CHAPTER 7
The book
Anne sighed, tucked strands of blonde hair behind her ears and picked up the two books that had been lying on the ground. Her steps were rushed yet extremely quiet and light. She pushed aside the door with her elbow and entered the dimly lit library. The librarian remained silent as usual.
'Hello, I'm here to return some books,' Anne said as she approached the big wooden desk.
'Ah, just leave them right here. I'll take care of them later,' she answered, still flipping through the pages of a catalogue.
Anne was ready to leave when the librarian started talking. 'You know, I haven't seen anyone wander around the library in months. And even then it's mostly teachers looking for more material on some of their subjects. It gets kinda boring here.'
Anne did not know how to handle that confession of hers so she just let it slip. 'What's your name?' she asked the librarian.
'My-my name? Martha. You can call me Mrs. Brown too but ... well, I prefer Martha,' she answer hesitantly and finally raised her eyes to peer into Anne's eyes.
'Poor woman. Who would prefer "Martha"?' Anne wondered but she kept her thoughts to herself. 'I like books. And libraries, well, you may have seen me looking around with my friend,' she said instead.
'Yes, that brunette, right? Books are a great company, indeed,' she added and her face lit up.
'Mrs. Br-erm-Martha, can I ask you a question? It's about one of the books, the one I've kept...'
'Sure. My pleasure to help,' she answered wholeheartedly.
'That book ... It's a big, greenish book, relatively new as it looks ... and handwritten?'
'Yes, yes I know which book you're talking about. Promise to keep a secret-uh- Anne, was it?'
'Anne, yes.' She was surprised by the librarian's words but she refused to stop until she found out her secret. 'I won't tell a soul.' she swore spontaneously and wished the woman's secret wouldn't get her in trouble.
'Good. Then, you must know the book was written by me,' she said
Anne took a moment to digest what she had just heard. 'Wait, why would you do that?' she asked the first thing that came to her mind.
'I knew there would come a day when people, youngsters would start to abandon this hellhole. I had to help in any way possible. But all an old librarian like me can provide is-'
'-books!' Anne finished her sentence.
'Exactly. So, are you and your little friends planning to leave?' she asked.
Anne took a leap of faith and opened up at the concerned woman. 'Yes. We've started a long ago actually. Would you mind if I-we ... if we kept the book?'
'Well. There's a task for you, little Annie. If you can do it, the book is yours to keep.' the librarian said and her wrinkly hands fidgeted under her desk.
Anne suddenly felt uncomfortable. The silence of the room felt threatening and she sensed the air getting colder as the woman's eyes scanned Anne's face. "Annie". She always hated when people called her that. It felt childish and brought back unpleasant memories. Anne swept some sweat off of her forehead. Maybe the librarian, Mrs. Brown, Martha, was not to be trusted after all.
'Anne. My name is Anne,' she bellowed. 'And I don't see why I must complete your task.'
The woman smirked and her eyes gleamed. 'Oh, child. You don't have to follow my task. But I don't have to keep your little plans hidden either,' she answered and Anne's head felt heavy again.
She took a couple deep breaths, avoiding the woman's piercing gaze. Then her lips parted as she asked, 'What do I have to do?'
***
When Sonia heard the first couple of knocks, she was combing her hair. She let the comb slip inside and empty drawer and approached the door.
'Hey, it's me,' Pierre's voice echoed behind the door. 'I just wanna talk.'
Sonia opened the door and stood in front of Pierre, blocking his way. She flipped her hair to the back of her shoulder and looked into his eyes. 'What do you want?' she asked, hoping to get rid of him easily.
'Won't you let me come in?' he wondered.
Sonia stepped aside and he passed by her. She shut the door a bit harder than she should have. 'Again, what do you want?' she asked, dropping her voice.
'I just- I ... You know, you can be as mad at me as you want. I'm used to you losing your temper all the time. Just let me ask you one thing!' Pierre bellowed.
'Came here to insult me, did you?' she asked but Pierre remained calm and put-together. 'Go ahead then,' she added and her eyes challenged his. She crossed her arms under her chest and raised an eyebrow.
'I want to know if you're sure about this; everything. Our plans, leaving, are you okay with how things turned out?' he asked and took two steps toward her.
'I'm not sure I'm following,' she admitted.
'I mean, are you scared, nervous? Do you have any doubts about coming with us?' he explained.
'No, no, I'm just a little nervous and that's all,' she answered looking back at him in suspicion. 'Why are you asking me all this?' she asked next. Her voice had dropped but Pierre knew she was looking for an answer. 'Do you want me to stay out of this so desperately?'
'I just want to make sure you won't blame it on us if anything happens to you,' he answered, his eyes glowing from anger.
'Oh, so that's it?' she asked, still not convinced. 'I'll be fine. I'm not gonna blame you, you can be sure of that,' Sonia turned her back at him and stared at the wall.
'I thought you were looking forward to taking the tests,' Pierre said softly, trying not to wind her up even more.
'We both were,' she answered and turned to look into his silver eyes.
'What changed?' he asked without receiving an answer. 'What changed?' he demanded.
'Everything changed, Pierre! Everything! The little bubble I've been living in just popped! I don't want to be an overachiever anymore. I don't want to have a decent job and a house with a garden. I want what I deserve! I want freedom!' she yelled at him and at that moment she felt more powerful than ever, her words as sincere as they ever got.
'I know exactly what you mean. But what happened with Alex just-'
'You should go now,' she said and lowered her head, averting her eyes from his. She would not let him see her cry. 'Just go!' she panted and turned her back at him again.
