Midnight's Song Read Free

profusely.
    I readied myself to face
my fears as an acrobat readies themselves to leap over a great
chasm. I pushed on the door, taking my leap. But the leap I had
prepared to take was much too short for this chasm. The projection
was off – the distance was too great. When I saw what was on the
other side I plunged into the darkness. I approached the seed of my
nightmares with small and chary footing, opening the door to the
room and paling with shock with each step I took closer to her
body.
    The sight of her
face was shockingly different. She had been hurt, mangled. Had she
fallen into one of the big machines? Did a heavy load crush her
bones? I didn’t want to visualize what must have just taken place,
but the results were bare before my eyes. For most people, the
shock would have been too overwhelming. I was compelled by love – compelled by the
love I had for her – to remain.
    I felt as though her
spirit was still looming, waiting for me to say goodbye. As my
final parting act, I grievously took a lock of her hair – grey on
the top and golden on the bottom – and twisted it around my finger
before weaving them together delicately and kissing her on the
forehead. The grieving child inside wanted to believe that my kiss
would send her so much love and health that her spirit would jump
back into her body and bring life again.
    The thought turned to be hopeless.
That spirit that I had so wished would give my mother life was null
and void. Whatever presence had been there in the room at that
moment was abruptly, swiftly gone. This parting action had truly
been the last – for I was now living in this world as a motherless
child. My mother’s life and spirit were gone, and I knew that she
was never coming back.

3 |
Mourner’s Music

    It was the Magistrate’s
solemn decree that the family members of any man or woman who
married outside of their caste assume no contact with the demoted
child. It was said to prevent anyone from sabotaging the forfeited
inheritance, but all it truly did was divide. Grandparents couldn’t
attend the births of their grandchildren. Grandchildren would never
know their grandparents, becoming strangers to them until the day
that they were freed from their separations.
    Sons and daughters
in such forbidden unions would never be allowed to see their
parents at weddings, on holidays or even at funerals. They were
forced to remain strangers to them until the funeral was their own . The moment of
their death meant that a marriage was over, and the end of a
marriage meant that the walls that had kept our families separate
for 15 years had finally been broken down.
    It was without question
that Mother’s family would fight to see me.
    I first saw my mother’s
family on the day of the funeral. I stared at their expensive
clothing through the window, realizing right away that they
couldn’t have been from the Katie Isles. One by one, women emerged
from a carriage and made their way into the building displaying
looks of distaste.
    The first to emerge
was an elderly woman being lowered down into a wheelchair. There
was a servant wheeling her that had strong arms and a dark
complexion that I knew must have made him a
12 th caste. Two younger ladies followed behind.
    I didn’t know who
these people were, but their stone faces and dramatic jewels gave
me desire to flee. Before I was forced to greet them or even face
them, I escaped through a door with a sign on it that read “ The Comfort
Room .”
    I shoved open the door and
fell onto a velvet couch. One look around the room gave me the
coldest, eeriest feeling. The doorknob was of shiny brass and the
floors of the softest green carpets. The walls were lined with
shelves that housed more books than I’d ever seen on the somewhat
illiterate island. This was where death lived and resided, yet it
was lusher than any other home that existed in this place. Death
made out as luxury was anything but comforting.
    I put my head in my
hands and wept. The