The First of Spring

Meggy Katigbak
1st of January
2100

Tom,

Last night’s Eve celebration was… peculiar. This millennium’s first morning is just as
strange; this is the first time in my entire life that I’ve been able to view the sun from
anywhere other than my computer.
It’s true, Tom. The sun is real, and I can see a little bit of grass grow outside my lawn. Its
growth is quite speedy, I can already see some color-oh dear, are those flowers? Yes! Tom,
they are flowers! Spring has come for me at last.
I wonder if any of my friends are seeing this spectacle right in front of me. Why, the only
person I’ve heard who’s come this close to Spring is Daisy, and after a few photos online she
stopped chatting with any of us entirely.
I wonder how her Spring turned out for her after all those scenic photos.
Come to think of it… no, I’m not sure, but perhaps her Spring had something to do with
that man. He was all anyone could talk about after we found out that Daisy actually had
physical human interaction.
Daisy’s visitor was different, to be sure-and so was mine. He came at a time just like any
other; the storm was raging outside my little hut as I was waiting for the New Year to come
along. I had just read the e-mail that my mother sent me, and my father promised one
would pop up eventually (which reminds me, he hasn’t really sent me anything…). The
Provider had just sent in a decent meal and I could smell roast pork in the air from my
station in front of the computer when-out of all the pleasantries in my little hut, there was a
knock on the door.
You could just imagine my surprise. I was, of course, glued to my seat. After a few light
knocks (which-in retrospect was quite odd, who in the world would be so calm outside the
turbulent weather?), I could hear desperate cries pleading for shelter.
In an almost robot-like manner, I stood up to open the door.
 You could say that he sort of burst into my life, unannounced, but-I believe as I look at
the flowers in my lawn, certainly most welcome.
--
I stared at him pant, shiver, and after a few excruciating seconds, look up at me. There
was a painful moment wherein I was unsure of my feelings-was it possible to even feel such
things? It was a growing pit in my abdomen, I felt a little lightheaded, really. I think I was
feeling what could only be described to you as attraction.
It was frightening, to be honest. Here I was, in a situation where I could not shield myself
from the screen. I was in the presence of an actual living and breathing human being.
“What is your name?” I asked him. He smiled at me and I could feel the pit in my
abdomen be filled with butterflies (yes, Tom, I am actually using the expressions I read
online).
“I’m Aiden.” He spoke differently; unlike my mother when we called each other online
and unlike my friends.
“I’m Abigail,” I could sense him shiver. “Oh dear, I’m sorry. Do you need to dry up?”
I lent him some of my bigger clothes-I knew I’d have use for them someday!, and a towel
to dry up. I was both scandalized and pleasantly surprised when he started changing right in
front of me. I was, of course, going to show him the bathroom, but that was until he started
stripping in the room.
It was silent for a while, with me trying not to look at his lean figure and him not caring at
all that his entire being was being displayed right in front of me. The only sounds we could
hear was the cackling of the fireplace, but my ears felt like they were about to burst from all
the noise.
“You’re not from around here, are you?” I asked him. He stared at me, surprised perhaps,
that I was still in the room.
He laughed, and his voice filled my little hut and it surprised me. I wasn’t used to other
people laughing at such close proximity.
“Where is here, exactly?” His question threw me off. Why, here was my little hut… and its
surroundings. Of the surroundings I wasn’t quite sure, but I always assumed that the nearest
hut was my parents and my friends. I just haven’t had the time to visit because of, well, the
storm. Yes, exactly. No one’s left anywhere since the storm.
 I could feel how pained my expression must have been because one look at me and his
mocking face turned into one of understanding.
“Forgive me,” he said, “my arrival must have been quite a surprise.”
He was right, something in me was telling me that he knew pretty much everything;
everything about me, about here, about the world, and more importantly-about how I was
feeling right now.
Ever since his arrival I’ve been wanting to touch him, but I haven’t really found the right
moment to do so. I could feel his gaze and could see his eyes reflect mine; and suddenly the
