Waking up to the World Ch. 01

Note: I'd love any kinda feedback on this peice, so if you read it... remember to press that little comment button on the end

- butterfly lies

-----------------------------------------

I woke up to another grey day. The bed was uppealingly hard underneath me, and yet seemed to sag in all the wrong places. It smelled like pizza, making my mouth water. I think I'd dreamed about pizza all night, thinking about the fresh cheese clinging to the roof of my mouth before melting against my tongue. The alarm was still going off, a low whine in the back of my mind. I blinked, yawned and rolled over. My eyes fluttered open, and I stared at the bottom of the bed bunked above me. The mattress depressed slightly in against the wire-mesh, bulges shifting from one spot to another---my sister was still asleep. Thank god, I hadn't counted on her to wake me up. I braced myself against the bed frame and kicked upwards. I paused then kicked again, finally hearing a satisfying 'ouch' in response. I smiled. It was the little pleasures of life that got me everytime.

Rolling over, I pulled myself out of bed and gingerly climbed down the long ladder to the floor. Dad was already there, tapping his cane against the floor. The sharp rap of the wood brought me instantly to attention. I stretched out awkwardly, over-careful to avoid bumping any of the sleeping forms in the beds next beside me. Once I'd accidentally touched someone....fallen right ontop of them after I slipped on the ladder. It'd been a woman, her breath was ashen and her hands felt like sandpaper as she pushed me off her. For a second before she'd started to yell at me, I'd looked at her like my mother---mom's breath had always stunk like old smoke. I'd hated it, but I still missed her.

From far away, I heard Dad mumbling something unintelligible. I glanced up for the first time, hooding my eyes against the bright florescnet lights filtering down the stacks of beds. He cleared his throat noisily and shot a sticky wad of phelm onto the nearest bedpost. I blinked shakily. That wasn't right. I couldn't quite think why, but I caught myself wobbling backwards and turning the corner before breaking into a quick jog. I'd only gone a block when I skidded to a stop. My father, my sister, they were still behind.

Dad was still standing there when I peeked sheepishly around the corner. His cane clicked against the ground and he waved me over with a lazy gesture.

"Sorry hon.... I know its against regs to do that." He crooked his head towards the spittle glistening on the bedframe. "We'll get out before anyone decides to come down for a spot check."

I nodded. It didn't really matter anymore. In a week, the shelter would be closed anyways and we'd have to find a new place for the nights. I'd just run from habit; it seemed Dad was always doing things to get us in trouble. From the jovial glint in his eye, public spitting was the least of my worries.

"What've you done now?" I asked, squinting as he broadened his smile.

"Nothing... nothing," he glanced around, and poked the man in the bed beside us. The poor guy just grunted and rolled over. "Well, it's not exactly nothing hon, but its close to it."

I watched carefully as Dad reached into his coat-pocket and pulled out a grey sack. "Dad! I thought you said you'd never do *that*. It's been illegal since the old days! That's the most illegal thing there is!" Honestly, I didn't care. Prision would be like paradise for a slacker like him and if he were safely ensconsed in jail, I'd never have to worry about his trouble spilling over onto me again.

"Its not exactly what you think." He smiled, oblivious to my panic, and began to unwrap the package.

"W-w-wait!" I leaped forward and stopped his hand. "Don't do it here. I don't want you to do it around me. I don't want you to do it at all. Actually just take it back to where-ever you found it. I'll never forgive you if you get me marked for a felony."

"What's a felony?" someone asked. I jumped hearing the voice behind me. It was just my sister, hanging off the last rung of the ladder and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She was four.

"A felony..." I scratched my head searching for an set of words she'd know.

Dad intejected, "Felonies are something fun that the government doesn't want you to do for your own good."

I clapped my hand over his mouth. Sedition was a felony too, and he had a knack for coming close to that. "Daddies just joking. Felonies are bad things. Very bad. You never want to do one."

My sister nodded gravely back at me. She always listened. She was such a good girl.

"Oh hun, can I have your attention again?"

I turned to my dad, fully awake and furious. "I don't think you should be calling attention to yourself at all. Not with that in your hands." I hissed under my breath.

"Egg." he said.

"Egg? What's that supposed to mean? Don't you mean Ex?" the old man had lost it a long time ago, I had to remind him constanty of the way things were.

"No. Egg." he creased the paper sack in his hands, "I have an egg. Three actually, one for each of us. Told you I wouldn't use drugs. Not now, not ever."

I sighed. Stealing food was just a class I misdemeaner. "I have to go to work."

My words hung in the air for a minute and we both stood staring at each other.

"Can I have an egg sis?" my sister whispered, tugging at my jacket.

I glanced at her and she looked up at me with wide hazel eyes. "Are you going to school today?"

"Yes. Bus leaves at 6, we're learning our colors again but I already know them all. Blue....red....green....yellow....blue...."

I put a finger lightly over her lips, "Shhhh...you'll wake someone up."With my other hand I scratched my head, crinkling my hair under my finger. "Dad is it safe. I mean the egg, is it safe to eat it?" From what I remember in school, those things could go bad if you weren't careful.

"It's as safe as me." he chuckled, tearing the packaging open. There really were three eggs. A bit oddly shaped, and an off-white color that was grimier than I remembered seeing in the textbook but they were real. My sister reached out past me for one of them.

I slapped her hand down, holding her back. "Are they really safe? I have work today, and Nata has school. I don't want us to get the shakes and die."

"Oh you won't get the shakes. They're perfectly safe. Here I'll prove it to you." Before I could stop him, he popped an egg into his mouth and chewed heavily. "Ooooooo" he murmered out between the mash of food.

"I told you....poisioning." I spoke, seeing his face flush with pain.

"No...its okay... it really tastes good...I just forg---" His teeth crunched noisily and he paused to reach into his mouth. Pulling out a tiny white shard, he held it up to the light. "I forgot to take it out of it's shell. Kinda hurts to eat the protection."

"Oh." I'd forgotten about that. Eggs were the larva of some kind of animal called a chicken, they had a hard shell to keep the babies safe before birth.

"Can I have one? Pleeeeeese." she always stretched out her letters when she really cared. Always. I didnt' really have the heart to say no. It did look kind of safe, and she was still young enough to have free med-care.

I shrugged nonchallantly. "It looks safe. Just take it out of its shell." I turned to dad, and he quickly tossed an egg at me and another one at my sister. She fumbled to catch hers, tripping over her feet. I smiled and steadied her. "Let's go. We already missed breakfast talking about this...egg.... and I have work."

"And I have school." she nodded brightly, sinking her teeth into the egg.

When I put her on the train, she was still spitting out pieces of shell. She'd forgotten everything I'd told her.

------------------------------------------- / / ------------------------------