The Social Ban

"The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room." I don't remember how the last of that bedtime story went, but it was my mom's way of making me feel better about not having a window to look out any more. I still haven't seen the outside world in almost ten years.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. At least, that's what I think the phrase is.

One day, I was a happy kid playing on the playground with my friends at school. Some kids stay on the benches with their phones, but teachers take them away quickly. We're playing tag, hide and seek, and every other game kids play! Though, Red Rover got banned when my parents went to school.

Then one day, parents celebrate a nationwide social media ban. Critics said it's no better than China's Great Firewall, but China had WeChat and Weibo. And their citizens were responsible for steering conversations away from politics.

Not too bad, right? Now kids have to look up from their phones and play with other kids. There's no reason for a kid to have a phone anymore. But it doesn't stop.

Soon, we're noticing school shootings around the country and developing a fear of school. The government solves this by closing schools permanently. And with no social media, no chance of bullying. Kids can't talk about lessons anymore with their friends. Meaning they can't talk about ideas.

From then on, a kid stays in the house under a parent's control until they're old enough to marry. The school stays online. College stays online. You can't even leave the house to study abroad anymore! Now, you watch a bunch of videos and call it studying abroad. No more sleepovers; no more friends; no more new ideas. You can only interact with family until it's time to get married.

The worst part was the windows. In the first few years of the Social Ban, we'd see kids outside and go outside to join them in rebellion. The police kept fining our parents every time they saw us. So the city put an ordinance to board all the windows. No one can look in or out.

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It's been twenty years since I've seen another person besides my mother and siblings. My siblings got married off a few years ago, and now my mother is stuck with me. At twenty-seven, she's worried she can't find anyone to take me. I don't mind. Who knows what kind of people she's been trying to ship me off to?

Since I'm not married, I can't get a job, so I sit around the house all day. My mom installed cameras when I was twelve, for she could legally leave me home alone for work. The camera kept me from being like other neighborhood kids and joining bootleg social media sites.

I don't keep track of days anymore. I couldn't tell you what day of the week my birthday is, but I remember my twenty-seventh birthday well. At that point, my mother started ordering me to answer the doors when our groceries and mail got delivered. She hopes the delivery guys would fall in love with me, and then she'd get rid of me.

Too bad all the delivery guys looked my age, so they were married already. That day, it was the mailman at the door. I recognized him as a kid from second grade. We looked at each other awkwardly, then he gave me the mail. Twenty years of no social interaction makes things awkward I guess.

I lingered in the doorway. The sunlight and warmth felt pleasant, once my eyes stopped hurting from the brightness. I didn't look outside but looked through the mail before going inside. Then I shut the door.

That day, I noticed more mail for me than for my mom. Seven more pieces, to be exact.

It must be my birthday, I thought as I leafed through the envelopes. They looked old like they'd sat on a shelf for too long. The kind big stores would throw away because they didn't look as pristine as the other ones.

I checked the clock. Mom was still at work. I left her mail on the table and went to my room to open mine.

"It's your right to look," the note said. The letters looked like they got cut from a magazine. I thought this stuff was in the movies! I ran my fingers over the note, impressed every letter was the same color. The same shade of red. I took out the second note and opened it.

"It's your right to go outside," it said in orange. I picked up the third.

"They can't fine us all," the yellow letters read.

"They can't arrest us all," the green note read.

"Tonight, we fight back," read the blue note.

"At dawn, we open our windows again." Indigo.

"Can't wait to meet you all," in purple.

Smiling, I hid the letters between my mattresses. I smoothed over my mom's old marriage ads to keep the papers from rustling when I sleep. I looked at the boarded up window.

"I've got some things to do," I said out loud. My mother boarded up my window long before the city ordinance. I went out with other kids one night when I was sixteen, and she screwed my window shut. When my brother gave me a screwdriver, I fixed my window. The next morning, I woke up to my mom boarding up my window.

