Shades of Grey

(A/N: If you have questions, I will be answering within posts. I won’t be doing this on other stories. If I tell you ‘You’ll see with the upcoming chapters” don’t worry, you will. :D )


The thick window pane made the outside world a kaleidoscope. The mold and stains giving the grey of the city a glow of earth and I looked away with despair.
I had 24 hours to decide what to do next; pack up or flee.
The worn papyrus letter in my hands was already creased with my fingerprints. It told me to pack only what would fit in a 2' by 5' box and that clothing would be provided.
How could a single box hold everything I hold dear from my home? It would only fit knick knacks and that would not be enough for forever. My mom knocked on the door, peering in with a solemn face.
"Do you need help choosing?"
I hesitated answering by looking back at the letter. "I don't want to."
She sat at the edge of my bed, rubbing the frayed skort she wore for housework and kept her head bowed. "Alerik..." Her voice died with too much to say and I stared at her knees where she thumbed fumbled with the skort.
In 24 hours I would leave my home and probably never return. Aside from it being something eighteen year olds long for, I felt at peace with my parents, I attended college and worked at IHOP as a hostess on weekends. I didn't yearn to leave, even if it was the law.
A week ago I received via Fed Ex, an envelope containing a letter and a leather braid.

’Dear Ms.Alerik Johnson

The court has drawn your name to attend the POPWFP Ash program. On June 2nd, a cab will arrive at your address, clothing will be provided, any further necessities and etc. may be brought in a single (limit 2'x5') box.

The POPWFP Board’

My mom had cried when I read it out laud, confused. My dad took a permanent seat by the bar and finished more than half of the stock of wine. He avoided looking at anything other than the wooden knots of the bar top and a metal coil to unscrew corks. My brother looked at everything with blank eyes until I rephrased what my mother told me after I asked why the letter hurt her.
Kneeling before his glum body curled to welcome sleep; I spoke softly as to keep my mom from restarting her sobs.
“I’m going to be gone for some time, Ben.”
He shifted on his bed, his eyes being the most prominent part of his face, glittered with reflections of the night light I could have mistaken for tears. “Where are you going?”
I licked my lips in thought. “Well, I’m not sure. Mom says that it’s kind of like the trip to that fort up north, where the settlers lived. Like a community.”
He frowned slightly. Ben didn’t ask what I meant a second time. He was passive about most things, why wouldn’t he be silent about this? He looked away, finally giving in to a pent up sigh. “How long will you be gone?”
My throat constricted as I answered. “I don’t know.” It wasn’t a complete lie. The possibility of staying there forever made it unpredictable.
He turned the rest of his body away, as if he couldn’t bear to see me anymore.
“Good night Ben.”
He didn’t reply as I drifted out of the room, closing the door behind me.
Now looking back out the window of the study my pulse began one of its shaking routines. The letter fell off my lap and my bottom lip quivered.
“Sweetie, what would you like to go in the box, your blanket?”
I grimaced at the idea of sleeping away from home or my comfort zone in general.
With a slight nod, I heard her unfold the box and look amongst my sheets for the blanket.
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I shifted the weight of the box, walking towards the cab, tears streaming down my face.
The grip my dad had on my shoulder made me weep silently, his arms flexing to slam the trunk shut.
I had spent the week informing the college and my friends about my situation.
Some of them cried, hanging up instantly. Some congratulated me, making me cry and hang up instantly.
I stepped inside and without a second word, my dad slammed the door behind me and the taxi reared to life again before I could turn to say goodbye, my mom and dad standing at the foot of the door, my brother watching with bleak eyes. My face paled and without warning I shoved my head to my hands, falling into a deep sleep after hours of crying.

