Love is as love does, or in our case, what it doesn’t. My name is Daria; a joke made for mimaw who is an X. They say I see everything and I wish I didn’t. But I write what is true and how we helped the world pull together from the brink even though it cost us everything.
The sun shone so bright over the clean water and clean sky; only our souls were dirty. The island was beautiful and lush summer green with a big sign with a smilemoj that said “Welcome to Last Chance” in big friendly letters. I tried to remind myself it was our new home; not a prison.
The only place left in North America that would take us. Love is complicated; love makes you code without an Elmo Collar to find a Crispr for your sick child; or beat up an entire school because someone called your dad an Elmo; or still love your brother even though you’d been banished 6 times for Kender’s violence.
There were no computers on Last Chance….none.
So there was no chance of Kender getting better. He would moan and want to code without an Elmo collar just like dad. That's why we couldn’t be around computers. He loved them and couldn’t understand why we made him wear a collar and why Dad was gone. They talked about the wonders in the age before Karikee blew it all to hell. The world had to bleed for what the BlackGlass did; but the greatest generation fought them and beat them and now the world was starting to heal. But that didn’t mean healing for everyone.
Now there would be no normal. Never. Nohow.
But we all still loved him anyway; Jay, Ma and Me. Jay just looked back at the mainland and all the things he’d miss. Ma smiled and held my hand and hugged Kender who rocked back and forth. Ma talked about the old days when we had the Gubbamint and how the Gubbamint would have protected Kender and paid the smart men to find a cure. But that just wasn’t so. Z’s talk about the old days like they’re magic but they let the moneychangers wreck the world. They were the last generation of the old world.
Kender was skinny and 6’5”; tallest in the family. He had moppy blond hair, shock blue eyes and wore a thick wooden collar that he had carved to look exactly like an Elmo Collar. It was his and he said it let him talk to the Black. Jay and I were twins, and much shorter like Ma with black hair and brown eyes. We were two years older than him, which made us collectively the oldest, but Jay looked it. Jay had circles under his eyes.
We were free. Free to live lives without money; free to live lives with clean air, and free to work with purpose without knowing I’d never have a job run by a Franken. I loved all that; that’s what they taught us in school. But right now it didn't FEEL free.
The biggest thing you saw on the docs was the Totem; the symbol of the three hidden societies; a giant arrowed’d A, A Torch and a Wrench in a clenched fist. It was the symbol of hope, of unity and of our tyranny. We hated it but most loved it.
The Anarchs who would allow no state; the Luds who would allow no computers without an Elmo collar; and the Monkeys who got real friendly like with the polluters. You can’t stop who you can’t see. No one knew who they were.
There was no trial for Pa’s murder because there were no courts, no army no gubbamint but the people. Most people liked it that way. Mostly.
We got our bags off the boat and headed off the dock to our new home. Everyone in town had lined up to watch us and the other newbs do the walk of shame. Makes sense. Small town not a lot to do. The little kid stick his head through the ‘o’ in Welcome was particularly ironic. Felt more like a hangin’.
Sure felt petty though. Boston is one of the most punk cities in the world with their own fusion reactor and the head of the World Syndicate Forum. It might be grindin slow but Boston is where shit goes down. Ain’t nothin gonna happen in Last Chance except nothin. Everyone’s eyes were bright but their faces dumb. Nothin for it, these are our friends and neighbors now and aint no place else to go.
No. Place.
We walked down the main thoroughfare; past the community supply syndicate, the town hall, the school and several syndicate factories that helped improve the island’s trade with the coast; mainly textiles. I had thought Boston wonderfully lush and green, but there were plants and birds I ain’t never seen; and it looked like expert gardeners took care of them. What I didn’t spect was how good it all smelled; lavender rosewood salt air.
Ma had insisted we each gain some ketable skill. I had chosen sewing, cookin and giggin. I was good at all of em. Jay had splained the truth. Ma wanted us to make a good first impression, cause she thought like a Z. Normal place that’s right; but Last Chance is fulla trash the rest of the places don’t want. That means a Black Ket. And that meant to get what we needed; we had to schoolin and shufflin. Giggin was best, splained J, cause I looked younger than I was.
I was the first to spout our host; course I was. Ma redirected us counter to the throng who looked noyed; but Ma didn’t care. She can be fierce when she kens to. We sped up a lot more as we got to the fringe and got a good lookit im. He was tall, 6’7” or a twoish Metric. School keeps trying to make me, like everyone else and its not takin. Mericans do Impy, whether there’s a Gubbamint or No. Kender squawked when people pushed in to him; everyone ignored.
“I’m Lars,” he said with a grin showed he didn't brush his teeth right. I sighed. Ma was worried that she couldn’t find a good dentist on the island and now we’d never hear the end of it. Big man, but kind eyes. He had a scar on his neck like he’d used an Elmo Collar wrong, but given the way he dressed and had more scars on his hands looked like he practiced fishin mostly now. For the best, most people don’t have the empathy to play it safe workin w the Black.
