“All citizens are reminded that the 9:00 curfew is now in effect. Anyone found outside their homes will be subject to punishment determined by the Governor himself. Thank you, and have a great evening.”
The voice boomed over every loudspeaker on every street in America. The little country house outside of town was not excluded. It was a quaint little two-story house. It was simple enough, made of wood and painted stark white, just like every other house. It had a long driveway, and at the end of the driveway was a street lamp and speaker. It was the same as any ordinary street lamp, except that it sat at the end of a driveway,rather than on a street corner, and that all the citizens knew there was actually a camera in it, keeping watch over their every move.  At this particular house, if you were to glance in the second story window on any ordinary night, you would see a mother and her little five-year-old girl getting ready for bed. The mother was in her mid-thirties, with reddish hair and a face that held more wisdom than you would think possible in a woman of her age. The little girl had the most innocent face that could ever be seen in the face of a child. She had long brown hair that flowed down to her waist, and a constant smile that stretched ear to ear.
“Come on sweetie, time to get ready for bed,” said the mother, glancing cautiously out the window towards the speakers.
“Okay mommy.” the little girl replied, not noticing her mother’s nervous glance.
“Don’t forget to say your prayers.”
“Yes mommy.” She said, sliding out of bed and kneeling next to it, folding her hands. Her baby blue nightgown seemed to glow in the moonlight, and her long brown hair flowed gently down to the floor when she knelt.
“Dear God,” she began,
“Please bless mommy and daddy and even the Governor, ‘cuz even though nobody likes him, I know you love him. Goodnight God.” She unfolded her hands, stood up, and clambered back into her bed. She promptly fell into a deep and innocent sleep. Her mother bent over and kissed her forehead. She walked back into her bedroom, where her husband was also slumbering peacefully. She knelt down and said her prayers too, none of which thanked God for the Governor. She did however, thank God for her little girl.
“Thank you God, for giving me Amber.”
----
Amber woke with a jolt She wasn’t sure why, but she felt like something was different in her room. She glanced around, but didn’t see anything unusual. She suddenly felt compelled to get out of bed and go to the window. She didn’t know why, but she followed this impulse. When she got to the window, she noticed it was raining out on the sidewalk, but not on the windowpane.
“That’s weird,” she thought,
“It wasn’t raining a few seconds ago.” There was no doubt about it, though. The thunderstorm raged loudly, and the lightning flashed scarily close. But that wasn’t why Amber had suddenly woken. She felt in her heart something was happening, but she wasn’t sure what. Then, she noticed something she hadn’t before, and she grabbed an umbrella and began running downstairs. There was a man standing outside. She knew somehow that this was not an agent of the Governor, but she wasn't sure how she knew. Her mother had warned her about stranger danger, but this man somehow didn’t feel like a stranger. She continued to walk downstairs.
“I have to help this man,”  she thought,
“He doesn’t know about curfew. He could get in big trouble.”
She must have made more noise than she thought, though, because her mom was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
"What's the matter, sweetie? Did you have a nightmare?"
"No mommy, I got up to help the man outside. What if he gets caught?"
"A man?" Her mother looked suspicious and scared.
"What did he look like? And why are you holding an umbrella?"
"Because, he's gonna get wet standing in the pouring rain."
"What rain?"
"The rain outside, silly."
"Honey, it's not raining." She carefully and slowly pushed the door open to prove her point. The sky was completely clear. A bright full moon illuminated the empty driveway, which had no trace of rain, or a man. Her mom looked relieved.
"See? No rain, and no man. You must have just been dreaming. Go back to sleep." Amber grudgingly walked back up the stairs.
"It wasn't a dream," she thought,
"It seemed so real. He was so real.I just know it!"
But she was careful not to argue with her mother. She was a good little girl, who listened to her parents and obeyed most of the time. But this was one thing she was sure she was right about. She didn't notice her mother cast one last wary glance at the door before closing it and locking it up tight, but  She was sure there had been a man standing there, and she was even more positive he didn't work for the governor. After all, men who worked for the governor, known as blackshirts by the citizens,  wore black suits, ties, and sunglasses. She had certainly never seen one who wore a trenchcoat and converse shoes.
---
A few years later, you would find Ambers house looking exactly as it had before, but now Amber was seven, and her hair had grown down to her knees. One day, Amber went to the park to meet her best friend Allie for a playdate. They were sitting in the sandbox when Cora came over. Cora was nine years old, and the biggest bully in town. She was able to get away with it, though, because her dad was a blackshirt, and he was ranked really high up, too. If Cora bullied someone, her father could just erase or edit the footage and blame it on someone else. Everyone was jealous of Cora, because she could get away with anything. Some muttered that she could get away with murder if she wanted, but they were careful not to say it too close to a streetlamp, just in case her father was listening. On this particular day, Cora decided she wanted to pick on Allie. She approached the sandbox with her nose in the air.
“Oh,” she began in a sarcastic tone,
“I was about to tell father that the Governor needed to fix the smell of this playground, but I guess that’s just you.” She said, looking at Allie.
