Valari finds love

Valari finds Love

As is common with kinder parents Mother Nature struggled to strike her children or put them out without aid. However every force has a limit. Humanity did not go unwarned from their self driving cars to the plastic hovels in which most humans now lived.

That the entirety of humanity was not forced to flee into space as some of the elite had done was proof that Mother Nature continued to pull her punches even as the sea swallowed cities of millions. Or when the sky drowned the farms of the world. The former masters of the world had let nature run its course from the safety of a massive space station. Most went on to Mars but many could not let go of their terrestrial attachments. They built on earth a system of dynasties founded on holding the keys to what technology remained. The commoners who held on had little choice but to subjugate themselves once again to Corporate masters so they might have water to drink and air to breathe. Dirt farming had become the literal profession for most communities removed from the coasts. The degradation of the topsoil required the most manual of repairs. Fields of mud required daily tending for years in order to produce the soil necessary to grow actual crops. An activity reserved for the clean.

On coasts without beaches the ocean returned humanity to itself. Plastic made up most of what came from the sea but from time to time rusty metal. Coming in all different forms the plastic was readily put to use to make shelter. The elite live on nuclear powered cruise ships controlling the world through puppets and carrier pigeons. However they still needed the soil and staff population.

Valari was born to a traveling tribe of workers whose primary occupation was transporting goods between communities. By the time Valari was 16 she had only stayed in one place for longer than a season on three occasions. It was out of sheer lack of alternatives that she continued moving the pedals with her legs to keep the caravan moving. Having traveled from the wasted lands of hot rocks to the frigid swamps and large port communities she felt that the stable path of the familiar was better than tilling dirt or gathering plastic and running from tidal waves. Besides, her caravan was under contract which meant a secure line of desalinated water and a steady flow of thick grey nutrient broth. While it was no security from the tornados or the bandits it was more security than most workers had.

They had been driving towards the sun for days when Valari finally got a chance to sleep. Life on earth was hard for all living things these days but some species had to take some bizarre moves to stay around. Valari’s jaw hurt more than her jellified legs from chewing on pine cactus. Across the hot rock wastes grow stalky green cacti who produce pine cone like bulbs. The amphetamine released from chewing on the dried cones could keep one up and away from hunger for hours. Being the youngest mature person Valari had the best vision of those old enough to steer the caravan. She only had to do this when the moon was covered or the dust too thick. It had been days of these conditions. While she slept she was connected to a feeding tube by a port in her navel. A young wheel fixer called Daniel used a bilge pump to drive a thick brown mucus from a bucket into her stomach.

Awaking refreshed but still sore she looked around and found only darkness and the smell of her sweat. She peeled back the patchwork blanket sewn from scraps of cloth and the softest, most worn pieces of the extruded waste revealing her pale frame clad only in a stained camisole and newspaper thin boxers. Getting off the slab of plastic which served as her bed in the rear of the cab she put on black leather pants and vest before putting her purple hair up in a ponytail tied with uncolored plastic string. Beyond the cab the rest of her tribe had set up a camp of tents molded from plastic. The sun was low on the horizon and Valari enjoyed listening to Old Smoking Man tell of the world which was lost. Her favorites were the tales about the parties. Valari had only heard music once in her life and she thought about it often. The song was about a blue man living in a blue world inside and out. So to hear that music was once everywhere delighted her. Her world could be exciting for sure but fun was a stranger to her. Old Smoking Man told her fun was like being entertained with more intensity. Which gave her some understanding but no real knowledge. Old Smoking Man stood with his back to the sun and passed his joint to her. She puffed on it but he could tell she did not enjoy it.

