Land of the Free

A young girl Ester goes leaves her home to live her life in the city and study from a master creator. A description of what I think life would be like if there would have never been government.

Esther sat on her red and white horse, leaving her family farm. Twelve years old, the rest of her family, her three brothers and six sisters, had stayed on the farm. Well so far they had, who knew what they would do. She had told her parents a few days previous that she had made up her mind, she was going to leave and live in Gathen, the second city nearest them. The city where one of the great Creators lived, Aanon. The Creator of electricity. She would study under him, with his guidance if he so choose and if he did not then nothing could stop her from just watching him without his instruction and then again nothing would stop him from killing her.

Her bleeding had begun a month previously, she was considered a woman by her family's standards and many others. There were tears, enough tears to water the corn fields for a month, but they did not stop her. They told her she would be missed, that she was loved and always welcome home. They sent her off with food and water, magnets that a Creator might like to play with, and a few other odd items for trade.

Esther with her dark brown skin and black hair, knotted from a few days without brushing. Big brown eyes and large nose. She was of average height and the horse, she felt, made her look more beautiful. The horse worn trail was full of other humans traveling where they may from wherever they may come from.

She passed a boy who looked like he was an Eskimo and uncomfortable in the new heat, another a Mexican who was weary from the long travel. No great entity stopped them from traveling as they wished, taking as they wished giving as they wished. It was their freedom to go where they wanted and deal with what consequences may come on their own.

As the city came into view rot of animals and humans filled her nose.  The grass and trees gave way to buildings and more bushes and small flowers. A passing truck carried the bodies, they were going to be sold to the farmers. Esther smiled as she thought of her own family back home buying the bodies grinding them up for mulch. She wondered why the families here did not do that, it was considered by most a proper burial. She didn’t give it to much more thought as she soon found the answer, the gardens in the city were small. Tinier than she had ever imagined. When Jacob, her art master, told her they were small she had thought these people only had an acre. True on the outer edge of the city most had about an acre, but as she continued inward the land got smaller and smaller.

After the cart pulling the deceased rumbled out of sight the air didn’t smell so foul. She saw the drainage pipes for the cities water system. Indoor plumbing. The thought alone made her giggle, she wondered what it would feel like to pee on the metal seats and to shower indoors not bath in a tub of water. The technology wasn’t new to the world, it was quite old actually, but Esther had never been to the city, where that technology was common, to her it was all new.

Large high rise poles shot into the air, over forty feet. These were the electric light her past Creator Master Gabe had told her about, through electricity, they made light without fire. She gazed at these for a second before being yelled at by the rider behind her. “I’m moving.” She yelled in her own language but also signed in case they were not of the same tongue.

She was better than most with her signs having come from a farm and by her standards, which were the only ones that mattered, was ready for the city life. Tying her horse tightly to one of the poles she cautiously entered a bar.

Women and men dressed in revealing clothing that spun up and showed private part when they turned away from the table too quickly bustled about being flirted with by men and women. Getting a piece of meat, some dye, pairs of pants, whatever the two participants had agreed to in return for a kiss, a wink, a dance, a tug into another room to return to their table maybe twenty minutes later. No man, woman or child stood up to protest, it was their right if they disagreed so terribly they would have left the bar already.

Esther sat down at a table and a man came over. “Whatcha want?” He signed and spoke.

Esther did not know what language he spoke. Something from a southern island that much was clear. “Do you have vegetable soup?” She signed back.

“Yea, you want some of that? Maybe something more?” He winked at her jokingly and flashed her. Walking away laughing harder at Esthers blush.

Esther scolded herself, she knew what to expect yet still her cheeks burned. He turned a while later with the soup. “What do you want for this?” She asked him.

The cook wanted some potatoes and he wanted a left shoe. “I’ll give you three potatoes but a shoe is too much for a bowl of soup.”

He picked it up, “I’m only feeding you, something you need to live.”

“I could just as easily make something myself.” She signed firmly trying her best to show determination in her face. “I will give you a piece of leather.” She took it out to show it to him. “Take it or leave it.”

He sighed and set down the bowl of soup and took the potatoes and leather. Smiling proud of herself she triumphantly ate her soup. Looking out, most looked just like her; brown skin with long black hair. Most alone some with significant other.

Behind her someone was yelling, each in the same tongue. Even though they both spoke the same language they continued to sign out of habit. Clearly the fight was about the male waiter who had taken the flirting a little too far on this mans lover. “I refuse to trade you, you cannot talk to her like that.”

“Woah man, calm down. I wasn’t trying anything, I’m committed to another.”

“Yea sure you are buddy.” The customer took a step to him.

