When I wake I think of my mother. It's like that every day. When someone you love is dying, you'll be just the same.
She sleeps next door to me, in the room she once shared with my father. I wish most days that he was still here to care for her. I wish most days that I could remember more about him; the sound of his voice, the way he looked when he smiled.
We only have one picture of him, but he's not smiling in it. He's grimacing. It was the day he was taken from us.
It's still dark when I creep to my mother's room and cup my ear to the door. Sometimes I hear movement; the sound of her dressing, of her muttering to herself like she always does. That's not a symptom of her illness. It's just how she is. Somehow she finds solace in talking to the walls.
On other days it's deathly silent in there, and those are the days that scare me. Today is one of them, so I quickly click open the door and guide my eyes to her bed. She lies on her back, her chest moving steadily up and down.
I can see glimmers of sweat beading on her forehead, a grimace of pain on her face. It's rare to see her with another expression these days.
The Watchers of Eden Description:
In the hot and harsh farming region of Agricola, 16 year old Cyra prepares to be tested to discover what duty she’ll hold for life. All school leavers across the regions are in the same position, and few expect anything more than to follow in their parents’ footsteps and stay in the region they live in.
For Cyra, there was never a choice. With her father dead and brother and sister assigned elsewhere, she’s desperate to stay close to her sick mother so she can take care of her.
On the day of the Duty Call, however, Cyra’s world turns upside down in one stroke. She’s to be assigned to Eden, the largest and most powerful sea city and central hub of control. Only the most important live there, and no one from Cyra’s town has ever been assigned there in her lifetime.
So, she sets off on a journey away from everything she knows, without knowing what her duty will be. Soon, she discovers that she, along with a small number of school leavers from across the regions, has a special power; a gift that will pit her as a secret protector of the nation.
Only, it’s not a gift, it’s really a curse, and before long Cyra will learn that her once small world is filled with a great deal more corruption and injustice than she ever thought possible.
