Everland

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Disappear

“… You don’t understand how it is to be a teenager, Mom.” I could feel my eyes wide. Staring clearly and precisely at my mother who froze in front of me. She’s alive, blinking, but couldn’t respond for some reason. Well, many reasons.

“You don’t know how hard to be resilient at all times! Y-You… just don’t know me.” I finally said the words that I have always kept, afraid that she would totally break into pieces. As much as I didn’t want to say it, I believe it is the perfect time to let her know.

Her lips puckered, her jaw clenched. I watched her eyes go red and teary then she looks away and says nothing anyway. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I wish instead of always working abroad, you’ll just stay here while I’ll help you earn money.”

“It doesn’t matter if I’ll have a hard time. I just want you to stay beside me, even when I grow up.”

“Emery, you know I need to work abroad for you. What part of that is hard to understand?”

Again and again, the same excuses that I don’t want to hear. “I don’t care if we are poor, Mom. Just quit your company and stay here! I need you here! I am here, not in Australia whatever! You need to see how I am doing, you need to appreciate my achievements like proud parents do. Ahh! That reminds me…” A tear fell from my left eye which I quickly wipe away.

“… Have you ever been proud of me?” I asked, breaking my voice at the end of the sentence. Her mouth forms into an ‘O’ and it angered her, I can see it in her eyes that reflected the colors of mine.

“Your expectations… Perhaps, makes you harder to impress. That’s it, isn’t it?” I gave her a smile I could muster up to hide the vile and the pain. She couldn’t answer more so I left her inside the living room.

I went outside the house and left the door loudly closed. Cold summer air swept through my face and neck, following my bare shoulders and arms. The sky is clear, painted with stars – it’s a moonless night. In the darkness, only street lamps provide enough amount of light to see the pathway stretched across the block. I aligned my walking with the way it is leading to somewhere.

Don’t get me wrong, but I’m a good girl. I had never once rebelled from my mother or my father. Both of them run this small company of fishing industry for a decade, and recently, their largest fishing boat went oil leaking. It caused them more damage than they expected and the loss was even that depressing.

I suggested that we could just find another business or work in someone else’s company instead of having chain debts from banks or loaners. There’s always an opportunity for new beginnings.

But they wouldn’t yield to my idea.

“Emery!” A familiar high pitched voice greets me from behind. I find Shalom behind me, grinning and eyes sparkling. I stopped walking and turns to her instead.

“Shalom? What are you doing here late at night?” I asked her, wondering.

“Just inhaling fresh air. How about you? Shouldn’t you be like, studying right now?” She asks as she furrows her brow at the same time like it is some big crime for me to do unusual things.

This is unusual. Me – being seen outside the streets at almost eleven in the evening.

“It’s a hot evening, I suppose. I needed fresh air too.” I tried to reassuringly smile at her. She just nodded and started to walk, I kept pace with her.

“Nothing’s more relaxing than walking under the stars in a dark night, yes?” She asks out of the blue. I nodded in response.

I’ve never known Shalom much. She’s just my classmate and my neighbour. We seldom see each other after class because I go home so soon. And walking with her tonight, I couldn’t feel the awkwardness.

“Won’t your parents be mad if they find out you’re not inside your room?” I asked out of curiosity.

“I have no parents.” She said in a light tone.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay, it’s not a secret.” She says. That left me confusing with her words and her tone.

“What happened to them?” I asked in a careful tone.

She looks at me with a gentle smile on her face. The cold air blows her side bangs away from her left temple and her eyes reflect the twinkling stars above us. “They’re in Everland.”

That left me blank for a few seconds. “What continent do you ever find that place? Sounds like Neverland.”

“You can’t find it.” She says and looks away but she kept grinning that it made this late evening creepy. “You need to feel it.”

“I am a forbidden fruit of my parents. I was born when they’re both 16 years old. It caused them a lot of trouble just to keep me alive. Until they both turned 18, they just suddenly disappeared.”

My heart raced because of her unbelievable story. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yes. My grandmother says that they disappeared from their physical bodies.”

“Like how? Disappear from your body?”

“It’s your soul that will fade away. Like an astral projection as many people say. But my grandmother didn’t panic when she saw what happened to my parents, she knows they’re still in Everland.”

All these information are making my head spin. Call it being mind blown. If she’s making white lies just to cover up her parents’ deaths then I can understand her. Because losing permanently someone you loved breaks you a thousand times.

“You don’t believe me right?” She laughs at this. “My grandmother says that every third of the generation experiences this. She had a similar experience for how many weeks and it turned out, she woke up aging plus two.”

“What age did she experience this?” somehow her story is interesting. I could use her story telling as a distraction of what happened earlier this night. Just so I could escape the reality.

“At eighteen.”

“Isn’t it some kind of pattern?” I ask her.

“Maybe.”

“Does it have anything to do with bloodline?”

“I don’t know. I turned 18 but nothing happened to me.” She said. I can’t help but observe her eyes while saying this. And as I’ve assumed, there’s a longing emotion inside them.

“How many years are your parents…”

“For 16 years now.”

“Are they still… alive?”

“I hope so. In another dimension.”

Shalom and I entered an envelope of silence between us. I kept biting my tongue to know if I am still awake or just dreaming. But I could only feel my sharp teeth pressing my tongue.

“Shalom, why did you tell me this?”

“I just feel like I should tell you, Emery.”

“And no one else knows about this except me?”

“Yes.” She confirms. I swallowed a new hot lump in my throat. This secret is so big that I could feel the weight of it on top of my shoulders.

“So in return, would you tell me what happened in your house?”

--

In the end, I told Shalom my family problem. She just stayed silent all while I talked and talked like forever. After that, she speaks out her thoughts and advices, and I found out three things about her tonight.

Shalom is friendly, a good listener and a charming girl.

“When are you free?” She asks.

“I don’t know.”

“Are you free right now then?”

Somehow, I’ve got a feeling that she’d bring me to somewhere else rather than be a lamp post here on the street.

“Sure.” I said. I don’t feel like going back home just yet. I feel tired, but not tired enough to shut down my thoughts and have a peaceful sleep.

“Let’s go see my parents.” She says.

“Huh? Is that okay?” Is she even serious?

“Sure, cuz it’s you Emery.”

I want to hesitate because I wasn’t so certain of what’s coming next. But when I look back at her face, there wasn’t an implicit ghost of bad intentions or something. Her eyes are warm and gentle and her smile isn’t forced. Shalom emanates a pure invitation.

I sighed out of nervousness. “Okay. Maybe this is even better than being at home.”