Asta
lay in bed, unable to sleep. To keep the darker thoughts at bay, she fantasized.
She spent a lot of time wondering what it would be like to be a guy, not so
much wondering about the physical changes but the mental and social ones. How
different she’d be. A part of her wished she could have a day to feel what it
would be like, and then switch back.
Her thoughts drifted for a time
until she began imagining an elaborate fantasy in which she and her friends
undertook an adventure to root out an ancient evil from a town of wolf-like
villagers. There would be sacrifices made, Asta decided, and she’d be making
most of them. They’d be dramatic
sacrifices. People would think differently of her afterwards.
By the time she rolled over to see
that it wasn’t even eleven yet, she had made up her mind to rise and try to do
something else for a while. She could read or get on her computer. There was a
list of websites she’d accumulated, a list of websites that updated frequently
with pictures, poems, videos, and comics. She lived somewhat vicariously
through these updates. She didn’t have much else she was allowed to do.
It was on this Friday night that she
received a message from an inquiring mind.
The message was precise. It had been
edited thoroughly, until only the simplest statement remained. The message was
just, I’m outside. Look out your back window.
Asta was in the spirit for some kind
of adventure. It wasn’t a change from the norm, really. She always wanted to
escape. She dressed in jeans, a sweatshirt, and a jacket, and grabbed a
flashlight, her phone, keys, wallet, and an old compass that worked just fine
thank you very much (a broken compass her grandfather gave her one year that
she believed was somehow good luck).
She turned off her bedroom lights and crept
out of her room, stepping lightly down the hall and down the stairs, cautious
of every creak and groan the wooden floors of her house made, fearful of
awakening her mother or father. They would tell her to go back to sleep, or ask
her if she’d remembered to take her meds.
She made it to the back windows very
quickly and even managed to open the back door to her porch. There, in the
forest, Asta caught the glimpse of a girl in a black jacket standing by the
woods. Asta waved from the back door and the girl waved back.
Asta wasn’t sure if she should go
off into the night with a girl she didn’t know who’d messaged her on the
internet via a website dedicated to social networking, a girl she had
previously been unconnected to. Asta wasn’t sure if she was ready for adventure
at fourteen years of age. There was a fear in her of the strange and unknown,
and the message was strange and this girl was unknown.
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