by Davi Cao
“And what is the most important thing, then?”
“I was about to ask you the same.”
“I came first. Tell me, what is the most important thing to you? Because to me, I only know the language of needs. Food, water, love, leisure, this kind of thing. If you want to end it, what else is left?”
“Creation.” She stared at the sky, at the approaching col.loc. “I... I think about it all the time. It’s the immortal’s burden. We can talk, we can play games, but we will live forever and our conscience will torture us. So, we create to know others better and share their vision. These are new experiences, this is what matters. So, I try to create people that are as free to create as we are. This is the most important thing.”
“And do they create? In the middle of Utopia, people find the disposition to create new things?”
“Some do... They try, I made it so that they wanted to try it. Beautiful things, you just had to see it.”
“Then how come OOOO said they were boring?”
“Because it’s still not enough. I’m still trying to create a world where people create a lot. They end soon, and I don’t have much practice. It’s been long since I don’t have a new Utopia, very long, and I don’t mind that. I’m trying to use this time to learn.”
“It’s hard to imagine that. So far, I’ve been feeling so immature near you that I thought you were the wisest person I’d ever find.”
“And even so, you decided to fight my ideas. Are you afraid of wisdom?”
“No, I guess not. I don’t want to be swallowed, that’s it. If I take your word for everything, who am I, then, in this world of giants? I have to fight for it, no matter how stupid my ideas are.”
“I guess you can do better than that. I guess we can both have the best of both worlds.”
“Maybe later.”
“Maybe now,” Dalana said, smiling at him with glowing white teeth in the room’s darkness.
The cell phone alarm announced morning’s arrival. Angeline slowly opened her eyes, the blanket half covering her body, hair strands caressing her forehead, a few of them finding space between her lips. She turned her head from side to side, finding the room empty, the sun illuminating the outside world through the window.
Fresh smell of waffles and strawberry syrup. The neighbor again? No, last night it came from her own oven. She got up in an instant, her head dizzy with the blood gone, not circulating at the proper speed. Over the table, the money she’d left stayed intact, and by its side, breakfast was served.
It happened without Colin’s notice. He talked with Dalana through the window, and when he heard Angeline getting up, food had materialized.
“Did you create it now?” he said.
“No, I did it yesterday. She’ll always have food.” Dalana joined Angeline at the table.
“Wait, what? You made her a cornucopia? This is terrible!” Colin rolled his eyes.
“It’s great! Look at her, she’s marveled by it. And by the look in her face, I’m sure the taste is as good as I wanted it to be.” Dalana put her elbow on the table, holding her chin on her palm.
“That’s not the point. If she finds out that the food in here is infinite, that will break her humanity.”
“Humanity is more than finding food to eat, much, much more. Let her be. Maybe we can both learn more with her.”
“She is my creation, remember that?”
“And you want her a slave of your whims?”
“No, of course not. I... I only wanted to watch her live as if the world had never ended.”
“Well, it did end, so we have to accept conflict and grow with it, right?”
Colin shook his head, defeated by exhaustion. He sat on Angeline’s bed, watching her eat from a distance.
“We can have the best of both worlds, my—” Dalana began to say.
“Not now!” Colin replied, swallowing pride.
On the nightstand, by the bed’s side, money in loose bills lay under a black stone cube. Last night, Angeline had found her wage's worth of pay in the same place, although the money had multiplied. The old amount lay at the table where she ate breakfast, and new money now waited for her.
Colin followed her fixed stare, finding it at the end of her line, too late to make it disappear. She stood up, walked toward the nightstand, picked the bills up and counted it. In her bedsit, from food to wealth, she had more than she remembered having in all her life.
“Mr. Alden, sorry calling you so early, but I... Err... I have something to ask you,” Angeline said, calling on her boss’ number with her cell phone.
“Shoot it, Angeline, I’m out of time. We have a few things to talk about, you’re right, and it’s best to do it later, in my room, so that I can explain it better to you,” he said.
“Alright, we can do it. I just want to ask, though, if you dropped by my building to leave me something. Did you decide to pay me in cash, by chance?”
“By cash? In your building? What the hell are you talking about? You got my pay, it’s in your bank account, are you trying to tell me you didn’t get it? Because I’m pretty sure you did, I can show you everything, you even signed the receipt, what’s this you’re trying to get, huh, I’m at a loss in here...”
“No, no, it’s nothing, it’s nothing, please forget it. I got home late last night and found money in my room, the same amount that I usually get from you.”
“Someone’s messing up with your accounts, you have to check that out. I have nothing to do with it.”
“I know. And... err... I guess I should see it today. Do you mind if I don’t go to work? It’s bugging me, I have to sort things out.”
“Sure, and don’t mind coming ever again, by the way. I was going to say it later in our talk, but I can see you have other priorities, so you’re free to go.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
“You’re fired, Angeline. We had to cut costs, remember? Sorry, you’re a good worker, but we couldn’t keep you here. Drop by here when you have the chance to take care of the paper work, ok? No need to hurry. Bye, take care.”
“Wait, I—” she said, speaking to a monotonous pulse.
