Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 51862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
“But they are not allowed to come here because…”
“They are diseased in body and mind. A single one of their city sicknesses could kill us all, and even if they were not to infect us physically, they bring the ways of their world with them. Our village has been isolated for more than fifty years. We cannot allow contact.”
She does not sound terribly convinced of her words even as she says them. I can hear the guilt in her voice and see the reluctance to support this in her eyes. She is parroting what she has been taught, though I do not think she means it.
I watch as the humans defend their territory with shouts and brandished weapons. The male folks, young and old present an exceedingly hostile front.
“Get out of here! This is a private town! No newcomers welcome!”
I go to the barricades, trying to stay out of the sight line of the newcomers. I want to see this very human interaction for myself, true human-on-human hostility.
A few hundred feet away, a group of three young males have their hands raised in expressions of surrender. Their leader calls out.
“We’ve quit the city! We want to live as you do, peacefully and simply.”
“Turn around now before we put bullets in you!”
They are clearly confused, looking at one another as if it never occurred to them that they could not simply wander into a new settlement and immediately call it home. City dwelling humans have a broken sense of space and territory in some respects. Being accustomed to sharing vast spaces with many thousands of people, it is a shock when they realize there are those who still call large tracts of land their own.
“We were told the countryside is a peaceful place.”
A round sails toward the city dweller, catching the brim of his hat and sending it spinning it off into the great blue sky.
“Go on, git! Next one’s going to be in your thick city skull!”
It occurs to me that someone here must be making those bullets. These people know how to provide for themselves and defend themselves. It makes me wonder if perhaps our alien approach to them has been wrong. We take humans as pets because our view of the human world is that the people who live here are unable to take care of themselves. These villagers are much more dangerously independent than their city brethren.
“Don’t look at us that way,” the old guy I believe is called Deek says to me, catching me looking on. “City dwellers bring city diseases. There was a village that allowed newcomers. Didn’t last a year. The original inhabitants died of colds and such, and then their houses were purchased by the newcomers, who brought the attitudes of the city with them. Didn’t know how to make nothing. Didn’t know how to grow nothing. Didn’t even know how to make water safe. That town is a burned-out husk now. The worst thing that could happen to any of us would be for one of those civilized people to somehow get past our defenses, and it wouldn’t do them any favors either.”
“Would a quarantine not solve that problem?”
Deek’s eyes harden.
“These are our ways, sky traveler. If you don’t like them, you’re welcome to get into that big spaceship we hid for ya and go on home.”
The other two men stay on guard, watching as the city dwellers depart. They have spy glasses to keep very good watch on every move they make. There’s no softening of their stance, though as the three unfortunate would-be refugees walk back into the wastes, there is a softening of the tension that suffused the town. I find myself wrapped up in the peace, part of it.
“Deek?”
“Yessir,” he says.
“Is there a reason you haven’t tried to run me out of town?”
“Sure. You’re protected by Emily. There’s not a soul here who’d cross that girl.”
I am surprised by what sounds like deference in his tone. Emily is a younger female and though she clearly has a place among the villagers, I do not understand where her authority comes from. It is obvious that she is well loved, perhaps that is the end of the matter.
I miss her, I discover. I am not entirely sure where she has wandered off to, but I can only assume she did not want to bear witness to the unfortunate city dwellers being run off.
I find her back at her home. I find her busy.
A woman is sitting at the table, while Emily works at the stove. The moment I walk in, I know I have interrupted something. There is a look of mutual horror on both their faces that tells me I do not belong here at this moment.
“Zain,” she says. “Can you give us an hour or so? Mrs Teppit needs a cure, and we need privacy.”