[June 14th]
June 14th, 205 SD
3:20 PM
I had stepped off the bus to a world of grey. The asphalt beneath my feet was pockmarked worse than my Uncle Lenny’s face, and the rain water had gathered in the craters to form surprisingly muddy puddles-considering the absence of any visible earth within the city itself.
Welcome to Eminence the sign had said.
I felt far from welcomed.
This New-World Eden was little more than any other city. Just larger and more threatening. But it is where everyone wanted to be. Before I got on the train from my home-town, I checked the schedule for any returning trains (not that I had even planned on returning).
There was an Old-World saying: “All roads lead to Rome.”
I noticed that all roads lead to Eminence.
Just none of them led back out again.
Sure, the idea was weird at the time that there were little to no trains leaving the city. But after nearly three years of living here, I’ve grown used to the fact. It was just a matter of coming up with excuses on why I could never travel home on vacations to see my family.
I am fortunate enough that Mother doesn’t want to visit me. As much as Eminence is talked about for being a successful and rich city, she would much rather prefer to stay with her own circle.
Besides, Eminence isn’t really all its choked up to be. Sure, facilities like the university and the dance studio are high-end and deserve the praise they are given in the other cities. But the city itself is grimy, closed in, and almost suffocating at times.
I used to know someone that couldn’t stay in one place for long. I used to think he had an influence on me, even though we weren’t together for long, and that he was where my desire to travel came from. I’m not like him, I’ve realized, in that I can stay in one city as long as there is something for me to do. Though now the thought of him makes me sad and frustrated at the same time so I prefer not to remember him.
He wouldn’t like it here anyways. It doesn’t feel like a city he would spend much time in. It was a wonder that he stayed with me as long as he did.
No-enough.
I came to Eminence to dance. It was an excuse to get away from home, and one of the first independent decisions I made. I came on my own with little thought of just how I was going to function, but seventeen-year-olds think little of real life. I’ve managed to survive so far, and I’m doing quite well for myself.
I’m a student at the university studying literature. I get access to the best parts of the library, where all the Old World texts are stored. There are even a few physical copies, which are so hard to get a hold of in this day and age. Everything is on the computer now, but there is nothing better than the smell of an old book.
I’ve also been accepted as a student to the dance studio that I’d read so much about while just starting to dance. Competitions are run a bit differently than I am used to, as we don’t actually travel to the hall itself, nor do any other studios come to us; instead, it is all filmed. I guess that’s just the way people want to do it now. Can’t even be bothered to watch the dancers in the flesh.
I love this city and the life I have here, but sometimes it makes me a little lonely. Sometimes I think about the people from the life I had before Eminence, and I wonder what they are doing now. I talk to my mother and step-father all the time, but the friends that I had back then have been lost to me.
Sometimes… I wonder what it would be like if I could find them again. How they would look, what we would say. But they’re all gone, the ones I felt closest to leaving without a word. And that is exactly what I did: Packed my bags and did not say goodbye.
Eminence is where I ended up. What about them?