“Leave her alone!” Amber shouted bravely. At first, she thought she had been successful in stopping Cora, but instead Cora just turned to her instead.
“Well, look at that. Little miss religious is trying to protect smelly Allie. How cute. Why don’t you just pray to your God to make me shut up?”
“Please,” Amber pleaded,
“Just stop.”
“Why should I?” Cora asked snidely, reaching over and shoving Allie into the sand.
“Hey!” Allie yelled,
“That hurt!”
Amber couldn’t stand seeing her friend get hurt, but her caring heart also wouldn’t let her hurt anyone, not even someone as mean as Cora.
“Go on then, Amber. Hit me and protect your smelly little buddy.”
Amber suddenly decided to do something she would regret forever after- she hugged Cora. An array of images rushed into Amber’s mind. She saw a little girl, cowering in the corner as her drunken father hit her. She saw the father saying he was sending her away because he could care less about her. The little girl begged her father not to let her go, but he just turned away. Amber realized with a start that the little girl was Cora. Before she could see more, Cora pulled away from her embrace, staring at her. She looked scared for a moment, but then her face resumed its usual scowl. Amber started to stutter an apology, but before she could, Cora said,
“Weirdo.” and walked away.
Allie just stared at Amber.
“What was that all about?” She asked.
“What are you talking about?”
“You hugged her.”
“She looked sad.”
“Well, since you’re too busy thinking about the bully’s feelings, I’m going home.”
“But Allie, wait!”
“No,” Allie countered,
“I can’t be friends with someone who wants to take the bully’s side.” Allie turned on her heel and started walking away.
“Allie, please wait! You don’t understand!”
Allie turned around and said coldly,
“You’re right, I don’t understand. All I understand is that my ex-best friend is more worried about a bully’s feelings than mine.” She turned back around and left.
Amber was left standing in the sandbox by herself, and all she could do was stutter,
“But...But… what?”
She waited for Allie, but eventually her mother told her she had to give up, because it was time to go home. Allie never talked to her again. Amber was left to her own thoughts. Allie had not just been Amber’s best friend, she had been her only friend. She was now friendless, alone, and confused.
---
Amber laid on her bed, thinking. Her hair now went down to her knees in two neat braids. It had been 2 years since Allie decided not to be her best friend. She thought that had been her worst day ever, but she had no idea of the troubles still to come. Allie had been so mad at Amber that she had spread rumors all over their school that Amber had become friends with Cora. She suddenly became even more of an outcast than before. At least before, kids had sometimes said hi to her in the hallways. Now, nobody would even talk around her at all. Amber tried to ignore it, but she would sometimes catch whispers when they thought she wasn’t around.
“That Amber is such a weirdo.”
“I wish Amber would just disappear. She doesn’t ever talk to anyone.”
“Amber’s so strange, you should stay away from her.”
It had been like that ever since she had hugged Cora two years ago. Kids still refused to talk to her. You might think Amber would want to move away, but she didn’t. She always hoped that Allie would apologise and be her friend again. Even though she felt sad when she heard kids whispering about her, she never got mad or confronted them. Instead, she would say a prayer for them and tall herself,
“They don’t mean it. If I was in their shoes, maybe I would say those things too.”
That’s what she kept telling herself, but she still wished she could make a friend.
---
By the time she was 12, Amber had learned to just avoid people. They never talked to her anyway, so why bother? The rumor had died down, but now everyone just said she was weird. Every once in a while, a new kid would come to school, and Amber would be nice to them, and they would become friends. Unfortunately, they always discovered very quickly that Amber was “a weirdo”, and if you hung out with her, that made you a weirdo too. So, they would make new friends instead, in order to fit into the “cool crowd”. Amber didn’t want to be part of a crowd by any means, but she did wish she had at least one friend. She would smile when she was at school, pretending everything was ok, but when she got home, she would cry. But even when she was so sad, she still prayed and kept faith that things would get better. She never gave up hope that she would eventually find a friend.
---
Amber clutched her new school supplies tightly. She was about to embark on a difficult journey. Starting today, she was going to be a freshman in high school. She was nervous and excited. Cora and Allie had gone to the private school, but Amber’s mom kept her enrolled in the public system. She could finally make some friends. Nobody knew her as weird or a “religious freak”. She could be herself and still make new friends. She walked into the doors as confidently as all the other high school students. The only difference was, she didn’t stick her tongue out at the lion statue at the entrance to the school. All the other kids did this because they knew the Governor had a camera in it.
