I
call it a revolution, but as I've said before, it was actually a war
on the drug trade. There were protests to make the substances legal,
which would have allowed for more regulation, but those were only the
beginning of it. My grandfather had just come into power, but he was
head-strong in his pursuit of a drug-free country. He intensified
punishments involving illegal substances, and ordered for the closing
of all drug-help institutions. Those who were recovering from
previous addictions were rounded up and placed into the country's
worst prisons. They started dying from withdrawal. Everyone knew. The
people grew furious and no smooth talking could tame them. But not
all of this felt distant from me. I was angry as well.
The
whole thing just seemed unnecessary. As tainted as the drug users
might have seemed, they were still human. I think he forgot this, for
he treated them as one might treat contaminants in water. It was a
cleansing he was attempting, but with all of our anger, he would need
something far beyond an army. The uprisings began in the capital, and
spread all over the country. At first it was peaceful protests, but
it quickly turned into riots. Government officials were attacked,
kidnapped, and murdered publicly. Some of them turned against him as
well. Everything seemed to be falling apart, except for Marie-Lynn
and I.
With
all of the chaos surrounding us, our lives should have been more
affected, but our firm grasp on the unreal kept us vibrant. My world
had long been abandoned, leaving my people, my creations, to continue
without guidance from a higher being. From night to night, provided
that I could sleep, I would join Marie-Lynn in her world. It is
foolish to say that we never fought. Somehow when we did, the beauty
and tranquillity of her world was amplified, although I was not
always welcome. When I was, I would wander along the Great Expanse,
as we called it. It was the sublime ocean of her imagination. In
times of strife, it was always smooth, except for the raging storm in
the distance that tore through the sky and sea relentlessly. The
shore consisted of grass instead of sand because Marie-Lynn did not
care for the shifting sands. The grass along the shore was soft on my
feet and was always far greener than the other side. While I wandered
the outskirts, Marie-Lynn stayed inland, in the meadows and gardens
of unreality, avoiding our meeting. But I wandered along the sea as
if I yearned to brave it on a boat to explore the world beyond even
Marie-Lynn's consciousness. I imagined that my world possessed the
same, but it was beyond me.
One
day though, I grew tired of wandering. With all of my decades
wandering the outer-reaches of her known world, this was the first I
felt tired. By the Great Expanse I sat and pondered the change in my
own condition. But I was overwhelmed by the serenity of that day. My
eyes could see as far as they ever could, but they still found
nothing on the horizon. She was beyond me, and the storms had calmed.
I could have returned to her, but I wished to swim into her depths.
Respect kept me rooted. The decade passed with little change, except
for night and day.
The
next morning, we were far from silent. “I thought you might have
returned.” Her first words to me in over ten years were soft.
“Have
you ever wondered what lay beyond the Great Expanse?” I replied,
with my eyes still fixed on the unworldly distance.
“I'm
afraid of it. It's beyond my control. We could get lost forever in
it.”
“Then
let's get lost together!” I breathed life into the idea, but the
breath soon found its end in Marie-Lynn's disagreement.
“If
that's your form of proposing, I'm disappointed. If you want to go
beyond so much, do it in your own world.” I had not wanted it to
end there, but the flame-haired woman had seared the bridge to the
other side. I never ceased my yearning to explore a world beyond our
control. We could change our worlds as we imagined, and yet, the
mystical beauty was lacking. For all our powers to create, it cannot
create the magical nature of beauty. I knew that it lay across the
Great Expanse.
I
returned to Marie-Lynn that night with a yearning to create. But I
cared not for imagining it into unreality. No, I wanted to know the
labour. Marie-Lynn moved the earth so that the land I would create
upon overlooked the Great Expanse. I knew that it was so that we may
view the mystic beauty of the independent ocean.
Marie-Lynn
and I got to work. From a tree that repeatedly regrew, we collected
mounds of lumber that we carried to the peak ourselves. As I formed
the logs into planks, tools, and the like, Marie-Lynn dug through the
earth in search of metals we might also use. It took us nearly the
full decade in order to complete the little house. It was all of one
room that could fit a single bed, a small table, and two accompanying
chairs. While it was not very large and was incredibly basic in
construction, it felt like a home for us. For all our minds could
create, it could not force a bond upon the created and the creator.
I had
ceased my wandering, but time dictated that soon I would begin again.
-Zero
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