The City of Men was being built, one rock at a time, upon a design Mauricio had sketched in the sand one morning after a long, sleepless night. He had imagined a rocky tower, impossible to distinguish from the rest of the desert, with a hollow inside, full of colors. Mauricio wanted to give its citizens the freedom to express their personalities. He wanted to see colors and flowers and plants and anything else pleasing to the eyes. He wanted a place where everybody could be happy. Men and women would eventually live under the same roof in peace and harmony. Unfortunately, ten years weren’t enough to forget about slavery, torture, and humiliation. But under the Priest’s legislation, every act of violence against any other human being was treated as the most heinous crime and was dealt with accordingly. It had pained him greatly when he had to condemn to death by exile the two men who had killed Ariane’s mother. And he hadn’t rejoiced when the men’s bones had been found one month later, but it had been the right message to send.
Nowadays, the other problem the City of Men was facing was the high infant and maternal mortality rate. Mauricio had asked for medical texts, and they came, along with a few highly needed supplies, from the same facility that had generously lent the geology texts. He had spent more sleepless nights studying female physiology, and he had been able to save a few lives, but babies were still dying. It pained him to think about it. At least clean water is no longer a problem, Mauricio reminded himself. It felt good to know that every action counted for something; he wasn’t propagating a race of slaves for the sake of pure breeds anymore. He walked toward the fields, thinking of all the improvements he had helped create, and he felt at peace with the universe. He was doing the best with what life had given him.
Even though he would have gone back to his cell to remain with Rosie that night, ten years ago, he knew now that it would have been selfish. His community had been looking to him for guidance so long; he didn’t know any other life. Sometimes, when he was tired and lonelier than usual, he entertained the idea that someone else could have stepped up to lead. Someone had to sacrifice his or her life and take the first step. So, who better than him? He’d never had a chance to live a normal life with Rosie, while everybody else could still have a shot at happiness. He had fallen in love with the President’s daughter. He, Mauricio, the ex-slave, the former semental, now the Priest, leader of a community that was everything the Ginecean government was against, would have never had a future with Rosie under any circumstance.
The fields stretched ahead of him, not the magnificent sight of the Tarin’s orchards, but something wondrous, nevertheless. There was no river winding around at the edge of the horizon, no kaleidoscope of colors arranged by shades. The City of Men’s fields were small and scattered to better use the rocky soil, and at the moment, they were colorless. Still, for all their ugliness and lack of visible appeal, those meager fields were his dream come true. Mauricio felt proud of everything his life had turned out to be and even prouder of the people he’d had the good fortune to share his journey with. One of them was waving at him impatiently from the far side of the fields.
“Coming,” Mauricio muttered under his breath and hurried toward Leander and the rest of the crew. They looked exhausted. They were covered in red dirt from head to worn-out boots, but they were laughing and playing around with something that looked like a crude attempt at a soccer ball. They were mostly men, young in age and drunk with the idea of freedom. Some of them had just been rescued and they were dizzy with happiness. The others, veterans of the City of Men, were reminded by the new arrivals of the fact that life for a man in Ginecea could be very different. The women were still rare, and the few of them here were all fathered. No pure breed, with the exception of Guen, could have accepted the libertarian philosophy that was at the center of the City of Men’s community. Or the fact that owning slaves was illegal in Mauricio’s world.
“Finally!” Leander ran toward Mauricio, tired of waiting for him.
“The boys want to start celebrating, and so do I.” Julius came running after his husband.
“So, what are you waiting for?” Mauricio asked with a grin.
The men gathered around the Priest and started chanting his name, and one of the younger boys gave him a tin bucket.
“This is the beginning of something good for us, and all of you are responsible for making it a reality. Look at those fields and imagine what we will harvest next spring. Our kids will have nutritious food on their plates. Our life is going to change, and we have you to thank.” The Priest spoke and everybody listened. Mauricio was still surprised that, when he talked, people stopped to commit to memory everything he said. He didn’t like it in the beginning. He was still too much of a slave mentally to think of himself as worthy. Then he had relaxed and accepted that he had something other people didn’t have: a drive that even his closest friends admired in him. Mauricio never stopped before an obstacle. He thought about it and kept thinking about it until the solution was clear in his mind. And then he acted upon it and worked on it until the problem was solved. At that point, he would normally move to another task and start the process again. But, like he had just said, he now had people helping him create what was inside his brain. It hadn’t been always like that. When Guen, Arias, Leander, and Mauricio had first settled inside the rocky formation nestled between canyons, they’d had to fight every possible adversity by themselves. When they had started building the foundation of the city, they had been utterly alone, and more than once, despair had settled in their midst like an unwanted guest. But Mauricio had never complained in front of the others. He had shouldered the others’ pain, given back solace and never asked for anything in return.
“Take the first drink of water.” Leander was holding the tin bucket to Mauricio’s mouth, full to the rim and sweating with cold dew.