"You will not embarrass me," she snarled when she saw I was awake. By the end of the week, my brother got married off, and he moved out after a few weeks.

After I hid my letters, I got to work. My mom's always been good at catching my little rebellions, but she hasn't been as attentive lately. I cleaned my room then the rest of the house. Then, I looked through the groceries. As I figured out tonight's dinner, I went to the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. The sleeping pills were still there.

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"A wonderful meal again," my mom declared, "it's a shame we can't find a husband for you when you're so talented in the kitchen."

"Well, that's what happens when you're the ringleader behind the Social Ban," I shrugged.

"If you knew how badly social media destroyed your sister," my mom repeated, "you'd be wanting something done too."

"I know, I heard it before," I said, "but she got help, and she's okay. She even got married, like you wanted!'

"Because she wasn't hiding all my marriage ads," my mom said. My heart skipped a beat. She knew!

"Did you forget we had cameras in the house?" she asked. "Or did you get careless because I wasn't watching them as much?"

"I...," I tried to say something, but I couldn't come up with anything.

"Have you noticed I haven't been putting out marriage ads lately?" my mother asked. Chills.

"I've been taking marriage ads to work," she explained. "And I think I found a match for you. I'll have a meeting with him tomorrow, and you'll finally have a husband by tomorrow."

"That's not your choice to make!" I snapped.

"It's my job to keep you safe!" she said, "and this one looks like he'll be perfect. You won't have to work, and family is important to him. If all goes well, you'll be a mother by next year."

I poured myself a glass of wine.

"Pour me a glass of white wine, dear," she said. "It's time we celebrated finally finding someone to marry you."

I poured her a glass, and we toasted. She downed the glass quicker than I expected. As she rambled about this new husband, I heard her getting drowsy. I put dirty dishes in the sink, and when I came back, she fell asleep at the table. I carefully picked her up and moved her to the couch and turned on the TV. The pills were so strong, she didn't wake up when I blasted the volume.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What the hell are you doing!" my mom barged in my room, screaming. I'd started prying the nails out of the last board in my window when she came in.

"No!" she lunged at me, going after the crowbar. "You'll ruin everything!"

"It's my life!" I yelled back. "I'm an adult! It's my choice how I live my life, not yours!"

"Don't you know what'll happen?" she screeched. "The police will come! They'll fine you! No! You're an unmarried adult woman! They'll arrest you for causing trouble! You'll never have a husband!"

"It should be my choice if I marry!" I said. I wrestled the crowbar away from her and pried the last nail off the board. Then I ripped it off.

"Join me," I invited her. "Look out the window."

"No," she said.

"Fine," I said, "The government can't arrest everyone."

"You'll ruin everything," she warned. "You'll ruin your future! You'll ruin my reputation! You'll destroy your siblings' marriages."

"When's the last time you talked to my siblings?" I asked. She stared at me, open-mouthed.

"Sunrise," I said. "It's time."

My mom screamed as I opened the window and looked outside. The other houses looked clean with manicured lawns. I closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh air and felt my cheeks warm up in the sun.

I opened my eyes. I saw a flash of movement and looked to my right. A girl opened her window and stuck her head out. We made eye contact, and she waved. I waved back, smiling.

Little by little, more heads poked out of windows. Some were my age, but most of these people were kids, no younger than twelve. We smiled and waved, seeing other people for the first time in a long time. The braver kids started yelling hello to one another.

It didn't last long. We heard the sirens and saw the flashing lights. More cops than I knew existed showed up, barging into people's homes. Kids jumped out of windows and stared running away then getting tackled by police. Others shut their windows, and I heard loud pops.

It didn't register when I got pulled away from the window. I started screaming when I realized what happened, clinging to the windowsill for life.

Sirens, screams, pops, smacks. I barely registered being hit. It's not until I feel pain on my back and head and feel dizzy, I realize what's happening. The last thing I remember before passing out was my mom screaming.

"You ungrateful girl! You ruined everything!"