Nature Rules - 2022 WATTY'S SHORTLIST

Off the Beaten Path

We file into our dark home and Dad lights the lamp in the main room. Mom picks up a pink sock and her needle and thread and starts deftly closing the holes that the mountains have made in it.

"Bedtime," she tells us.

Dad holds up his hand.

"Whoa," he says. "Peggy, I told you I was going to talk to them."

Mom stops sewing.

"Seriously? Are you seriously going to drag them into this?"

"They need to know."

"I think we need to know," I say. "A lot has been going on around here and it would be good to know why."

"Great," says Dad.

Mom picks up her sewing again and is savagely stabbing the sock with the needle. I would not like to be that sock.

"You already know the war was about different factions, countries, fighting for food and water," says Dad. "It was atrocious and pitted friend against friend. Brother against brother. Sister against sister. We lost our ability to take care of ourselves: from food production, to building infrastructure, to our liberty. We lost technology and the arts. We lost our weather patterns and seasons. In the end, we lost our freedom.

"Even though Sebastian lives on the other side of the country, his strength is extremely great. He controls us through punishing laws and the Motos. Sebastian isn't only interested in being a leader. He wants to be worshipped. As a god."

The "god" word is a forbidden word, outlawed by the GlobalGov. You can get put in the Silo for years and years just for whispering that one little word. We use it only when it's our family. Dad talks about a God who is watching over us.

"I thought there's only one God?" I ask.

"There is only one true God," says my Dad, "and it's not Sebastian."

"Sebastian definitely has done some things considered out of order," says Mom. "But he did end the war."

"Are we going to start this again?" snaps Dad.

"I'm only saying we need to look at the bigger picture sometimes," says Mom, putting down the bedraggled sock that had been object of her anger. "Not all is what it seems."

"Seems to me that you two don't agree on the GlobalGov," I say. "Why's that?"

"It's a difference of perspective," says Mom. "Just because you're married doesn't mean you have to share an opinion. Now it's a big day ahead of us tomorrow in the field."

Elody is already asleep and Dad picks her up and puts her in her bed. Crinae gets under the sheets beside her while I sit at the bottom of the mattress and take off my dirty socks.

"Blow out the lamp, would you?" says Crinae.

"Would you what?"

"What what?"

"Would you please?" I say.

"Whatever."

Crinae always wears her days old socks to bed. Yuck. But our little family spats are nothing like Syon and Eden have to contend with. I couldn't imagine being without my mother.

***

Elody wakes up first. She always wakes up first. Then she annoys Crinae and me by wiggling around until we get up. She always has to sing or whistle or make any kind of noise to let us know she's not sleeping.

I could sleep forever it's so dark and cool in the bedroom. But this is always how I feel on field day. Half of me wishes Mom and Dad would send me for water. The other half is glad I don't have to make the trek so I won't have another confrontation with the Waterstealers.