What Happens Now?

Year 2042, July 12th.

The Man In The Box told us that it was over. The wait is over. We no longer need to feel trapped in our own homes. We need not cower in fear anymore. We can come out now.

One by one, we began to emerge from our homes. The sun was blinding. I tried looking at it but could only see white squiggles. Everything felt different. My body had forgotten the heat. It adapted to the cold stuffed air in my room but out here, the air felt warm. It was, for a moment, embracing.

I saw Mr. Firdaus from around the corner. He wanted to feel the outside too. He got old. Carol wasn’t with him. I saw him burying her in their backyard from my window last month. She was nice. I have never really spoken to her but the last time I saw Carol, I only caught a glimpse of her feet hanging in the air by the curtain rail. She probably wanted to fix the flickering light by the window.

Confused, nervous, excited, scared. The moment was beyond us. We couldn’t feel. We were fragile. We were numb. Well, most of us.

I was 5 when it happened.

The only memory I had from the time before the isolation was the day the Boogeyman appeared.

I don’t remember how it started but I remembered that the Man In The Box told us that something was floating in the air. He told us to be careful and not to wander but we didn’t care. We ignored the signs. Day by day, the Boogeyman got stronger. At first, it was only one street. Then, a city. Soon, an entire state and before we could ready ourselves, it swallowed whole countries. Our ignorance fed it. A void-less spirit, it took away our breath. It cannot recognize the rich or poor nor can it differentiate friend or foe. It came for us all and it came with a vengeance, so we were told.

The Boogeyman took with it millions of lives. It was hungry but nothing seemed to fill its appetite. It kept wanting more. It leaped from one continent to another. It lurked in the dark, roamed the empty streets, it feasted in the cold Siberian mountains to the harsh deserts of Arabia. It crossed the vast Pacific Ocean, crushing the once great American Empire. Children, women and men fell prey to its lust. It did not stop there. Herds of cows were dying. The crops, they refused to grow, maybe they were afraid of the Boogeyman as well. They had every right to be. It reminded me of a story Mother used to tell us about how God punished the Egyptians and how Moses let the Israelites out of Egypt. I don’t know if there is a God but I know that the devil is real.

The Man In The Box told us we shouldn’t go out. He said that he has friends that can help us. He and his friends can scare the Boogeyman away and make everything better.

They kept on telling us that we should stay at home where the Boogeyman cannot see us, where the Boogeyman cannot find us.

They were wrong.

The Boogeyman can see things, hear things. It is in our water, in our air. It glued itself to our walls, our mirrors. It is rash but patient. It waits for you. Stalking you like your own shadow. How do you hide from your own shadow?

You cannot see it but it can see you.

The Man In The Box.

Years passed by and the Man In The Box was no more. Mother told us he had to go back to his village to get some rest because of his age, but I knew. The Boogeyman took him away. Soon another man appeared, then another took his place. At one time there was even a lady. She was nice but the Boogeyman didn’t like her so it took her with it too.

“Stay indoors. Stay safe.”

“Together we will overcome. Together we will handle this.”

“The National Front is with you.”

“There is Hope, stand strong and do not falter.”

They used different words but the message is the same.

At first, the Blue Men took to the roads. They were checking for signs of the Boogeyman. It hid itself in bodies, taking over its host day by day. If you have traces of the Boogeyman, the Blue Men will know and they will send you to a special place for people who has been taken by the Boogeyman. It was a secret place that nobody knows of. The doctors and nurses will take care of you there but no one can come and see you. Not even your parents. It was a lonely thought.

I remembered how difficult it was for Mother to get back home. The streets were being monitored. The Man In The Box did not want us to step outside for fear that the Boogeyman might see us. Then the Man In The Box asked the Green Boys to help. They did, with their tanks.

At night you can hear it. At first it was 8PM. Then 7PM. Then 6. Next thing you know, you forgot what trees smell like. Every night, it says the same thing. There is a howl on the pole, followed by a red blinking light. Then a voice.

“WARNING, MARTIAL LAW IS IN EFFECT. You are hereby ordered to return to your specific domain. Any violators caught will be arrested and prosecuted before the court of law. Any signs of resistance will be met with the full force of the military.”

I remembered every word. It played to the same tune every night, like a broken record. Martial wasn’t very nice. He led the Green Boys and they weren’t as patient as the Blue Men.

Whenever Martial speaks, Mother would tell me to take Aiden and Cass to our room and wait there until morning.

The Boogeyman claimed many lives but so did the Green Boys. They were one dimensional folks. They cannot be reasoned with.

“March.”

“Apprehend.”

“Shoot.”

That was all there ever was to them, that was all they knew. As a child, I didn’t know which was scarier. Letting the Boogeyman get to you or getting caught by the Green Boys.

