Gus

by Terry Smith

  Since Billie Jo lived on a ranch she thought she would be a housewife, but soon got the hint that was not the way it worked on the planet. The only females that stayed at home full time were the ones with children too young to attend school. The families, both men and women, at Home share equally in household duties. While the children are growing up they still received attention as one of the adults would work shorter hours to be with the kids after school. Each family can decide how to allocate work and family life which is accepted fully by those on the planet.

  Billie Jo looked for a job that she would be good at and found that the local school needed a teacher as the current one was about to have a baby. So she became a teacher and found that she loved it. She could teach the basics in several schools and worked with some existing teachers in the field. After a couple of months she began writing her first book which eventually became the model for school books in their schools.

  Ivan already had his calling working at the main hospital. In additional to the normal medical services he soon became the expert in obstetrics and even gynecology. He felt that his exercise program was especially meant for women as they prepared for child birth and traveled around the communities directing the program. He wanted to expand the exercise program to all of the businesses throughout Home but found there was no way to work it into his schedule and still be available to deliver babies.

  Ivan had a nurse who shared his interest in women’s health and began to assist him in about every delivery and other procedure. Her name was Betty which coincidentally was his wife’s name on Earth. Ivan and Betty became closer and closer and finally married, but this didn’t stop that valued working relationship, it just made it better. They sometimes would work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week and never tired of the work they did.

  Dave didn’t know what to do. For days he went from manufacturing to distribution to service business to find something that would be interesting and that he could possibly be good at. He found nothing except places to eat, and he began putting on weight which he had already started almost immediately after their space ship landed. Ivan took him aside and gave him a fatherly talk, something like tough love; that he needed to get away from the dinner table and start exercising. It worked, and Dave became the director of all of the exercise programs around the planet. He lost weight and became an exercise specialist. His handsome traits returned and landed him a wife. He had begun to believe that he would spend his life as a bachelor, and now was happily married and would also become a father in the near future.

  Evin became devoted to all of the religions on the planet. He learned about all of them and taught everything he could about how they were founded and their beliefs. The more he worked with the different religions, the more he found that they really weren’t that different, especially when Gus’s guidance was included. They knew the basis of their religion and their deity and leadership, but the key point was the love, kindness and respect for each other. Gus would often go with Evin to the churches and to the classes where they discussed their religion. Gus obtained the guiding books for each religion and he and Evin insured that they were distributed where needed. The religions became closer but each maintained their identity. Evin began to understand Gus more and more, and his admiration grew deeper and deeper.

  Woody continued his work with the schools. He wanted to promote education as a key part of the life of the people on the planet, beginning with the children but continuing through their adult lives. He found Billie Jo to be a great partner based on her grasp of the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. Woody coordinated the vocational aspect of the educational program in the schools and helped their instructors to become better teachers. The goal was that by the time the kids were ready, which didn’t have a specific number of years, they had the basics of the job they wanted to do and could enter the field as an apprentice.

  An adult educational program offered adults the opportunity to continue learning to help advance their planet. Woody found that at first there were only a few that would continue to learn and grow their field, so his program was to get these self-learners to teach and inspire others. The adults worked to develop new methods and better products and services, but they never lost sight of their goal to maintain a system of work that put people ahead of machines. The kids would challenge the adults to learn and progress in their knowledge, and the adults would guide the kids in the importance of education for themselves and the planet.

  With the integration of the group from Earth the planet made some progress, but the people remained the same. They maintained their love for each other, their respect for each other, and their desire to put the community above all. They learned to have more fun, using croquet and chess as part of their leisure time. They even enjoyed the exercise programs that were being introduced to all of their work places and found that they had more energy and better health. They continued to walk around their community and enjoy the beautiful place where they lived, but everything had expanded in their new world.

  Gus was seen more and more. He seemed to be everywhere. There were many discussions about giving him a name that everyone could use, but they finally decided that trying to come up with a name would be futile. They couldn’t even decide if the name would be for a female or male. He would answer to any name, and his smile grew bigger and bigger.

  The group never forgot their life on Earth and the family and loved ones they left behind. Their small group would sometimes get together and talk about Earth, and hoped and prayed (yes, they still prayed) that they found the happiness that the people on this planet had found.

  Chapter 16

  Home

  The group from Earth have settled in to their new lives at Home. They still talk to each other but their main lives are with their new families and their new roles in the community. Life is good for each of them. They haven’t forgotten their families and loved ones on Earth and they hope that their lives are happy and complete. They are concerned about what has happened to the planet Earth and it’s people but avoid asking Gus, and the system to view life on Earth has long been destroyed and there is no interest in reestablishing it. They would be pleased to learn that Earth had received a mulligan and had a chance to move forward.

  The planet Home continues much as it has for many decades. People are still respectful of each other and their daily lives mainly continue, but with a few changes that they like to think are simply small improvements of an already great place to live.

  Gus still visits, almost daily now. He now brings his constant companion, his dog which he calls Dog. The name doesn’t escape Evin as he realizes that Dog is simply the word God spelled backwards. Evin and Gus have had a few more conversations but mainly small talk about life.

  Home still has no laws and no documents explaining how life should be like the Bill of Rights on Earth. There is no government and no leader of the planet. There is no military and no law enforcement. They aren’t needed. The focus of how people at Home treat each other is still centered in their places of worship which are mainly a celebration of life and the continued love they all show to each other. Evin continues to visit all of the places of worship and is now often accompanied by Gus and Dog. Of course all of their visits are followed by a meal with all of the people bringing their favorite recipes. Evin is putting on a little weight but Dave is getting that under control by getting him involved in his community exercise programs. He may even get Gus to join the program some day.

