by Jen Minkman
William comes to a stop next to a small marker leaning against a tree. “Walt,” he whispers. “Here she is. Mary’s mother.”
My eyes flash to the name on the tombstone shaped like a cross. “Jenna Whitford,” I read out loud. The person all those people in Hope Harbor were waiting for without knowing it. Mary’s mother – the black-haired woman who transformed into a goddess for the Hope Harborers as the years passed. We also found Mary’s family name on the list in the manifest.
“So here she is,” Walt states, a bit sadly. “Annabelle. Our savior.” He touches the wood of the grave marker as if to affirm his words.
“Shall we put some flowers on her grave?” I propose, taking his hand.
Walt looks up, a gentle smile around his lips. “Yeah, let’s. White and yellow ones, just like we do at home. And I want you to read a passage from the diary. Like a kind of tribute.”
And so we spend our first hour on the Other Side by visiting our own past.
3 – Leia
When Tony said his friend had put the old radio solar panels on the roof of a bus, I had no idea what he was talking about, obviously. And now that I’ve seen Henry’s invention in action, the enormous vehicle is still a big mystery to me. It has wheels, just like our carriages, but it’s not cow-drawn. And yet, it moves.
Tony has settled into the front seat of the bus and is currently driving it around the square in front of the port building, to prove to our people that it’s perfectly safe. To turn the vehicle, he uses a kind of steering wheel similar to the ship’s wheel on the Explorer.
“How is that possible?” I whisper in astonishment. “How can the thing just move?”
“Maybe it’s powered by waves we can’t see,” Walt philosophizes. “Tony mentioned energy from the sun, right? Well, maybe this carriage sails on waves of light.”
“The Force,” I mumble, dumbfounded. “Light. Like in the twins’ swords.” They may not have existed for real, but maybe the man who created Luke and Leia’s story did use the truth as inspiration for his heroes and their powers.
When Tony stops the bus again, he invites us to get in. One by one, the travelers from Tresco board the strange vehicle, looking around them awkwardly. Padma shoots me a nervous little smile when she pushes past me, and I momentarily pump her hand for encouragement before she sits down.
“We’re going to Dartmoor,” Tony announces. “I think the president will be eager to meet you all. Besides, that’s the best place to find more info about the world as it is today, as well as how it used to be.”
“President?” William echoes. Walt, he and I have picked seats right behind Tony. As we drive off, my stomach lurches because of the sudden movement. We speed up quickly, and my entire body tenses up because of it. I’ve never gone this fast. Anxiously, I grab Walt’s arm, who doesn’t look too comfortable himself.
“Yeah, he’s like your Eldest, or Bookkeeper,” Tony is clarifying in the meantime. “He or she is elected by the people. President Jacob reigns over Dartmoor and he has strong ties with the mayor of Bodmin. He knows about Henry and me setting out to investigate that distress signal.”
“Is it far?” Walt asks.
Tony shakes his head. “By bus, it will take about three hours. We’ll do about fifty miles per hour once we leave Penzance.”
Walt chuckles disbelievingly. “Yeah, right.”
Tony cocks an amused eyebrow. “I’m not kidding, Walt. It’s really possible. This bus has an electric engine, which is now fully charged thanks to the sun. Henry thought we might need a big vehicle to transport people if we found any survivors on the island.” His eyes fill with a quiet sadness. “I hadn’t considered the possibility that he wouldn’t be among them.”
“Did he have family?” I inquire softly. My insides coil even tighter because of his remark.
Tony nods. “I have to tell his wife that he passed away. Which is why we need to go to Dartmoor in the first place, because that’s where she lives.”
I gulp down the lump in my throat. “That woman must hate us. Maybe she wants us to go to prison for murdering her husband.”
Walt puts a calming hand on my shoulder. “Whoa, slow down. It’s not your fault, Leia. If anything, you tried to stop it.”
