The Ravens

A Story by Kritika

The world is finally free of money. Everyone is living equally. But what is it about this one particular boy that makes him look so rich? Will she figure it all out? Will she save the world?

The end
“The Ravens were the highest earning group of people. They constituted about 99.9% of the world’s economy by the year 2300. Subsequently rich became richer and poor became poorer. Today what we have is unique and impeccable. Our ancestors had worked hard to catalyze a change. The world is free of money. Earning respect and love has replaced earning money. We don’t have to pay for anything rather we get it for free. But of course we work, we work for what we believe in.” Mrs. Collins gazes at the textbook vigilantly as if she were looking at the night sky; the perfect blend of the dull sky with purple tendrils drilling into a shadow of dark blue and the stone shaped diamonds as if guardedly assembled on them. She closes the book. She is curling her hair and letting it go repeatedly. The noise of the clock startles her, she jumps off her chair gracefully and steps on the floor without even a thud, then she moves around a bit walking and sometimes dancing through the breeze.
The classroom is not so fancy with its white walls expanding into a large room, the pale floors match perfectly with low rise ceiling. The room has an air conditioner which makes an annoying but familiar sound of sea breeze floating through the dirt of the grounds. Chairs have been fitted with a little gap between them, the clumsy arrangement makes it rather amusing to look at. The white expanse of fulfillment fills the room. The straight alignment of the chairs and the desks gives way to the narrow room called the Notice room. The blackboard is old and has been dilapidated due to the continuous storms coming our way. The walls have cracks on them as if the roots of a tree sowed deep inside the pale broken floors are trying to let loose. I step away from my place which is filled with doodles and has been eyed by many people. The room is filled with rampant chattering and blabbering, the noise has seemed to intermingle with the walls of the room.
Mrs. Collins has seemed to take notice of the vociferous surrounding and begins to go back to her chair. She stamps her feet loudly and gracelessly as if a tiger inside a kitten has been let loose. She untwists her hair, the blond lock of hair perfectly harmonizes with her olive skin, her hair is tied up into a messy bun which lets out a lot of free strands brushing through her skin and coloring them. She is rather tall when she stands up. She coughs out some of her nervousness and lets the air absorb her fear. She then claps her hands suppressing the rebellion going between the people. She looks at us directly against her crooked wooden rim glasses painted with black strips, her eyes don’t bulge out rather they stay in their places and their intensity gets amplified. She clears her throat and begins to speak in an indistinguishable voice, “Children please gather around me. I have something really important to tell you.” She smirks while looking blankly but strongly at every one of us, “The day has come..” Everyone looks at each other and fear gushes inside of us. There is no escape we have to choose now. The Toil Day has come and it has been waiting fervently for our homecoming.