Another waiter pushed him back. “Calm down, he is my lover. Trust me he has no interest in your partner. Or he better not if he makes love to a man like that and likes girls I’d be worried.” He let out a chuckle hoping to break the tension.

The customer sat back down and paid for his meal. Even if he hadn’t sat down and a fight had ensued no one would have broken about no one would have broken it up until they quit or one died. There were no police that would have broken it up, no state official to punish the offenders. It was their right to fight so if they wanted to fight they would. Murder, there was no punishment beyond that of the family or any member that decided to exact revenge on the person he thought had done it. Though it was hard because crime solving were under developed and overall not many cared. There were more important things to worry about.

Esther waved over the waiter, he was still mildly shaken up by the attack but he seemed as though he was used to this sort of thing. “Do you know where Aanon is?” His last name was not needed, he knew who she was talking about, anyone would have.

He gave her simple instructions, they weren’t far from here. He lived less than a mile away. Next she asked for a room that she would be allowed to stay in and in return she would tend to the bars garden. The trade was made, nothing holding one another to it other than trust. No contract but what contract is stronger than a promise and a shake of a hand?

After a hearty thank you for the meal and room Esther left the bar and with relief found that her horse was still there. She rode down the a few miles past the shops and apartments to a single story house. The garden took up the entire back yard but still it was small, puny compared to those Esther was used to seeing. She tied up her horse once more and pushed the door open. Inside was were gears and a soft erie buzzing that never stopped. It was bright with dirty windows, various cogs and screws scattered around various tables.

Esther called out, a middle aged man stepped out of the kitchen with a sandwich. “Yes?”

“Hi, I’m Esther.” She was glad to see that they spoke in the same tongue but she still signed out of habit. “I would like you to teach me how to create things.”

“I’m sorry, but I am not a good teacher.”

“Please, all you have to do it tell me what you’re doing, the names of things.”

There was a deep sigh, “I suppose.” He was tired his eyes showed it. His hair already gray, deep lines carved on his face. His hunch, gained from years of leaning over a work bench, made him just shorter than six feet tall and made him seem like he was going to topple over at any moment.

Overjoyed Esther got right to work following him around and watching his thin nimble fingers work and place cogs and wires and screws into different places.

Night approached and Esther went home. Stopping only on the way home to listen to the Storyteller. Life continued on like that, in the morning she would tend the garden then she would go to Aanons house around noon and learn from him. Coming back when night crept in and stopping to listen to the Storyteller tell his stories. Paying in vegetables usually, sometimes in cloth.

There were no parents to force children to go to school, they learned what they wanted because they wanted to learn. Most did not employ a master, others did. Some days Esther would not go to Aanon, some days she paid for lessons from the Storyteller whose name was Drake.

She soon ran out of provisions, and on top of tending the bars garden for a room she began to work as a maid cleaning up after meals and others who stayed in the bar.

She became friends with the waiter who she had seen get into a fight that first day, friends with other tenants, the cooks and other people outside the bar as well. Her horse was stolen and she wept because she didn’t have anything to trade for another. But she moved on earning money and paying for food and lessons.

“Come on.” Aanon said to her one day, shouldering a bag.

“Let me help.” She grabbed the other two bags that he was heading for. “Where are we going?”

“Well I have to live you know. I’m going to go sell my creations.”

Esther kicked herself mentally for being stupid. “Of course.” Aanon was not a big talked and Esther didn’t mind that. She enjoyed looking around the city, it seemed that nothing ever got old. The odd shaped buildings most build from the ground up, some added to as the years went on.

“Here is a good spot.” He stopped in an area close to the Storyteller Drake. Many other vendors were set up around the same area shouting items they were trading for and items they needed. Signing all the while for those who could not understand. Aanon and Esther spread out a blanket and their trinkets.

“Is it hard to sell toys?” She asked after a while and no one had stopped to trade for their wares. Some paused to look at the wind up toys and be amused by their bobbing and awkward movements.

“Not to children.” He chuckled, “It’s the parents that get in the way. Parents with long lists of vegetables and other items they need.”

“You’re right. I never had to wait this long for someone to trade with me.” She continued to sign her advertisement with her master. An hour passed and only three trades were made. She moaned, “How do you manage to live?!”

He chuckled, “That’s why I have a garden.”

“It’s not very big.”

“Neither is this.” He held up a metal clockwork dancer who would bend her knees and spin as she stood up. “And you’re not that big.” A woman stopped and traded three heads of lettuce for it the little dancing toy.

“I think you need some fruit.”

He laughed, “Let me know when you see some.”

