The World of Hope Read online

  I nodded, but I thought and I thought, and I realized the people who were my friends were now my enemies. I can’t know what other people think.

  The questioning began, “What is your name, date of birth, and place of birth?”

  I began to shake, but was able to respond. “My name is Luis Thomas Phillips, I was born October 25, 2069, and I was born in the same town I live.” He knew I was avoiding specifics.

  “You need to be exact, so we can get accurate readings please. “Where were you born?”

  “I was born in New York, New York.”

  The doctor then remarked, “Okay so now we begin. I am going to ask you a set of five questions. Then I will ask again, and if all deem fit, we will have you escorted out of the building to be picked up for your return home.

  “First, when was the first day that you realized you weren’t on Earth?”

  I responded, “I was in school. I was going to the bathroom, and it was then I fell to the floor. It felt like a force was moving through me, like a magnet but stronger. I was shaking, and then black. I realized I wasn’t on Earth when I woke up in a Psych Ward, a place that I don’t believe that the government on this planet would ever institute that kind of facility.”

  “Why do you believe that?” he asked squinting.

  “This is the United States of America, even if it were proposed by the government, they would in no way participate.” I interjected confidently.

  The questions continued, “Second, where were you tow years ago on this day?”

  “I couldn’t be sure. I was not on this planet.”

  “Were you drugged?”

  “Yes.”

  “Third, you were not aware of where you really were.”

  “Is that a question?”

  “Fourth, do you love your family? Do you love this world?”

  “I love my family more than anyone would. I am grateful. There’s nothing shameful about that. Do I love this world? I don’t understand how to answer that.”

  “Do you love your nation? Do you trust your nation?

  “Jesus why does it even matter? Are you a Patriot?” I asked.

  The doctor became aware I was aggravated. “You aren’t being honest with me. You don’t trust this world, you don’t trust this government. The thing is Luis, we know you don’t trust anyone, not even your family, and if this is true, which it is, then there is no way we can trust you. Does this make sense?”

  “Yes,” I nodded. “You are right. I don’t trust anyone, maybe that is because this day two years ago, I was lying on the floor seizing in blackness as my pupils were bound to go beyond my irises, infecting my corneas. I was lying there shivering and drugged by a man who, hell knows where he is or what he is doing. This world did nothing to save me. It was my family it saved, it was just another person like all the other families with missing children, yet you don’t get down to what really happened here on Earth.” I talked faster and faster, it was then I stopped when he stopped writing.

  The doctor sighed. “Five, who knows where you were two years ago?”

  “You.” I replied.

  The session was over. The doctor finished writing and looked up at me, “Luis, you can go. We have what we need, just know, you are being watched. You may be smart, and you may be traumatized, but nothing amounts to what security you can put at risk now more than ever. We don’t know what you know or what you think. Just know, we are there, we are your God, we are the eye watching the sky, we are the owners of what happens to you next. You know what that means if you want to stay alive. The doctor got up and removed the restraints.

  I didn’t respond, I got up and touched the cold handle. I opened the door out into the bright sunlight. I was in The City. I left the dark, strange observation room in a rush. The doctor just sat there and didn’t even get up and close the door.

  The sun blinded me and my hands began to feel again from the numbness. The shuffling of the people was insistent. This was home.

  I walked quickly, smiling at the blue sky and the warm sun. The towers were soaring above me. I wondered where the people I used to know were now. It seemed so long ago that I was lost in the cosmos of the purple and yellow stars.

  People still banged on the drums made of plastic, they continued to sing and play the saxophone. I needed to find the subway to get back home.

  The dancing people in the streets did not replace the dogs that used to bark in the streets. Since the government commissioned all the animals for experiments and strange unknown things, the only friends’ people had were themselves and their people.

  As I rounded the corner at 31st Street, I noticed a girl in a red dress. An unfamiliar sight, in these days and times. Since the war, colors of clothing became duller, materials that used to be for luxurious brand name goods, Italian leather and cashmere. It’s all space goods and technology now.

  The cool breeze forced me to stick my hands into my pockets. The boring sensation of my ears almost delighted me, I missed the cold weather. It’s happier than the cold on KS.

  I kept walking further and further down the street, until I found an old bakery shop on the corner with an old neon sign that read, “Toodles.”

  I walked quickly, pulling one hand out of my pocket to open the door. I was embraced by the warm air and the alternative music that played. Upon entering, the main room was filled with bright colored tables, lining the windows in an L-shape. I was greeted by a short man with grey hair and circular glasses.

  “Hey there Sonny, enjoying the change of the season? Looks like you have icicles coming off your hair,” he said.

  “I am liking it! I have actually missed this winter weather! Can I sit anywhere?” I asked him.

  “That’s good, not many can say they are liking it. Please, sit. Sit anywhere you please, and I’ll get you a menu Sonny. We can make fresh anything you need,” he said nodding his head happily.

  I took a seat in the back next to the window. It was getting darker, and the grey clouds covered the sunset. The streets stayed busy. I was happy to have found Toodles.

