Kuro: A Land in Eternal Night

Chapter 21.1: A Girl's Memory

The summer air was warm that day. It was still early in the hours of the Waking and the little girl was anxiously waiting to play outside. The smell of fresh apple pie filled the air. Mommy had risen really early to get the pies baking in preparation for today.

It was going to be a good day. Yesterday, the little girl had spent all day with Mommy, Daddy and Jacob running around Sector 2. Two weeks earlier, the government had announced a surplus of the Goddess Essence, and as was customary, a Sun-Day was being held. Taiyou-Shi had been abuzz with activity, eagerly anticipating the Sun-Day.

The little girl had not been old enough to remember Sun-Days. Jacob, who was four years older, said they were glorious, something to be remembered and not soon forgotten. The sun shone through the sky - a marvel brought about by the climate control tower - and bathed everyone in its warm light. The flowers and trees all took on different forms. Basking in the glow of the glorious light, the flowers opened up, their colors becoming far more radiant. The darkness was dispelled and people once again believed in things like fairy tales, and magic, and the Goddess. It was a marvelous event, and one that the residents did not readily forget.

The little girl had always listened with rapt attention to the stories Jacob would tell. After all, she did not know any better. What was sunlight? Why was it so different from the light that came from the Light Spires she saw all around? To her, the light coming from the spires was plenty bright. But she had grown up entirely in the darkness and one does not miss what one had never experienced.

Growing up in the darkness of Kuro was not a particularly horrid existence, at least not in the girl's mind. She had always been happy and was never in want of anything. Mommy, Daddy and Jacob were everything to her. She loved to play in the fields. Her parents always told her how fortunate she was to have been born to a family on the Upper Plates. Children in the Utter Darkness were sickly because they did not have enough vitamin D. Those children were fatigued all the time and were susceptible to various diseases. They did not get enough food and certainly not sunlight and were forced to beg on the streets to survive.

The little girl took those words to heart and always felt herself fortunate. She never took what she had for granted, unlike the other children. When she was older, she decided she was going to go down, to the Utter Darkness to see the squalor for herself. She wanted to be the one who helped, the one who made a difference to those children.

Mom taught her compassion and gratitude, and she was going to go through life always knowing these things. She was good natured, and always saw the bright side of things.

The smells of the apple pie baking gently wafted over her nostrils again. She rubbed her tummy in anticipation and licked her lips. They were going to pack the pies in a picnic bag and go out as a family to experience the Sun-Day. Dad had brought along his video camera to record the event for posterity. Dad forgot to bring it the last time the Sun-Day happened and Jacob never let him hear the end of it, so he wasn't about to forget it this time.

The little girl glanced at the little light clock that hung in the family room. It was very precise, driven by the same solar energy as everything else, and never needed replacing. The girl remembered Jacob explaining how it worked one time. A very small amount of the Goddess Essence was placed into each clock where it would continue on a light track, reflected by tiny mirrors so that the light would bounce around indefinitely. It was the hope that one day, a similar technology could be used to harness greater amounts of the Goddess Essence. Perhaps then a renewable source of energy could finally be found. Dad used to harp on and on about these things and Mom had gently chided that he should have worked in the Science Assembly rather than in the Economic Assembly.

The little girl didn't much care at this time. She looked at the clock as the little hands wound down and signalled the coming of the hours of the Waking. She decided to go outside for a little while and get some play time before the family went out. She wanted to experience the day to the fullest. After all this was going to be her first sunrise and she wanted to be the first one outside.

The girl carefully stole outside their house, tiptoeing even, so as not to rouse the rest of her family. She felt comical, embarrassed, but under the circumstances, she felt she was entitled to a tiny bit of foolishness. After all, today was a Sun-Day, and these did not come by very often. She was going to form her own memories, something she could share with her own children and grandchildren when the time came.

The little girl was giddy. Her heart beat faster and faster. She had been looking forward to this day ever since the announcement had been made. And who could blame her? The press had been abuzz regarding the event. Even her friends were talking about it. She was fortunate to have an older brother like Jacob who could explain these things to her. She had gone on and on about the Sun-Day to her friends who were envious she had an older brother who could tell her these things.