Another hour passed and Esther had given up, shouting just loud enough to be considered a shout laying on her back staring up at the clouds. A dark face got in the way, loose dreadlocks looking like vines coming from his big dark brown eyes. “Drake.” She grinned.

“Hey there.” He helped her sit up, being careful not to knock the wooden deep drums against her. “I’ve got a job for you. There won’t be trade for it but I could use your help.”

“Ok. What do you want me to do?”

Laughing with Aanon, “You had better check your master before I take you.”

She looked at the old man with big eyes and a pouty face. “Please?”He nodded and waved them away. Continuing his advertisements. She let out a cheer and followed Drake back to his station where there was a long, skinny guitar whose neck was almost as long as her torso. The body of the instrument looked like her head. “What do you need?”

“Put it on. We’re going to play, Stars in the Day.”

“Are you sure? I just learned that and I have had time for practice lately.”

“If you get lost just go with it, you’ll figure it out.” He started to play the beginning on the drum. Taking a breath she began to strum and move her fingers as quickly as she could. Stars in the Day was a very fast upbeat song. “Oh by the way you’re singing too.”

She laughed, “But you said I stunk?”

“I lied!”

“I knew it!” She took a breath and started the first verse. Swaying next to her master their voices rose in a sweet harmony. A song she had sung a million times by the fire with her family back at home next to the fire on cold nights when they had to move to avoid frostbite.

Children quickly gathered and jumped and twisted. Young lovers next ending whatever they were currently engaged with to sway their hips, pull each other close and dance. Soon the majority of people who had gone to the area with hopes of trade forgot it, tossed worry to the wind and danced. Setting their spirits free.

No worry of looking a fool or breaking precious social norms for there were none. They sang along and danced and clapped to the beat, some better than others. Esther laughed as Drake moved into a solo, she motioned with her head to a middle aged woman. Olive skin with short brown hair, pudgy with a smile wider than her face. She was completely off beat and appeared to be more flailing than dancing, free from any inhibitions people danced with her and spun her around.

The song came to an end but the singing did not, other storytellers had picked up on the feel and were carrying it on. Aanon smiled by her side, “I am going home child.” His hands as full as they were when he came. “You may stay I am going to eat dinner and go to sleep.”

Esther hesitated she wanted badly to stay and sing with Drake but she couldn’t stay. “Ok.” She grabbed some of his bags gently and followed him. “So did you get anything else?”

“Yes, I managed to get some pork.” He grinned greedily, pork was his favorite. “Would you like to join me for dinner.”

The sun was past its highest point in the sky but it was not quite dinner time. “No thank you, I am going to go back to the bar and work there for a little while.”

Days turned into months and soon her life in the city wasn’t so new. It felt right for her to be there. She was tending the garden one morning wondering what her family would have been doing at that time, probably the same. They were always working on the farm. A scream from inside. Esther rushed in with her trowel prepared to scare another drunk man away from wrecking the bar or one of her friends. The same waiter who was always getting into trouble, was once again having his life threaten. Tommy was his name, Esther had gotten to know him, his male partner and female partner very well. They were good people, but Tommy had a knack for saying the wrong thing at the right time.

Once again his male love, Kohanu, was trying to calm the situation with his female love, Sarah, trying to make Tommy melt into the background. “Hey, he didn’t mean anything by that. He was just being clever. He’s sorry.”

The man yelled something that was either in another language or was slurring so badly that his words were hardly words at all. The drunken man pulled a knife and launched himself at Kohanu. Kohanu moved stepped to the left avoiding the fatal blow but taking a nasty gash to his arm, but the drunken man continued moving downward having tripped over Kohanu’s foot. Esther watched unblinking as the blade pushed through his neck, the unknown attacker wriggled a little then stopped. Dead.

the two other people that were in the bar left. No one said anything for a while. “Esther, take Kohanu to the hospital. Tommy call the Dead Carts.” Esther didn’t stay to listen for more. She tugged on Kohanu’s good arm and led him outside.

Esther had seen dead people before, her family bought them for mulch all the time. It was nothing new, but it was the first time that she seen someone die. She shook her head and tried not to think about it. “Are you OK?” She asked.

“Yes, it’s not too deep, it just needs a bandage.”

She nodded and kept quiet as they passed. “Why does Tommy always get into trouble?”

“He doesn’t think before he speaks.” He sighed, “But I guess that’s why I love him. He’s never learned to control it.”

“My sister is like that, she always says the first thing that comes to mind. How long have you three been coupled?”

“Ten years. Tommy loves us both so much. I didn’t love Sara at first, I was very jealous of her because she could give him children at first. Sara hated me at first because I could protect him and she could not.”

