"There will be a day with no more tears…"
17th November, 2021
5:30am
Belfast, Maine. USA
The car had suddenly gone off but the wheels were still in motion. It tumbled upside down so that she bumped her head hard against the window. The glass broke and the shards lodged themselves in her scalp. The pain was excruciating. Then there was the fire… all-consuming; ensuring that no one survived.
Suddenly, she was behind the bleachers in school with her sweetheart, Jackson. He held her head in a vice-like grip. “Come on, Ali. I know you want me as bad as I want you. Everyone who loved you is dead now. I’m the only one who still does. Too bad you pushed them all away. Don’t repeat your past mistakes. Just open up,” he said as he pressed his lips to hers and tried to force her. Aaliyah tried to scream but his lips were hard on hers and he was stronger. He had her pinned to the wall so she couldn’t push him off. She struggled and tried to shout but her breath caught in her throat. No words came out.
Then a hand touched her thigh and she jerked up, finally able to let out the scream. She looked around. It was still dark. The air was chilly but she was sweating. Some of the other migrants had woken up because of her screams. They were all staring at her. A hand was still on her thigh. It belonged to her grandmother, Marcia, who was kneeling by her.
“Are you okay, Ali? That must have been quite a nightmare,” Marcia said in a whisper. Aaliyah took a moment to clear her head before getting up and walking away without answering her grandmother. She walked to the waterfront and sat there, staring at the calm
waters. Without permission, tears began to flow from her eyes. She sobbed quietly so that no one would be able to hear but she sobbed nonetheless. She couldn’t hold back the grief.
Marcia came and sat quietly beside her. Slowly, she put her arm around Aaliyah. Aaliyah didn’t shrug her away; instead, Aaliyah rested her head on Marcia’s shoulder. When she had cried to her satisfaction, Marcia spoke.
“You’ve been crying a lot these days, you know.”
Aaliyah didn’t respond.
“You’ve been too quiet, Aaliyah. Something has been eating you up for years now. To worsen it, this tragedy has happened. Child, you can’t continue bottling up the pain. You have to let it go. You need to say something.”
Aaliyah didn’t know what to say. So many thoughts were running through her head at the same time. She just wanted to think them through to put them in order, the way she liked all her things to be.
“Granny, can you just sing me one of your songs?”
“What songs?”
“You know, those ones you said they used to sing back in the day at church.”
Marcia laughed- then coughed.
“Oh, my. Why would you ask for them now? I haven’t had reasons to sing those in days.” Then she began to sing in her sweet alto voice: “But I hold on to this hope and the promise that he brings that there will be a place with no more suffering. There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more fears. There will be a day when the burdens of this place will be no more…”
As Aaliyah listened to her grandmother’s voice, sleep took her. She loved the numbness of sleep. She hoped it would last forever.
6:50 am
Aaliyah poured a bucket of water over the fireplace, putting out the flames. The team of migrants had to begin moving as it was morning again. The day before, soldiers had come to their homes to inform them of the governments instructions to move from their homes to New York where a ship would take them to Spain. Aaliyah would have preferred to die in the comfort of her house than to trek all the way to New York. Luckily it was just a journey of about six days. From what she had heard, some people would have to trek for over ten days to get to salvation. Marcia sat close-by doing nothing. Her health was frail and so she was unable to handle the community tasks that the others had to do. Before the EMP ruined all life as Aaliyah had known it, Marcia had been a diabetic. She had also suffered from Arthritis. Those two illnesses alone made life difficult for her grandmother without adding the extra problem of trekking long distances for about eighteen hours every day. But Marcia was strong. That was one thing Aaliyah loved about her grandmother. Marcia never complained. She just kept going.
Aaliyah went on to pack up the sleeping materials she shared with Marcia. She pretended as though she didn’t see the stares of the other people. Everyone knew her as the girl that had nightmares every other night and never talked to anyone. She was naturally an introvert. She was also very thoughtful. Her mother had told her that if she had a penny for every time she got lost in thought she would probably be the richest girl in the world; which was quite true, though. Those used to be virtues until she started dating Jackson in her senior year. She pushed the thoughts aside. It was too early for her day to be spoiled.
Sergeant Graham, the leader of their team of migrants stood on an elevated rock and called for everyone to gather around him. He, along with three other soldiers had been delegated to lead that team of migrants to New York. He was quite the leader: wise and intimidating. Besides, the soldiers had guns. No one disobeyed a gun.
“Okay, folks. We’ve got ourselves an empty town here. We’ll be leaving in about an hour time. Use this time productively. If you want to eat, eat now. If you need to hunt for supplies, do it now. The moment we get going, no one stops till the midday rest. Is that clear?”
Murmurs danced over the heads of the crowd. Apparently, the sergeant took it as a yes.
“Good. Now scram. But be careful. It’s been reported that some people are missing. Let’s not get ourselves in any trouble,” he said as he jumped down from the podium and went to where his team were waiting.
Aaliyah sighed. Their community was quite a mixed group since everyone, whether poor or rich, had to move together. Some people had survival skills and were good at hunting and making campfires. They were thriving well. There were also the others, like Aaliyah, who knew nothing of the outdoors and would have to learn the hard way. Her father and her younger brother used to go camping during the summer vacation. Her father would encourage her to join them but she always turned down the invitations. A while ago, she turned them down simply because she wanted to be with her friends within the boundaries of civilization. Later on, it was because she felt too dirty to have friends… because she just wanted to be alone. Well, whatever her reasons had been, now she wished she had joined her father all those years ago. She had no one and so she had to fend for herself and her grandmother.
She along with a couple of other people had developed a way to survive though. They broke into empty homes and took whatever useful thing they could find- what they called ‘hunting for supplies’. Since the owners of the homes wouldn’t be returning anytime soon, that could hardly be counted as stealing. Her supplies were running out. She needed to get food for herself and her grandmother. If she was lucky enough, she would be able to find pain killers for her grandmother. She walked over to Marcia.
“Granny, I’m going to step out and find something for us, okay? Just stay put and I’ll be back in no time.”