Disaster Zone: Chapter Five: Twenty Questions

I stare at Silvia for a moment, wondering if she is serious about our game. Her beautiful brown hair falls around her shoulders as she turns to look at me, “Shall we begin?”

I do not have a reason to deny such a game, and I do have many questions. I guess I will play the game and maybe I can find out some more about this magnificent girl.

“Okay, I suppose I’ll start. What were you doing when you wandered into the forest? I was heading home when I got here, but what is your story?” I ask. As I wait for a response, I watch her finish making some food. Watching the food, my stomach starts growling horribly, and I try to silence it as I sit and await the beginning of understanding.

“Interesting first choice, but I told you that I would answer every question. I was upset because of the circumstances of my life. I have already told you that I was popular, but I was not happy. I was in the running for prom queen, but I knew that people had voted for me without knowing anything about me. I began to realize that there was nothing for me in that social life because people were so caught up in their own lives that they had no focus on anyone else. I was so ignored by people who called themselves my friends, so I came out here to think one night. That was the night that this all happened.

I sat down to think under a tree that night, and I fell asleep. I woke up later, and, at this point, I was looking at my body on the ground. Sound familiar?”

During her story, I am feeling sorry for her because she clearly tried very hard to fit in, but people just did not accept her. At this turn of events, which was also the answer to my question, I am shocked that this was the very event that happened to me. “Yeah, that’s what has happened to me twice now.”

Scared for the rest of her response to my question, I lost my appetite for the food in front of her. In her response to my question, she had forgotten that she was cooking as well.

“Well, that experience is exactly what has caused this situation. In my letter, I told you about that voice that started talking to me, but I became too scared and I was pulled into my body. Unlike you, I have never returned to that experience since that first time. After that time, I was stuck in this forest. I slightly exceeded the question, but that is okay. It is simply some extra information for you. Now, it is my turn to ask you a question.”

At this point, I am completely at a loss because I was just told that a mysterious girl and I have experienced the same events that led us to this moment. I am unsure of what could be weirder, but that is soon to be solved as we are only on our first question.

Silvia soon interrupts my thinking in order to ask her first question of me. It is a very simple, short question, and there is no way to misunderstand the question. Despite this straightforward quality, I am still taken aback at the question.

“What kind of family do you have? Like, who is in it and what are they like?”

How am I so thrown off by such a simple question? Of course, she wants to know about my family. We are living in the same house in the middle of the woods after being sucked into events neither of us understands. Surely, family is important. Even still, I am astounded by her first question being about my family. Could this be because she misses her family and is concerned about my feelings towards my own family?

Despite my wondrous state at her question, I open my mouth to answer her. “Well, I have a mom, dad, and a brother. My mom is okay, I guess. She worries a lot, yet not all the time. She worries about the weirdest things like my shoes being too dirty or my shirt being wrinkled, but she never cares about whether I am out all night or disappear for days. I am not sure I understand her at all.”

Silvia seems astounded at my words about my mom, almost as if she cannot believe that a mother could act like mine. Surely, if the description of my mother strikes her as odd, she will never understand my dad. “My dad is never around, so I have no particular connection to him. He is more of a secretive man, and I am fine to keep him quiet and out of my life. He leaves a lot, and everyone in my family knows his job, but he is not allowed to tell us. He works in secret jobs for the government, so he is always suspicious of everything that goes on in my life. Honestly, he probably knows more about my life than I do, thanks to the government, but I am fine keeping him out of my life. He has always had this job, ever since I was born, and I do not care to have him join my life now.”

At this moment, I think Silvia is going to die. The look of shock on her face is apparent, and she cannot help but show such sorrow and pity for me. The only thing she does not know is that I am quite confident in my statements about my family. I am not sad for the loss of those loose connections. Sure, I will miss my mom, every once in a while, but I will easily move on. She seems to believe that deep inside I have a lingering sadness for my unkind family ties, but I have no such feelings and no way to tell her this fact.

Despite her deep sadness that she brought up such a question, I decided to finish my response. Perhaps we would move past this discussion after this question, finish our meal, and be distracted from this game for a while. “And my brother is my only sibling. He was an excellent brother, before he turned twenty. At this point, he started finding his “new” friends, and I was left without him. He got into drinking and drugs, stereotypical teenage story right there, but now he will not come and visit and never talks to the rest of the family. My parents refuse to talk about him, and I never think about him much anymore. The last time I saw him, I told him never to come and see me again because he was no longer the nice older brother I knew. Now, I have left that family, not particularly by choice due to our predicament, but I do not regret losing my family.”

My final statement is the breaking point for Silvia; she simply cannot handle my story any longer. She has already dropped her spatula from attempting to cook earlier, but now, she collapses on the floor, crying. I feel terrible for making her so upset, but she asked the question. I suppose I could have made the wording nicer and seemed friendlier towards my family, but now I cannot fix the problem.

She continues sobbing on the floor as I walk around the island countertop to join her on the floor, and she begins talking to me. Somehow, I make out her words amongst the crying. “I am so sorry for asking such a question! I just miss my own family so much, and I did not want to make you feel as though you had to ignore your family. I would have never guessed that anyone would be so unhappy among their own family.”

With the completion of her final statement, I lean over from my awkward seat beside her and hug her. I am not sure what else to do because I have no hurt feelings towards my family. I moved past those feelings long ago, but Silvia seems to have taken my words to heart. I lean back against the counter with my arms still around her, and she leans onto my chest. As she lies against me, her tears soaking through my shirt, I begin to realize that this situation may be harder for both of us to manage through than we previously thought.

Sitting in such a situation, comforting this unknown beautiful girl, I begin to realize what we have actually gotten ourselves into. We are alone, in an abstract world, and we are all that is left for one another. I stare down at her and brush her brown curls behind her face, and lean over to kiss her forehead. As Silvia slowly calms her sobbing into silent tears sliding down her soft cheek, I rest there, staring at the room around me wondering how we would figure this situation out.

I gently run my hand up and down her arm, and close my eyes to relax with her. As I lean against this counter with my Silvia in my arms, I have one final thought before my mind goes blank into nothing. My last thought is simple yet frightening. We are on question one of twenty. Where will we end up upon completion of this game?