The Boogeyman was ruthless but the Green Boys, inhumane.

“So Good You Can Even Eat It On Its Own.”

That was the slogan for Gardenia. I used to sing to their advertisements with Cass and Aiden.

There was a time when bread was plentiful but then it became scarce. A luxurious commodity. I even forgot what it taste like. As a child I hated white bread but when Martial told us that there would be no more bread, I kind of missed it. The Man In The Box usually sends the Green Boys to provide bread for us but after the years passed, there was no bread. Bread became the symbol of power. Whoever controls the bread, controls the people and Martial controls it.

Mother told us that the Man In The Box is the captain of the football club and we are his teammates but what Mother did not tell us was that Martial is the club manager. He decides who becomes captain.

At first Martial took the bread. Then Martial took the internet. We had to limit ourselves to only 1 hour of internet everyday. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be but Mother was angry. She did not like Martial that much. I couldn’t understand why he would take the internet away from us but I was only 5. I didn’t even know what Google was but she sure does know a lot of things.

I grew up without the internet and I had very little interaction with Google. I only learned how to type properly when I was 11. We only got an hour and Mother used it to speak with the Man In The Box. She would scream at him, asking him questions.

“Outrageous! When will this end?!”

“How long will this go on?!”

He never answered Mother’s questions though.

When I was 12, I found a book on the internet. It had many faces. The book let me speak with my friends, whom I have not spoken with in a long time but most importantly, the book allowed me to meet kids like me. Kids who got left behind in what was an endless time-loop.

It was nice to know that there was other people like me. It was nice to know that I was not the only one.

Mother left us in 2029.

For a long time I blamed the Boogeyman. The night I found Mother, there was a lot of blood coming out from Mother’s wrists. Surely the Boogeyman did this to her. I was angry but afraid. I did not want Aiden and Cass to see this. I thought it was in our home. I was afraid for them. I was afraid that the Boogeyman would take them away from me too.

It was dark. The Man In The Box told us that we had to conserve electricity. So at night there was no light. The only light there was came from the moon but the only thing on my mind was how heavy the shovel was. Heavier than Mother. Mother got thin but she was still pretty. Yes, Mother will always be pretty.

I was about to turn 14 at the time. She left us on August 6th. It was my birthday.

During our birthdays, Mother would prepare us crackers and tomato juice with tomatoes she grew herself in the garden. Mother used to sprinkle a bit of sugar on the crackers so that it won’t taste so plain. Sometimes, when there seem to be no signs of the Boogeyman, the Man In The Box would let Mother go to the store. If there were signs, we would have to wait for Martial and the Green Boys to deliver us food. They only do it once a week and they never gave us any peanut butter.

When Mother got back from the store, she would get us peanut butter. It was a rare occasion. She would spread a bit of peanut butter on the crackers for us on our birthday. It was only a bit because she wanted to save up, just in case the Boogeyman comes back.

There was no more peanut butter in 2029. There was no more Mother. It was only the three of us then. Cass, Aiden and I.

Aiden turned 22 last week.

He had never been to the playground before. The railings on the merry-go-round is now rusty, the chains on the swings are broken and the see-saw has no handles. Aiden didn’t mind. He was excited. He only got to see it from our window but now he gets to play with it. I was lucky because I was able to go to the playground with Mother before the isolation. Like many of us, it was his first time.

“Many moons back, we would walk to beach and get some kelapa.”

“People used to run in these parks.”

“I hear the mountains calling for me at night, wanting me to go to it just like how I used to.”

They told us a lot has changed. They were telling us stories about before the isolation. How they would go to the cinemas during the weekends or have ice cream after dinner. They said the Boogeyman changed everything we ever knew about life. Before the Boogeyman came, everything was normal.

But we wouldn’t know what normal is even if it hits us in the face. For many of us, this is the new normal. This is our normal.

The Boogeyman made us anxious and always on our toes. We were afraid. The Man In The Box told us to wash our hands constantly, so that it won’t follow us home. It was cold and hungry. It desired flesh. It had no mind but its senses were sharp. Mother told us that the Boogeyman can smell the fear from you like how a Bloodhound would sniff out a rabbit. The only way to stop the Boogeyman was to wash our hands. I remembered washing my hands so many times, my skin tore.

The Man In The Box said it is now safe to come out and life can resume as it was before the isolation. My heart is thumping, my smile is cracked but I was determined. I wouldn’t know where to start but I know I have to. For Aiden and Cass. It’s what Mother would have wanted.

The Boogeyman, you cannot see it but it can see you and it took whatever it wanted. It snatched souls as if they were grain of sand. When I was a child, I realized the Boogeyman did whatever it wanted, not because we let it but because we gave it a crown.

Guntor x