The Hole in the Fence

The gate at school made a loud click. It was a heavy sound. It felt like a tooth snapping shut. Toby stood on the black line. He had to wait for the light to turn green. The light was a small circle on a pole. It looked like a cold eye. It scanned his face. It scanned his bag. Toby held his breath. He thought about the candy bar in his pocket. He thought the eye might see it and take it away. The eye blinked. The light stayed red. Toby’s feet felt like they were made of lead. He looked at the floor. The concrete was cracked. A tiny weed was growing in the crack. It was bright green. It looked like it didn't belong there. The eye turned green. Toby walked through. He didn't look back. The air outside the school felt thin. It tasted like old pennies. There were cameras on every corner. They were white and round. They looked like giant golf balls. They moved slowly. They watched the cars. They watched the people. Nobody talked loudly. People just walked. They looked at their feet. They looked at their phones.

Mia was waiting at the corner. She looked tired. Her hair was messy. She had a blue jacket on. It had a small rip near the zipper. She saw Toby and waved. It was a small wave. People didn't do big waves anymore. Big waves made the cameras look at you.

"Hey," Toby said.

"Hey," Mia said.

"Can we go?" Toby asked.

"Yeah. This way," Mia said.

She took his hand. Her hand was warm. It was the only warm thing in the grey street. They walked past the grocery store. The windows were covered in metal bars. There was a screen on the wall. It showed a man in a suit. He was smiling. He had very white teeth. He was talking about safety. He was talking about the rules. Toby didn't like the man's smile. It looked like a mask. The man said the city was a family. He said the cameras were there to keep the family safe. Toby thought about his own family. It was just him and Mia. Their mom was away. Their dad was gone. The man on the screen didn't look like family.

They turned a corner. The street here was even quieter. The buildings were tall and dark. They blocked the sun. Toby felt small. He felt like a bug under a giant's shoe. The drones were buzzing overhead. They sounded like angry bees. One drone dipped low. It stayed there for a second. Its red light flickered. Toby squeezed Mia's hand.

"Don't look up," Mia whispered.

"Is it watching us?" Toby asked.

"Just keep walking," she said.

They walked for a long time. The city felt like a box. The walls were the buildings. The lid was the grey sky. Toby’s chest felt tight. It was hard to take a big breath. Everything was too close. The noise of the city was a low hum. It never stopped. It was the sound of machines breathing.

Mia led him toward the old factory district. This was a place where the lights were broken. The cameras here were old. Some of them had cracked lenses. The ground was covered in broken glass. It looked like diamonds in the dirt. Mia stopped at a chain-link fence. It was tall and had sharp wire at the top. But at the bottom, the wire was bent. There was a hole. It was hidden behind a big, rusty trash can.

"In here," Mia said.

"Is it allowed?" Toby asked.

"No," Mia said.

She knelt down. She pushed the trash can a little bit. She crawled through the hole. Toby followed her. His jacket caught on a wire. He pulled it free. He heard a tiny rip. On the other side, the world changed.

It wasn't grey anymore. It was a field. It was hidden between three big walls of the old factory. The walls were so high that the drones didn't fly down here. The cameras couldn't see past the jagged roof. The grass was long and soft. It was the color of a lime popsicle. There were yellow flowers everywhere. They looked like little suns on the ground.

Toby took a breath. His lungs felt huge. The tightness in his chest just went away. It was like a heavy backpack had been lifted off his shoulders. The air didn't taste like pennies. It tasted like wet dirt and sugar. It was Spring. The real Spring. Not the Spring on the screens in the city.

"Wow," Toby said.

"I know," Mia said.

She sat down in the grass. She looked different here. Her face was soft. She wasn't looking for cameras anymore. She was just looking at the sky. The sky was blue. It was a deep, clear blue. There were no drones. Just a single white cloud. It looked like a rabbit.

A man was standing by a tree. He had a green shirt on. He was holding a small bunch of the yellow flowers. He smiled when he saw Mia. This smile was real. It wasn't like the man on the screen. It made his eyes crinkle at the corners. This was Ben. Toby liked Ben. Ben didn't talk much, but he always had a cool rock or a piece of string to give Toby.

"You made it," Ben said.

"We were careful," Mia said.

Ben walked over. He gave the flowers to Mia. She took them and smelled them. She closed her eyes. Toby watched them. They didn't say anything else. They just stood close to each other. The way they looked at each other made Toby feel safe. It was a quiet feeling. It was like the feeling of a warm blanket on a cold night. This was the romance the adults talked about, Toby thought. It wasn't about big words. It was about being in the one place where nobody was watching you.

Toby ran into the middle of the field. He didn't have to walk on a black line. He could run in circles. He could jump. He could shout if he wanted to, but he didn't. He wanted to hear the wind. The wind moved through the long grass. It made a sound like a long sigh.

He found a ladybug on a leaf. It was bright red with black dots. It was so small. It didn't know about the cameras. It didn't know about the drones. It just lived on its leaf. Toby touched the leaf. The ladybug walked onto his finger. It felt like a tiny tickle.

"Look, Mia!" Toby called out.

"I see it," Mia said.

She was sitting next to Ben now. They were holding hands. Their fingers were laced together. They looked like they were part of the same thing.

"Can we stay?" Toby asked.

"For a bit," Ben said.

"Is it always like this here?" Toby asked.

"In the Spring," Ben said. "The plants don't care about the rules."

Toby sat down. He lay back in the grass. It poked his neck, but he didn't mind. He looked up at the brick walls. They were very old. Some of the bricks were falling out. Trees were growing out of the cracks in the walls. The trees were winning. They were breaking the factory apart. Toby liked that. He liked that something soft could break something hard.

