Lovers of Babel (10 page)

“What’s this?” I asked the
guide.

“This is an animal collar that you will need soon.”

“But I don’t have a pet,” I said doubtfully.

“I know child. Soon you will.”

“But where will I get one? At a pet store?”

“There is
no need for pet stores when you have this,” she pointed at my forehead. “You will see soon. For now, I just want you to explore your new home, ok?”

I nodded still skeptical about the pet thing.

“Well Mr. and Mrs. Riley what do you think? Are these suitable living conditions for your daughter?” She asked.

“Absolutely!
When I was her age I lived Underground where the only view from my window was a giant dome made from inside the earth!” he said laughing.

My mother agreed with a smile.

“Splendid!” The fair lady exclaimed. “Now, to the cafeteria and classrooms. Ah, before I forget. The students are assigned their chamber mates by a slightly random process. For the elementary students we like to group creators, transformers and teleporters together in an attempt to enhance their knowledge of powers. We find it helpful that the children grow up understanding how different powers work. Once they get into high school we focus more on the student’s specific power grade.”

We proceeded down the stairs and explored the rest of the school. Under the second story was the cafeteria. There were about fifteen large round tables with plates and utensils all prepped for the next meal. The headmasters’ table was at the center of the room adorned with chairs lined with gold.
Above our heads was another sky scene. This time the sky was blue and there was the sun with rays that filled the room. It was the first time I had seen a blue sky and a sun. The sky that sheltered our world was usually dark purple during the day and the clouds were never white and fluffy. I remember being told by a teacher when I was 10 years old that the sky ceased to be blue and white because the ash and fire from the apocalypse scarred it for life. The cafeteria was the only place in the new world where an Equinoxian could see the sky as it should really be.

The fair woman looked up serenely.

“I’ll never get used to seeing it like this. Our sky is beautiful, yes, but there’s nothing like a pure blue sky lighted by the sun,” she sighed and looked at my parents who were looking up with mouths agape.

“This is the cafeteria of course. All of our meals are organically processed using the most authentic chemicals money can buy. We make anything from buffalo burgers to salmon using pure taste extract manufactured by the best faux food chefs in the new world.”

My parents nodded in approval.

A cook approached us with a silver tray topped with what looked like shrimp wrapped in bacon. The lady stuck one with a toothpick.

“Here, try one,” she handed one to me then to my parents.

“Yummy!
I can’t even taste the chemicals! This actually tastes like bacon,” my mother enthusiastically said.

My mom always loved to cook, but
she used to cook using real meats and vegetables. That was before the food shortage. There weren’t that many animals left after the apocalypse and those that were left were hunted for food before they could be used to reproduce. Some had been exposed to incredible amounts of radiation.

The geneticists tried cloning the healthy ones, but the cloned animals proved too toxic to digest. Eventually, the authorities mandated that all food and vegetables must be produced using elements from the earth and vegetation that had not been destroyed. They also made it illegal for creators to create food using their powers.

This rule was one that most people found it hard to understand. It seemed harmless to create food if need be. If anything, creators could’ve been responsible for fixing the food shortage forever. We would never go hungry. But I began to realize as I got older that all of the rules regarding the use of our powers were put in place to control us. As I grew older I suspected more and more that this rule was meant to keep us at the mercy of the Authorities. To beat starvation, you could imagine the concoctions the food processors came up with.

The catch was that the poorer the family was the more risky their food choices became. The food that was the cheapest to buy was used with less earth manna and more chemicals that proved toxic to the human body over time. The fact that at five I was eating top notch cuisine was a big deal to my parents and even my mom had a sigh of relief.

After touring the dining hall we trekked outside the glass doors onto a large lawn area.

“This is our pavilion. The kids enjoy recess during the day here. The grass is kept in tip-top shape by our groundskeeper who happens to be a natural,” she said with one hand covering her mouth.

Naturals were like a faux pas to the power society. Almost like eating dinner with your hands or talking aloud in public. But I guess they were good enough to use as the help. Even at five years old this gesture of superiority didn’t escape me. Eventually, I would see that belittling those smaller than you happened within the super human community as well.

The lawn was e
xpansive and was the center of the entire school grounds. Every building circled it forming a horseshoe. When we were finished walking across to the studies building it was getting to be night. We entered the glass building and it looked much more futuristic than the vintage woodgrain interior of the dormitories. In the studies building there were glass bridges stretching out above our heads connecting one side of the building to the other. It looked to be twenty stories high and as I looked up there were teachers walking every which way from one side to the other. The elevators were also glass and the inside of the building sounded hollow.

“This is the lobby and the classes are all up there. The class room locations are separated between elementary, middle, and high school levels, but the library is a communal place for everyone to use if they so choose,” the woman explained.

We walked further away from the glass lobby and over to a room filled with books. I immediately knew what this was. The bookshelves were as tall as the building and were so high that I nearly broke my neck trying to look. There were glass platforms on each corner of the shelves that you could step on that elevated and moved from left to right. There were about 150 shelves in all. I could tell that the library was an important part of the school with all the intricacy that was put into designing it. There were tables all throughout the library in the center and in between shelves. They had transparent glass tabletops that were made with a computer inside. Students and teachers could manipulate the screen with just a touch of their fingers. This was the highest technological feature the school had to offer.

