Separated By a Wall

How They Live

I saw the grass the second I stepped outside and instantly smiled. There was no grass where I was from. Only cement. And I was glad that I would live to see it again. But I still knew there was much more to see and it took all my willpower to stay calm. Well... as calm as you can get when you finally get to see the other side of your planet. "So what do you wanna see first?" Hayden asks me. I stare at him. "I don't know anything here. You show me." I point at him and then at me, talking to him like a baby. He chuckles at my response.

"Okay. Let's start with the library." I brighten up at his words. "I know what a library is! What are the books made of?" He doesn't saying anything, his lips firmly pressed together giving me a clear sign that he wasn't going to tell me anything until we got there. We walked alongside each other where there were Anoch children playing and rolling around in the grass. "Doesn't that make them dirty?" I ask as I watch another leap into a brown puddle making the liquid splatter over the grass. I would've thought she would be disgusted and try and clean it up but instead she kept leaping up and down with a smile on her face. Her cheeks were rosy, she had a cute little button nose and wore a pink shirt and shorts. Her brunette hair was in a braid and she had a toothy smile. And instead of the polite smiles you see on the human side of the wall or the fake ones, this was genuine. She was having... what's the word?

"That's called fun." Fun. "Fun." I try the foreign word on my lips. I've heard what funny is. But fun? What's it supposed to do? "Fun is when your having a good time. Everyone should have fun in their lives. Otherwise, what's the point?" he said, almost as if he read my mind. Did he? "Life is supposed to be a test. I've always seen it as a sick and twisted game. The objective is to make it successfully in a limited amount of time. Such as being able to provide for yourself, hardworking, and following the rules. Life is supposed to be about order to keep us from chaos. And when we've finished work, we come home and relive our day before going to sleep. All our books are either on history or our work. There's nothing... fun there." I explain to him. His look holds sadness in it.

A look I clearly know from the other side. "Is that what every human thinks?" I give him a bitter smile. "I wouldn't know. Humans don't share feelings all that much. For me, it feels so wrong. And I was lucky enough to meet Caitlin. Someone I could trust. Someone I could talk to. Without her, I would have no one. Especially since we aren't allowed to visit parents. The whole idea of letting the kid leave at a young age is so they won't need the parent anymore. So I haven't seen my mom in years. My friends from work? They aren't people I would hold close and dear to my heart if you know what I mean." he nods his head and his eyes show something of pity as he urges me to continue. "Life is just so... bland. Fruitless, perhaps."

The little girl was gone. She was already carried inside by her mother. "Your mom never answered my question. Maybe you can." I say as we keep walking. I scan around trying to find a tall building towering above the others. That was what the library looked like at home. I wasn't sure about here but it should look similar. Right? "Shoot." he says. My eyes widen and I stop, stepping away from him. "Shoot what?" I ask hesitantly. His brows furrow in confusion. And then they express something the little girl showed. A smile. He burst out laughing while I just stare at him. Why is everything in this world so different?

There was no clock for me to tell how long he was laughing. But in my head I guessed another five minutes. Just like Ryker laughed at me earlier about an alarm clock. (Which I still find kind of pointless.) "Not that kind of shoot." he responds, catching his breath. "Shoot is just an expression for... ask away." Oh. Why would they use such a violent word? How would they tell the difference between an actual 'shoot' and the expression word 'shoot?' Anoch don't make any sense. "Okay, then." And we resume walking once again.

"So, why do Anoch live with their families? Don't you guys have a leader? Someone to tell you how long you have to be with parents?" A cool breeze pushed against us causing my hair to flap back in the wind. The feeling was just so...natural. Hayden looked at me, his expression unreadable. His lips were pressed together as if he were biting back a response. But his eyes showed a mixture of both agony and happiness. Anoch are far more complicated with emotions. No, emotions were complicated in general. Maybe that's why humans are so blank. So bland.