  The old man waddled over, and laid down the menu. “Now here is what I can tell you Sonny, we have three things that are destined to warm you up tonight here at Toodles. Our favorite dish is Bon au Crable, it is pan fried eggs, bacon, toast and some roasted cheese and potato soup. It is a classic, everyone loves it. Our next dish that is sure to fill you up is our side dinner salad, including a bowl of tomato soup with beef chunks, a baguette and a side of either a cookie or potato wedges. Our third dish, I highly recommend this one, it is an apple butter sandwich with egg, bacon, cheese and tomato, with a side croissant, potato wedges, and your choice of soup. All of our meals come with a complimentary dessert of your choice. We have anything from pies, cakes, fresh baked cookies, ice cream and an endless list of pastries and warm apple slices and coffee. Now Sonny, what can I do you for?”

  I replied that I was hungry for everything, I was salivating just from hearing the menu list. “Wow, that is quite a selection. I am starving. I think I will take the third meal with the apple butter sandwich.”

  The man returned, “Do you want our warm apple sugar glaze to go over your egg? It is so delicious.”

  “Sure. Thank you,” I said dazed by how authentic and surreal the bakery was.

  I sat for a while, admiring the outside buzzing of people all across the sidewalks and streets. I looked up at the towering heights of the building and skyscrapers. Was there really anything more I wanted than to stay in the city than to go home?”

  I was convinced that it was the perfect moment to sit and recall how lucky I was to be back on Earth. It was so strange, how so many people can sleep at night knowing the horror that laid out beyond our own planet. How they could just sit there next to the fire as I do now, in some quaint bakery shop and not worry if today was really the last day to be alive.

  I wondered if my parents were concerned why I wasn’t home yet. I had to catch a
train back to my hometown.

  A girl with short brown hair in a yellow dress came by the table holding the tray of food. “Here you are,” she said smiling with her pretty red cheeks.

  “Thank you," I replied.

  She asked interested, “Why are you here all alone? It’s crazy out there, wouldn’t you want to at least be here with someone else? Friends?”

  I responded, “I don’t know. I just thought I would take a trip out here to NYC. Never thought I would be here so late though.” I lied. She looked the same age. I guessed she knew that making some conversation with me would prolong her day and perhaps be a good opportunity to make a new friend.

  She asked if I lived around here. I said, “No, I live out in Albany. I think I need to catch a train home soon. I have school tomorrow.

  “Oh gross. You live so far away. Do you mind if I sit with you awhile? I am so bored standing around with my dad, as you can tell there aren’t many people here.”

  I looked around and I noticed that there were only about three other tables filled in the main room at Toodles.

  “Sure, let me just make sure I get a quick bite.” I said and she laughed. “Of course, eat away,” she said looking out the window smiling.

  I took a bite into the warm sandwich. The sweetness of the warm apple glaze went perfectly with the egg and apple butter sandwich.

  “My name is Luis,” I said awkwardly. “Nice to meet you,” she said holding out her hand.

  “I am Sam. Short for Samantha, but no one really calls me that except for my pops. So, tell me Luis, what really brings you to New York City, let alone this quiet corner of the city?”

  I was startled by her question, how she knew that I wasn’t being completely honest. “I got into some trouble, and I had to come to the city to, I suppose, solve the problem. It wasn’t my auth though and it isn’t anything serious or to be worried about. Trust me, I am a good person,” I said smiling, trying to keep the conversation upbeat.

  Sam smiled, as if this was her first real conversation with someone my age. “Ah, see I knew there had to be some reasonable reason for coming so far by train all alone. I guess you didn’t think you’d end up here. I am glad you did though. It’s almost closing time, and my day would have had a boring end.”

  I smiled back, “I guess we all go where we need to be even if it isn’t planned. I really hate that I have to go home. I have no real friends where I am from. You’d think for a sixteen-year-old, I’d have or know at least one person in Albany.”

  “It is okay. If you are ever back in New York City, let me know. Here is my number and social media information. You can always find me here if you want to make another lone trip out here and eat at Toodles. I would love some company!”

  I felt my face turn red but managed to say, “Of course, yeah. Thanks Sam. I really appreciate it. I guess I should get going. I think the last train leave at 9:00 PM, so I should head out. Here is some money. Please tell your pops I said thank you for his kindness. It isn’t very often you find a rarity like this in the world anymore. It is so corrupt, with all of these evils happening and wars going on.”

  She shyly smiled at me, “Yeah, it is a crazy world. For one united globe, we sure do have a lot of paranoia. I think that is the problem though. If there was less paranoia and more awareness that we will be ok, the pressure would be off the world. We’d be more laid back. I will be sure to see you around. Keep in touch Luis.”

  Sam pushed in the bright blue chair. I stood up and walked over to the doors, as I walked out small sparkles of snow flittered down onto my skin. For once I was back to a place I had never been. A world within a world. The streets were silent, but filled with hope.

  3

  As I walked down the cold desolate street under the lights, I found my way back to Penn Station. I entered the ticketing hall and bough a ticket to Albany.

