Life In Another World

About a girl who doesn't quite fit in in the world she lives in. She goes searching to find the missing part of her.

First off, my name is Driba. I am in a different place than the one I grew up in. There are people that actually look like me. I am learning their language that is kind of inherited in me so it isn’t that difficult. I am learning their ways. At the moment I am 17 years old and still have all my life to live. But first, the people here are trying to analyze me and they are making me tell them how I got here, and all about my other life. I thought it would be better to tell it in words, so here goes.

 

 

 

The woman was terrified. She didn’t want to have a child in this world, but the child was already coming out. She was giving birth, but it wasn’t like every other woman’s birth. As the baby appeared, her heart started to slow to a sluggish rate. She kept chanting “Driba fly. Fly Driba. Driba fly. Fly Driba.” Someone took the baby’s head in their hands and the lady screamed. Her heart stopped and she died.

 

 

 

I always knew I wasn’t like the other children. Our looks were different, we acted different, and our thoughts were almost never on the same page. Most of the other children only had 3 fingers on each hand while I had five. Their eyeballs were white, mine was black. Their sclera, the substance that surrounds the eyeball, was black and mine was white. Most of their hair colors consisted of pink, red, and yellow. My hair color was red-orange. Their main hairstyles for boys were spiky Mohawks and the girls had long hair that went down to their knees with spikes at the end. My hairstyle was silky, had only a little spikes, and stopped at my hip. Their skins were made up of green, purple, and blue. My skin was like a pale greenish brown color. When they spoke their language, they all sounded the same. When I spoke it, I had an accent. I don’t know what kind of an accent but I did know that I sounded different from the others.

 

The other children knew I wasn’t like them too. And so did the adults. And so did the people I have never seen before. And so did the whole world that I lived in. My father, I called him Laup, always avoided my questions when I asked him why I stood out. He also avoided my questions about my mother. I never once saw her. I figured she ran out on us and just left it alone. I shouldn’t have.

 

I just ignored my looks. I had normal friends like everyone else, went to a normal school, went to normal parties and sleepovers, had a normal birthday, everything in my life was normal except for my looks and voice. I was surrounded by people who loved me though. My father hugged me everyday. Arual, my best friend, would often stick up for me if someone decided to call me names and pick on me. “Look at your ugly face before you start talking about somebody’s beautiful one,” she would often say to a bully named Rethul. I had a secret crush like everyone else in my school. I liked Arual’s brother, Auhsoj, but he was always two grades more than me and never knew I even existed. When I came over Arual’s house he would make a quick glance at me and continued with his business, but most of the time, he was out with friends. He had blue skin and yellow hair. Arual’s whole family had blue skin. Arual herself had blue skin, but unlike her brother, her hair was a shade of yellow mixed with pink.

 

My dad and most of his family had green skin. Laup’s hair was red and so were the majority of his family, which consisted of my two aunts, Aunt Anitsirhc, and Aunt Hannavas, one girl cousin who was three years younger than me, Alyaka, one uncle, Uncle Eom, and a grandmother, Yelrihsa. My grandfather passed away and I didn’t know if I had anyone on my mom’s side. None of my family members ever mentioned her or anyone. I felt like a part of me was missing.

 

When I turned thirteen, that’s when I finally decided to start my quest to find out who I really am. Well, who my mom was. I wanted to know if she was still alive and well, waiting to be found, or already passed death’s door. I wanted to know where her family was. I wanted answers. I started with my grandmother first. She was the easiest to get answers from and the grandmothers here often shared their wise wisdom. I asked Laup to please take me to her house and that I wanted to spend time with her. He said, “Ok,” and didn’t ask any questions.

(Unfinished)