As the bus gains more and more velocity and a nagging, sickening feeling nestles itself in the pit of my stomach, Tony shakes his head. “We don’t have any prisons,” he replies quietly.
“At all?” William asks, sounding puzzled.
“No, we don’t.”
“So what do you do with lawbreakers?”
Tony remains silent for a moment. “There aren’t any,” he then replies. “It never comes to that.”
I shoot Walt a sidelong glance, frowning slightly. What on earth does Tony mean by that? I can’t imagine that the entire Dartmoor population consists of saints and kind souls.
Walt shrugs, taking my hand. “We’ll just have to get there to see it,” he mumbles. “You want some water, by the way? You look pale.”
“Yeah, the speed isn’t helping.” I smile bleakly and gratefully accept Walt’s water flask. Slowly, I take a few sips and lean my head against the window. Even the bus has glazed windows. The Other Side is full of wonders I could never have dreamed of.
As we continue our journey to Dartmoor, I’m starting to appreciate the thick glass between me and the world outside. The road we follow is cracked and fissured, and with each hole we hit, the bus trembles and rattles violently. But that is not what scares me most. It’s the blackened fields and demolished towns and buildings along the roadside. Bodmin and Dartmoor may have been rebuilt, but it’s clear that the world around those places still bears the blemish of all the warfare that Tony told us about.
“Why haven’t you repaired this road?” I ask him curiously.
“Because we never use it,” Tony answers. “Nobody lives in Penzance, and if we want to go to the seaside to do some fishing, we drive from Bodmin to Newquay. There’s an abandoned harbor there, too.”
The world is enormous, yet empty. We could drive around here for hours without meeting a soul. I wonder what it would be like to get off this road and hit the smaller tracks. Would we find all houses and trails tucked away in the forest deserted? Or is it possible that animals and people are hiding there – other survivors who believe they are alone, too?
Relief washes over me when the pavement improves and the road becomes wider. It’s obvious this part of the route is kept in better condition. I even spot signs along the road with names of places on them, to guide people on their way.
“Bodmin,” I whisper, when we pass a road sign featuring the name of Tony’s town. We hit a fork in the road. Like Tony said, we’re not going straight to Bodmin. He follows a sign saying Liskeard and Yelverton. Outlandish, unfamiliar names that make me painfully aware of being a total stranger here.
“Look, there’s some kind of fence,” Walt observes once we cross a river and leave the desolate, destroyed town of Yelverton behind. The road curves to the right and narrows down to a small, winding trail. Walt is right – a barrier looms in the distance, and the bus is driving toward a gate in the high fence. Beyond the barrier, I can make out green, rolling hills and tall boulders of jagged, gray rocks jutting out from the undulating landscape.
I smile. No charred destruction. Finally a piece of earth that reminds me of home.
“We’re here. This is Dartmoor County,” Tony states. He slows down and stops right in front of the gate, next to some kind of guardhouse. Two men emerge, and Tony opens the window on his side to lean out and address them. It surprises me how different his voice suddenly sounds – a bit more cautious and timid. I don’t get why, because the two border guards don’t really strike me as dangerous. In fact, for a pair of sentries, I think they look strangely convivial. Saul’s hulking disciples would have walked all over these two. I do spot weapons dangling from their belts, though. They look similar to the weapon Luke Skywalker is holding on the front cover of our Book.
“So they have a Wall as well,” Walt mumbles. “People can’t walk in just like that.”
“Maybe they want to keep the people within the enclosure safe,” William pipes up. “Tony told us the lands surrounding these former nature reserves are poisonous, right? Nobody wants to run the risk of getting sick again.”
I frown dubiously. Why would they need sentries for that? The inhabitants of Dartmoor wouldn’t want to venture out anyway, if they feared the outside world so much. We never had soldiers guarding our Wall either – no one even wanted to cross. Until recently, that is.
“I don’t know, Dad,” Walt replies uncertainly. Clearly, he’s thinking the same thing.
