To all the Grays
There are 100 billion stars in our galaxy, each shining a different colour. But Eve was looking at no star in particular as she gazed upon the sky, nor was she aware of El staring at her. She was escaping another one of her reveries when a thought came to her. She finally took in the view which is rarely seen nowadays. The stars filled the sky, illuminating it. It looked beautiful enough that she cracked a smile, until she focused on one star in particular. It wasn't the brightest star nor was it the largest. It was just a star. Her smile faded. That star is like me, a gray, she thought.
"Tell me what that look means." El said, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips. Eve's attention snapped back to El.
"It means daunting realisation of something immensely important." Eve replied, her voice thick with sarcasm. Perhaps that way El wouldn't be able to detect the trickle of truth in her words.
"Was that sarcasm or an exaggerated version of the truth?" El asked that insufferable grin on his face. He knew her long enough to detect the truth, unfortunately.
"Why can't it be both?" Eve replied dreamily. El laughed.
"Why, indeed?" El said. A silence fell between them as they looked at the view.
"A thought for a thought?" Eve asked playfully even though her heart threatened to hammer out of her chest. Perhaps Eve felt reckless or it was simply the heat of the moment that drove her to say it. El's eyebrows rose in surprise. But the grin was soon back.
"You first." El said
"I am thinking that there are two kinds of people in this world, the blacks and the whites… Don't you dare crack a racist joke here, El, I am talking about something much deeper than skin tone," Eve said with no amount of anger in her voice. El raised his hand in surrender.
"The whites are basically these people who have everything. They are funny, witty, kind and not to mention awfully smart. They end up doing something for the world. Inventing or discovering something crazy. They are like all the colors in the rainbow. Then there are the blacks. Mediocre. Average in everything. They are content with a happy simple life with a family. They find their true love and grow old together." Eve paused to take a breath, El didn't say anything. He waited for her to go on.
"And I am thinking that in between them, without a place in this world are the grays. They strive to be the whites, to make a name for themselves or to help the world. But they just… they just can't. And no matter how hard the grays try, they can't be contented with a simple life. They aren't cut out for that kind of happiness. And I am thinking that somewhere between the thousand shades of gray there is me." Eve said with an air of finality.
"That was… three thoughts. Looks like I owe you two thoughts" El said. And Eve could have kissed him then, for not trying to comfort her. For trying to understand exactly what she had laid bare. They both then looked at the infinite sky, for once being okay with knowing exactly how insignificant they were compared to it.
The writer is a grade 7 student of Sir John Wilson School.