The sun felt warm on his face. He closed his eyes. He could hear a bird singing. It wasn't a drone. It was a real bird. Its song was messy and loud. It didn't have a pattern. It was just a happy noise. Toby felt his heartbeat slow down. He felt like he was part of the dirt. He felt like he was growing, just like the grass.

In the city, every minute was measured. You had to be at school at eight. You had to be home by five. You had to scan your card. You had to show your face. Here, there was no time. There was just the sun moving across the bricks. There was just the ladybug and the wind.

Mia and Ben were talking in low voices. They weren't whispering because they were scared. They were whispering because they were happy.

"Soon," Ben said.

"I know," Mia said.

"Where?" Toby asked, sitting up.

"Nowhere, Toby," Mia said. "Just a thought."

Toby knew they were thinking about the place beyond the city. The place where the fences ended. He wondered if the whole world was a garden like this. He hoped it was. He wanted to live in a place where you didn't have to look at your feet. He wanted to look at the birds all day.

He stood up and started to pick flowers. He wanted to make a crown for Mia. He picked the yellow ones. They had sticky milk in their stems. It turned his fingers brown. He didn't care. It was good to be dirty. In the city, everything was too clean. Everything was plastic and metal.

He brought the flowers to Mia. She leaned down so he could put them on her head.

"You look like a queen," Toby said.

"A queen of the weeds," Mia laughed.

Ben laughed too. It was a deep, nice sound. It made Toby feel like everything was going to be okay. For a moment, the world outside the fence didn't exist. There was no man on the screen. There were no golf-ball eyes. There was just the three of them in the secret green.

But then, the bird stopped singing.

Toby looked up. The white cloud rabbit had moved. The sky was still blue, but something felt different. The air felt heavy again. A shadow fell over the field. It wasn't a cloud shadow. It was too straight.

Ben stood up. He pulled Mia up with him. He looked toward the top of the factory wall.

"What is it?" Toby asked.

"Shh," Ben said.

They stood very still. Toby held his breath. He could hear the hum again. It was faint, but it was getting louder. It was the sound of a machine. It was coming from the other side of the bricks.

"Is it a drone?" Toby whispered.

"Maybe," Ben said. "Stay low."

They crouched in the grass. The yellow flowers didn't feel like suns anymore. They felt like targets. Toby felt the dirt under his fingernails. He felt the ladybug fly away. The oxygen felt like it was being sucked out of the air again. The garden felt smaller. The walls felt like they were leaning in.

A metallic clink came from the roof. It was the sound of something landing.

Toby looked at Mia. Her face was tight again. She looked like she did at the school gate. She grabbed Toby’s hand. Her grip was so hard it hurt a little.

"The hole," she whispered.

"What about Ben?" Toby asked.

"Go," Ben said. He didn't look at them. He was looking up at the edge of the roof.

They started to crawl toward the fence. Toby’s knees got green stains on them. He didn't feel like a king or a bug anymore. He just felt small and scared. He wanted to be back in his bed. No, he wanted to be back in the garden, but five minutes ago. He wanted the time to stop.

They reached the fence. Mia pushed Toby through the hole first. He scraped his back on the wire. It stung. He scrambled onto the broken glass and the grey dirt. He turned around to help Mia. She was halfway through.

"Hurry," Toby said.

Mia pulled herself out. She was breathing fast. She looked back at the fence. Ben wasn't there. He was still inside.

"Ben!" Toby shouted.

"Toby, be quiet!" Mia hissed. She put her hand over his mouth.

They heard a voice. It wasn't Ben's voice. It was a loud, flat voice. It came from a speaker. It sounded like the man on the screen, but without the smile.

"Identify yourself," the voice said.

Toby looked through the chain-link. He couldn't see Ben. He could only see the long grass waving in the wind. The yellow flowers were being stepped on. He saw a pair of black boots. They were shiny and hard. They didn't belong in the grass.

"We have to help him," Toby whispered.

"We can't," Mia said. Her eyes were wet. "We have to go. Now."

She grabbed his arm and pulled him. They ran down the alley. They ran past the dark buildings. They ran until they reached the street with the cameras. They slowed down. They looked at their feet. They tried to breathe normally.

The camera on the corner turned its head. It watched them pass. Toby felt the red light on the back of his neck. It felt like a cold finger.

They walked back toward their apartment. The man on the screen was still smiling. He was talking about how the city was a safe place for children. He was talking about the importance of following the path.

Toby looked at his hand. There was still a little bit of the brown flower milk on his thumb. It was a small, dirty secret. He rubbed it with his other hand, trying to keep it there.

When they got to their door, Mia stopped. She reached up and touched her hair. The flower crown was gone. It must have fallen off when they ran. She looked at Toby. She looked like she was going to cry, but she didn't. She just straightened her blue jacket.

"Don't tell anyone," she said.

"I won't," Toby said.

"Not ever," she said.

"I know," Toby said.

They went inside. The apartment was small and smelled like soup. The windows were shut tight. Toby went to his room. He sat on his bed. He looked at the wall. He thought about the ladybug. He wondered if it was still on its leaf. He wondered if the black boots had found it.

He felt the weight of the city again. It was like a heavy blanket that wasn't warm. It was a blanket that made it hard to move. He closed his eyes and tried to remember the smell of the wet dirt. He tried to remember the blue sky without the drones.

He heard a sound outside. It was a low hum. It was right outside his window.

Toby didn't move. He didn't want to look. He knew what it was. It was a golf ball with wings. It was a cold eye. It was waiting for him to do something wrong.

He lay down and pulled his covers up. He stayed very still. He tried to think about the hole in the fence. He hoped the grass would keep growing. He hoped the trees would break the factory.

In the middle of the night, there was a knock on the front door. It wasn't a normal knock. It was loud and hard. It sounded like the gate at school.