Once we pass through the gate and enter Dartmoor County, my dark thoughts dissipate into the background. It’s truly beautiful here. The vegetation is lush and green, and I spot the same kind of heather that grows near our northern beach. Farms dot the landscape, surrounded by fields filled with grazing cows and sheep. As we drive further east, the cattle fields make way for a different kind of farmland – fields of grain. They look like barley and rye plants, or possibly oats. It all looks so peaceful and tranquil that my eyes fill with tears. In here, people have learned how to live together in peace, without being at each others’ throats or making up ridiculous stories about their neighbors. Mara, Andy, Colin, and Ami would love to see this world, too.
“Isn’t the landscape just amazing?” Padma says breathlessly. She’s gotten up from her seat in the middle and slides into the seat next to Walt’s father. “You think I could stay here?”
“You’d want to?” I ask in surprise.
“Who knows. Let me scout out the cute boys here first,” she says with a wink.
Padma wasn’t dating anyone yet when we left Tresco. Maybe she’s interested in marrying a mainlander. After all, we don’t have a lot of choice on our small island – neither Newexter nor Hope Harbor can compete with a city of ten thousand inhabitants.
When the bus finally comes to a stop in front of a gigantic, gray structure that seems to be made of the same kind of rock as the surrounding mountains, we all fall silent. To the left and right of us, a high, stone wall slightly curves away from the entrance, like the city was built in an enormous, circular shape. And at the gate, three important-looking people are waiting for us. The blackbearded man in the middle is wearing some kind of golden jewel around his neck, just like the Eldest’s wife. He is flanked by two women wearing gorgeous dresses of brightly-dyed wool.
Although the city of Dartmoor looks gray and grim, its leader certainly doesn’t. The man with the black beard gives us a heartwarming, friendly smile as we get off the bus. How did he know we were coming, I wonder? It’s obvious he’s been waiting for us.
“Tony,” he cries out when our savior steps forward. “How lovely to see you again! So, you did it – these people are citizens of Tresco?”
Tony shakes hands with the president. “Yes, these people were brave enough to make the crossing,” he replies. “And on their own ship, no less. It’s a sailing vessel and she’s called the Explorer. You will love it. A fine piece of craftsmanship.”
Meanwhile, Walt has shuffled a bit more to the front. “Thank you for this wonderful reception,” he starts outs. I can’t help but giggle when I hear how he’s trying to lower his voice a bit. Just for a moment, the old Walt is back, pontificating in front of this president and wearing his mask of self-assurance. “I’m the Bookkeeper’s assistant – he’s the leader of West Tresco. And this is my father, the Bookkeeper’s brother.”
“Welcome,” the head of Dartmoor City says. “I’m President Jacob, and these lovely ladies are my wife and my sister, but also my advisors. The guards at the west gate notified me of your arrival.” President Jacob turns to Tony. “Why isn’t Henry with you?” he says, lowering his voice and scanning the crowd.
A cloud passes over Tony’s face. “He didn’t make it,” he mumbles.
The president nods solemnly. “What happened?”
“He drowned at sea.”
The flat-out lie, told shamelessly, sends a jolt through my body. Tony told us we didn’t need to worry about being held responsible for the crimes Saul committed. So why is he lying about the real reason for his friend’s death?
“Why is he saying that?” I hiss at Walt.
“Maybe he wants to spare us some embarrassment,” he replies. “Revealing to the president that we come from an island of deranged murderers isn’t really going to look good.”
I nod gingerly. Tony will probably tell President Jacob more about Tresco later – how regimes on neither side of the island had been free of corruption, sadly.
The president and his entourage turn around and show us into the city. Once inside, the president hands me and Walt a large ground plan of Dartmoor before distributing some smaller maps to the other visitors. As I suspected, Dartmoor has a round shape. It’s encircled by a wall that was probably there before to keep prisoners in, and now forms a barrier between the high buildings inside and the pastures and farms on the outside.
