Reaching Utopia One Island At A Time

Little Alice walked into their library and headed for the children's corner. She was tasked to pick up a book at the end of every week on Fridays to read and participate in book review and discussion session on Thursdays with her private tutor.

She is slim and pretty and has a pet lion called Warrior. As she was going through the shelf with Warrior beside her, she saw an old book titled CHASING WILD CATS with the picture of a cat on the cover page. She opened it and began reading.

Our house is situated beneath a big mountain and although I had not sighted one, it is believed that the mountain has wild cats. Youths in the village often find themselves up there whenever there was a bush fire. They always had fun singing and laughing while chasing cats and we wanted to be part of it even though we were only small kids.

One day without our father’s permission, my little brother and I climbed up the mountain to join the youths. We walked slowly and carefully as there were many loose stones with no grass or tree roots to hold them in place. The fire burnt them all.

All of a sudden, without looking upwards and being prepared, a stone rolled down and hit my brother in his face. He fell down and bled so heavily that I cried for help.

Everyone ran down and carried him to our house. He was rushed to the hospital where he received stitches on his nose while I received beatings from my father for misleading my brother and more.

Whenever I see his scar, I always remember the wild cats chasing event and the many important lessons I learnt that day.

She looked at the cat's image, turned to Warrior and said, "Wait, it looks like you. Could it be one of your generational cousins? Like Uncle Lucas and Daddy? They look alike and they are 7th generation cousins. If so, where are your family, your cousins I mean? I don't remember seeing any of them in the Habitat. We must look for them. Come. Quickly." She said as she rushed out of the Library.

"Aunty Phiney, Aunty Phiney, look, I found one very interesting book. Can we have the discussion session now please?" she screamed as she spotted her. "Come back on Thursday. Now go to your room, wash and take Warrior to your Dad's courtyard. Your Uncle Lucas and him are taking your pet for a walk to visit your mother."

Alice's mum is a Biologist and she works in their family's habitat, which is about 10 minutes walk from their castle and another 10 minutes walk away from their farm. Aunty Phiney is Uncle Lucas' wife and Alice's private Tutor.

Alice did exactly what her Aunty told her to do and returned to her room after leaving Warrior with her dad. As she laid on her bed, she pondered on so many things she discovered from the book. "The bush fire?" she thought. "Is that the reason why we have been banned from making fires outside?" She imagined herself climbing the mountain and chasing wild cats with them. "And the cats! Where are they? Did the fires burn them too?" So many questions ran through her mind. "What about the bleeding, and the stitches?" Her little mind could not comprehend everything.

She loved History, especially the History of her country. A lot has changed seven generations ago in their country when everything got burnt by wild bush fire and her ancestors fled to that part of the tropical island and re-built their lives. The library was the only place where she goes to read to educate herself.

She loves spending time with her mum in their habitat too. It was so big it contained many animals and plants. The animals love her presence. Whenever she goes there, snakes and toads would come out and play with her, including deers! She would watch them mingle with each other and laugh at them. She could not believe that once upon a time, toads were foods for the snakes and snakes were food for the deers. Her aunty Phiney taught her about a food web in a grassland ecosystem in one of her Science classes and she learnt that lions were the Top Carnivore of that ecosystem. She gave her pet lion that name Warrior there and then.

Whenever Warrior visits the Habitat, all the animals stay silent. "The Habitat must be very noisy again that's why mum requested for Warrior to be brought over. I wonder what she is working on this time? Another antidote for taming some more animals and human beings who will be coming in next month?" She thought.

She couldn't wait to discuss her findings with her friends on the other estates on the surrounding islands. They often visit her island every month to pick up animals and human beings to bring back to their estates. It was a program created by their government to restore peace in their country by exposing people to new environments to change their mindsets to reach utopia one island at a time.

For the past 7 generations, about a thousand of islands spreading across the country have lived in peace with their environments and many have been connected by bridges. Businesses bloom like mushrooms and every year, more tourists visit their islands.

She stood up from her bed and walked to the window. It was facing the sea. She opened the sliding door and stepped onto her balcony. It was a lovely feeling to breath in fresh, cold air from the sea. She watched the busy traffic across the ocean towards the neighboring islands as the wind blew her hair back and smiled at the thought that once upon a time, those places were infested with sea pirates. Again, her little mind couldn't comprehend what sea piracy was when she first read a book titled Piracy of the Atolls. But with the help of Aunty Phiney, she understood and appreciated their lives now than in the past.

Everywhere she looked, there was peace and happiness. Problems and tragedies were a thing of the past, which she only learnt in books.