A one-minute silence followed during which Pierre grabbed Sonia's favourite book from the shelf next to him and hid it inside his shirt before he exited the tension of her bedroom.
He paced backwards and left the room. 'I'm sorry,' he whispered on the closed door in front of him. 'I'm so sorry.'
***
Edith's head turned around at the sound of Lucas' voice calling her name from across the crowded hallway. He quickly came and lingered next to her as most of the students were leaving the hallway in large groups, all talking loudly.
'What's going on?' she asked, her eyes rolling around nervously.
'You-you just have to see this,' he answered in a rushed whisper and grabbed her arm a bit too hard. Lucas practically pulled her all the way to the teachers' office. What Edith saw was beyond her limited imagination.
Hundreds of pieces of paper were torn and thrown all over the hallway, right outside the office's door. Damaged books, folders with torn-out covers and even a couple broken chairs were also thrown in careless abandon. But as Lucas pushed more and more students out of his way, Edith could now see that destroyed books were only a small part of the actual damage.
The whole front window pane of the office was shattered and cracked in countless shiny pieces that were barely hanging on their place. And on top of those, written in red spray-paint were the words: "NEVER SPEAK OF FREEDOM INSIDE THESE WALLS".
Edith froze and the general murmur around her started to ease down as the principal entered the scene. She did not stare at the damage for more than a second before proceeding to a chilling announcement. Her small yet bright eyes scanned the crowd for any of her friends. Only Felicity and a friend of hers, Cynthia, were there to be seen.
'I can assure you all that those responsible of damaging school propriety will be punished as foreseen in the law. Those students are caught in the film clearly and are not to be attending the school premises ... ever again.'
Edith gulped a mouthful of fear and anxiety mixed with saliva down her pulsing throat. She looked at Lucas and her eyes almost screamed at him but her words were sealed inside her tightly shut lips.
'I know,' he said, not expecting a response. 'They'll be dead by tomorrow.'
***
'So ... I got a call last night. From home, obviously,' Carlos told her as they walked. 'I didn't know who to talk to but ... well ... Anne would freak out and Lucas would ask too many questions,' he said while rubbing the back of his neck.
'You can trust me. I'll tell everybody right after you leave, like you told me to. Can I hear the story now?' Sonia asked impatiently.
'Right,' he said and cleared his throat before speaking again. 'Late last night, around two a.m., I heard knocks on my door. At first I thought I was dreaming but they were loud and-'
'Cut to the chase, Carlos. We don't have all day!' she said.
'Right, right,' he apologized briefly. 'It was one of the guards. He told me I had an emergency phone call from home and that I had to follow him into the principal's office. So ... I went there and picked up the phone ... On the other end was my mother, hysterical, talking gibberish about my uncle being sick to death ...'
'And?' she wondered.
'And, the point is ... I don't have an uncle, Sonia. Remember? I only have an aunt!' he whispered. 'That was not why she called. But it was a cover-up. And I got excused to leave the school for a couple hours, like the school regulations permit in such cases,' Carlos explained.
Sonia's eyes sparkled under the harsh lighting of the bathroom. 'Okay, I get it now. I really hope it's not something horrible,' she said. 'How much time do you have before you go?'
'Ah, let's see ... I'm leaving in about half an hour. And I'll stay there for two hours or so. I'll be back for lunch, okay?' he said and smiled as he took a step forward, closer to her.
'Okay, fine. But you're gonna tell me everything when you come back, right?' she asked.
Carlos' smile grew wider, almost like a child's smile. He placed his hands on each of her shoulders and lowered his head to reach the level of her vision. 'How could I possibly ignore your nosiness?' he asked and she seemed to relax.
She sighed. 'Are they taking you in those-those black trucks? They're so cool!' she said next.
'Yeah. Should be fun,' he mumbled.
'Dude, you'd better not get into trouble. I won't be there,' she said.
'Dude,' he said, mimicking her tone of voice, 'I'll be perfectly safe.'
She snorted. 'I know,' she said. 'So, I'll walk out of the bathroom now, and you'll walk out in two minutes, deal?' she asked while pulling away.
'Deal,' he said and watched her leave.
***
Carlos remained silent for the whole ride inside the black truck. He was sitting in the back, his hands crossed on his legs, his head turned to his right as he looked outside the big window.
He saw tall, grey building rising high above, so tall they seemed to touch the high end of the dome. People on the streets stopped and stared as the truck passed them by. Carlos looked at them but he knew they could not look back at him. The black, tinted windows of the car hid him behind them.
He felt his body jump up and down at every bump of the road and sway at every sudden turn. The grey view outside the window was no longer amusing; it had become dull like a repetitive monotonous pattern.
Carlos looked at the guards who sat in the front seats of the moving vehicle. His shoulders tensed up and his stomach turned to a knot at the thought of leaving the dome. 'There are so many things that could go wrong.' At the thought of that, the truck slowed down. He stared outside the window again, only this time the view was entirely different. Green fields gave life to the earth and only a few houses were visible between the green patches. He bit his lower lip in anticipation. He could feel they were getting closer to the rural area, closer to his parents' house.
Minutes later the car stopped, leaving Carlos' head empty of thoughts. He jumped out without hesitation and the guards did not need to push him forward. It looked like the beginning of the harvesting season all over again. His parents were waiting at the doorstep, standing straight on top of a dirty, mud-stained doormat.
'You have exactly two hours,' the shorter of the two guards reminded the family as the boy's mother pulled him into an embrace.
His father nodded at the guards and they hastily entered the truck and left the site.
'Carlos, there are some things you need to know,' his mother told him as the three of them entered the narrow hallway of their once warm home.
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