“To everybody!” Mauricio raised the bucket, the men cheered loudly, and then he sipped the liquid carefully as if it was a precious wine. He closed his eyes and turned his face toward the darkening sky and thanked the Heavens.
“Let the celebration begin! Free day tomorrow for everybody!” the Priest decreed and the men went wild with happiness. Someone already had a guitar ready and spontaneous singing took place in a matter of minutes.
Later that night, Mauricio retreated into a corner away from the central plaza, happy to look at what they had accomplished as a community. The men were all there dancing and singing. The women were all staying in the same spot, still wary of being in the same place with so many ex-slaves, but nobody was bothering them. After a few hours, the bravest of them had decided to attempt some dancing in the central square where all the action was. Mauricio was even happier to see that a few of the families from the Caves had decided to join the festivities. He saw Lucas twirling around, giddy with the music and the colors.
“You wish she were here.” Guen had approached silently, but Mauricio saw her coming and wasn’t surprised by her presence.
“Always. There isn’t a single moment I don’t wish she were here,” he answered, taking the hand she had gently put on his shoulder and kissing it affectionately.
“Have you received any new news about your daughter?” Guen asked, as she always did when they were alone.
Lately, the Priest always had an entourage of loyal men escorting him everywhere, hoping to learn from him everything he knew. Mauricio had been forced to reclaim some free time during his busy days to be able to relax. He loved his desert-sculpting time, because he decided who was allowed to follow him outside the city. Normally, he asked Lucas to accompany him to the desert, since the boy’s home was on the way.
“I haven’t. Only the same old things, and I’m not even sure that everything they write is true. It could be propaganda, but I like to read about her anyway. I wish I could see a picture of Maurice, but I understand that Rosie is protecting her as best as she can.” Mauricio had his eyes on the central square, where a boy was flirting with a girl. Mauricio smiled and wondered how old the boy could be.
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“I’ve always meant to ask you something…” Guen started, her eyes on the dancing couple as well.
“Shoot.” Mauricio didn’t know what she wanted to ask, but he knew it had everything to do with Rosie.
“Why have you never tried to contact her? Or at least let her know you’re still alive?” Guen turned to look directly at him.
“I thought about it in the beginning. Then, when I was going to send her a message, the news of her marriage arrived and by the time I read it, she had already been married more than five months and the baby was due soon. I thought that she deserved a chance to be happy. The last time I saw her, she was upset because she already knew that we weren’t going to see each other anymore. But she lied to me to make me feel better. Writing to her when she had already started a new life with her wife seemed a cruel thing to do.” Mauricio smiled when the boy stole a small kiss from the girl.
“Do you regret your decision?” Guen hadn’t turned around and her eyes were focused on him.
“No, I still love her. I hope that she found happiness with the girl she was forced to marry. Rosie told me that she knew who they had in mind, and that she was a good person.” Mauricio was still following the boy’s clumsy attempts at courting.
“But, aren’t you jealous? I couldn’t bear the idea of Arias married to someone else.” Guen was trying to shake Mauricio from the torpor that seemed to have become his second skin lately. He had barely noticed before, but now he could see a pattern in his closest friends’ behavior toward him. Lucas had been pestering him for weeks; Leander had been dancing a waltz around him as well; and now here was Guen and her inquisition. As he thought about it, even Arias had been strangely chatty, when he normally was rather taciturn.
“I try not to think about it, obviously. If I do, I feel the need to haul rocks and run from one end of the desert to the other. I am human, and I suffer at the thought like anybody else. But I had to give her at least a chance to be free of me. And maybe she managed to build a life with that girl, and they are happy together. Maurice doesn’t know that she has a father; she is ten now and she has a normal life. She’s a pure breed. Do you think I could live with myself if I destroyed her happiness with a truth that is almost impossible to prove? It would be my word against the mighty Priestess’. And as much as I’d like to free all the men in Ginecea, we’re not organized enough to launch a full-scale war against the pure breeds. And in the end, I would be my daughter’s worst enemy. I would be the one she would hate the most.” Mauricio noticed how the girl was holding hands with the boy.
“But, you know the day will come when you have to decide,” Guen said softly.
“And when we are strong enough to declare war on Ginecea, I’ll decide without a second of hesitation. The City of Men is counting on me to do the right thing, and I won’t disappoint those men and women. Not for my gain, not for my weakness. It will kill me, but I won’t think twice about giving the orders.” Mauricio’s heart rejoiced at the sight of the young couple sitting on a bench talking to each other, oblivious that there was a world outside where they couldn’t even exchange looks without being exiled from society.
“Look at them—” Mauricio pointed out the lovely scene unfolding before their eyes. “—they’re not the only ones who’ll grow old together like you and Arias. Lucas’ family is not the only one living peacefully inside the Caves. Leander and Julius are an example for many who will adopt boys and girls without making any distinction between genders. This is what I want. One day, there will be another Mauricio and another Rosie, and they will be happy together. They will love and have quarrels. They’ll have kids and maybe even grow apart by choice. But it will be their decision.” Mauricio looked at Guen and saw that she had tears in her eyes.