“What about now?”

“Hm? Oh now I love Sara as much as Tommy.” He chuckled with a brief glance at his arm, “Sometimes more.”

“I hope I find a person to love like that someday.”

“Some people never find it, some find it many times. I’m very lucky to have found it twice.”

They entered the hospital. There were ten other people sitting waiting their turn. Clean as a the first snow of winter and smelled like a sharp cheese. It was probably coming out of the pay box, no one could monitor what patients left as trade for their care. Some did not leave anything. The doctors dressed in varied clothing, all clean as the building around them, rushed doing their lifes work. Healing others for the sake of not being able to see others in pain.

“Come.” A doctor motioned. She took one look at the cut and nodded. Slathering some gel onto the scar Kohanu winced. She gave him a careful look, “It will feel numb soon.” He nodded at soon it did. She bandaged it and sent him off. Walking out of the room she saw those with black bumps, red pocks and sunken skin being held in special contained room. treated by doctors in special clothing. They were likely to live, they knew how to treat the diseases. Although the medicine was advanced, the doctors worried about the now, and did not prevent the people from ever contracting the sickness, they worried about healing the sick once it was too late.

The next day Esther did not go anywhere, she stayed in her room and slept. Unable to face the cruel deadly world outside. Soon she found that she no longer wanted to sleep because of the nightmares. When she did get around to seeing her masters they tried to cheer her up, Drake sang happy songs about life but she only wanted to sing about sadness. Aanon taught her how to make new little clockwork toys and told her funny stories from when he was a young man. They comforted her the best that they could, telling her about the first time they ad seen death. But she was still sad.

One morning she woke up and looked out the window the sun rising, just before she was going to tend the garden. The sun rose and she was no longer sad over the murder. A truck rumbled past with the bodies of men, women, children and animals.Death was part of life, and no amount of sulking could change that. She could kill people, should could heal people, she could tell stories or create things. She could do nothing at all. She could go back home, move to another city, see the world or stay right there. But that was her choice and no one elses. The drunken man choose to drink and to attack her friend, she couldn’t be sad over his choices. No police would punish Kohanu for murder nor the man for being drunk nor Esther herself if she decided to kill someone. However she decided that she didn’t like murder and if she could help it she would try not to do it. But she would not be able to stomach healing people. No government would tell her that she should go back home or ask her questions on why she would travel. No matter what she did the consequences were between her and the person she harmed not an entity bigger than her. Not that she even knew what that was, no government, no god had ever existed for her or anyone before her.The idea was lost to her and her people, not something that could even be imagined in the wildest of dreams. The Human race simply lacked the will to lead and follow one another, coming together because it seemed logical and better for them in the long term leaving when it was logical. Esther was born into a world with the ultimate blessing. Freedom.

Author's Note

Do you think the end was rushed? Do you think that it sounds too utopian-y? Or is it a little too dark? What do you think our world would be like if we did not have the gene that makes us want to lead other and control the rest of the human race? Tear it apart it is a draft :)

Reviews

[Dreamer]

7th line, 1st paragraph- consider changing '..and then again' to '...but then again'. Small yes, but it adds to the sudden dawning of this unpleasant realization that the man would not think twice to kill her. Pay close attention to dialect of your dialog because you want to remain consistent and true to the characters, unless you are making use of code switching to prove a point. I don't like to talk about description details because every writer is different but I advice just reading over and making sure all sentences flow smoothly and the reader doesn't have to re-read a line too often. That being said, you are so talented. The creativity of this piece blows my mind. The characters are original, your description is on point, the plot is beyond anything I would have thought of. I honestly think this is top quality but it could be even better after you make minor edits. In fact, I think this could be a book. I enjoyed it.. truly impressed.

[Imara]

Thank you so much, I'm glad to see that someone makes as detailed reviews as I do. Your notes are taken to heart. I'm glad that you liked it so much. Yes some of the language is hard because some of the concepts that we think of today as simple, like marriage, doesn't exist in that world because there is no church and no force or any kind. Thank you so much for your review, its really humbling that you think my work is that good.

[Acucena G.]

You are good on what you do , its always a pleasure to review you writings , just keep it up.

[Imara]

Aw thank you ^u^

[Acucena G.]

you are welcome

[A. H. Pinley]

I'm trying to figure out the place in time this occurs. Nice write!

[Imara]

This is a "what if" story so it doesn't really happen anywhere or anytime. I tried to place it in a neutral setting. I suppose if I really had to say it would be somewhere in the midwest only a century or a decade behind our current year. No one in the story is really keeping track. I'm glad you you liked it and that you're thinking this hard about it :)