Civilians

Cheers erupted from our small group of friends as the elevator finally appeared in front of us. It meant we could escape; it meant we were finally free from them all.

But our cheers subsided as a man walked out of the elevator. He handed Ryan a letter, tipped his hat, then went back up into the elevator.

We were all curious; of all people, why does Ryan get the letter?

I looked over his shoulder, curious, but trying not to seem rude. As Ryan opened the card, the very first thing I noticed was a name at the very bottom of the card.

~Johanna

Tears formed in Ryan’s eyes. I stopped looking at the card, thinking that it probably wasn’t something I was supposed to read. I didn’t know who Johanna was, but I assumed it was Ryan’s younger sister or something.

“Ryan, why are you crying?” I asked him.

He wiped a few tears from his eyes. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it. He, being a jock and all, probably didn’t want everyone knowing he cried, even though it was obvious. “She wrote me another letter.” He said.

“Who?”

“Johanna.” He sniffles. “She’s my civilian.”

A civilian? I didn’t want to ask, afraid he’d cry more, but I didn’t understand it. Maybe he would understand and wouldn’t get too upset. “What do you mean by a civilian?”

His tears seemed to stop now. “Oh right, you’re not from around here. You wouldn’t know, would you? I suppose your mom keeps that from you too, huh? Well, we live here in what we like to call the ‘fairy tale world’. I mean, it’s not a fairy tale world, and you know that, it’s just that we have a monarchy and we’re treasured compared to the people who we call ‘civilians’. Civilians are either banned from this world, or the queen won’t allow them into this world, so they’re stuck. They’re stuck in poverty and sadness.

“The civilians have to work hard jobs and get paid very little. Crime rates have skyrocketed there. It’s not a good place to be in. My family sends clothes and money to a family of civilians once a month. That’s Johanna’s family. I’m the only one who actually writes to them, and Johanna’s mainly the only one who writes back. I hadn’t heard back from her in a month. It’s so good to see a letter from her. If you want to, you can read it. It’s just so good to see she’s keeping her spirits high in such an awful situation.”

Ryan handed me the card and I read it silently. Everyone else in the rest of the group just left us alone for a minute. It’s interesting, the one who knows the most is talking to the one who knows the least, and everyone else is just avoiding us, afraid they’d catch too much knowledge of sadness or catch stupidity.

The card Johanna wrote was rather sweet, but sad. I handed the card back to Ryan. He carefully placed it his pocket.

“Come on, guys,” Leo finally broke the silence. “Let’s get in the elevator and go home.”

We all filed into the elevator after Leo. A few people got off the elevator and we shared goodbyes. I couldn’t stop thinking of Johanna and all the other civilians, though.

I would have to talk to my mother about this.