“It’s like both dying and being born in the same instant. Or traveling both ways through a sacred passageway at the same time. It is where the kindling of pure intent meets a random spark, and the answer and the question become one.”
“I see what you’re doing here. You just get me into the mode of running at the mouth, and before I know it, I’m talking so much about myself—like some lonely fucking psych patient lying on the couch—that I forget that none of this makes any fucking sense. Probably incriminating myself in ways I have no idea. I mean, you still haven’t told me what the fuck this is all about.”
“Every expert analysis is now saying the same thing. We are on the verge of an unavoidable mass die-off. Except this time it will be the human species that suffers the brunt of it.”
“We figured it was best to just stay out of the fray—avoid adding fuel to the fire. But this whole thing shows that by simply being born with darker skin, my wife and daughters don’t have the luxury of staying out of the fray. Which means I don’t have the luxury of staying out of the fray.”
He wielded his trumpet like it was a bludgeoning instrument of some sort, as Joshua suspected it would be—as far as the ear drums were concerned.
The side profile of her cheek was plumped to the point of artistic exaggeration by what could only have been a smile big enough to brighten the predawn sky in the land of his birth, about ten thousand kilometers to the west across waters and possibilities wide open.
They wasted little time in resuming their various courses where undoubtedly better usage of their diminishing life tokens awaited.
“It’s almost as if deifying even those worthy of admiration serves mostly to distract from what the cause was actually about. For this reason, the next revolution won’t be about the hydrogen molecule at the leading edge of the wave that shouts, ‘that’s right everybody follow me!’ It will be about the groundswell that caused the wave to begin with.”
“We were treated fantastically. Except for that Kar—oh, sorry Miss Karen! I mean that plastic Barbie bitch in Provo who threw soda in my face and called me a Chinese spy. Except she said a lot more than Chinese, but her adjectives were far too colorful to repeat, bless her racist soul. But other than that, we were treated like royalty. And when I say royalty, I mean like a Disney princess baby. One dear old woman even wiped my mouth for me when she was collecting my plate. And if I had even a nanometer of extra cleavage for every time someone stroked my hair without asking, I’d be Cardi fucking B by now. Needless to say, shit got weird. But compared to all the other stories floating around, I’m not complaining.”
At some point in the interminable night, the vacuum of thought began to fill, replaced with an unbearable sense of loss, connected, it seemed, to nothing at all other than its own self-generating field of emotional gravity. A pain planted within him with the same ex nihilo mysteriousness as the advent of existence itself.
To the east, the sea and the sky coalesced into a thickening haze which bore a heaviness that could only be understood by the weight of history behind it.
With Rage being mainlined into his veins by way of his earphones, Joshua ran hard into the headwind. Fast enough to dry the tears before they could make their way down his cheeks. The news of the day both a godsend and a gut-punch.
The only thing that made sense at this point was to run. To keep the blood going and the thoughts at bay. To keep the world from spinning too fast and, if he was lucky …
To keep time from slipping away.
A moment later he found himself standing at the edge of the counter as if at a Tibetan altar. Before his mind could sort things out his hands were already tearing into the meticulous fold along the staples and then setting the metallic pillbox liturgically onto the laminate surface where its holographic script instantly mesmerized him with its fleeting glimmers that flashed over each letter from left to right. Finally, as he could hear it melodiously whispering, he would have his Utopia.
He shouted his proclamation the way the male lead might pronounce his love for the romantic interest in a crowded bus station scene where he can’t quite get to her before she leaves forever because a phone call or FaceTime just wouldn’t do. Except the audience they had attracted didn’t seem particularly smitten by the exchange being aired in their midst as rom-com rules would require.
It was a gesture every Tlaxcalteca knew perfectly well. A sign they knew something far too great for their overlords to wrest away from them as they had done with every earthly thing under the sun.
“I knew it. I knew the use of symbols had to have started before the migration out of the continent. Otherwise, how would it have been common to all ancient peoples, regardless of geography.”
Then she paused, gazing down at the fossil with glistened eyes and a euphoric grin.
“What is your story, my friend? I’m dying to know. Whatever it is, it belongs to us all.”
“What is Besa?”
“It is our most sacred principle,” he explained. “Higher than any religious text or precept. It means that if someone in need comes to my door, I must give them all I have, whether it be shelter, food or drink. And if they are in danger, I must protect them with all that I am. Even giving my life in their defense. No questions asked, no judgments made. It is, in our view, the saving grace of humanity. The only way each generation can pass down a better world to the next.”
We are the Ripples in the Surge Toward Revolution
“Well, the Old Testament was certainly right about one thing, even if by accident,” said Dr. Farah, chiming in. “The crossing of the Red Sea was a foundational event in world history. Except it wasn’t Moses who was the star of this story.”
“Because it all started here, on the same ground where we stand today. Every invention, every triumph, every communion with the metaphysical, and every wrestling with the meaning of our existence. And it is only in the soil of Africa where the fullness of humankind’s story has been recorded.”
This thing drives like a dream. Now I get why all those soccer moms are all-too-happy to kill unsuspecting pedestrians and the planet alike.
And whether this was a calling exalted or sordid he did not know only that there was nothing to do but to stand woodenly off to the side behind a vacant smile as Crowfoot unwittingly did his part to maintain the unspoken order.
“Oh god, that sounds nice. And some New York abrasiveness for godssakes. What I wouldn’t do for a salty insult and an over-the-top eyeroll. I’d about kiss someone for dishing me up a scoop of sneering condescension for just standing too close or accidentally making eye contact or some other such crime against humanity.”
“But I’m mostly talking about the narcotic which is expectations. For every high there’s a crash, and over time you’re just worn down and used up. So I’m not going to traffic in them anymore. Right now, I’m in heaven. As far as tomorrow? Well, we’re dead already, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s not even real.”
But of the two it was Ms. Keshet who was saddled with the more serious scandal. Recently, she had been forced to admit that, as a college student, she and her friends had occasionally smoked weed near the rock-cut tombs along the western slope of the Mount of Olives where many revered rabbis had been interred.
“So, I guess World War Three depends on whether or not some long-dead rabbis are posthumously offended by a little cannabis wafting into their final resting chambers. Is that about right?” Joshua joked.
“As unbelievable as it sounds, that pretty much sums it up.”
“Well, if we’re lucky, it’ll come out that the hot, warmongering one got drunk and pissed on the Wailing Wall or something like that.”
“If there’s a god …”
“There’s only one law that matters, which is the dignity of every individual. Everything else is just intrigue. When you work only for your fellow citizens in mind, your own needs will be met naturally.”
“The next major breakthrough in quantum computing technology will not alter reality in any way, as some people like to speculate. Instead, it will show us reality for what it is. It will show us the surprising interconnectedness of everything.”
The woman cackled at the top of her lungs while holding onto the counter for support. Karen was fairly sure she had sent the woman into either cardiac arrest or geriatric orgasm. Either way it was oddly amusing.
He stared blankly out the window as they came to the gate, wondering if he was honoring his mother’s wish or defiling it. The bus slowed as it entered the crowd of protesters. Not surprising, there were more than normal. He didn’t even blink as the angry fists pounded the mirrored bulletproof glass mere inches from his face. Several minutes later, after the guards managed to push back the demonstrators, they passed under the oddly hypnotic metallic letters that had become a marker so routine to his life he barely noticed them anymore.
After all, just another day in Utopia.
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