THE FIRST DAY
I go into a large building completely made of bulletproof glass, the floors have been covered with carpets for the convenience of the people, the doors are automated, several types of trees linger from the corners giving a unique smell to the building, the bright light blue lights when echo on the glass floor manifest a staggering surrounding. The building from the inside is huge, with walls separating areas, the entrance room is big and has several chairs aligned against the wall, and the accountant is sitting parallel to the door. I walk the long distance and reach the accountant and register myself. Just beside her is the glass elevator which moves in a really long glass tube. I press the button and wait for it to open. I press floor number 34, after a rush I reach the designated room.+
The bedlam hangs uninterrupted by my arrival. No one even detects my entrance. This is conceivably the most confounding thing about our community, you don’t get impeded by others.+
A thud awakens everyone’s minds and they become quiet as the night sky. Footsteps approach us, someone with their perfectly polished black shoes; black blue suit with the tie hanging from his collar; hair pressed against his face gelled and combed revealing his best features, walks into the room. He is of our age, everyone lets out a sigh. But he looks so different from us, he looks so..+
“rich!” he says and I think exactly, you look rich. “my name is rich and I will be joining you guys.” He walks around everyone and paces towards my direction, my heart climbs to my throat, I am stuck; can’t speak and cant listen. He stands beside me and clears his throat, richly. “hi I am..” he begins to say but I complete his sentence. “yeah I know you are rich.” He looks at me awkwardly and lifts his right eyebrow, his face is a question mark and soon I realise that I have to introduce myself too. “ me? Chase!”+
People are gawking at him with their wistful eyes, they are scanning every inch of his seamlessly devised body, some are casing their mouths with their hands while chattering, others don’t even bother to show some courtesy. Everyone’s murmuring and rattling stops once the professor enters.+
He is one of those people who will give anything to give somebody undying pain. He, crouching on his back, holding a metal stick which might even be a sword, penetrating into our soul with his pensive eyes, lets out a loud sigh.+
“stop ranting, you dumb.” He screams, trying to fish out some papers, he lowers his glasses to his nose. “So today’s class is going to be about you people understanding the meaning of a moderator.” He doesn’t even take a breather and continues with his monotonous tone. “A moderator is a person who checks the condition of the moneyless society. That person regulates the making of products, distribution, and promotion. He/she even checks the compliance with the laws. So only 2 of you will get to be the moderator, others will just have to stay where they are.” He passes some books to us. Everyone starts scrutinizing the hardcover book, struggling to make sense of the words.+
Ours is a moneyless society. The whole world is rebuilt on this idea. ‘no money no problem’. We produce products on our own, there is no export or import duty, no barter system or any currency, no division, no borders, no religion only unity. Some people might think that this idea is not rational but I have to say that this world has been active for 135 years and it is still going on.+
The room is surrounded by people, all of them laughing, glaring or simply standing, but still, i feel this hole in my heart, as if it needs to be refilled, but with what? Am I alone or just not with everyone? The difference is hard to tell. I try to peek at what Rich has been doing. He seems to be distinct, staring away from everyone, falsifying their hopes of being his friend. Rather than mingling with others, he strides towards me in an orderly walk, huh. With every step that he takes, my heart skips a beat. He slides his hand through his silky hair as if he is aware of his distinctness.+
“Hey!” He blurts out, without blinking just like a robot. “Hey!” I look away from him taking a crack at ignoring him. “So did you understand anything in the book? I mean it is so difficult. Why did I even choose this field?” he groans with a satisfying smile ranging over his face. I adjust my glasses, oh yeah I wear ‘em. “ I don’t know. I can’t really explain it to you right now, there is no time left. The class is almost over.” He starts right off where I ended. “so come over!”+
“I would rather not!” I say while striving to take a step away from him. I am not intimidated by the closeness but by the thought of being explored by some other human.+
“Oh please! Don’t be such a hard a*s.!” He takes a small step towards my direction nullifying my movement, he fixes his hair charismatically.+
“Hmm. Maybe!” I finally say this to him. He slips a note into my book, and this is probably the first of many times that I noticed how awfully divine his hands are. My eyes start to stray from the path and I begin to skim through his entire body. He doesn’t mind rather he returns the gaze. I take my eyes off of him and get out of the door.