Angeline left the phone on the table, next to the money. She opened her fridge, took a cup of milk pudding out and walked to the window. With the tiny spoon, she ate her desert with patience, every small bit savored until complete dissolution in her mouth.
The col.locs spun in the sky with fields filled with plain colors and mystery. On the street far below, people hurried to their occupations. Angeline had the entire day off, unemployed. Sweet, soft, miraculous, the taste enveloping her tongue made her smile. She had money, she had food. Everything would be alright.
“See, how do you think she’d fare if she got these news without my gifts to her?” Dalana said, meeting Colin at the window.
“She’d be sad for a while, then shake off the dust to continue her life. She’s good, she can find a decent job.” Colin crossed his arms by Angeline's side.
“Even when the economy is bad?”
“Yes, the crisis never hit those who work hard. Still, if all else failed, she could get back to her parents.”
“Your world has a solution for everything, I see. Well, she seems happy to me, and I like that. Unlike you, I don’t want to see her suffer. I think she’s got an immense potential.”
“I don’t want to see her suffer.” He raised his lip in disgust. “I want to see her as a human like me, not as a monster from another world!”
“Fine. She doesn’t need us, though. Look at what she’s doing.”
Angeline opened the oven and found an apple pie smelling fresh. She laughed and left a tear fall from her eye, joyful to have her wish satisfied thus. Handling it with a glove, she sliced the pie and put three pieces on a plate. Out of her room, going upstairs, she knocked at a neighbor’s door and waited for an answer.
“Oh, hi, Angeline! You’re on vacation now, I thought you’d be at work?” a young blond woman sai
d.
“Hey, Patricia, good morning. Things changed, I just got fired, it’s a new day and all that,” Angeline said.
“Aw...”
“No, no reason to get sad, I’ll be fine, please. I brought you some pie. Do you like it?”
“I love it, yes! I didn’t know you liked to cook this sort of stuff, that’s great, thanks.”
“You should drop by my place when you’re done with whatever you’re doing. It would be nice to have someone to talk to.”
“Sure, I’ll try to appear any time, maybe later in the night, if that’s good for you.”
“That will be great. I’ll have some great food for us, just wait and see.”
“Oh, really? What are you thinking about?”
“I still don’t know.” Angeline laughed. “It’ll be a surprise for both of us.”
Angeline got back to her room smelling yet more food. A thin smoke inundated the hall, seducing passing tenants with a delight they could only wonder at. How amazing that it came from her own apartment, she who often lacked time to eat properly, now reaping a feast every time she opened the oven. She checked it again, and there it was, a tray of baked ham in its prime form.
Since she had a full fridge, and a replenished oven, abundance overwhelmed her. She sliced the meat and distributed it on separate plates, getting ready to share it with the neighbors. Through the window, someone screamed, so loud as to be heard up to her floor. A couple of beggars talked on the street, heat climbing with every shout. They fought for a few scrambled possessions.
Angeline took a part of the money on her nightstand, a plate filled with slices of ham, and got in the elevator. Walking toward the beggars, they looked down, embarrassed to deal with their complicated case in front of the whole city. She offered them the food.
“I’ve had too much today, and I wanted to share it with you. I have plenty already, feel free to get everything. And get this too,” she said, handling them enough money to make them last two months. “Maybe you can buy a few pleasant things and stop this fight. Do this together, you should be friends.”
They bowed in recognition, the one who received the money counting the bills and giving half to the other. They sat, leaning against a building’s wall and ate the ham. Angeline waited by their side for her plate, glad to watch them at peace.
“You’re trying to take my world, aren’t you? How dangerous are you, after all?” Colin said, a sudden heat coming up from his chest.
“It’s not your world. It’s Ai.iA’s.” Dalana sided with Angeline on the wall.
“When I have my chance, you’re going to use me to materialize your idea, isn’t that it? You’re using me, right?”
“I’m living with you even though I don’t need anything. That’s what’s going on.”
“You’re changing my part of the world, you’re trying to turn it into Utopia, you always are.”
“That’s my way of communicating with you.”
“Isn’t it enough that we talk?”
“Talking is just one way.”
“Well, yeah, then I’m going to communicate with you in other ways too, if that’s the game you want to play. Let’s see if you’re really so great at seducing people to your side.”
∙ 14 ∙ Exploration crew
After her headquarters caught fire, Laura went to live on the outskirts of the city. A mansion designed for a future world leader, a prophet pushing forward the words given to her. Two large swimming pools by the side of a three-story glass house, a house located over a hill which would get near the upper col.locs at their meeting. She worked on her daily message when Colin arrived.
”—nothing of the sort, my dear ones. This crisis is meant to reap the best in us, to turn into hell the life of the lazy, and into heaven the life of the hard worker. It’s a sign of God’s unrelenting watch over us, He who keeps an eye on our every move,” Laura said, eyes intent on the camera in front of her.
Her computer screen flickered with the fading image of a person. She paused her recording with a frozen expression, calm, intending to get back later at the same spot.
“Good to see you’re doing well, Laura,” Colin said, modulating the speakers' waves.