“Sorry Vee. Good stuff has been hard to come by. All I could get at our last stop was backy powder and slug resin.” Old Smoking Man said to her as she passed the smoking tube back to him. Soon more caravans began building camps around them. These caravan conventions were a necessary part of life. You add unnecessary weight on the road and what merchants won't take, other traders will. By the next dawn a small plastic city had been put up. Children ran free and the haggard eldery lounged naked nursing cocktails and broth. Valari craved a pleasant smoke now because she was starting to feel the effects of the stimulating backy powder. Returning to her stash at the caravan she grabs her smoking pouch and the few items she could stand to trade for some smoke. Besides the makeshift plastic shelters this fresh city was also made up of wagons, buggies and carts. As Valari traversed the maze of little buildings she heard the universal sound of haggling but the specifics of most deals were obscured by her ignorance of goods. It was not until she neared the outermost carts did she find a group of smokers. They were sitting on boxes surrounding a strange contraption that had tubes coming from the ornate piece that topped the plastic cylinder. When they took the hoses from their mouths they let loose long jets of smoke. The auroma practically put Valari into a trance. The smoke smelled sweet and vibrant like the frozen roses in the snow marsh. Only it was not the scent of any flower or incense she had crossed before. One of the smokers was a red haired woman who looked at Valari and asked if she needed anything.

“Just looking for something decent to smoke.” Valari replied. The woman stood up and told Valari to smoke in her place while she got what they might trade.

Inhaling from the tube deeply Valari found that the smell was only an enticing precursor to smoking it. A dark haired man and a blonde boy made up the rest of the smoking circle and they spoke of life on the road. Valari asked,” Where are you headed?”

“The bridge to nowhere. Word is the sea is starting to give some land back and in the west it has returned to a city complete with a big bridge like in the stories.”

“No way!” Valari objected.

“Maybe not but either way it’s a destination and that's how we survive. We might not have anything else but we will always have a destination.” The blonde boy interjected. Though it was clear he was quite young, his voice had a hardened tone. When the woman returned they did not immediately talk business. She returned with a handled black box with a rusted metal framing and opened it in her lap. From this box she gave everyone a perfectly rolled cigarette. They even had filters inside the mouthpiece which was nice. They smoked and spoke into the night and by the end it was decided that Valari would go with them to this “bridge to nowhere.” once the convention dispersed. Their broth was less thick than her own but contained more chunks. Valari kept her culinary commentary to herself instead listening to the woman called “Andrea” talk about how they had passed through cannibal territory back east. In response Valari recounted the time bandits raided the caravan and she took a man's life. They responded by pretending to fear her.

When she returned to her caravan’s camp to collect the remainder of her things and admit to moving on, she had no idea how her native tribe would react. Life on the road had not made them a very sentimental people. Always running from a terrible force into the unknown. They had a custom for this which happened from time to time. People come in and out like freight in the caravan of life. If it doesn’t stop you, why let it slow you. Valari told them and they embraced her. Each member of the tribe embraced her one after the other. There was nothing spoken during each embrace. From then on everyone in the tribe was reverent towards Valari, a few bringing her gifts and some offering kind words.

Life on the road with this new group was different. They sang songs and played games. Darren the dark haired man played small drums. The covered wagon they drove only needed one person on the pedals to keep it going. They took turns and slept at night.

It was because they did not ride through the night that it took nearly eight days to reach the coast. Once the dreary grey-brown horizon turned to the orange shimmering sea they turned south for another day.

Valari had never felt such surprise before she saw the big stone buildings. And the great green bridge that extended into a dense field of clouds so it looks as if the bridge went nowhere. When they began exploring the ruinous buildings they did so in a tight group as there were many other groups of scavengers. In one room Valari found a metal box sealed shut by rust. With some force of her own she broke the box open. Inside she found a necklace with a strange pendant that looked like a misshapen sphere that folded open in her hands as she played with it. It mystified her so she asked her new comrades if they knew what it was.

Andrea looked at it and said, "This stuff is seriously old. This is a heart shaped locket. Lovers wore them and kept pictures of one another in them.”

It was not that Valari was displeased by the answer, just mystified.

“What’s a lover?” Valari finally asked and was relieved that Andrea was still the only one with answers, lest she appear dumb.

“Love is this old thing people used to believe in. They thought it was some magical force that could help them do anything.”

Valari didn’t know these words either. “Believe in magic?” she questioned. But before they could continue the building began to moan and rock. It came down behind them as they hurried toward the exit and a gust of dust and debris hurled them out. It took several minutes but they were all okay aside from minor bruises. Valari asked Andrea,” What does it mean to believe? What is love or magic?”

“Don’t worry about it, like I said it's super old stuff. All that matters is the here and now.”