The
Equinoxians looked at technology as an inferior means of communicating. Since the power shift happened, the technology of the new world was, quite literally, inside the people.

My people rationalized their contempt for technology by saying:
What was the purpose of using the intranet when you could simply teleport to a place and find the information there? It made no sense to use a hologram, because creators could make anything appear in an instant. The 4D opera was unnecessary, because the greatest actors of our world were all transformers. The naturals were the only people who could never benefit from all of this, but since they were mostly elderly anyway, the rest of us super humans couldn’t have cared less.

At the end of our tour of the school my parents and I were convinced that this was the best thing for me. The school had everything a kid could dream of.

Saying goodbye to my parents was bitter sweet. My mother kissed me on my cheek and told me to notify her if I needed anything at all. She gave our tour guide all of her contact information in case of an emergency. The woman already knew our information, but acquiesced to writing it down for sympathy’s sake. My father gently pulled my mother away from me and told me to be good and stay out of trouble. I would see my parents on holidays and short vacations to New Washington, but despite my young age I was never homesick. I thrived in my new home.

This was the beginning of my
life as a creator.

On the first day of classes the students entered their assigned classrooms and sat in old-fashioned wooden desks. My chamber mates and I went to class together and sat next to each other. We were immediate friends. In our group there was Mia the raven-haired transformer, Zoe a green-eyed
teleporter, and me, with my dark, curly hair and freckles. I was fond of all these girls, but I was particularly fond of Mia who once crawled through soot and mud to find my heart necklace that my mother gave to me as a keepsake. I had lost it on a field trip one day. She spent hours searching for it.

The first day of class was a pivotal moment in our lives. The elementary teachers wanted to test our abilities right away so as to determine our level of skil
l in our particular power grade. We each had a test to complete based on our individual powers. The transformers were each required to stand in front of the class and transform into their favorite animal. The class erupted in chatter among the students. This was the first time that most of the students had ever used their powers. We were still so young. One by one each transformer was called up to display their transformation to the class. There were kids changing into half-man half-dogs.  Some kids could only grow wings. The room would break into laughter at each failed attempt. Then it was Mia’s turn. She stood up from her creaky desk and slowly walked over to the front of the room. She turned to face the class.

“Um, my favorite animal is the polar bear,” she said fidgeting with her fingers.

The class was waiting patiently for her transformation. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence she finally started transforming. Her raven head morphed into a huge polar bear head and the class gasped. Then her arms and legs transformed. In a matter of minutes Mia had transformed her whole body into a polar bear three times her size. Some students clapped apprehensively and others were too afraid to move. The bear looked around the room then stood up on its hind legs and roared. This made everyone freeze. Mrs. Mertle, our mousey teacher, immediately walked over to the bear and told Mia to transform back into herself. Then as soon as she said it, Mia’s head appeared, followed by her arms and legs. The entire class was in awe and Mrs. Mertle patted her on the head for a job well done. I gave Mia a proud high-five when she returned to her seat.

I
t was time for the creators to be tested next. Our test involved animals too, but it was a slightly different challenge. Before classes began, Mrs. Mertle sent out a letter to all elementary creators to bring their animal collars to class. I still wasn’t sure why I needed it, but I brought it with me as requested. When we received our testing instructions I remembered what the tour guide said to me:
There is no need for pet stores when you have this
, and she pointed to my head.

Mrs.
Mertle approached the podium and placed her polished fingers over the front.

“Creators,
your challenge is to make your favorite pet using only your imaginations. Your task will be slightly more involved than the transformers because your pet will live with you all throughout your first year. You will need to train it so that it becomes a tamed animal. Once we reach the year’s end we will determine your pet’s progress and grade you accordingly. Now, the first one to present is Sage Riley,” Mrs. Mertle said.

I perked up from my seat and hesitated a bit. Mrs.
Mertle gestured for me to come. I practically tip-toed to the front of the room and it dawned on me that I had only used my power one time when we were touring New California for my father’s meetings with various city officials. I was three at the time and my parents and I had just gotten out of the limo. We had begun to walk on the sidewalk toward the next meeting place when a man behind us started yelling obscenities at my father. He was calling him a fraud and saying that he cares nothing about the citizens’ lives. He said he was power hungry and got to the top through covert means. We continued to walk but increased our pace trying our best to ignore the man, but he kept following us. Suddenly, the man lunged at my father and I remember feeling afraid of what he might do. My father didn’t hire any guards to protect us that day, because there was no reason to fear an attack. My mother pulled me away from the struggling man and tried her best to pry the man’s arms off from around my father’s neck. The man retaliated by slapping my mother to the ground with brute force while his other arm still strangled my father. This man was a beast and I was helpless to defeat it. Panic set in inside my little brain and I searched my mind on what to do. The terror became too much and I closed my eyes.

Suddenly, I heard the man recoil and wince in pain. I open
ed my eyes to see the man being hung from his neck by a chain suspended in midair. My parents were able to call the Authorities to send him to prison. I hadn’t used my powers ever since.

As I stood in front of the classroom all eyes were on me and I knew I had to do well. I searched my imagination for an animal that I liked and remembered one that always fascinated me.

“My favorite animal is the chameleon,” I declare to the class.

The students were looking at each other confused
.