It was a weird summer. It was cold, it was wet, long, and at times, it was rather dark. The cool breeze blew through my hair and I felt it shiver down my back. The Prime was in full force this summer, tearing families apart, taking people whom they believed were not human. I was the only one left of my family. I stroked the tree with my fingertips where my family and I used to have picnics together. It used to be a big white oak tree, but now it’s just a broken memory. Every sound made me jump and made my heart skip a beat. I sat down beside the tree; it had the most perfect view of Westriver, the town that we once called home. Now, all you could hear were the cries of those who were left. It was like a dark shadow, or a bad curse. I looked up at the sky, I saw the ship hovering over our town. In a distance I heard a little boy’s voice crying for his mother, another voice weeping over the many losses he had faced this cold day. Another gust of wind blew the final leaf on the broken memory tree to the ground. I heard the ship start to unfold, the little boy’s voice grew louder. I was tired, too tired to run. But I couldn’t stand to hear it take another innocent human. The rock beside the final leaf wasn’t much, but it would have to do. I picked it up with my muddy hands, I hadn’t bathed in weeks. I had one shot, one shot to end this all. I got closer to the ship, I stood behind the old berry bush. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and raised my arm.
“On the count of three,” I told myself, the little boy’s voice was too loud to ignore now. “One…two…” I took another deep breath, and crossed my left middle finger over top of my index finger. “Three.” I threw the rock and watched it as it sore through the air. That rock had every last bit of hope I held on to, this had to do something.
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“Come on!” I called to my older brother Garret as we ran to the pond. At the beginning of every summer, Garret and I would go down to the pond and look for stones. It was almost like a tradition for us, except we missed one summer because my uncle died. But this was our adventure, we had been coming to the same pond ever since we were little. Garret used to have longer hair when he was younger, and it would flow as he ran, but he cut his brown hair when he got older. His blue eyes were definitely a big hit with the girls, and he was a bit of a romantic, so I always had to keep him in line.
“This place never gets old.” Garret said once we reached the pond. Every summer the pond just appeared to be more beautiful. The moss on the ground, the huge rocks all around the sides of it, including a couple of bigger ones you could sit on for fishing. And the big magnolia tree right next to the waterfall, the pond was practically magic. It was like a place that you would read about in a book, or see in a movie. It was the nicest, most calming place that Westriver had. Garret and I were lucky that we lived so close, our house was only ten kilometers away. We weren’t a rich family, nor were we a poor family, we were just middle class. Our wooden house was two stories, my bedroom being the furthest one on the left, with a big window to look out of. My father George Fieser worked for the Prime, which was our government. He was the assistant to our leader, William Augustus. Some people say that Mr. Augustus was the meanest man in town, but I know him to be otherwise. My mother Sarah Fieser didn’t have a job, she’d recently been laid off from her job as an accountant. But I think she preferred to stay home, I don’t think she ever really felt safe working in the town.
My brother Garret had just graduated from his final year of high school. He planned to work this summer with my father in the office to save some money for college. He wants to be an engineer, he’s really smart. And as for me, I’m Alice, I just live life in the now. I don’t think ahead, sometimes that gets me in trouble, but most of the time, I’m just happy being me. I’m just your average 17 year old girl with brown hair and green eyes. If someone asks me what I want to do when I’m older, I just tell them I want to help people. I’ve always had a passion for that. I’ll go out of my way to help someone. I remember last year there was an old man in our local convenience store, I remembered seeing him on the streets, I don’t think he had a home. He didn’t have enough money to pay for his bread, and I bought it for him. Or there was last summer where Garret twisted his ankle running to the pond, and I piggy backed him all the way back to our house. It’s just in my nature to help people, I don’t like seeing people hurt or in pain, it’s my weakness.
We finally arrived at the pond, the air smelt so fresh. The sounds of the water splashing the pond made it sound like fish were jumping out. There used to be a lot of fish in the pond, but there’s not too many anymore, not since the oil spill. The Prime really messed up that time, using the pond as a dump. A lot of locals protested against it, but this was back when The Prime actually listened to the people, those were different times. People were much happier, things aren’t too bad now, but they’re worse than they used to be. Crops aren’t growing like how they used to, we’ve been in debt for a couple of years and there’s talk around the town about this being the year of change. Now whether or not this is good change or bad, I don’t think anyone is prepared for it.
“I hope that whatever change they’re talking about doesn’t involve another wreckage of the pond.” I told Garret as we sat down on one of the fishing rocks.
“I don’t think it will, the town is pretty protective of this place.” he threw a rock into the pond and it skipped twice.
“They don’t listen to us anymore.”
“Sure they do, they listen, they just don’t do anything about our concern.” I just looked at him, “I wouldn’t worry too much about it anyways, I don’t think it’s going to be anything huge.”
“I hope not.”
Garret stood up. “Enough town talk, we’re not business folks, we’re towns people. We’re young, it’s the first day of summer.”
“You’re right.” I told him as I stood up.
“And what’s the summer tradition between you and I?”
“Coming to the pond?” I was confused.
“Right, but I think the weather is warm enough right now.”
“For what?” I asked him. Just then he swept me up from my feet and started heading closer to the water. “Garret! What are you-?” before I could even finish my question, he threw me into the water. “You asshole!”
“Oh come on little sis!” he jumped in after me. I splashed him as soon as he came up from the water. He splashed me back and then I laid back in the cool water, just enjoying the sky.
“I see a spider,” I told him while looking at the clouds, “and that one looks like a monkey.”
He laid backs “That one looks like Mr. Augustus.” I laughed.
We continued to lay back in the water, looking at the clouds, when we heard footsteps. It was weird to hear footsteps coming up to the pond this early in the summer. Normally people don’t come up here until mid-July.
“Someone’s coming.” I told him. The footsteps were getting closer, and closer. I couldn’t think of who it was, our population wasn’t very big, there was only 4,000 of us in the little town of Westriver. I had a feeling that it could be a hunter, or one of the Prime. “Maybe we should get out?” technically you’re not allowed to swim in the pond, but people do it anyways.
“Don’t be such a worry wart, it’s probably just a deer.” Garret ducked his head under the water. I started to head out when he grabbed my foot, I kicked him off and he popped his head back up from the water. “Where are you going?”
“In!” I said, “I don’t want to get in trouble.” The footsteps were pretty close now, and I wasn’t about to start the summer off on a bad foot.
“Fine, wait up then.” Garret started to head in as well, we sat on the fishing rock to dry off when I felt a hand touch my shoulder.
“Oh Dad, it’s just you.” I said with relief.
“What were you two doing? You know you’re not supposed to be swimming in the pond! And clothed? Your mother already has enough on her plate! You’ll be drying those off yourselves!”
“Garret threw me in!”
“Garret….” my dad always followed the rules, mainly because if the Prime ever heard about him, or his family, disobeying their law, we’d be targeted. My father really doesn’t have the most glamorous job.
“It’s the first day of summer, does everyone have to be so serious?” Garret asked.
“Well son, when it comes to messing with the Prime’s orders, then yes. Especially with these changes coming up.”
“I was hoping that it wouldn’t have anything to do with the pond!” I exclaimed.
“It doesn’t, I haven’t heard too much about it, but we all need to be more careful, now let’s get you both home and dried off.”
My father was clearly upset, but I could see in his eyes that something was up. There was something that he was worried about, and he wasn’t telling us. We weren’t really a close family, we didn’t tell each other everything. But this was the first time that I was truly concerned. It was rare that my father would come up to check on Garret and I. I had a feeling that we were going to be in for a long summer.
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