Anna Jordan – “Home”
I stopped in front of the Governor’s manor and took a deep breath of clean air. I had never breathed air that didn’t smell of smog and factory smoke. This air smelled like…grass, and flowers…at least, I assumed that was what the smell was. The sky was clean too. Perfectly blue and clear. I was still adjusting to the fact that I actually lived here. I pushed my way through the wrought iron front gate and went up the stone walkway.
The house was amazing. The windows were completely in tact. There wasn’t even a scratch on them. And the outside stucco wasn’t covered in graffiti or other grime. And there were real live bushes that grew along the outside, with flowers I had never seen before. I reached the front door and hesitated. I wasn’t sure if I should knock or just walk in. I knew I was late, because I had decided to explore the colony after getting off the plane. I could hear voices inside. I decided just to go in so I wouldn’t disturb anyone.
A boy about my age came out of the living room. “Al?” He asked.
“yeah…wait, oh my gosh, Wolf?” He gave a shy smile and nodded. He then motioned towards a man on the phone and said in a low voice, “We need to be quiet. Its an important call. I’ll show you your room.” He lead me to my room and then sat down on the floor. I walked to the far window and stared out. I could see the ocean. A real blue ocean. There was no black muck on it or dead fish or anything. And the sand was white too.
“So what took you so long to get here?” Wolf asked, “We were starting to get worried.”
“I stopped to look through the colony.” I didn’t look away from the window.
“Oh. What did you think….?”
“It was nice -” I looked back at my cousin, curious about the tone in his voice, “Why? Is there something wrong with it?”
He shrugged. “No. The Colony is nice. Some of the other kids though…lets just say, everyone’s not happy to be here.”
I looked back at the ocean. “How could they not be? This place is amazing!”
“Spoiled rich kids,” Wolf said.
“Yeah, but even spoiled rich kids had to live with pollution-”
Uncle Kevin came in then and interrupted, “No they didn’t.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Their parents kept them in one of the government approved vacation colonies. They’ve never set foot in the real world. All this is to them is being taken away from their privileged above everyone existence. Now they’re in and equal colony where everyone is the same.”
“Oh.”
Kevin looked at me and smiled then, “It’s been a long time young niece.”
“Yeah, kinda.”
“Welcome home Anna.” He squeezed my shoulder then said, “If you’ll excuse me and Wolf, I need to talk to him for a moment.” Wolf followed Uncle Kevin out of the room. I looked back at the ocean, thinking about what he had said.
“Welcome Home.”
hmm seems like Kevin might know what is up with the kids and what really happened with Wolf.
Very interesting neighborhood. More please.