  Gus has done two things since the Neighbors joined the Friends. First, he created a moon for the planet. Everyone loves the moon and it allows them to walk at night. The second thing is that he is providing dogs for everyone that wants one. It is rare to see people walking without their dogs tagging along, and the people always have their poop bag for obvious reasons. The dogs are always friendly and the walks take more time as everyone has to stop and pet each other’s dogs. Gus knows that someday soon nature
will take its course and puppies will be born into the life at Home.

  Croquet continues to be the national sport. Gus has given up his role as referee but the new referees are much like Gus in that they make up their own rules as they go along. Everyone continues to love the competition but they really don’t care who wins or loses. It is the excitement and fun of the game itself that they enjoy. They still have their trash talk that is part of the game but now they are coming up with new things to say, finally. It won’t be long before the winner of each game will be based upon who has the best trash talk, not who actually wins the game.

  Adult education is increasing in popularity and attendance at the schools in the evenings is almost as great as it is during the day which is for the kids. A lot of the continuing education is just for fun, but a lot also has to do with being able to make improvements in their manufacturing, their work on farms and ranches and how they take care of their planet. The main goal is that production continues to be that whatever can be done by people still is done by people. New technology is there to make their work safer and more productive.

  Ivan has developed a special educational program for medicine. In the past much of the medicine was simply personal care but now they are able to provide a more improved care program. Their graduates aren’t called physicians as that would indicate a role that makes their status higher than others that provide care in the hospitals and clinics. In addition to providing care they are working on new equipment and techniques to improve their services. The main objective is now centered around Obstetrical care and Ivan is pleased with the progress being made by the hospital staff in the care process.

  Wanda works with the foundry in improving the materials making them stronger and more adaptive to their use. They have discovered new raw materials on the mountains, in the river beds and some even in the desert areas. Safety programs have improved and there are rarely any injuries. The safety programs have been expanded to the manufacturing operations.

  There has even been some discussion of safety in the home as part of the adult education program.

  Flags have become popular which originally were used only to announce the monthly burger and fries day. The most popular flags are the ones that go up at the hospitals announcing the birth of a new baby, with a blue flag for a boy and a pink one for a baby girl. There have even been some flags in front of homes when their dogs have a new litter. They are now providing neutering services for the dogs to make sure they don’t have an overpopulation.

  Flags for croquet tournaments are still used with each community having their own version of their flag. The size of the flags are getting bigger and bigger and they all decided that it was getting out of control. Then they started having brighter colors for their flags. They think someday that the best trash talk will be replaced with the best flags.

  Dining establishments are also becoming more popular, some with specialties. Jim’s specialty is breakfast. There are a couple that specialize in fish. Dianne’s fried chicken recipe was given to a family in the neighborhood and immediately became Gus’s favorite, but that didn’t substitute completely for his joining individual families and places of worship from inviting him to join them. There has been some discussion of having Gus pick the best meals but he wants to leave that open for now so everyone has a chance of providing their best meals for him to taste. He thinks the contest will last for years and years before he will be able to pick a winner.

  As the people at Home are getting more productive they are able to shorten the work requirements as they approach old age. Stores have opened that provide more products for these older people that include games like chess and they have even developed a checker game which had been ignored up to that point. Croquet courts are reserved for older players during fixed hours and they even have their own teams that compete against each other. The older people still like to feel useful and have found that working in the various eating establishments provides them this feeling of being useful and continues with their opportunities to socialize.

  The exercise program developed by Dave continues to grow in popularity. Walking has grown in popularity with the moon providing more light in the evenings. The schools have even taken hold of the need for more exercise with the kids leading exercises to each other. They even have songs to go along with the exercises which makes them go faster. Exercise is becoming fun for everyone.

  Most people have forgotten that the Neighbors were once outsiders to their population. They still listen to their expertise in some areas, but this expertise has been passed on in such detail that everyone now has benefit of it. They are now adding to this expertise in many ways and they are enjoying the improvements in their lives.

  Epilogue

  This book is fiction. That is too bad. However, there is still time to take care of the environment, for people to change in a positive way to project love, kindness and respect of each other and for the world to be a better place. Maybe it is too much to hope that Earth will become perfect, but better will be good.

  The world has no place for prejudice, for bigotry, for hatred, for bullying, for crime, and for destruction. Everyone is different, and everyone is the same – just the same as Gus is different for everyone who sees him and is the same for all people. Wars and guns are not needed, nor are any forms of weapons to attack others, which would mean there would be no need for weapons to defend ourselves. Drugs are not needed to give users a coverup of their lives as life itself can be the ultimate high.

  Happiness is the key. Greed and the desire for wealth above everything will not create happiness. Having a society where everyone is treated as an equal regardless of the job or profession supports a happy world for everyone, not just a few. Having a system where people can work and avoid letting robots and computers replace humans is a happy system.

  If you don’t own a dog, or a cat, you are missing out on the best friendship you can have. There is nothing like the love of a pet. Give your pet love and you will get it back tenfold.

  Take walks with the ones you love, including your dog (cats are hard to walk) and make sure you take your poop bag. Hold hands and talk to each other as you walk. Leave your cell phone at home, or at least turn it off and leave it in your pocket. And exercise. Make walking and exercise a family thing. It will give you more energy and you will live longer.

  Play a sport, like croquet. You will probably have to play by the real rules, not the rules developed by Gus, but the fun is in playing, not winning. Laugh and enjoy the game. Chess, or even checkers, can also be a great game to play – not on your cell phone but a game where you actually look at another real person and talk to each other while you play, and never have to hit the send button.

  Thanks for reading this book – I truly hope you enjoyed it. If you enjoyed it smile for a day, if you didn’t smile for two days. Smiles are contagious and people will wonder what you are thinking about when they see you smile – it will drive them nuts.