“I’m doing God’s work. It’s getting harder with the state of the world, with so many people becoming poorer by the day, no matter how many jobs I offer. If I had powers like you, it would be so much easier.” She pressed her fingers in front of her nose with elbows on the table.
“If you could create a world where people were born for hard work, never complaining, they’d be machines, wouldn’t they? We had free will in our place.”
“Indeed, but I didn’t mean that. I don’t want to create a new place, unless it’s our original one. I want to affect the economy, to make capital less prone to paralysis.”
“And how would you do that? Depending on the quest, I can help.”
“I still don’t know. With so many variables involved, it’s a matter of experimentation, like the economists use to do, except that we’d have nearly divine powers.”
“If you need my help for anything, let me know. Other than that, how is your native human’s study going on?”
“Ah, that is a good topic. We’ve managed to scale up our production by joining them with more of their people. They form long chains that produce lots of honey nonstop, and they don’t even need to be fed. We’ve tested it in a group, and the problem we face is that no honey will ever be enough to meet the demand. That thing is too good. It’s nutritious, stimulating, and peaceful.”
“How come you’re not selling it, then? That could do wonders to the economy.”
“Because to sell it in large amounts, we need more people. And it’s rare to find any of them in our planet.”
“You must go to the other planets. You have my blessing, Laura.”
“I’m scared of it. Those who went there never got back. They are dangerous places.”
“Do you agree with me that making more of this honey and exploring a whole new class of natural resources will do good to our world?”
“I believe I do.”
“Then set up an exploration team and send them off to the first col.loc that meets New Terra. Make a call for volunteers, ask those who are unemployed to serve you in a divine quest to take our values to other peoples. The more we spread the word of our world through the universe, the closer we are to getting it back just the way it was.”
“I’ll do it, yes, I’ll follow your advice. Give me the voice, make me reach the right people.”
Colin consented to her request and stopped the manipulation of electromagnetic waves. She closed her eyes in meditation, preparing the first words for a new speech aimed at the city’s crowd of discontented. He left her in her peace, to take care of the rest of the plan.
In Angeline’s apartment, she watched a series online while eating popcorn. Dalana accompanied her, standing by her side.
“She had a full day today, you had to see it. All her neighbors got food and she now has as much money as she’d earn in the entire year. I think she’s making plans for this tranquility,” Dalana said, greeting Colin's return, as if he’d just gone to the bathroom.
“That’s ok, it’s the natural thing to do. But before deciding, she has to know of another choice.” Colin lifted a hand to Angeline, who sat at her dinner table.
Angeline's computer screen faded to black, then lit up with Laura’s image, the world's prophet wearing a white blouse in front of a world map. Angeline's cell phone displayed the same image, and from the street she heard the same clarinet music announcing Laura’s incoming speech.
“Good evening, my dear ones,” Laura said, her cheeks swelling with a timid smile. “First, I want you to answer me one question: are you afraid of the world? Second, I want you to meditate for a moment: are you doing your part to help us bring Heaven on Earth? If you are, thank you. Please know that all the people are happy because of you. If you are not, however, pray come to us. You are in need,
you risk poverty, you don’t care about work, you are just waiting for life to happen. You can either die now and suffer in hell, or you can help the world. I have a mission for you, for those who feel lost, who want a mission to make sense of existence. Power lays in your hands, my brothers and sisters. Come make use of it.
“We are at the edge of a new time. For generations, we have lost dear people to the worlds around us. They climb to the skies and never come back, keeping us from the truth that lies in alien lands. But the truth has come to us. I am the bearer of God’s will. Do you know what we’ll find up there? The scent of paradise. We’ll find honey of unfathomable delicacy, a step toward Heaven, reminding us of our mission with every sip. Work hard, my dears, to get the honey and live well. We’ll find new wealth to make our world grow stronger, new untapped markets to explore, riches in brute state in need of our golden touch.
“I have a crew devoted to studying alien creatures who came to our world uninvited. And believe me when I tell you, my beloved ones, that these aliens are people like us. Our siblings from other planets, humans like us in flesh and bone. They walk, and walk, looking for something, carrying the honey of angels on their backs, and it’s time that we show them that they found what they’re looking for. They want family, and we are their family. Let’s take Earth to them.
“Become a volunteer, if you want redemption from sin. If ten hours of work a day is not for you, join our expedition. You’ll work hard, you’ll explore, you’ll make friends and expand humanity throughout the universe. Call us now, and save your place among the saviors of Earth. With me on the lead, I promise you’ll get back to tell the story.”
The message paralyzed Angeline. Her gaze penetrated the screen, her ears twitched at the promise of salvation. Blessings seemed to rain upon her, first with food and money, now with a mission.
She stood up, walked to the window, not blinking once. Outside, the sun already shone less than the upper col.loc, a cylindrical arch of a planet coming toward Earth like a colossal pillar. Color splotches as big as continents spread on its surface, the bluish mist of its atmosphere refracting light and painting oranges and yellows over blue and red. Mountains grew at the naked eye’s pace, valleys became trenches spanning planetary distances, disappearing in the interval of a day. Something furious squirmed inside that thing.