Strong Winds 1
In a room among the rows of concrete, a boy sits on his bed, looking out of his window. Outside the snow storm continues. Its midday, and yet still dark outside. Inside the room there’s only the cupboard, the table and the bed and nothing else. The rest of the apartment unit is similarly barren. The boy’s family will finally leave this town they called home for 15 years. Minus 5 for eleven-year-old Rurik Alekseyevich. To be fair, theirs isn't the only family leaving this town. A few of his friends had already moved away. A lot of shops had closed. Fewer and fewer people on the streets.
He asked once on where they’re moving. His mother replied, to a better place of course. His father finally got an offer for a better job as a lecturer in a university, and now that the country had collapsed, they can move anywhere now. And thank God for that! Ever since he was little, he notices his mother contempt for this town, this settlement in the middle of nowhere. Later he finds out the term ‘closed cities’, but for now, he agrees with his mother on this one. The town is not gated, but yet, where can anyone go? To the barren icy wastelands perhaps. The only way to move in or out of town is only by the tiny airfield outside of town and the railway connecting to nowhere else but the sea, he had been told. His whole world had been this town, and he hates it.
He looks outside his room. A brown-haired boy is reflected on the window. A building like his dead ahead, blocking his view. Rows and rows of similarly prefabricated flats beyond. Permanent cloudy skies. Permanent smoke rising from a tower at the edge of town. Months-long nights and months-long days. Grey rooms and grey buildings. Grey skies and grey grounds. Colour exist rarely in this town. Only in books and the occasional winter lights. Even as they paint the walls in buildings, months later the colour began to fade. Not in the hallways of apartments, nor the walls of his school. Grey and white rules the town.
He read about other places than his town. About the capital, and about other countries. The colourful spires of the famous church, the summers of the mainland. Summers here is only marked by the unending grey of the never-setting sun, and maybe the warmer weather. One could stop wearing jackets at that time and at least the ground isn’t covered by snow. Instead of white all over, it’s now brown. Much improvement in colour. He envies the world outside. How colourful are they! He wishes for colour, and soon he will see it. Soon, they will leave this frozen hellhole.
One week before they could though, a freak storm blew throughout the town. It isn’t the season for storms yet, the summer had just ended. And yet, the strongest storms the town had experiences in years arrived. Metres high snow pileup around buildings. Winds so strong, the people were literally being swept of their feet. Naturally all business and work had been stopped during the storm. Rurik was bored. It had been three days since school was cancelled, since he was trapped here. He decides to talk a walk outside. There really isn’t much to do inside the house, most of their stuff are already abroad. His parents are too busy with worry about the big move. He didn’t tell his parents of course; he didn’t want them to worry. It’s only a short walk.
As soon as he steps out of the door, he remembers the snow pile outside. Ah, shoot, maybe he can try leaving by the window? Maybe not. He could go up to the roof of the flat and jumped down from there instead. Sounds crazy, but him and his friends had done such similar stunts before. With less snow too. Never a broken bone, they swear. Kids here do dumb shit like this all the time.
He heads up the roof level. It was almost impossible to push the door against the wind, but he somehow manages it. The first thing he feels was the chill, and then the sharp winds. Luckily his googles and the furred hat protected his head against the cold. He heads to the edge of the building. He had to crawl his way there, the wind too strong for him to stand. And now that he’s at the edge of the building, he looks down. Judging the height of the snowline and his room window, the snow is only about one floor high. As he jumps, he enters the other world.