At first, things seemed to be going well. She sat by someone in her first hour class who talked to her, but then the kid wouldn’t stop talking. At lunch, some sophomores invited her to sit by them, but then they only talked to each other and ignored her completely.By the endo of the day, Amber realized that everyone already had a set of friends, and they didn’t need a new one to join their group. This high school had the steryotypes just as much as any other: the cheerleaders, the jocks, the nerds, and more. But Amber didn’t feel like she fit into any of them. By the end of the week, Amber kept to herself. She had tried talking to people a few more times, but they just ignored her. She felt more judged here than she had in her whole life. To make matters worse, the rumor had somehow spread that Amber actually liked the Governor and his policies. She didn’t like him, or his policies, but she also didn’t hate him. Kids acted like she was a blackshirt’s daughter, but the problem was that the blackshirt’s kids ignored her, too. Then things got even worse. Kids found out about her caring heart. They started teasing her, and doing bad things around her just because they knew she didn’t like it. Amber couldn’t wait to get home from school each day. And yet, she still prayed for them. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt more sorry for them than angry. Sometimes she would accidentally bump into her in the hallway, and she would swear she saw a tiny glimpse of their lives. Only for a second, though. It was like turning a television on, and then immediately turning it off again. Usually, the flashes she saw were sad things: parents arguing, the death of a grandparent, the loss of a pet, and other things.Whenever this happened, she noticed they stared at her for a moment, like Cora had all those years ago. Amber told her mom about it once, but her mom just dismissed it.
“You always have such a crazy imagination, Amber.”
But Amber wasn’t so sure she didn’t see a hint of worry in her mom’s eyes.
---
Tears flowed down Amber’s cheeks. Nothing terrible had happened in her life, and she was in no physical pain. So why was she crying? Because her 10th grade history class was watching a film about the holocaust, and she couldn’t bear to watch it. She wondered how any human being could do such a terrible thing to innocent people, and why no one had spoken up about it. The Governor was a terrible man, true enough, but he  never killed anyone. At least, no one who followed the rules. She felt someone tugging on her braids, which had, up to that point, been hanging at her heels. Amber turned around, even though she knew they were going to make fun of her.
“Aw, is wittle baby Ambew sad?”
Amber just turned back around. When they had grabbed her braids, though an indirect touch, she had felt their sadness and loneliness. By now she had grown used to seeing tiny pieces of other people’s pasts. Though she still didn’t understand why, she soon would find out. All she knew then was that those bullies had problems of their own. She went back to watching the movie, but closed her eyes almost immediately when she saw the brutal images displayed on the screen.
---
Amber laid on her bed, crying. It had been an even worse day than usual. After the holocaust movie was over, the kids had all seen her red eyes and tear-stained eyes. As soon as school was out for the day, a circle of kids formed around her and began to chant, tauntingly,
"Little baby Amber,
Sitting in a carriage,
Crying for her momma,
Wah wah wah."
Amber searched the crowd desperately for a kind face, but saw none. She covered her face and ran through the crowd, trying not to let them see the hot tears forming in her eyes. Pushing people out of the way just increased her sadness, because she felt the burden of other's sorrows, too.
Now she was laying on her bed, sobbing into her pillow. She jolted up when she heard a thunderclap.
"That's weird," Amber thought,
"The forecast said there was a zero percent chance of rain."
She felt the same strange pull to look out the window as she had when she was five. She managed to ignore it for a little while, but eventually, her curiosity got the best of her. She could hear the rain, but there were no raindrops on the windowpane. She walked slowly toward the window. Her feet felt like lead, and the window seemed to Amber to be a million miles away.
Finally, she reached the window. She forced her eyes upward to be level with the window, and jumped back in surprise. She tried to turn her head back to the window, but couldn't bring herself to do so.
"Maybe I saw wrong," she thought, trying to convince herself,
"Maybe the rain blurred the image."
She mustered up all her courage, and looked back out the window. Sure enough, it was him. The man she had seen when she was five had returned. This, however, was not what startled her most. The reason she was so surprised was that he looked exactly as he had all those years ago. He appeared to be wearing the same trenchcoat and converses as he had before, and he didn’t look any older, either. She couldn’t do anything but stare. She realized that it was not only the same man, it was the same rain. The thunder followed the exact same pattern, and the rain pounded on the ground, but not on her windowpane. Sweat trickled down her brow. She had stopped crying, but only because her sadness was now overcome by a new emotion. The only problem was, Amber couldn’t decide what that emotion was. Was it fear? Excitement? Nervousness? A combination of all of them? She didn’t know how to identify the emotion, but that was not her biggest problem, so she pushed the thought into the back of her mind. She was concentrating on the man outside. He was standing exactly the way he had been 11 years ago, and he still didn’t seem to be getting wet. This time, she didn’t grab an umbrella, for fear he would disappear again. She just stood, staring out the window. Then she noticed something had changed since the last time. Last time, he had just leaned against the lamp, until she had run to get the umbrella. This time, she noticed, his eyes were following the driveway up to her house. Then they trailed up the house to the second floor, then over to Amber’s window. He appeared to be saying something, so Amber squinted to read his lips. She screamed, drew the curtains closed hurriedly, and ran back into her bed. She covered her head with her blankets, shutting her eyes tight, and whispered to herself,
“It was a dream, it was only a dream.”
She opened her eyes. the thunder had stopped. She warily walked over to the window and peered outside. The moon shone down on a once again empty driveway. The ground was dry, just as it had been that night 11 years ago, and there was no sign of the man anywhere.
“It must have been a dream,” Amber thought,
“How else could he have known my name?”