The three of us walk towards the brightly lit tent along with hundreds of other people from our town. Each person who walks into the tent has a big smile on their face, especially the kids. Everyone is having as good a night, just like the three of us, and I pinch myself once again just to make sure that I am not going to wake up and learn that this was just a dream.

The carnival is a kaleidoscope of games, candy, colorful lights, and food. It is an overload of excitement that makes me wish that every day could be like this. Maybe not every day, but I would be happy if the carnival was a monthly affair. Treegrass is great, but it gets boring sometimes. If the government were to allow more events like this, then I would be ecstatic.

At the entrance, about ten security guards are taking people's cards and putting them in small black boxes. When we get closer, we hear the guy explaining that our cards will be put into the box, and we will hold onto them until further instruction. He says the reason for this will be explained at the end of the surprise. We do as instructed and walk in.

The inside of the tent is bright, with big lights pointing down from the ceiling. There are long rows of benches that go up what looks to be fifteen layers. The benches encircle the center of the room, but there are four open spaces between the groups of benches for the doors. The first two doors are the doors we came through to get into here, and I assume that the other two led to the back of the tent for the workers.

Below each bench, there is a strip of white light, which makes the wooden benches look much brighter. Most people are already sitting down, but we find a spot on the third layer of benches closer to the door we came through.

We can easily see over the heads of the little kids sitting in front of us. They look to be between the ages of five and ten. Their parents sit on the end, holding a handful of stuffed animals. Their boxes containing their cards sit next to them on the bench, just like my Dad’s and Devin's. I chose to hold mine just in case Devin tries to mess with it or take it.

Devin lifts his box up off the bench and holds it up in front of me with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “It looks like this surprise has something to do with the cards, like I guessed,” he says.

Of course, Devin's guess seems to be the right one, so he stands a good chance at winning this guessing game, but I don’t necessarily think I’m wrong either.

I shoot Devin a glare, “Maybe, but the night is still young. Anything can happen.”

Anything can happen. It has been a fantastic night so far, and I don't think it will end anytime soon. We have experienced so many new things today, and I think this surprise could be another.

We sit for a few minutes in our seats, and I take the opportunity to take in the whole place. It’s so bright. The colorful lights somehow look more vibrant in here than they did outside. The inside tent walls are white, but there are long lights that make the tent appear to be any color they want.

There is an open space in the middle of the room with solid white flooring, it shines so brightly that I can see the reflection of some people walking by in it. Just like the white tent, the white floor looks as though it is changing color because of the lights as well.

I don’t get much longer to look around because the lights dim until the only light is in the center of the room. Everyone gets quiet. The children in front of us happily mutter something to one another, and their parents quickly shush them.

Similar reactions happen all around us. Even adults can’t take their eyes off the center of the room. We all wait impatiently for it to begin. I stare at the center, looking for a sign of anything happening.

Then it starts.

At first, it’s just a few specks of light floating individually, but eventually, they all come together to form the shape of an elephant. I remember learning in school that elephants are an endangered species, with only a few remaining in the world.

The elephant is lit up blue, and the tiny lights move to make it appear as though the elephant is walking across the room. A small baby elephant emerges from underneath the first elephant, and soon enough, there are multiple holographic elephants in the tent.

The elephants throw up their trunks, and a loud sound is heard throughout the tent. They walk slowly in a circle, and as they get closer to us, I can see so much more detail in them. Their whole body is covered in the tiny lights. There are even smaller lights that are put together to make the elephant's eyes, and I find myself wondering how on earth they were able to do this.

The elephants eventually leave by their light fading out but other animals quickly replace them, each one a different color.

The holograms of these animals in bright lights are amazing. Soft music plays over the sounds of each animal, making the experience feel more alive and magnificent. At some point there are various birds flying around the whole tent and over people’s heads.

Red horses come running into the circle out of nowhere. The horses run in a circle for a few minutes, their hair blowing perfectly until they, too, disappear and are replaced by tigers.

The tigers look scary in the most beautiful way. I think they might be my favorite so far.

They are projected with different colored lights to make up the pattern on their fur. Each strand of hair must be made out of at least four different floating lights because it looks real and fluffy. I wish I could walk up to them and run my fingers through their fur. A woman walks out, and one of the tigers circles her. She holds a hoop in one hand and lifts it up. One of the tigers sees this and runs at the hoop, jumping perfectly through it.

Everyone, including me, is amazed by this and starts clapping. The woman does this repeatedly from different heights, and I can’t take my eyes away.

The woman is then handed a different hoop and walks to the other side of the tent. She stops for a minute, and right before she puts the hoop above her head, she lights it on fire. The tiger doesn’t seem to be phased, maybe because it’s just a hologram, but it runs and jumps through the hoop regardless.

I know that the tigers are not real and that there was no real danger from the fire, but I am amazed. I feel like they are real, and I am watching all of these animals in their natural habitat, not just in some tent. I wish they would play this on the TV every night so I could watch it over and over again.

People start clapping even more, and I find myself doing the same.

The tigers and the women exit the circle, and for a minute, the room is covered in darkness before a new hologram appears in the center. This time, it does not include any animals. It is a hologram of the war.

“It has been almost 155 years since the end of the great war between the New World and Fritt Land,” a loud male’s voice says. The lights move to form a moving image of men firing guns at one another.

I elbow Devin, “Told you it has something to do with the anniversary of the New World and the Fritts.” Devin gives me a quick glance over to me before focusing back on the show.

The specks of light move apart and then back together to form a new image of the three heads of government at the time. Together they talk urgently about how the Fritts are trying to take our land and resources for themselves.

We learned in school that many years before the war started, there were a lot of countries that did not use their resources appropriately, and it had devastating effects. There were shortages of food and housing that caused many people to riot and set fires to government buildings and innocent people's homes.

Our government was run by a single leader at the time, but after the rioting, there was a revolution that led to us having three heads of government and forming an all new country called the New World.

The three heads of government are now represented today as Governor Alfred Wood, Governor Arthur Davies, and Governor Audrey Lewis. Each of them work together to make decisions and come up with solutions for the New World, while this has worked in bringing our country out of starvation and destruction, other countries were not so lucky.

Places like Fritt Land resorted to taking other people’s resources rather than fixing themselves so they could produce goods on their own. I think that is part of the reason people have hated the Fritts.

They didn’t just hate them because they made us go to war and risk the lives of our people, but because they could have done exactly what we did and changed. They could have listened to their people, identified the problems, and come up with solutions. I guess one good thing that came out of the war was that the New World saw what damage other people could do and built proper walls and protection from crazy people like the Fritts.

The New World didn’t solve its problems overnight. They listened to the people and came up with ways to ration our resources long enough to find a better long term solution.

We didn’t choose to go to war.

Chapter 6

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