Thin Air

Not so long ago, an unkindness of infected pests invaded Joshing Town’s last cultivating farm, leaving site of no-good land. Since the loss of a handful of good farms, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food had decided to educate the farmers, improve farm security and provide protection to all major farms within the circumference. One of the MAFF protected farm was in the meadows of Old Man’s Land where the grazing grass was the thickest. This farm was a renewed form of another private farm which was recently sold and then renamed as Gemre Miri Farmhouse, named after the estate owner’s only living child, Miri P. Gemre.

*****

“Hello everyone, my name is Miri Gemre. I am nine years old but I will be ten this year October. I live in Old Man’s Land with my mother and father and a friend. I have a pet dog, her name is Joy, my friend named her when she was a puppy. I play with Joy and my friend all the time, and I talk to my friend every time. I love my mother, my father and my friend and Joy. Thank you.”

Nobody clapped. The child in front of Miri stood and spoke more sentences and sat down. The next child stood and spoke and sat down. One after the other, children in this large room with a blackboard, small tables and chairs, a chart wall and a large clock stuck on the ceiling, stood and spoke very few things about themselves and sat down again. No one spoke more than Uke, the child in front of Miri.

After every single child present had finished speaking about themselves, a tall lady entered the room, shook hands with the other lady in the room, whispered something in her ears and the previously present lady instantly left the room. The tall lady then stood before the class and re-greeted them, “Good afternoon children. Welcome to 4th grade. I am Ms. Willow, your new class teacher for this year,” she looked at many faces but smiled at just one. Ms. Willow continued, “Since it’s almost time to leave, we will pack our things and talk some more to get to know each other better. Alright everybody.” The girl in front of Miri stood up, faced the teacher and said, “Ms. Willow, we already spoke about ourselves when you weren’t here.” “I didn’t mean to reintroduce yourselves. I meant that it is free-time for everybody now. Enjoy,” was Ms. Willow’s reply.

A sudden bust of alarm rang from the ceiling which made many children gasp in terror. Ms. Willow began to calm them down by telling them that it was the end of students’ school hour alarm. Unhurriedly, everybody in the room began to walk outside through a yellow door, connecting them to a long lane of yellow buses. On the paved area between the bus lane and the door, Miri could see other children exiting from doors just like theirs and climbing in the buses from her right and left.

“Gemre, Miri and Pias Ukele. Please stand back,” said Ms. Willow standing before Miri’s chair. Miri and Uke waited back in silence which broke when the rest of the children climbed and rode away in the yellow buses.

“Did you work here all this time?” Miri asked rather heartlessly to Ms. Willow.

Ms. Willow gave a puzzled expression and said, “I thought I told you where I worked, Miri. You know the name of this institution, right?”

Miri sighed and didn’t speak until Uke asked, “You both know each other?”

Miri sighed and replied, “She is my mother.”

“Oh. Your mother? Ok. Hey, where did you say you were from?”

“I didn’t say anything lik- ugh why are we even waiting here like this?” Miri fumed in frustration.

After Ms. Willow looked at her hand device, she asked Miri and Uke to follow her to the main street. When they reached the main street, Ms. Willow instructed the two girls to walk slowly to their areas and when Uke sees her father, she could follow him from there on but before that Uke’s father will call Ms. Willow and she will get there very soon.

“Until you both see me come your way, don’t be separated or else,” warned Ms. Willow. The two girls began walking without any questions. Uke turned back once and saw Ms. Willow entering a black caravan; the eye contact gave her goosebumps.

As they walked on their own, Uke sensed the silence between them to be unbearably scratchy, so she nervously asked, “Hey Miri, do you live around here?” Miri rolled her eyes and reluctantly replied, “No,” Uke didn’t expect more words that. Uke asked, “Where do you live?”

“Inside a big house in Old Man’s Land,”

“Were you born in that big house?”

“No!” snarled Miri, “I was born in a rugged barn older than your mother. Now shut up!”

Uke kept walking in a slow motion, keeping her mouth tightly closed and her tiny teardrops to herself. She tried to go slower than Miri, so slow that she couldn’t hear her blabbing non-sense in thin air. Uke tried ignoring what Miri said but the more she tried the more her eyes drenched.

“I am sorry, whatever your name is. What is your name?” said Miri with no eye contact.

Uke thought it was an odd thing to do but she soon figured that she is different from her. She told Miri her name and then Miri asked, “Did you forgive me?”

“I did.”

Miri looked at Uke and apologized again.

“It’s alright Miri. I don’t know why you would say that but I don’t mind it,” said Uke, heartily.

Miri sighed and asked herself out loud, “Do you think I should talk to her?”

“What,” Uke asked.

“Please wait,” replied Miri, “Ok. We can talk. Where do live?”

Uke looked puzzled. “Where do I live?”

“Yes”

Uke said, “Richer District. I was born in a hospital.”

Miri started laughing. “What!? Oh Uke!”

“What’s so funny?” asked Uke.

Miri went on laughing. Just as Miri was about to say something, a motorbike drifted between them, filling thin air into heavy fog dust. Uke fell back and waited for the dust in the air to settle down. When she opened her eyes, she couldn’t see Miri anywhere. She almost forgot what Ms. Willow had expressed through her eyes, “parting means departing.” Before she could move a limb, she heard, “Pias! This way!” She turned her head and saw her new grade’s class teacher gesturing her to get in the black caravan right away.

Sprinting in, she said, “I am sorry Ms. Willow. It was just as you guessed. A motorcycle took her away.”

“No. The motorcycle was just a dust in the eye. She ran away again,” concluded Ms. Willow.

“Let’s go,” commanded Ms. Willow, “Get to Gemre Miri Farmhouse before Miri.”

“Ms. Willow? I don’t know what is going on,” whispered Uke.

Pulling an AR out, Ms. Willow explained everyone in the caravan their roles, “I need Pias to get to home right now. We need to get through that protection or else the pests are in!”