by J M Hemmings
Tesla looked around uneasily, avoiding eye contact with Margaret.
‘Perhaps,’ he conceded, ‘but still,’ he added quickly, ‘we have to keep the door open. I don’t want to get in trouble.’
‘That’s fine, kiddo. Now come on over here and let’s eat.’
They both headed over to the table, where they sat down and started eating, and Margaret was once again pleasantly surprised by the delectable flavours and interesting textures of the strange-looking fare. They both ate in silence for a while, until Tesla unexpectedly piped up while Margaret was in the middle of chewing on a mouthful of succulent vegetables.
‘Dr Gree-, I mean, Margaret, can you tell me what life is like in America?’
Margaret swallowed the mouthful of food and then replied.
‘Well, that’s a bit of a broad question, Tesla. Things are very different for different people in America, depending on where you live and what kind of background you have and such. Why don’t you try think of a more specific thing to ask me about?’
Tesla nodded, furrowing his brow as he chewed on his food and turned over a few questions in his mind. Eventually, he spoke again.
‘I want to know, what is it like for a child to grow up in America? I have heard that they all get to go to school. Is that true?’
Margaret nodded.
‘Sure. Every kid goes to school in America. Even the real poor ones. I mean, sure, there are a ton of problems with the system, but generally every kid, from the richest to the poorest, will get a fair shot at getting an education.’
‘So they don’t have to work in the fields all day? And the children don’t work in mines there?’
Margaret shook her head with dramatic vociferousness.
‘Oh gosh no! No sirree, kids in America do not work at all, not until they’re teenagers and they want to make some extra money for themselves.’
Tesla raise both of his eyebrows, wrinkling the skin of his forehead. He seemed quite surprised at this revelation.
‘Really? There are no children working in mines there?’
‘In America it’s illegal to do that.’
‘And the army will do something about it if someone is forcing children to work?’
Margaret chuckled softly, set her utensils down and clasped her hands together in front of her.
‘Tesla, in America the army isn’t the law like it is here. If someone with a gun tries to force you to do something, well, he’ll be put in prison for a long time even if he is from the army. Kids have it pretty good back home, you know. There are lots of laws that protect them and their freedom. Everybody’s freedom, actually, even if that freedom is tainted in many ways, for many minorities, immigrants and other marginalised groups … but let’s not get into that right now.’
‘What would a child’s life be like for someone my age?’
‘Your age huh? Well, let me see. Why, I’d say that you’d be in grade ten or eleven at senior high. You look like you’ve got the right build to be a great runner, so I’d imagine you’d be on your school’s track team. You seem to be a smart kid too, so right about now I think you’d be talking to your mom and dad about college options. A kid like you would have a choice of a good number of really great institutions.’
Tesla blushed and smiled shyly.
‘I think you are being too kind, Margaret. I’m sure I wouldn’t stand out.’
‘Don’t be so modest, Tesla! You’re a real smart kid. You’d do great in America.’
‘What would I do there if I had free time to myself?’
‘A lot of stuff! Why, you’d have a bunch of free time!’
‘How much is “a bunch”?’
Margaret chuckled gently at this.
‘Well I’d guess at least a good few hours a day. And weekends you’d have most of your time free, aside from track meets and sports matches and such. I’d think that on weekends you’d be learning to drive, and you might play video games, watch movies, hang out with your friends at the mall, you know, those kinda things.’
‘What’s “video games”? What’s a “mall”?’
Margaret smiled warmly and sympathetically, the creases around her eyes deepening, and she cocked her head to the side.
‘You know a lot of academic stuff, young man, but there seems to be a lot about real life that your General hasn’t taught you. Okay, you know what a television is, right?’
Tesla nodded.
‘We have one in the school here, yes, but it’s just for learning about things. But people in other places use them for entertainment, don’t they?’
‘Yeah! And for video games, which I think are terrible by the way. Ugh, but all the kids love ‘em. And in case you were wondering, a video game is a game that you play on a television.’
Tesla looked rather confused.
‘I don’t understand how that can be. What kind of a game could people play on a television? You have to guess what image will be shown next?’
Margaret laughed loudly, but without judgment or mockery.
‘No silly! Look, there’s this virtual world, it’s created on a computer. A game console, that’s like another kinda computer, is hooked up to the TV, and then you use this thing, this controller device, to move a character in this virtual world.’
Tesla leaned back, staring at Margaret with a sceptically raised eyebrow, and folded his arms across his chest.
‘Why wouldn’t I just do something in the real world instead? And this world that you’re talking about, it’s created by someone else. So, everything is made up by them, and, well, it’s their vision, not yours. When I read stories, you know, when I read novels, I create my own vision of what the novel’s world is like. I think that’s more entertaining than being in someone else’s world with everything, uh, with everything already laid out for you.’
Margaret smiled and leaned forward, cupping her chin in her hands and putting her elbows on the table to support her head.
‘I think you’d change your mind pretty quick if you actually tried a video game out. I don’t know of a single kid who can resist those damn things, you know! I agree with you about reading though; I sure wish more people did it these days instead of watching TV and playing video games, and staring for hours at their phones.’