When the car slowed to a stop, I lifted my head and blinked at the overflowing light that streamed in as the driver opened my door. “Out.” He muttered walking to the back and popping the trunk. I rubbed my eyes, looking out. We were at the airport?
How far was this Ash program?
My box suddenly clunked on the sidewalk before me and the driver dipped his head to hiss at me to get out again.
I muttered my apologies and scrambled out of the taxi.
I closed the door and watched him floor it away. My shock of his speed disappeared as a man in a prim suit and a clip board walked to me with crescent moon glasses. “What is your name young lady?”
“Alerik Johnson.” I chewed the inside of my lip as he skimmed the pages of the clipboard and wrote something on it. He ripped something from a bottom sheet and held it out to me.
A boarding pass.
I looked at the gate and the destination.
Chicago? I was interested in the change of weather. Yet Florida would seem so far away.
“Gather with the others at the white tent near the courtyard.” He said to me briefly glancing at his watch. “You should hurry, you have ten minutes. You were late.”
I bent to pick up my box and his clipboard tapped my shoulder impatiently. “Not to worry Ms. Johnson. This will be going straight to the plane. Go on now, I’ll take care of this.” He gestured at men with strapping around the waist and ripped something else from his clipboard and peeled a label to tape on my box. His glance up at my person with haste ushered me away.
I looked at a directory on how to get to the courtyard; I got there just as a line of young women emptied out from under the white tent. I found a woman in a tailored airline suit and leaned closer. “Excuse me, I was told to come he-”
“Name?” She spoke sharply pulling out a clip board.
Ok.
“Umm, Alerik Johnson.” She on the other hand made a highlight.
“How are you feeling?” The way she asked it made her sound like someone who got sick easily and snubbed the sick.
“Well.”
She highlighted again and I changed my stance looking back at the disappearing line of girls.
“Do you have your pass?”
“The man in the-”
“Yes or no?”
I sighed in annoyance. “Yes.”
She lowered her clipboard taking a look at me. “Follow those girls. Keep your boarding pass out and have a nice flight.” My head was pounding slightly from the tears and the confusion. I followed the girls, going through a metal detector and through an accordion tunnel into a small plane.
I stumbled inside with shock; the entire plane looked like it was first class. The women settled into their seats breaking into low conversations. I looked down into my pass and continued down the aisle to my seat.
This was some intense special treatment.
My seat was on the left of a woman sitting by a window, already reclined and staring outside.
I sat slowly into the soft padding and strapped myself. A voice coughed into the speaker, cleared and began again.
“Good morning ladies, the weather is fine and the route is set in place. Do not hesitate to ask a flight attendant a thing, dinner will be served in two hours and a movie will play on the screens in front shortly. Enjoy the flight.”
Two bulky men in uniform stood by both emergency exits like bodyguards that I guessed were the flight attendants.
“Are there any phones?” I asked the turned away figure of the girl next to me.
She was unresponsive and I took that as a no, her long black hair curving over her shoulders and the large bosom. Her thin nose and full lips helped keep my timid self at bay. She was overpoweringly beautiful.
A flat screen attached to the back of the seat in front of me flickered on and Letters to Iwo Jima began to play.
Dinner was single size lasagna and a little bowl of Caesar salad. We were only offered water and when I asked a flight attendant with the trolley four times too small four the large massive man for a phone, he shook his head and continued on.
3 hours later, the plane landed.
We formed a single file line and made our way into a more decent looking tunnel, filing into the gate where two men in outfits similar to the guy that had given me the boarding pass counted us.
The first one with bleached blonde hair crossed his arms. “Alright ladies, how many of you carry the bracelet on you?”
The women looked at each other in distress.
“The leather thing that came with the letter, how many of you have it?”
There were a few show of hands. One of them was mine. I carried the entire packet, folded, in the inner pocket of my woolen black sweater.
He sighed with the same apparent annoyance I had several hours ago. I looked at my watch with tired eyes. It was only eleven pm.
“Right, well, all of those who do put them on and follow me. The rest, follow Ried to get your stuff and get it. We’ll meet up later.”
The blonde parted swiftly and the other man with a mustache made a movement for the girls to follow. The few of us who remained, hurried to keep up with the blonde’s speed and fasten on the braid.
He led us down escalators and out into the night where a shuttle bus waited with open doors for us.
The blonde sighed again, round the few of us. “My name’s Will. No calling Mr. or William, stick to Will or don’t refer to me at all. We’re going part of ways, so the trip will take a good hour. I suggest you all take a nap, the sights will get boring and I’m really not in the mood of chattering, so the AC will be up and blankets will be offered. I do not like repeating myself so you all will relate the news to the others, quickly and quietly.”
Just as he finished the depressing speech, the rest of the group joined us with their bracelets on and pale faces
We all took the blankets and almost willingly fell asleep. By coincidence it seems, I ended up sitting next the black haired beauty again.
She turned her body away and kept her eyes open until mine could no longer do so as I curled up in my blanket.
The law….what a joke.