There were only a few days left before the application results would be announced. Throughout those days, without leaving the house even once, I sat on the old couch facing the living room window, flipping through the remaining pages of my book while watching my mother knit.
The people of Sonus were preparing for the one-hundredth birthday celebration of an old man who lived beyond the hill with his son and grandchildren. He was the first person in years to reach the age of one hundred, and that meant a great deal to the people of the city because he had witnessed every event that had taken place there over the course of an entire century. My mother had decided to knit him a sweater so she could give it to him at the celebration the day after tomorrow.
Situations like this were stressful for our family because I had to attend the celebration to avoid arousing anyone’s suspicion. People already knew me as the frail girl who was often sick, but missing the city’s ceremonies and celebrations altogether would have seemed far too unusual.
I walked into the kitchen to pour myself a cup of coffee. Through the small kitchen window, I could see the beams of Sonus’s light. They looked as though they had fallen into a deep sleep, a glowing sphere floating around the city.
Mother said, “Oh my God, what happened this time?”
When I turned my head, I saw my sister through the living room window, hurrying toward the house. Mother quickly opened the door for her. Panting as she hurried inside and unbuttoning the top button of her coat, my sister said, “Dad is rushing home, and he looks really angry. Does anyone know what’s happened?”
My mother looked at both of us in surprise. “No.”
My sister hurried into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. The worry in her eyes began to affect me too. Mother walked over to the table and gathered up her knitting things, as if she sensed that whatever was about to happen would keep her from knitting. I picked up my coffee cup and slowly approached the window beside the front door so that I could see the expression on my father’s face before he came into the house.
A few moments later, Father stormed into the house. His face was tense and angry. He slammed the door shut and threw his clothes into a corner. He looked at my sister first. “You… you… yooou… Tell me, why were you laughing with that boy? Don’t you know you’re not supposed to get close to people like him?”
My sister began to stammer. “We’re just friends… that’s all… We—”
Father cut her off. “I’ll deal with you later.” Then he turned toward me. He walked over with firm, heavy steps, stopping only a few inches from my face. “Mrs. Miler said you came to the City Hall building a few days ago to submit an application. Is that true?”
Mrs. Miler was the woman who sat behind the desk in the application registration office. I hadn’t thought she had any connection to my father. I tried to stay calm. “I thought it would be better if they decided for themselves, based on my abilities, what kind of work I’d be most suitable for, and—”
Father interrupted me. “What nonsense… Do you see this, dear? Do you see how these two children have decided to destroy us?” He threw himself onto the couch and stared at my mother, his eyes burning with anger.
Mother’s face went blank with shock. She sank into a kitchen chair as though her legs had suddenly given way beneath her, and in a voice barely loud enough to hear, said, “Erena… what have you done? You…”
I began to worry that maybe I shouldn’t have done it. What if my stubborn determination to uncover the truth only made Mother’s condition worse than before?
Father hastily loosened his tie and tossed it into the corner, then raised his voice even louder. “Neither of you is allowed to attend the Chiriu family’s one-hundredth birthday celebration. Do you understand?”
“But I… I promised my friends we’d perform a group dance at the celebration. I—”
Father silenced my sister with a wave of his hand. “I don’t care. You should have thought about the consequences the moment you ignored my warning and became friends with the son of one of Sonus’s high-ranking officials.”
My sister began to cry. Mother signaled to her with a look, telling her to leave the house. My sister buttoned up her coat again and headed for the door. Only then did Father realize what was happening. “Where are you going?” he shouted.
Roya stood where she was, as if she wanted to see where the argument would lead. Since Dad was slumped in one of the kitchen chairs beside Mom, she easily reached over, took his hand, and with a piercing look I hadn’t seen from her in years, silently urged him to say nothing. Father started cracking his knuckles, one after another, the sharp popping sounds filling the room. It was obvious that he was barely holding himself together, forcing himself to endure what was happening while not doing anything he could never take back. He turned to Mother and said, “Make her understand that, at the very least, she shouldn’t go near that boy…”
Before Father could curse at her, Mother nodded firmly, then turned to my sister and said, “I think she already understands how dangerous being involved with that boy could be for our family. Isn’t that right, Roya?” Roya didn’t answer. Until the very last moment, she avoided making eye contact with any of us.
After my sister left the house, Father wasted no time before he started yelling again: “And as for you! It seems you’d love for the whole city to find out about your secret, wouldn’t you? Mrs. Miler. said that since the applications have already been registered and sent to the Central Apprenticeship Administration, they can’t be changed. In a few days, you’ll be assigned to the Central Library.”
When Father said those words, I wanted to tell the whole town of Sonus! But I kept a straight face so he wouldn’t realize how eager I was to work at the library. Besides, seeing how happy I was at that moment would only have made him even angrier.
“You’d better stay close to me there and make absolutely sure you don’t do anything that might make people suspicious of you. Otherwise, you’ll get every one of us killed. Understood? Now get out of my sight.”
As I walked toward my room, I could barely contain my excitement. At last, I was going to the Central Library, and Father had accepted it, even if only because he had no other choice. Of course, I had paid a heavy price for it. Being forbidden from attending the one-hundredth birthday celebration was almost the harshest punishment imaginable. Celebrations like that were incredibly rare in the city. Enduring that punishment was easy for me, but not for my sister. I was worried about her. She had been planning for that celebration for a long time.
A few hours later, my sister came home. I saw her from the top of the staircase; even from that distance, I could see that her eyes were swollen from crying, and something about her had changed. When I tried to speak to her, she cut me off, saying she didn’t want to talk to me, then hurried into her room.
Father never came home that night. He spent the night at the library. As always, it had been Mother’s suggestion that Father stay away from the tension at home, and she had also told my sister and me not to discuss the matter with him anymore, so that peace could be maintained in the house. Even so, it was clear that Mother was deeply troubled. She usually kept quiet about such matters and never wanted an argument to break out at home. I could hear her shortness of breath and could only guess that she was terrified that what had happened several years ago might happen again. So she buried herself in her knitting to keep herself from having to drink the calming herbal infusion that would put her to sleep for an entire day. Each family received only a limited supply of the infusion every year, which was to prevent a person from saying or doing anything that might cause Sonus to punish them. Mother avoided drinking it whenever she possibly could, saving it for true emergencies.
But I was overflowing with excitement. Alone in my room, I kept making plans for how my sister and I could attend the one-hundredth birthday celebration without anyone finding out. As I paced around the room, trying to think of something, my attention was drawn to my reflection in the mirror and the makeup scattered across the table. We needed a professional makeup artist.
