The Dome

Understanding & Amends

The old lady was Maritha!

She had to find Minski and let her know of this revelation! But first, she had to grab something.

Silasque ran into her room and pulled open her bedside table's drawer. She rummaged through the many bracelets and found the one she had finished a couple nights ago, the one she had been working on when her father had died, and the one that had the pattern and design Daphne had chosen. Shoving it in her pocket, she ran out the door and rushed over to the Angel Library. After greeting Mrs. Prairie, she looked around the different rows of bookshelves for Minski.

"Hey!" Silasque jogged over to where Minski was putting books away on the bookshelf.

"Hi," Minski said, not even bothering to look up from her books.

"The old lady next door told me to read page 97 of the 'Our History' book," Silasque ignored her coldness and spoke excitedly, "I figured it out. The old lady that used to live next door to me is Maritha! And it's true, there is a whole world out there, one that we're being kept from!"

Silasque cringed as she said the phrase 'used to live' and a pang of sadness hit her like a tidal wave.

"Really?" Minski finally looked up from her books, "But there is no page 97 in the book."

Silasque furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. A few beats of silence passed between them before Minski spoke.

"Anyway, this morning I heard the Guardians talking about using the illness this family got to kill Maritha."

Anger rushed through Silasque but she tried hard not to show it. She remembered the woman whose son had died and whose husband and other son were sick. They had probably died too. Silasque felt sympathy for the woman.

"They killed her," Silasque said through gritted teeth.

Minski looked like she wanted to comfort her, but she awkwardly went back to sorting her books.

Silasque inwardly sighed sadly, holding onto a twinge of hope as she pulled out the bracelet, "This is for you."

Silasque handed Minski the bracelet, who accepted it with a small nod, still refusing to meet Silasque's eye, "I finished this bracelet a couple of nights ago. It's the one I had been working on the day my father died. Daphne chose the design. I never finished it, but recently, I decided to start doing it again, and I would like you to have this one."

A couple beats passed before Minski looked up, tears in her eyes, a smile on her face. She lunged forward, almost knocking Silasque over and pulling her into a hug.

"Thank you," she whispered.

When she pulled away, she looked at Silasque meaningfully, "I'm sorry and I know sorry can't make up for things."

"I'm sorry too," Silasque smiled, her eyes also glistening with tears, "Do you think...do you think we could go on this mission together?"

Minski looked at the bracelet in her hand and then up at Silasque, "Yeah, I think we could."

Silasque beamed in response and took Minski's hand in hers, pulling her up.

Minski looked down at their joined hands and a mischievous grin lit up her face, "Let's do this!"

And that's when Silasque realized something. No, many things. She had hated those mistakes, but it wasn't just because it made the bracelet ugly, or because it ruined the whole bracelet. It was because she was afraid she would make a mistake in this society. She was afraid people would know she didn't like how the society was. She wasn't exactly afraid of the punishment; she was afraid the mistake would constantly come back to her and remind her of how she would live in this society for the rest of her life.

Whenever her father had told her the mistake in her bracelet made the bracelet special and unique and that the mistake held in it all the hard work and care she had put into the bracelet, he was telling her so much more. And Silasque was too young at the time to understand it, but now she did. Everyone makes mistakes and we all learn from those mistakes, but most importantly, we all learn to forgive those mistakes. Silasque finally knew what her father was trying to tell her: Mistakes make you better, they help you learn, they teach you to forgive, and they teach you that we all try hard and we all do things because we care, but we all do make mistakes. If you didn't make mistakes you wouldn't be who you are today, because those mistakes, like in painting, can make the picture even more creative, even more unique, even more special, and even better, because that mistake distinguishes it from the rest.

And in that moment, Silasque knew her father was right, right in everything he had meant.