fireplace seemed like it was doing a pretty good job at keeping the temperature warm.
It’s a funny thing, deprivation. I never knew how much I was deprived off ever since I was
dropped here at birth. Aiden spent a good amount of time telling me about a whole other
world where people interacted with each other the way we were doing at that moment. He
told me about carnivals and physical activities such as running. They all seemed so foreign in
our technological world, like something we used to read off of our history books about
civilizations and governments.
“Doesn’t it seem wonderful, compared to your solitary existence here in your hut?” He
finally asked me.
He could see that it struck a chord, it finally dawned on me what he was trying to do.
“I-I, I’ve heard about you,” I finally grew afraid. “They warned us about you. They told us
you’d try to make us leave our huts and lie about Spring.”
Is that what happened to Daisy, then?
“Abigail, it’s not what you think, they’ve been lying to you all your life.” Something inside
me was telling me that he was telling the truth, that he was here to help me and that I
should listen to him. But taking a look at all my surroundings, I just couldn’t do what he was
asking me to do.
“How can they provide so much for me and lie about our existence?” I could sense his
unease.
“How can you believe that your existence is limited to online conversations and pre-made
provisions sent through a Provider?” He was very good at keeping calm, whilst I myself was
shaking from head to toe from fear of his words.
“I don’t like what you’re saying! The Provider’s said it was only temporary! They said once
the storm clears we can live a new life, but until then-we just had to make do with what we
have!” Even then I could hear the contradictions in my words, I just wasn’t strong enough to
face the truth that came with Aiden.
“So you’re just resigned to wait for a storm that’s been going on for decades-even before
you were born, to clear before you start living?” He took a step closer and I retreated to the
other end of the room. “Be rational! Your Providers are not going to help you! Millions of
people have lived their entire lives waiting for the calming of this storm. Now that I’ve come
here, I just know that Spring will come for you!”
“Stop it! Just stop!” Suddenly the whole room-no, the whole universe stopped along with
us. I could feel the tension in the room and the silence was freezing me-but I still felt a
million times warmer at that moment than I have my entire life.
He took the first step but I made the first move to touch him-my hand reached for his
neck and he inclined his face so that our noses would touch. Our eyes closed and his lips
were slowly approaching mine when I suddenly grew scared-
“Wait-” I said. I could feel his eyes snap open and I opened mine too-I saw the intensity of
his gaze and I could feel the butterflies in my stomach having a rave.
I could feel his breath against my skin; “don’t worry,” he said. “Do you want this?”
He knew I did, I didn’t have to say anything. His lips found mine and we found our way to
my bed.
--
“Aiden?”
“Hmmm?” We were lying on my bed and he had his arms around me, I never wanted it to
end.
“What happens if I come with you?” He sat up and looked straight at me, his bare chest
seeming to glow from the firelight.
“Then you can meet other people,” he caressed my cheek, “you can start living your life.”
He got out of bed and started putting on his clothes.
“Wait, you’re leaving?” I panicked; I didn’t want him to leave-not yet.
“Just for a few hours,” he kissed my forehead, “I know you won’t believe me unless you
see Spring for yourself. When you do, I’ll come back right away with a few of my men to
take you with us. That is, if you want to go.”
I had already decided, “come back for me when the sun shines.”
He smiled at me again and even without Spring, I could feel the sun wasn’t very far off.
 He went for the door and I could hear the storm clear a little-the second miracle.
“It looks like your storm’s about to clear,” he ran back to where I was lying and he kissed
my forehead, “I’ll see you in a few hours.
Oh, and happy new year, Abigail.”
--
Forgive me, Tom, but I have chosen to leave my little hut and join Aiden and his men. I
can see them from a distance, they’re very close now. I wrote this last journal entry in hopes
that when the Providers come back to search my house, they can see how mundane my first
eighteen years were in solitude, and how in the course of one night, it all changed.
I can hear a knock on my door. Forgive me again, Tom. You have been my only real
companion, but for now, I must leave in search of a life that I had only dreamed of
previously.

Yours,
Abigail