Find The Switch

The Farm

There are times when you don't really know why you're doing something. When you snap out of your trance and think, "Why am I doing this?" All this time, you haven't really had time to think about it; you just do it. Your actions have become habits, and sometimes that makes you blind to the obvious.

Look! Someone's waving a flag right in front of your face! Nope, I just walk right past it. Hey, here's a door that leads to a lifetime supply of rice! Nope, we just close the door and lock it. Why don't you grab that sack of gold coins in this room? Nope, we just stroll on by, not noticing the crowd that was right at our feet that couldn't wait to get their hands on that gold.

Why do we never look at the things that are right up our noses? It's frustrating how oblivious we are to our surroundings sometimes, and even more frustrating when the scent that you have detected day after day after day is the thing that's right up your nose.

"Lunchtime," my master said, snapping me out of my thoughts. In front of me, he placed a toasted rice sandwich that I've seen every day ever since winter began. There were no crops now: only rice, rice, and more rice.

It would be nice if I had someone to talk to. A bunkmate, perhaps. Someone who I could dump all my troubles on. But no, I have to be stuck here, the only slave on a 10-acre farm.

I don't even know why I'm here. I can't remember my backstory at all: who I was before I came to this rotten place. Even my master is shivering: that's how cold my room is!

A knock sounds at the door of the small shack. Probably some traveler who got lost in the forest outside our cabin. My master rushes over to open the door. Immediately, cold air rushes in and slowly takes over every single room, except mine: it's already cold. A few snow flurries also manage to sneak inside, but they melt the instant they touch the floor.

A man steps inside, covered in snow and ice. He has a long, straight beard, a fur coat, a pair of leather boots, and a face that looks like it is fed up with quite a lot of ill fortune.

My master ushers him inside and shuts the door. The visitor stomps his boots to get some snow off, and then sits down at the table, next to my master. For a few minutes, they have a conversation, and I learn that the newcomer is part of a sled company. Since sleds are in high demand right now, his company chose him to go around and deliver sleds. But it's been snowing for two days straight now, and even though it isn't a blizzard, it's still enough to delay. The new man requested a place to stay, just until the storm passes.

"Yes, yes, of course!" my master replies. "You may stay in the guest room right next to the servant's." Here, I add a little wave. "Come, I will escort you," my master says as he stands up.

The new man grunts, but follows my master past my room to the guest room. Or, almost to the guest room. In the hallway attaching my room and the guest room to the living room, my master keeps his old samurai sword on the wall, and it caught the newcomer's eye. He stopped right in front of my room to admire it.

It was then that I noticed something odd. While I was examining the visitor, I noticed that there was a symbol on his leather boot. It was like a moon inside a circle with stars around it. It had a familiar sense to it, like I had seen it before. Suddenly, I felt drawn to it, like metal drawn to a magnet. I wanted to find out more about that symbol, because I think, no, I know, I had seen it before.

"Arashiro!" my master yelled my name, knocking me out of my thoughts. I shook my head as if to clear them away, but looking at that symbol on the leather boot still made my heart leap in excitement.

"Go get the broom and sweep the living room floors," instructed my master. "They are filthy." Then, with a snort, he turned to the newcomer and snickered, "My servant isn't too different." The newcomer couldn't help but let a burst of laughter escape.

Tears formed in my eyes, and in my mind, I started arranging the comebacks I could say. Of course, all of them were stopped by the time they reached my mouth. I just couldn't bring myself to say anything whenever my master insulted me. He is my master, after all.

I stormed into the living room and reluctantly grabbed the broom and dustpan. My master's words still rang in my ears. It even got to the point where I started to believe him. Maybe I am like a dusty floor, insignificant and adapting to any terrible situation way too easily. Heck, I bet no one would even notice if I just disappeared into thin air.

I was done with sweeping the floor by now. I threw open the front door and let myself out into the frigid air, but I was so hot with anger that I didn't notice. I shook the dustpan furiously out into the accumulating snow, and was just about to go inside when it caught my eye.

The symbol. On the newcomers' sled. In the time it takes to snap your fingers, my anger was completely converted into nostalgia. Just that image was enough for me to travel back in time.

I heard laughter, and saw two people. One I recognized as myself, and I was sitting on the sled. I watched as the other person, a girl a little older than me, pushed me down a hill in the thick snow. I cried out in joy, but that joy soon turned to terror as I entered a forest. Trees were all around me, and I quickly lost sight of the girl. Every breath I took could be my last, as I miraculously swerved around all the trees. But then, a thick pine tree appeared in my path. It was so big that there was no possible way I could avoid it as I zoomed toward the middle of the tree.

My last thought was, surprisingly, that girl. After that, I could do nothing as I watched myself bang into the tree, jolt forward, and hit the tree.

The memory faded away. For a moment, I just stood there, shaking, trying to comprehend what I had just seen. Who was that girl? I knew I felt something towards her, something like. . . sisterly love. That's it. She was my sister, I was sure of it.

It was then that I realized the significance of this. I had just remembered something about my past. A reason to live. My sister is probably still out there, wondering if I was dead or not. I had to show her I was still alive. And what's stopping me? Like I said, no one would notice if I suddenly disappeared.

So that's that. I just walked away from the only life I ever knew, leaving my master to open the door and see nothing but the dustpan, the broom, and the footsteps I left behind that were quickly filling up with the falling snow.