In my religion, we don't celebrate fests, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and yeah, you get the point. That includes birthdays. But it wouldn't hurt if we eat more than the usual on the said days and mingle with people and go on carnivals.
My family was religious and I couldn't say that so I was because there were days when I forced myself to go to our chapel with them on Sundays, but there were days too when I loved to talk about the Callings, as what my mom named the words from our Bible. It was nothing different from your Bible or if you had one, but there were very little differences.
So, it started on my 16th birthday. My parents were at our farm to keep track of our orange business, I was talking about hectares. The business had a minor problem regarding the insect invasion for this month but it was nothing to worry about because it happens only for a month and the next months would be okay. I mean it was something to worry about, of course, but it was normal for an insect invasion to happen so it was one of those things when you wave a hand in the air and say, "Oh, just the thing." Mom was trying to make a cross-breed of sweet orange and white orange. White orange, I don't know if you understand that one but it's an orange (the fruit one) that was almost as sour as a lemon and has a color of a pear. So what she was trying to make was a white orange that was as sweet as the orange orange.
I went by myself to the lake. It was a forgotten lake by the kids of my age after video games were invented. It was on the borderline between my country and another country. Unlike other borderlines, no guards were assigned on this area and it didn't have anything required to confirm that you are a safe person to cross the border. Just nothing. It didn't even feel like a different country on the other side at all when you enter the lake area through one of the beaten wire fence and swim a few meters towards the other side. Except that the fence around there that surrounds the lake is electrocuted, I don't know why they let the other part of the borderline free to cross but the lake part is guarded. Like what's with the lake?
(credits to unsplash for the picture)
I covered my face with my arms to get through the branches without blinding myself. Because you would definitely blind yourself once these sharp branches get into your eyes. I had to walk a mile to get through the lake, but first I had to sneak into the wire fence. Luckily, it was rusted and ruined by years and now it was easier to enter.
The dead branches crunched as I stepped on them after bending through the fence. I go down a small slope, clinging onto trees to prevent myself from rolling down, then I angled myself towards the pathway that was safer when you wanted to go down the lake, it had wide stones planted into the hard soil that served as stairs.
I took off my sneakers and clothes, leaving myself in underwears. I fold my clothes neatly and placed them on a rock, together with my shoes. I breathe in the fresh air from the trees that surrounds and spread my arms wide. l loved how the place felt like mine.
I ran on the wooden runway that end in the middle of the lake, the lake was neither small nor big, then I jumped splashing water everywhere. I swam and swam. Swimming makes me happy. When I'm underwater, I am deaf and my mind is blank, I don't have to think of anything but a way of how to make myself stay longer.
Curiosity hits me. I had been on the other side of the lake with my younger brother, Nuvian, and found out about the electric fence. But I never really paid attention of what's on the other side. So I inhaled sharply, thinking of going to the other side in just one breath. But of course, I wasn't able to do it. When I reached the end of the lake, I hugged myself from the chilly air and shivered. I stayed in water, with my head poking out and tried to find something or someone.
A branch crunched under someone's steps, making me snap quickly to the direction of the noise. "Who's there?" I started taking steps away from the woods and back into my side of the lake, the water soft and cold around me. I heard bustling sounds, like little branches being snapped into pieces. "Oh god." I swam back as fast as I could and as I resurfaced on the water to catch my breath, I heard someone yelled.
I looked back. The yell came from a boy with long black hair that fell on his shoulders, his skin the palest I had ever seen, from afar it almost looked like he camouflaged with his white shirt. "Hey!" He called again, it echoed and for the first time, I felt that this place was abandoned and he could do any harm to me without someone noticing.
I stayed in my place. "Stay where you are," I said although he wasn't moving. He held a broken branch on his side as he stared at me, my body dipped in the water. I felt vulnerable as I brushed my legs against one another and felt myself almost naked.
"I won't hurt you if that's what you're thinking." He dropped the branch and walked until we were right across each other. I could see the sweat beads around his forehead, his hair matted because of it, and he breathed like he ran for miles and miles. I, too, was panting.
Then he collapsed on the ground.