KINDLING
Scrawled on the chunk of the carefully cut sheet is his address.+
R-1290, Ginger Road, Street 23.+
There is some eerie vibe coming from the address. As far as I know, there are only 22 streets in our community. I slur over the likelihood of being in grave danger. I take a bus ride to the 22nd street. Stepping out of the bus, I finally see where our community ends. The intense fear of being groped by a stranger and held captive had never even lingered in my brain. I walk past the shallow streets, dim street lights letting out a teeny bit of sparks. The road opens into an arbitrary wide spaced spot that is full of loading trucks and carts, all of them lined immaculately against the faded faces of the cemented walls. The spot is more of a parking spot which has a door amidst the assortment of the trucks. I stagger horrendously towards the black, metal fenced, daunting door. I press my finger on the button, pushing as hard as possible as if it were my only escape into a mindless dream.+
The door opens with a shudder, I take a step in and my eyes set on the beauty of this extravagant exaggerated place. The street lights shine as if they have taken it upon themselves to enlighten the whole area, they blink with red, blue and green lights. The glimmering, for the first time, doesn’t hurt my eyes. Instead, I feel afloat of all my responsibilities. I just want to sink into this luminosity. Tall buildings cover most part of the area, banner hanging from them show pieces of jewelry with prices marked for each of them, everything looks so priceless yet ironically costly. People, with purses, ornaments shining as bright as the sun, ornate clothes and shoes, stroll around the place. A dark figure transpires into the area and approaches me. My heart aches as dread pulls its strings to the fullest. I feel someone’s cold but soft hands touch my skin, I shake off the hand. A voice heats the parts of my eardrums and it takes a lot of time for me to process it. “Hey!” He says whilst shaking me vigorously. “Who the..? What? How? Why?” I retort.+
“What has happened to you? Why are you trembling? Do you need my jacket?” He asks ad infinitum, with his eyes set on my face, frowned tensely but still able to light up his face. Rich holds my hands, crossing my fingers over his, making sure that I feel the poignant warmth of his palm, he smoothly strokes my fingers letting me know that he is there for me.+
+
We reach his really big mansion, unlike my house, it is 4 storied black coloured building. But opening the artificially secured metal door, my eyes open wide as they try to cover as much as possible in one blink. A staircase runs through the middle of the baronial living room, carpeted floors serve as comforts to his dog, a large television is fitted across the hall along with all the red furred sofa. He points on the stairs indicating that his room is upstairs. I still can’t digest this much extravagance. I look up and see a massive chandelier hanging and illuminating the whole room. I climb upstairs and a labyrinth of rooms appears. The palatial walls with pictures of people bathing in money are situated everywhere, the red carpets run through the middle of the path that has rooms situated on both of its sides. We reach a darkened place. The feverish vibes set me off.+
He opens his en-suite bedroom, which is perfectly cleaned. The bed is situated in the middle, posters of various people that I don’t know of are hanging from the walls, clothes are hung perfectly in the closet that has a glass door making everything crystal clear. He hops on his bed and throws his keys in the basketball hoop hanging from the wall. I close the door carefully not to disturb the place and its things.+
“OK! This is bull. Why the hell did you bring me here? It is not like I belong here! I haven’t…I mean how could you do this when people are living equally, trying to preserve the peace of the entire community. How can you be rich? ” I speak relentlessly trying to maintain my posture and not cry out my anger. “I have contained this long enough. I didn’t say anything en route ‘cause I didn’t want to make a scene.”+
“I thought you would understand. We are not doing anything wrong you know. We are just trading..doing business..maintaining the economy of the society!”+
“So you mean by making use of money, you are shitting me? We fought unremittingly for years to get rid of you and you are saying that you are helping the economy. I knew you were different but I thought I would give it a try, you just ruined it. I am sorry but I have to go!” I look away, my heart skips many beats, my whole body aches from the act of betrayal, I push back my tears and make my way to the door.+
“you are not going to rat us out, are you?” he utters those words dauntlessly.+
“no…no!” I leave the room immediately. I won’t rat him out, it is none of my business. I cry as I am walking which stultifies my vision. I just take random turns in this crazy loop searching for a way out of this whole mess, wanting to go back to my place and just stare blankly at the ceiling. As I am passing through the unsystematic rooms I hear murmurs of people talking something about the economy.+
“we have to do something about the reduction in the production of goods. The raven community cannot handle this loss, people have needs for god’s sake.” The man speaks indistinctively.+
“don’t worry. I have already spoken to Rich about this. He has agreed to the terms and conditions. He has already started working on the plan by bringing the pawn to the house today. She is the daughter of the head moderator, if we use her then we might be able to get what we want.” The woman exclaims with happiness.+
+
My father, the head moderator? Now I understand him staying late, missing my birthdays or even not seeing me for many days.+
I run fervently, pausing occasionally to maintain my balance. I enter his room.+
“how could you do this to me? me your pawn? I mean..” I don’t try to control the waterfall of teardrops, they just flow until my eyes have dried out and full of anger. I purse my lips, even biting it to stay calm to not scream at this act of betrayal.+
“I just want you to help me take control of the community. Please help me.” He speaks, at last, kicking off his legs and standing up, he approaches me, places his hands on my arms to show his certainty. I laugh it all out hysterically.+
“Uh-huh!” I am not even listening to his nonsensical words right now.

FRIENDS
I run, panting heavily, not even stopping for a brief second because I know that if I stop now the world might end soon. It will. My instincts guide me leading me to Ryan’s house.+
I knock the door edgily. I can hear myself breathing heavily. The door opens and I see Ryan and Savannah standing together hand in hand. I recover myself and become hollow of feelings. “hey! I need to show you something! Come on!” I push them forward and shut the door.+
We are running like we used to, they are still holding hands, it kind of pricks my heart but whatever. We reach the lobby with trucks and carts, but I don’t see any door. he has hidden it. I sprint towards the invisible door and try to unravel it but nothing opens.+
“it was here, the door that led to the rich world. Ravens are still alive.” I enunciate the words but with their puzzled expression I can make out that they don’t understand and most probably they don’t believe me. they come near me, pat me and hug me. “you will be fine, just take some rest. We will see you tomorrow!” they speak in unison. I decipher that there is no point in making them see my point anymore, they will not help me. so I walk away.+
The dark roads have never bothered me but at this moment, their not trusting me punctures a hole in my already broken heart. I jog for the rest of the path.