Ma steered Jay and I clear from ever touching one. “Black Glass don’t bring nothing but bad luck. Crossfire taking out a rogue Glasswalker in the Black took out your Pa.” She never stopped warning us. It wasn’t needed. Jay and I would never risk breaking her heart like that. She had enough to worry about with Kender.
Not that Giggin was much better. Giggin meant doing whatever the Ket demanded; the Black Ket; Black like BlackGlass and the Anarchs didn't like that. Wrenchers and the Luds weren’t too fond of it neither but as long as you weren’t a full time Gigger, you were likely OK. Less earned meant less to track and less to take if they caught you with money.
Sometimes, I swears, you think they can hear what you thinking; no sooner did I think about a fucking BlackGlass when you hear the horns of the wild hunt; but oh no, not one, not two, but a full three. We’ve been around the Flotsams have. We’ve seen half the biggest communities in North America and you pick on a few things here and there. Everyone does things differently; some people like Parks, and some people like Urban Agriculture. Some people like narchy hot with fiery speeches and some like their narchy cold with paperwork dis side a RoachMotel. But nowhere; aint nowhere where you see a full wild hunt in once a ten year no more. One, maybe two make a run. Three just aint happenin no more.
And on our first day? Bad mojo all day.
We all did what any sane person does during a wild hunt, duck and stay out of the way. Everyone did that, except a few too deaf to hear the horns or the idiots too stupid to care about their own lives. I saw Kender was more agitated than normal. He was never calm during a hunt, since he knew that was how Dad died, but usually Jay could keep him calm. Jay looked at Mom, then me and then Kender. Jay folded his arms and shook his head. Jay was on strike.
The Hunt did not care. We heard the horns, the horns, the horns, swallowing up and moving and then we saw the masks and the brilliant costumes with the feathers and the colors and the knives…and the guns. Especially the guns. Guns weren’t as common as people thought. Everyone assumed that everyone had them, but no one but the hunt typically had them. Rumor had it that there was a quiet understanding that if you had it, you kept quiet about it, lest you be judged.
And the spectacle of it, the fireworks and sparklers as they sought out the murderous intent was the sickly thing of it. It was a constant reminded by the societies that we were free as long as we abided by their law, and that their law was no law; no abuse of the earth, no theft of the nobility of humankind by machine. Sounded fine.
Except when you’re under the boot of it.
They went around us in every direction, an eye in the hurricane. Jay crossed his arms but looked…envious, like he wanted to join them. Kender put his hands over his ears and back to his fake collar and back to his ears. He hated the Conspiracies. Ma and Lars did the full duck and cover, not looking up, trying to will it away.
Me?
I looked at em. Every hunt was different, and they all wore the same colors as their symbols on the totem. Not every community honored all three causes; but places that had to be Cleansed typically were a lot more hardcore. And I saw Jay lookin at the Luds. Ma wouldn’t approve. That was the one Kender hated most and the ones who killed Pa.
But I saw envy in his eyes. I saw fear in the hunt. They all ran past us, but looked around, as if afraid we might all be stupid enough to unite against em and hurt em. Made sense. But then? Then I saw something weirder; not even Jay seemed to notice.
They were all eyin each other. Like they might attack EACH OTHER. That was….f’ weird. What the hell was goin on in Last Chance?
And just like a short summer acid rain, it was gone. They blew the horns that they had found what they were looking for. Everyone stood up, slowly, carefully, making sure to stay out of the way. And all three groups, one each hold a limb for a terrified thirteen year old girl and a black glass.
“She wanted to see the Last Fall,” Lars muttered under his breath. Everyone tuned in when they could to the Last Fall. Expeditionary Anarch forces had chased down every Rathole Nihilionares had buried into their little filth bunkers. And now, the last one was due to fall in New Zealand. “Community education takes place during prime time updates. Education committee overruled the public vote.” Typical. People wanted to watch something cool and the Karens overruled it.
Jay looked livid at this information, but locked his jaw. Ma put her arm on his shoulder and then he softened a bit; then Kender moaned and caressed his collar and Jay clenched it all again even harder. What was goofy is he glared at me with visible hate in his eyes as if I was to blame for whatever bug had crawled up his ass. We used to share everything. Ma even said we had one of those sekrit langs that they talk about; but we lost it when Pa died.
They put us in the New Union Hall, one of the nicest buildings in town. It had air conditioning, noise cancellation, heat and we had more space than anyone else. We were told by Lars that due to Kender’s special needs, they knew we needed all those things. Unfortunately, the seven housing units were all full while more permanent housing was build, so they had to convert one of the classrooms into a room. It was still a gorgeous and comfortable room; Mom got a fold out bed, where I joined her. Kender got a sofa to sleep on and Jay had to sleep on a mattress placed on some chairs. Frankly, it was the nicest place we’d stayed in years. The class even had a functional kitchen and refrigerator for teachers that we could share. Unfortunately, in their benevolence, they forgot the fact that it was literally next door to the community broadcast center which meant that the locked cabinet with Last Chance’s educational Elmo Collars and Blackglass were literally right next door. And with no gubbamint, there were no guards to station outside the door for Kender. Which meant we would all need to take shifts and guard the door.
