Everett: Revised edition

Chapter 2

© 2021 Violet Sadowski. All right reserved. This book may not be reproduced, modified, and/or used at all without permission

The next day, the light orange sun of the morning made the room glow in a soft, warm light. I went downstairs and Mom and Dad were making breakfast for the family. My siblings, Danica and Callum, were sitting at the table. I don't know if my sister stayed in her room after I told her to go to bed or if she managed to eavesdrop or if she was threatened by the police to stay in her room when the officer came upstairs, but whatever she and (my brother) did last night was not brought up today at the breakfast table.

It didn't take long for my siblings to finish eating. My siblings got up from the table and I sat alone at the round breakfast table, watching the news on the tiny kitchen TV screen. I waited to hear information about my friends. As I sat watching the news reel, the eggs on my plate grew cold.

I sat back in my chair jiggling my leg as the machines took the dishes filled with my untouched food and I watched the news, keeping an eye on the main story and on the red banner scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Everyday events like marriages, obituaries, and public punishments were here on this red banner. I still didn't hear or see a word about my friends or what may have happened to them the night before. I suppose it didn't matter if the Shadow Council was real and had taken them, or if it had been the government. Either way, I'd probably never hear from them again.

Just after the thought crossed my mind, I finally caught a glimpse of the names Ian, Zev, and Weston. I forcefully leapt forward in my chair, almost shoving the chair from under my butt in the process and grabbed the edge of the table with my nails. There it was, the text surrounded by red. They were to be publicly punished! My heart went into a freefall. It fell so far into my stomach that I couldn't feel it anymore. I pressed my hand against my chest to make sure my heart was still beating. I looked up again to catch the red banner with their names and announcement category scrolling across and off the screen, giving way to a repeated message of marriages and deaths. It was rare that the nature of the punishment would be announced on the news; the public had to go to the town center to find out. Punishments could range from slight public humiliation to public execution, and I hoped for my friends' sake for the former. I hoped for my sake too that if the police decided I had been too involved that I would get a public humiliation and nothing more.

Now that I look back after what I've learned and experienced over the years, it's odd that small children would regularly go to public punishments.

"Time to get up from the table. You've wasted enough time and food. We're going at 4:00. Be ready." My mom was standing behind me frowning. My legs felt weak. I didn't move since my eyes were still glued to the screen. "Everett," she said sternly as the kitchen machinery took away my full plate of eggs.

My fingernails dug further into the table as I stood slowly and walked to the stairs on wobbly legs. Each step up the stairs felt like my legs were going to slip from underneath me.

The hours ticked away slowly as I laid on my bed staring into space. The lights were off and caused a gloom to hang over the day-lit room. "Everett, it's time to go." The sound of my mother's voice was stifled by my nagging thoughts.

The sun had lowered in the sky and the velvety curtain of dawn was preparing to unfold. The air cooled as we walked on the sidewalk into the city. The sidewalks made a grid throughout the city connecting each block together. In the center of that gridlock was the Central Park. The sidewalks framed a square piece of grass that covered the Central Park. We walked from the grass onto the stone epicenter of the park and saw an empty, rectangular stage erected in front of the fountain. As we got closer, my mother grabbed my hand and led me into the forming crowd, and there we stood, in the middle of the city and its looming buildings, to watch the public punishment carried out. My breathing became heavy and quick. The skin on my cheeks and fingers became prickly.