Tesla nodded, although the look on his face told Margaret that he remained unconvinced.
‘Tell me a bit more about what my life might be like,’ he said after eating a bit more of his meal.
‘Like I said, you’d probably spend a lot of time with your friends at the mall. Oh yeah, I didn’t explain what that was. Well a mall is this place, see, it’s got a whole bunch of stores that sell a whole lotta stuff. Anything you might want, from clothes to toys to food to toys and games, sporting goods, heck, you name it, a mall’s probably got it.’
Tesla looked confused.
‘Why would my friends and I “hang out” there? Would we really be buying that many things all the time? That sounds terribly wasteful, and well, kind of sad too.’
‘Teenagers don’t really go there just to buy stuff, Tesla,’ Margaret explained. ‘There are plenty of other things to do there too, like eat at a fast food place, sit around at a cafe, go to the movies, that kinda thing.’
‘It sounds like it must be very expensive to be a child in America,’ Tesla remarked dryly.
Margaret shrugged. The kid did have a point there.
‘I guess it can be, depending on how you do stuff. But you’d have freedom, Tesla, true freedom.’
‘Freedom?’
She immediately noticed that a fresh glint of longing had entered the boy’s eyes and realised that she had hit something significant here.
‘Sure! You could do whatever you wanted, whenever you felt like it – within reason of course. You wouldn’t be doing this, at least; serving in an army, taking orders, carrying a gun everywhere. No American kids do that.’
Tesla looked genuinely surprised at this.
‘I wouldn’t?’
‘That sounds … why, that sounds quite amazing.’
A glow of quiet wonder seemed to emanate with gentle warmth from the boy’s dark skin.
‘It is, Tesla. You’d fit right in there! If you could, you know, get out of this army, somehow, that is.’
Tesla suddenly looked as if he had become quite uncomfortable, and he squirmed and shifted awkwardly in his seat, looking down at the table and once again avoiding eye contact.
‘This is my life,’ he said flatly, as if repeating oft-rehearsed lines. ‘I owe everything I am to the General, and I would never leave him. Not for anything, ever.’
Margaret knew she had made a breakthrough with this mention of freedom, but she also understood that she was treading on thin ice at the moment. She could work on widening the crack she had opened later; to force it too soon would no doubt result in disaster, and the loss of her only ally in this place.
‘I didn’t mean to suggest anything by that,’ she said gently. ‘I’m sure you have a great life here. I’m just talking hypothetically, that’s all.’
It was then that they heard footsteps clacking down the hallway outside, so Tesla scrambled quickly to his feet and hurried to the door. There he stood at attention, staring straight ahead with a stern expression on his face. Shortly after this the General walked into the room. On his face he wore a broad, congenial smile, but Margaret sensed an unmistakable chill lingering in those hypnotic eyes of his, and an icy shudder trickled down her spine as her eyes met his.
‘I trust you have enjoyed your breakfast, Dr Green?’ he asked.
‘Yes, I have,’ she replied with a cool smile. ‘Very nice, thank you.’
‘Excellent. Today I have a very rare luxury on my part: some free time. I will take you on a tour of our city, if you so wish?’
Margaret tacitly understood that this was not a question but an order, and she knew that she had best comply.
‘Of course. I’d be delighted to do some sightseeing and such around here.’
‘Then since you are finished breaking your fast, as the saying goes, let us depart at once.’
‘All right, I’m ready. Let’s go.’
They headed along the corridor, down the spiral staircase and out into the General’s exquisite garden. Margaret marvelled in awed silence at the vast and vibrant spectrum of colours on display in the foliage, the fruit and the birds.
‘How long did it take you to grow this garden?’ she asked as they strolled through it. ‘It really is a work of art.’
‘Thank you. I’m glad you appreciate its beauty. In answer to your question, it has taken me at least twenty years to get it to this point. I still have further plans for it, of course; it is a work in progress.’
They emerged out of the forest-like foliage and then headed out of the palace gates, which were guarded by a squadron of soldiers in armoured combat gear, and then began to stroll through the city.
After a few minutes the main road took them to the river that wound its way through T’Kalanjathu. The river’s gently sloped, grassy banks were populated by pockets of teenagers and adolescent. Some sat on their own, reading books or sketching pictures, while others appeared to be couples, talking and laughing hand-in-hand or simply embracing and enjoying the afternoon sunshine, while others were larger groups of friends, playing games and laughing. Margaret was quite surprised at the sight, and the General spotted this look as it distorted her features.
‘You did not imagine that I gave my soldiers time to relax, to simply enjoy life, did you?’ he asked with a wry smirk.
Margaret’s cheeks reddened and she stammered a bit when she responded.
‘I, er, well it’s not to say that, I, er … I just imagined that with the discipline needed for soldiers and such…’
The General chuckled.