Great.
We were all tired in the morning, and community classes started at the crack of dawn, which meant we had to rise, put our things away in our personal cabinet and help arrange the chairs and tables into the class format. Ma wanted to enroll in the classes to figure out where she fit in the town and made sure we all knew where we were supposed to go. Jay and I escorted Kender to the Daycare (Adult, Infant or Otherwise) where they had instructions to keep him distracted while we continued with our ‘education.’
“Not happy,” Kender said as soon as he saw the building. He was perfectly capable of behaving if bribed enough And he was definitely up to something.
On entering the care facility, we were pleasantly surprised. It was a lovely place; specially given some of the rat holes we’d been too. They had a reception desk, which meant they’d figured out right quick letting kids and the mentally disabled elderly wander free without ID was a bad idea. The number of extinguishers on the wall told me what else we’d seen before that letting kids and the super old and folks like Kender was a fire hazard. Saw a burn mark right there on the ceiling. Still, it was gorgeous, open, with plenty to do and elderly folks interacting with the young kids was delightful.
Kender actually smiled. This was huge! He looked at some holes in the wall that had obviously been electronics or the like ones and immediately went on the hunt. We’d seen that before too. Narcists loved tech; and tried to build it into places like this but the Luds and the Wrenches wouldnt have it. I wondered idly how many people had died before they got with the program.
The woman at the reception desk smiled warmly and even hugged me and then Kender who cringed at it but put up with it. She was tall, over 6 foot and she had a large pearl necklace and a tight form fitting blouse that had obviously been meticulously mended multiple times and had a very old world feel rather than the modern locally made clothing. She even wore high heels which almost no one did anymore since the unthorities frowning on such things. The fact that she did told me this woman was dangerous.
Made sense. This was a hard job and no one wanted to do it. Best be nice to her.
“You must be Daria and this must be Kender, yes?” She took both my hands in a warm embrace, “My name is Grace Merriweather. I am sure Kender will love it here. Do you mind if I present some paperwork?” I nodded but was curious. Paperwork? Ma had always said that one of the great things since the WSF abolished laws and replaced them with Consensus was that we didn't need to paperwork anymore.
Apparently, she was wrong. Whatever. I read it and it seemed harmless. It talked about rules and expectation and asked about things like medical conditions and who to contact if there was an emergency. Looked like a more complicated version of the stuff any doctor’s office ad. It actually wasn’t that bad. I filled it all out in 30 minutes even if I had to ask what a few words were like, “Custodial, Temperament, Consensus-Validated, Remuneration, and Consanguinity.” I read it all, but the important thing was that they would take care of Kender.
Grace called Kender over to her, and he replied immediately with a smile. Very good sign, “Great, your sister has filled out all the paperwork. There is only one more thing we need you to do.”
“OK.” Kender said, nodding.
“I need you to take that wooden collar off. I am worried the others might mistake it for an Elmo collar and we don’t want negative Feng Shui affecting the other patients.”
“No.” Kender refused.
Grace looked at me. Of course she did. So much for the good start, “Kender, you have to do it.”
“No.”
“This isnt optional.”
“No.”
I just took the damn collar off before Kender could react. You had to get used to him.
Kender howled in rage and then Grace just took it from my hand and put it in a box. Kender grabbed the box from Grace’s hands with speed and strength few who didn’t know him knew he had and took out not the wooden collar but a REAL antique Elmo Collar. That could get him killed.
“KENDER! NO PLEASE!” But my warning was too late.
Kender put it on and then looked confused. It wasn’t acting like a normal collar. Suddenly a small paper bag literally covered his head. Instead of his cries, every time he spoke a small polite voice said,”This person has been marked Rude. For your social convenience, we have ensured he will not disrupt society.”
Oh. My. GOD. They still had a working Moderator. You heard about these things, horror stories from parents but to see one in action? Kender was flailing, trying to take it off while Grace crossed her arms in grim satisfaction. She’d known. Somehow she knew us and knew EXACTLY what Kender would do.
“Get it off.” I had never heard that violent tone come out of my mouth. It frightened me and clearly rattled Grace.
“You signed the paperwork. Local syndicate will back me to the hilt. Come back in 8 hours after school and you can pick him up then.”
I wanted to rage and hit her right then. But I knew what I’d signed. I never thought a Totem community would still use one of these but if they’d gotten it cleared with the local syndicate…
“I’ll be back, Kender. It will be OK.” He calmed down a little bit. The damn thing at least let him hear me. I left, but didn't want to. Ma was NOT going to like this.
