Chapter 1. The Forbidden Road.
Chapter 1.
The Forbidden Road.
"Sometimes," I said to myself, "you just have to accept defeat."
Not my most positive of statements. But at that moment in my life, it was about as positive as I could get. You couldn't blame me, really. The past three years I had been telling myself I wouldn't go back - that nothing in the world would induce me to go back. I would have my head bloody but unbowed. What would everyone think of me? Who comes crawling back to the Gutter when they have possibly been the only person lucky enough to escape?
I trudged through the sleet and wet snow, the wind whipping at my face. You'd hardly believe April was just a day or two away. Up in Haarlington, everything was already green, the flowers were beginning to blossom and winter had long been a thing of the past.
But then, spring was always late in coming to the Gutter, I remembered as I sloshed through the puddles covering what could barely be called a road. The only thing that indicated it was a road was the gravel and pebbles that dotted the path here and there, outlining it from the rest of the muddy, soggy ground. Stretching ten miles across the barren wilderness separating Haarlington from the Gutter, this was not a road that knew of travelers. That accounted for the terrible condition it was in. Back at the Gutter, we had called it the 'Forbidden Road to Paradise.'
Looking up, I noticed the 5 mile mark. Only five more miles and I would reach the outer rim of the Gutter. From there I could take a bus that would drive me the rest of the way home. A blast of icy wind made me zip up my jacket as far as it would go. When I had first begun my journey it all had been very different. The sun shone brightly and the air breathed of spring. But with every step further from Haarlington, the weather had been changing. And now, at the half way mark, there was only wind and snow and mud. It was a mystery to me how they managed to keep Haarlington weather so regulated. The entire weather-table for the year was planned out ahead of time, as was just about everything else there.
Maybe it was the halfway mark that made me pause, or maybe it was the fact that my feet were aching from all this walking. Either way, for the first time since I had started out early that morning, I allowed myself to stop and take a look back. Haarlington was long out of sight. All I could see was the empty horizon joining with dark grey clouds that covered the sky. Up ahead, the landscape wasn't very different. At this point I really was out in the middle of nowhere.
I bit my lip as I silently evaluated my current position. Going back was not an option, and going forward wasn't so great either. There was a reason I had delayed leaving Haarlington for as long as possible. As sick as I was of it, leaving meant returning to the Gutter, and that was not at all a pleasant thought. But I couldn't stay out here in the sleet and cold, so I forced my heavy feet to start walking again. Like it or not, I had started this journey and I had to finish it.
6 mile mark. Only four more miles and I would get to the check point that stood at the border of the Gutter, much like the one at the border of Haarlington.
Originally getting into Haarlington had been pretty tough; getting out was a lot easier. I didn't even need Stan to do it. They had scanned me to make sure I wasn't taking anything out that I wasn't supposed to. Having come through the scanning completely clean, they let me through without any questions. Maybe they would have thought more of my leaving if I had been a High Class citizen, but one simple blood test showed I had been born in the Gutter and was of the Low Class. They were probably only too eager to get rid of me, and had breezed me through the necessary procedures, till at last I left Haarlington and walked out onto this forbidden road to paradise. I knew the minute I left that check point there would be no going back. A pure fortunate twist of fate had brought me through that check point three years ago, and it was a hundred-to-one I would ever get a chance like that again. Once out of paradise, out for good.
But paradise hadn't lived up to its name, and I was all too glad to be gone from it. The forbidden road to paradise had turned out to be nothing more than the forbidden road to hell. And even if the opportunity did present itself for me to return, I was fairly sure I would pass it up.
7 mile mark, three miles to go.
The wind had picked up pretty strongly by now, and was blowing my hair in all directions, out of control. "I can't believe you forgot what Gutter weather is like!" I muttered out loud, chastising myself for not bringing something with which to tie my hair back. I didn't normally have a habit of talking to myself, but a couple of hours on your own with nothing but your thoughts can make you do things you don't normally do. Goodness knows the past three years had been filled with my doing things I didn't normally do.
8 mile mark, two miles to go.
You would think they would invent some sort of transportation to get you across these blasted 10 miles. But then, no one ever crossed this wretched road, so what good would transportation do? If some fool from Haarlington was dumb enough to want to go to the Gutter, they had their automobiles to take them there, warm and dry. Still, I wished they would have at least some sort of transport. All this walking was leaving me chilled and soggy. The warm weather at Haarlington had made me forget to take my hat, and my jacket hood was a sort that constantly slipped off; so apart from being tangled, my hair was also becoming rather wet.
9 mile mark, one mile to go.
Only one mile! I seriously considered staying here and starting a colony of my own on the forbidden road to paradise. True, I would be the only person in this colony. Not to mention there was no food or water, and I would probably just end up freezing to death. But somehow that all looked more appealing than having to face all the people back home. I could just hear all the exclamations in my head:
"Kaya, you're back!" "What are you doing here?" "What made you come back? The Penthouse didn't suit you?" "Did they kick you out?" "Told you you'd never be one of them! They would never accept you!"
I shuddered at all these thoughts. "Kaya, yes, you lost. Accept defeat, live with it, and go on!"
In the distance, I could see the low buildings that composed the check points at the border and before I knew it, I was standing at the door of the high tech building. On the other side lay the Gutter, the black smoke from the endless factories rising up into the grey sky.
"So this is it, Kaya. This is what you're going back to," I sighed to myself. Not all fairy tales have happy endings. I had just proven that to myself. I had returned to the starting point of the forbidden road to paradise. The place where it began was the place I would part with it for good. Taking a deep breath, I pushed the little button on the door and waited for it to open so I could step inside, leaving behind Haarlington and the road forever.