“And you still go out every day to scan the desert looking for her.” Guen smiled at her friend of so many years with a tenderness that touched Mauricio deeply.
“And I still wait for her. Even though I know she’ll never appear at the horizon, I go out every day looking because doing so was the only thing that kept me sane when we first arrived here. Back then, when the time passed slowly and it was painfully obvious that she wasn’t coming, I still drew strength from the act of waiting. I got used to it, and now it is part of my daily routine. Love is a powerful tool. It can elevate your mind to peaks you never before experienced. It can free your body from pain. I needed that then, and I need that now more than ever. Hoping, even foolishly, that one day I will see Rosie again keeps me going when I am tired.” Mauricio wiped away Guen’s tears with his fingers and kissed her head.
“I care for you. And it pains me to see you alone,” Guen said, smiling at Mauricio.
“I care for you, too. Don’t be sad for me. I didn’t choose whom to love, but I wouldn’t change it, either, if I could have. Ultimately, Rosie is the reason why we're all here. If she only knew what her love started…” Mauricio said and then laughed softly. “But, don’t mind me. I don’t want to ruin your night with my melancholy. On a night like this, when people poke me around, I tend to grow nostalgic.”
“I think that on nights like this, you finally say what’s in your heart.”
“Still, I have no right to dump on everyone else’s mood.” Mauricio smiled at her and waved one hand in the air to dismiss the topic.
“Since you have declared tomorrow free, we’re going to have Leander’s family over for dinner. Would you like to join us, or do you see enough of your god-daughters at school that you don’t wish to see them outside of it as well?” Guen knew that he couldn’t refuse such an invitation and grinned at her friend in triumph.
“You were always good at guilt-tripping people when it’s convenient for you,” Mauricio complained, but nodded at the same time. “I’ll be late though.”
“I haven’t told you the time, yet!” Guen laughed at his childish game of power.
“Regardless. I won’t subject myself to your presence more than necessary,” he joked and Guen punched him in the shoulder.
“Ouch! Is this the way to treat the Priest?” Mauricio asked while massaging the injured limb.
“Don’t even get me started with that, Your Holiness.” It was their private joke when nobody was listening.
“I feel that I never tell you enough, but, thank you, again. I’ll be forever grateful for what you did back in Tarin. You risked your life for me; you were good to me and Rosie; you gave us precious moments together, and without your help, I wouldn’t be here.” Mauricio repeated words that he had already said many times. But tonight, it was different. The City of Men was at a turning point. After so many years of being constantly on the brink of extinction, it was finally facing the first big reprieve. It was the right time to acknowledge true friendships.
“I felt that you deserved a few good days, or at least as good as I could give you, given our circumstances.” Guen shyly shrugged her shoulders.
“And to think that you despised Rosie so much.” Mauricio almost laughed at remembering how Guen had acted when in her presence.
“I couldn’t stand her and everything she represented, but when I discovered the sentiments she harbored for you, I understood that she was a different person altogether.” Guen paused for a moment, and Mauricio had the impression that she was lost in her own memories of Rosie. “I'm glad I met the true Rosie—not the brat everybody thought her to be, not the spoiled first daughter who hid herself under a shallow mask. Just her, a selfless girl who helped you escape your fate. I liked that Rosie very much, and we would have been the greatest friends in Ginecea. I miss her too, you know?” she finished.
“Life would have been just perfect with her by my side,” he said, looking at the young couple sneaking away around the corner.
Chapter 13
“Priest, how do you feel today?” Lucas was looking worriedly at Mauricio’s wrinkled face.
“I admit that time hasn’t been kind to me, but I am not one hundred, yet. Not even seventy. You shouldn’t be so disrespec
tful to the Priest,” Mauricio joked.
“I didn’t mean to—”
“Just teasing you.” Mauricio smiled at Lucas and then added, “Don’t worry. I’m not going to die today. I still have several things to do before getting my well-deserved rest.” He was cold, and he hadn’t slept at all, but Lucas’ affection was enough to make him lie about his condition.
“It’s not funny. I keep telling you, but you simply don’t listen.” Lucas threw his hands in the air to communicate his despair, but only succeeded at being comedic. His face was wrinkled prematurely by the merciless sun of the desert and showed more than he wanted.
Mauricio laughed and his ribs ached. “When you reach my age, you don’t care about listening so much anymore.” Mauricio patted the couch and gestured for Lucas to join him there.
“Tell me about your son. How is Randal? I want to hear about him.” Mauricio’s voice wasn’t faint, but he wasn’t sure he had fooled Lucas.
“Randal thinks he’s in love with a new boy now. If I remember correctly, this is a record even for him. He changes his heart once a month, but this new love replaced the other after just a week. I hope he’ll settle one day for a good person and be happy with whomever he chooses.” Lucas always complained about his son.
“He’s a good boy. You worry too much. You’ll see. When you’re a grandfather, everything your son did wrong will magically disappear.” Mauricio smiled.
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