The Girl with the Paper Crane

My Diary

      Oh, today was amazing. You should have seen the sky this morning. It looked like it was made of fire and the clouds could have been made of cotton candy, their color was spectacular. Noah then added that it was the wavelengths of light being refracted or something along those lines. Don't get me wrong I love hearing random science facts, but the silence was so magical I had to fight the scowl from my face. Then our history teacher Mr. Byrd took us outside to study the plaques around the school and their historical meanings. The sky was so blue and had puffy clouds streaking across it in any shape you could imagine. I found a shark swimming after some fish right before we headed back in. Then during break... I'm boring you. And you don't even know who I am.

     My name Is Elin Wright. The year is 3516 and I am bored by the world, or at least the world that others want to live in. Imagination nowadays is pretty much forbidden, architects are the only ones allowed to use it and even that is pretty restricted. My parents are librarians of the "Great Library" or more commonly called the Library of Congress. Congress is such a cool idea. People get to elect the people they think are best at leading and if they don't like the way they lead they can elect a new leader, I mean how freaking cool would that be to have a say in the way your government runs. Now we have the seven councils, each one rules a continent and well, no one knows who they really are and only the people who sit the council know how to become a member.

     My older brother Noah is a teenager in every sense of the word, he parties, he drinks, and him and his friends are wild in most senses. He's so smart though if he doesn't sit on the council one day I don't know who would. He also hates imagination. He loves me, I think. As long as I don't let my mind wander too far he puts up with it.

     How could anyone not let their mind wander to the what ifs and why nots? Yes, there's a scientific way to explain everything: snow, rain, thunder, wind, animals, and a whole other range of natural phenomena, but where's the fun in that. My room is probably the closest thing to a fairytale I could get. Back long before I was born when the councils first came into being they didn't destroy literature they simply altered it and made it myth. They all conform to the same basic bs that the council spews, but because it was written in the past by people before them magic is a thing. The most known myths are stuff like The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, something called Harry Potter, in all honesty, I've never read them, a series of myths, Throne of Glass, is one of my favorites. Anywho, we read them, study them, and pick them apart in ancient lit and I love it. Noah swears ancient writers were on crack or some hallucinogen when they wrote.

     "Elin, it's time for dinner... What are you writing?"

     "My to-do list for tomorrow. I have a lot and no capacity to remember any of it," I lie plainly, writing down a checklist I smoothly slipped over the diary.

     "You can finish it later, mom's not letting us leave until we eat."

     "Where are... did you say 'us'?"

     "Yes, 'us', now hurry up so we can go." I begrudgingly close my diary and follow Noah to the table taking my usual seat next to dad. What a surprise, burgers. Whenever mom cooks she makes burgers; thank the Lord she only cooks once a week. Noah scarfed down his burger and half forced me to do the same, then quickly dragged me from the house.

     "Noah, where are we going," I demand as he ushers me into his passenger seat.

     "Relax Elin, have I ever gotten you into trouble?"

     "Yeah. The time I snuck out, the time I got drunk because of one of your friends, how about the time"

     "I get it, this is different."

     We pull out of the driveway and I realize how bright the stars are and I can't help but stare at the endless constellations. Even more than the myths from the 21st century I love the almost prehistoric works of the Romans and Greeks. I find Pegasus and can't help but wonder what it would be like if a horse actually had wings. Or if legends like Hercules ever actually existed. Noah always takes the fun out of it saying if he did it was just some myostatin deficiency. He could care less about looking at the world romantically, he wanted to get to the point. That's how the world was anymore, conform and be safe. Imagination was frowned upon and those who were uncontrolled were made to be architects for buildings great and small. There were always whispers that some people would rebel and disappear. I'll probably be an architect one day, most of my room is designed strictly from ancient lore, or at least that's what I tell my friends.

     "Do you want to study the stars?" Noah smirked at me as I jumped, afraid he was somehow reading my mind.

     "Not really, they're just beautiful, like little diamonds sewn into the sky."

     "Elin," Noah said firmly, looking over at me as he stopped.

     "I know, I know. They're flaming balls of gas that are millions of miles away and some of them blew up years ago and it's just taking a while for us to realize it because they're so far away," I sighed looking down at my feet.

     "You're too smart to talk like that. Imagination, poetry is what people use to make up for a lack of intelligence. Architects don't build buildings, they couldn't if they wanted to."

     "I could," I frown down at the floor.

     "Exactly, you're too smart to fall into being one of those underpaid lackeys." I had to blink back tears as my brother raised his voice. I don't want to be an architect, I want to write like people in the 21st century, I can't have that though. My eyes burned with tears; frustrated and almost depressed at this awful excuse of a world I live in. My parents often say I was born in the wrong time when one of my fanciful ideas led me to climb trees and sprain something.

     "El," he said calmly, putting his hand on my shoulder. I didn't respond though, anything more than staring at the floor seemed like too much.

     "Elly, I'm sorry I yelled. I only want what's best for you." I laid up against the window and closed my eyes trying to let sleep wash it away. The light must have turned green because he drove on to who knows where.