  I sat waiting for the train to start boarding when I had that feeling I was being watched. I knew that I was stressed, paranoid, and I had my doubts about most things, but the longer I sat, my tense feelings grew. I was startled when the bell finally went off.

  “Now boarding! Train 652 now boarding! Albany last stop!” The conductor yelled, more than once, into the halls of Penn.

  As I boarded the train, I saw that I was only one of the few that had to take the train back to Albany. It seemed strange to me that it wasn’t packed. The care I sat in was cold on this snowy night and I shivered all the way home.

  The question still remained, “Did they really stop the war?” There were no news linings. There were no ore drafts. There wasn’t a case for me to describe what it was like on KS.

  I was angry because I wasn’t given the chance to tell the citizens what I had been through. Riding the train was like a timeline. From here to there, past to present. All things connected and I still couldn’t get home without the mass paranoia that came with it. I was sixteen-years-old and I had already seen the other side of the galaxy, I had already seen things I should have never seen. I have seen thousands die and thousands enslaved by their own leader.

  It started to ripple while the train swayed back and forth, and I realized that the withdrawals started to return. I shivered and my neck ached. It was dreadful, how a cold train car could heat my body to 100 sweaty degrees because of the withdrawals. I needed to get help. No one would believe me.

  I haven’t heard anything for Anthony or Bax. Not Rose and not the General of the Dolly. My dad wouldn’t say much. He sat around all day and watched the television. My mom was as happy as she could be, trying to hold up the house by trying to please everyone around her. I was concerned. I couldn’t ever forget how we hit a low point, and how I thought we would be living as a happy family. My parents now have a drug addicted son and I have a father fails to realize how shaken my mom was when she thought he had died. We were all traumatized. I was traumatized and the train moving forward past to present all linear and connected, proved time had changed. I was a stranger to these people of Earth, to this culture. It had been so long since I had been to New York City. The city of dreams, the city of wonders. A place I called home when I was alone, a place I could now return to and see at Sam at Toodles.

  Sam was the reason I had realized how much of a stranger I was to New York City. She was the cure to my disease, she helped me realized there was so much I had missed in this world. Life, color, happiness. It was in that moment, that I had come to the fact that New York City was a world within mine. It wasn’t home or on some foreign planet with enemies, it was a city of diversity and culture untouched by the war like my home on the Army Base.

  The train continued to rock. It would stop and start, stop and start and then sound its horn. I closed my eyes and gradually fell asleep. I slept through the rest of the ride.

  “Sir, sir. The train has arrived.

  It’s 12:02AM.” Someone tapped on my shoulder. I opened my eyes, crusted from the dreams. “Oh, oh, sorry. I am awake. We are in Albany?”

  “Yes, yes sire we are,” a man in blue said.

  “Thank you.” Walking off the platform I saw my family waiting for me. In tears, my mom ran up to me.

  “Luis! We were so worried about you!” My mom said as she hugged me. My sister ran to me, as did my dad.

  “I am sorry. I just needed a day,” I lied for the second time that day.

  My mom started freaking out a bit, barely stopping to take a breath. “We didn’t know where you were, or when we would find you. We tried to call you, but you didn’t pick up. We heard there was a nearby train, and thought we could wait for the last train, we were so worried Luis!”

  My dad was equally concerned but sternly said, “you can’t just go off like that Luis. Just because you’ve been through something serious doesn’t mean you can act like your all grown up and go off by yourself, especially without telling one of us.”

  After my mom calmed down she told me not to worry, we can all go places. I am not sure what she me
ant by that but we all walked back to the old yellow Volkswagen. I hopped in, but there seemed to be something mustier about it. Something seemed dead inside, maybe the car was dead. Or my family was.

  While I was sure they panicked when they lost me the first time, I am sure they wouldn’t have done the same disappearing that day. I was led to wonder, why didn’t the government tell them they were going to take me? Wouldn’t they have seen the MP’s storm through the house?

  Things were so unclear and I didn’t know whether to trust them or myself. I knew I could trust people like Sam. She was so happy, unlike the rest. The rest seemed so desolate and dim, where are their happy faces?

  KS taught me one thing; feel free to express yourself and your emotions no matter the situation. No one on Earth was being told when to smile and when not to, but there seemed to be less happiness on Earth than on KS when I was abducted.

  The car bumped over the air debris, hovering over the ground we zoomed home. I looked out the foggy window, I wrote the word Home on the cold surface with my finger. A figment humanity considered to have purpose. Home, something eternal, used universally through galaxies. Home, something that on another planet might be portrayed as a mountain or a shape, but on planet Earth, H-O-M-E.

  Was this place home? That was the ultimate question I continually asked myself.

  We pulled up to our small brown house. I got out and looked up at the sky, with streaks of bright neon green and yellow blasts. If the are wasn’t going on, what was?

  I ran off to my room and turned on the television. The we reporter talked about the latest World Record Breaker, “Future Cyclist, cycles for eight days straight!” I was impressed, we humans had managed to do deadly things, whatever these things may do to our body. Like cashiering, what a repetitive sore activity. That task had injured so many before the world of automation.