‘Relax Dr Green, it was a jest, not an accusation. I do instil strict discipline in my troops, and I keep them very busy most of the time, but as you can see, they are allowed some leisure time in which they can do as they please. Come, let us walk along the river. It is tranquil and picturesque, is it not?’
Margaret stared for a while at the trees, huge old things that must have been there for hundreds of years. The sight of these towering behemoths, along with the soft green banks, and the lazily drifting water, and the rich azure sky above caused her to feel a strange sense of contentment. She couldn’t believe it, but she found herself wearing a smile of genuine wonder and feeling a true sense of serenity.
They walked along the river for a while, with the General pointing out features of the city and telling Margaret about them, or with her asking about various aspects of life for the soldiers and their lives in T’Kalanjathu. The conversation flowed relatively smoothly, but there was always a simmering undercurrent of tension that refused to depart.
Eventually they came to a place where the river flowed through a thick steel grid at the bottom of the enormous city wall. A system of gears and pulleys was connected to the grid, and Margaret stared at it for a while.
‘What’s all that machinery for?’ she asked.
‘That is a portcullis. We keep it shut most of the time, to keep anyone from sneaking into the city via the river. However, when boats want to come or go along the river under the wall, we can raise it and allow them passage through. And since we’re here,’ he said as he pointed up at the top of the wall, ‘have a look at that.’
Margaret followed the direction of his finger, and gasped as she saw a number of nude teenagers standing on the sloped roof of a tall tower, built on top of the battlements above the river. They must have been at least fifteen metres up from the river, and it looked as if they were preparing to jump off the roof into it.
‘What the heck are they doing up there?!’ she gasped. ‘One slip and they could die!’
‘They are jumping into the river outside the city walls.’
‘My God! What if they hit a rock or a submerged log or something?!’
‘The river is very deep in the centre, as it is navigable for large vessels, so there is no danger from rocks or other submerged objects. I not only permit them to engage in such activities, I encourage it. Anything that fosters bravery improves them as soldiers, you see. Observe, that one is about to make the leap.’
Margaret stared in mute horror as a slim teenage boy scrambled down the slope of the roof to the edge. With a shout he sprang off and his body disappeared temporarily behind the city wall, reappearing a moment later, visible as a brief blur through the portcullis before, with a plosive splash of pluming white, he hit the water. His friends all cheered as he surfaced with a triumphant fist raised, and then the next teenager took her place on the edge of the roof and prepared to make the jump.
‘Gosh, I could never do that,’ Margaret remarked. ‘I’m absolutely petrified of heights.’
‘Sometimes the best way to get over a fear is to confront it head-on, Doctor,’ the General said with a strange smile. ‘But nonetheless, I digress. Come, let us keep moving. We still have much of the city to see.’
***
‘Could we please just sit down and rest for a while?’ Margaret gasped, drenched with perspiration. ‘We must’ve walked ten miles all over this place!’
‘I’m sorry, I did not mean to unnecessarily exert you,’ the General, who had not even broken a sweat after almost two hours of brisk walking and talking, replied. ‘Let us go and sit down by the dock on the river.’
‘Thank you,’ she said, wiping a film of perspiration off of her forehead with the sleeve of her combat fatigues.
‘Come this way, it’s only a five-minute walk. I’ll have one of my troops bring us food and be
verages. Would you care for tea? Coffee? Red wine, perhaps?’
‘I could do with a cuppa joe, thanks.’
‘Of course.’
The General called out to a pair of teen boys who were practicing an acrobatic-looking form of unarmed combat on a patch of thick grass nearby. The two immediately ceased their activity and stood at attention when the General barked an order at them in his alien-sounding tongue. They scurried away immediately to carry out his instructions.
‘They will be back shortly with refreshments. Ah, and there is our destination,’ he said, pointing at a small wooden quay extending out into the water, alongside which there was a stone bench overlooking the river.
‘Thank goodness for the seat, General,’ Margaret commented, after the pair of them had reached the bench. ‘My legs are killing me! Don’t get me wrong now, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed seeing your city, but it’s been a lotta walking, and I ain’t no spring chicken, if you know what I mean.’
The General smiled.
‘I forget sometimes that you mortals lack our strength and stamina.’
Despite the constant tension and fear that crept and crawled like a mass of termites beneath her skin, Margaret had actually enjoyed seeing the sights of this strange city of antiquity, restored to its former glory. The architecture was unlike anything she had seen, and the seamless manner in which the buildings were integrated into the landscape was quite astounding. Also, aside from the weapons the soldiers carried – mostly AK-47 assault rifles – almost nothing that had been manufactured in a factory seemed to exist here.
‘A good number of my friends back home would be really interested in how things run in this place,’ she remarked to the General.
‘How so?’
‘Well, you appear to have an almost entirely self-sufficient, off-the-grid closed-circuit system here. I have to admit, I’m really impressed by that. That’s no mean feat right there. I have a number of friends who are into green living, you know, off-the-grid kinda operations, all about sustainability and such, but they still gotta buy solar panels, items made with plastic, and all kinds of other stuff manufactured in factories, using oil-based technology and materials.’
