was still staring at me. My heart started to beat so fast and my feet were shaking very badly. He was right next to me and never stopped staring at me. I tried to convince myself that it was just an imagination and that he was actually staring with curiosity.
"Let me just look at him again" I said.
And no, a big no. He had turned so red and I could see his anger in his burning eyes.
Is this even the same man? Why did such a simple question trigger him so much? The simple question boils him to death, I think he wants to kill me.
I started to pee myself and grabbed a branch near my feet as a weapon in case he wanted to attack me suddenly.
The scary thing was that he continued his steps in his line but didn't even flinch to look in another direction. Who was this man?
Hours passed, and I finally came closer to the checking point. I saw lots of soldiers holding their weapons with pride. They had long beards and their heads were tied up with a piece of green cloth that was written in Arabic words. I saw lots of banners and flags written in Arabic too. One of the biggest banners was written in bad English, so I could understand it a little bit.
"Temporary sign with cloth. Register now, later with AI chip on head and hand, everyone make sure say two sentences with correct."
What does this banner mean? Again... two sentences? What are they? Hold a second. Where is that boy that I have seen again? I thought he was there, hmm where is he?
I finally got closer to the checking point and could hear babbling Arabic sentences that each person had to say, repeating after what the checking point guard said. If didn't understand any word they said, I just wanted to finish this quickly and ran from this creepy man. I kept walking until there were only 3 people in front of me before the checking point gate.
A guard saw my confusedness and approached me. He spoke in Arabic and I couldn't understand a word. He then gave me a piece of paper in English and said:
"You boy, instruction. Study, say there."
Oh, is he trying to say that I should learn the sentences written in this paper? Oh, goody, I can finally have an idea what these things are.
However, when I started to flip the paper accordingly, I noticed a banner on my left with some Latin words below Arabic words. I guessed the Latin words were simply written just like how the Arabic words would be pronounced. It's like the Latinized Arabic words and when it's read, it sounded like:
"La ila ha ila lah... asyadu..."
When I tried to read the sentences in my mind, one of the guards suddenly grabbed a microphone and said:
"Because time, we continue tomorrow, you go again to house, and come later when we tell. Go"
Without a second thought, I quickly ran out from there with the paper still in my hands. While running, I looked back a little and could see the man still staring at me with a smile.
Hmmm, am I telling this too fast? I should improve my writing skills after all. The guards are here, I should go now. As usual, this diary will sleep in the old drawer of mine. Hopefully no one finds it.