THE EXECUTION
I wake up gasping for air. I search for my glasses and put them on. I look at the clock, it 6:34 AM, its already too late. I have to be in the building by 7 AM. I do all of the boring chores, get down, eat my breakfast, greet my parents and get out of the house.+
In about 20 minutes I could either be saving the world or letting it rot. I impatiently stand in front of the glass elevator waiting for it to take me to my room, have my big reveal. It’s almost taking forever. I can see the reflection of Rich through the glass, I try to act normal. He smiles at me and kisses me on the cheek. It runs down a chill through my spine, I can barely stand right now. I ignore the act of affection and get in the elevator. Even if it is made for 25 people, he is standing right next to me. for every second that we are touching, I want to forgive me and kiss him, but I resist the temptation. Remember, Chase, he is bad.+
We enter the room together; everyone is already there, even the professor. He looks with his scary demeanour at me. I just look away. I go over to him and ask him, “can we go on a trip professor? It will help us to understand the ways of the community!” he just shakes his head. I have failed, obviously!+
Rich comes from behind me and speaks to him in his alluring accent. “Sir it would be an amazing experience for the students. They will understand the ways of the community!” he just repeated me, what a jerk! Professor is not going to allow him. the professor nods his head. I mean, are you kidding me?+
“so rich would like to take you guys on a tour. Go on!” he just says those words like he doesn’t even care if we die or get eaten alive by maggots. Everyone follows him out of the class, but I stay still. I don’t want to be associated with the likes of his. He halts the crew and comes over to me, “are you coming? I am just helping you. You can be mad at me all you want. But let’s just save the world right now?” I nod my head accordingly. He hoists my hand to his face and asks me to forgive him. I drop my hands and lead the line by myself. After a long walk in an orderly line, we reach the lobby. The door is still missing, I look at rich and he is already heading towards the space to enter some password. The area clears up, he pushes the button and the door opens and so do my hope. Everyone walks into the rich world, they all heave a loud sigh. Everyone is asking the same question, how?+
The Ravens look around themselves for the first time and notice the invasion. They all seem tensed as if their big secret has been revealed. Rich takes a stand and speaks, “I know what all of you are thinking! This is all happening. This is the rich world, the Ravens still exist. And for the most part of your life, you have been oblivious to the fact that they use you as their workers. You make the products for them, you are their slaves. There is no such thing as the moneyless society. All of this has been a hoax. Well, there used to be one, but they were overpowered by these hungry animals.” Soon a lot of people have gathered around the once empty lobby.+
I can see my friends and my parents. My parents come over to me, hug me really tight. “are you hurt? How come you found out about this?” my father asks, embracing me with his wide hands for the first time in many years. “Dad! I understand now! why you always came late, why you missed my birthdays, why you did all this, you were trying to save us from those ravens.” I confess my realization, still holding onto to him! My dad leaves us and then takes over the overwhelming crowd. He speaks his heart out, “Hello everyone. I know this is really unexpected. Believe me when I say that we have tried our level best to keep them away from our community but they have always seemed to find a way out. Some of the higher officials allowed the Ravens to use us. They declared half of our products as unsatisfactory, that led to the disturbance in the maintenance of this society. They have tried to make the division ever greater but we stopped them. They certainly had a next step but Rich here helped us identify it before it was too late. Thank you rich! Now let’s go and get our justice from these blood-suckers!”Everybody seems to listen to him, they follow his lead and they raid the Ravens. They raid them out of their houses, wealth and most of all power.+
It’s all about justice. Rich is still standing there talking to those two people who were thinking about killing him. a while later, some of the people have finally comprehended that rich was after all the mastermind of the incursion by the Ravens. This awareness spreads like an epidemic, everyone is approaching rich for wanting to beat him down. He doesn’t flinch, he stays put and handles blows and kicks, he has turned all red but he doesn’t give up. He is stilling looking at me. I know I shouldn’t go there and interfere in their rage war but my heart gets the better of my mind. I run towards him even if he is a small distance away from me. he is about to fall down but I grab him, “it is going to be okay! I am here now!” I whisper in his ears. He tries to smile with his bruised lips. Everyone is cursing at me, looking furiously in my direction, if it weren’t for my dad, well I would have been dead by now. I take him one of the trucks, we vault on the trunk of the trucks.+
“I am sorry that I tried to use you. I know what I did was wrong but you have to believe me when I say that I love you!”He ogles at me with his lustrous, sea blue eyes which are speaking directly to my soul. I lean on his shoulder, he doesn’t back down with pain. He reciprocates my feelings and just stares at me, scanning every inch of my body. He doesn’t let me go. “I love you too!” in that moment, he presses his lips against mine and all our sorrows and dilemmas about the future saturates into the hollow white surface forming in the sky, the light blue tendrils of the afternoon sky have twisted into fragments of orange and red surfaces, indicating the setting of the sun.