“Here’s my palace,” the president points out helpfully on our plan. “It would be an honor if you could come to lunch there later on.”
“All of us?” I blurt out in surprise.
“Of course,” President Jacob confirms with a friendly smile. “Five loaves of bread and two fish will feed a multitude, sweet girl. We believe in miracles and generosity.”
Wow. Even the Bookkeeper of Hope Harbor isn’t this bighearted.
“But first we would love a tour of the city,” Walt says. “I’m dying to find out how your people live here.”
“Sonia will be glad to accompany you,” the president says, indicating the woman he’d introduced to them as his sister and advisor.
When I turn around, I suddenly notice Tony is breaking away from our group.
“Won’t you join us?” I call out to him, feeling a bit lost.
He shakes his head. “I have to go see Michelle first. Henry’s wife. I’ll meet up with you in the palace later.”
With a growing sense of guilt I stare at him as he walks away. What is he going to tell her? The same lie about Henry drowning at sea?
“Come on, let’s go,” Walt interrupts my thoughts. He takes my hand and pulls me along in the direction of a wide street to follow Sonia, but stops when he sees the crushed expression on my face. “Leia, what’s wrong?”
“These people are all so nice,” I whisper. “And we’ve done a horrible thing to one of them.”
“You want to tell them the truth?” Walt asks seriously.
I shrug. “Maybe.”
“Well, let’s just wait and talk to Tony first, okay?”
“Sure. You’re right.”
As we follow Sonia onto the main street, the bells above the city gates start to toll. Maybe it’s their way of welcoming us. Or maybe it’s a final salute to Henry, the Dartmoorer they have lost today.
4 – Leia
By the time we get to the palace, my head is spinning. We’ve seen so many things and met so many people that I can’t take it all in anymore.
Everything on the street is properly regulated. Here, too, they have electric vehicles, but despite their speed, no driver tries to cut another driver off. Nobody seems impatient. The people who pass us all smile at us beatifically, looking peaceful and content. I can’t believe they’re able to stay this serene, because there are people everywhere. So many. I’d go crazy here, regardless of all the friendly faces that we see. It has only taken me one hour of city life to secretly long for a quiet, natural place to retreat to. Who would have thought I’d start missing Saul’s wretched survival hikes?
Walt is having a better time. He’s used to living in a town like this one. Every now and then, he recognizes things they have in Hope Harbor as well. “Look, a clock tower!” he points out enthusiastically, when we pass a sort of town hall. He admires the structure, slipping a casual arm around my shoulders. “And look, over there – a l
ibrary.” He’s right – it’s even written on the front in large, silver-colored lettering. In a big city like this, it’s probably necessary to put up signs on the outside of buildings so people know where to find what. Or who knows, maybe they do it as a courtesy to newcomers like us – after all, the president was very quick to provide us with a map of the city, too.
Our last stop on the tour is an impressive building right next to the palace, which Sonia calls a ‘church’. “This is where we congregate every Sunday, to remind each other of the words that Jesus spoke,” she explains.
“Jesus?” I echo. “Who’s that?”
“Man and God at once,” she replies ardently. “He healed the sick, forgave his enemies, showed his followers miracles, and walked on water. And most importantly, he taught us that violence is the root of all evil. Our society honors his teachings.”
I hear Walt inhale sharply. “He walked on water?” he repeats croakily.
His words take me back to the nights on board the Explorer, when Walt told me the stories about Jesse. The traitor who tried to convince the Hope Harborers they could leave Tresco without having to wait for Annabelle. The man who walked on water.
“Jesse.” Walt’s whisper barely stirs the air. “Jesus. So – he existed for real?”
“Of course,” Sonia says, a bit curtly. “Don’t your people on Tresco know him?”
“We do.” Walt looks at her dazedly. “Just – differently.”
I completely understand his bewilderment. The double agent of his religion turns out to be worshipped here as some kind of miracle man for bringing peace to the people. It’s the world upside down.