“Lets get out of here. You , me, Alice, Jane, and Ruby like old times.”
“Sandra, what are you talking about? We are in lockdown.”
Laughing “When has that ever stopped us before? But if it would make you happy we can tell Ora that we want to take the boat and spend some time at sea.”
“That sounds like a great idea. Maybe some sunlight and the open ocean will do me good.”
“Great, I’ll make the arrangements and we can get packing.”
I love Sandra, she always has the best ideas. She can get me out of any depression I find myself in. How could I be so fortunate to have such a good friend?
There is a message on my communicator watch telling me that Ora wants to see me. The little device works off the underground wifi net and allows us to make local calls, send messages, and report broken equipment all conveniently located on the wrist. Sandra couldn’t have had time to talk to her so something must be wrong. Maybe something I set up before I last left broke down and she wants me to fix it. Heading to her rooms I follow the strong scent of jasmine heavy in the warm air. Ora always loved jasmine but she only started planting lots of it on living walls when I told her that the plant has antidepressant properties. She covered the living walls with jasmine and laughed saying she loved making people happy. The pots are all very small as jasmine only blooms when the roots are tightly potbound. Then these beautiful white flowers form in large quantities dripping from the walls. Talk about making a simple corridor beautiful. The bees are always so busy finding all the fresh flowers and making such lovely honey. We keep the colonies confined with a small metal strip that doesn’t allow a queen to escape so we don’t end up with random nests turning up in air vents and such. That would be a pretty bad disaster since some of us are allergic to bee stings but without the possibility of an africanized bee infestation we are just fine. This place is so beautiful and so much planning had to go in to make it a success that it would break my heart if I were ever to lose it. I know so many who feel the same.
Ora wants to be as close to her people as possible so she has a no front door policy. There is no door on her rooms this way anyone who wishes to can see her unimpeded. White columns covered with passion fruit vines surround the reflecting pool where fish are also grown. Blending beauty and utility she models how we should live our lives surrounded by life and light. Something is really bugging me about the lights though. There is so much more electricity in use right now than could have been possible given the sustainable means in place before I left. The poor gerbil in the turbine must be losing his damn mind by now or something else is going on.
“Wise one you summoned me.” I say upon seeing her tending one of her plants.
“Yes Sari, come with me we must talk.” We walk into a curtained doorway and sit at a small wooden table with a beautiful floral patterned ceramic tea set. I move forward and pour the tea offering her the first cup politely waiting to drink till after she has had the first drink. The tea is lemon balm one of my favorites, she must be buttering me up for something.
“I need your help with something.” She says setting down the cup. “There is a slight problem with the nuclear reactor.”
Confused I ask “What nuclear reactor?”
“The one I had built while you were gone. Solar and wind power could never keep up with our demands without drawing significant attention to us here. Geothermal requires way too much equipment and releases too many toxins into the environment to be seriously considered as usable. Not to mention how fast that kind of equipment degrades all the time. We are too far inland to use tidal. Hydroelectric would harm the native fish in that stream neerbye. We had to go nuclear. We didn’t really have another choice it was either go nuclear or go noticed, and we both know what would happen if the outside world suddenly took an interest in us. They would come and tear the entire colony apart and scatter the children to the wind.”
“I can’t believe what I am hearing. Yes nuclear power plants can be very safe but how could she make such a decision without talking to me? I thought I was in the inner circle and was privileged to all such information. I guess I can’t be too hurt. I was gone for over two years. “Where did you get the fissionable material?”
“From smoke detectors. You said once before that they all contain a small amount of radioactive material. The trick was to get enough of them without arousing suspicion. We went to different hardware stores and purchased four or five at a time till we had enough. It took months and had to be spread out over lots of states so it didn’t seem like there was a sudden run on smoke detectors.”
“We don’t have a nuclear physicist on hand or did you acquire one of those too?”
“Sari, don’t be upset. You weren’t here for me to tell you these things. I couldn’t just send it to you in an email as that kind of stuff is all heavily monitored by the NSA. And no we don’t have one but a few of us did read up on the topic before we dove right in.”
“So what is the problem? What is it that you want me to do?”
“I don’t want you to do anything. I want to pick your brain a bit. The stuff in the reactor is breaking down too quickly. We need another source of nuclear material. Where else can we get it.”
“What about the radioactive rocks in the desert that uranium is extracted from?”
“There are rocks sitting on the earth’s surface that contain uranium and we can just walk up to them and pick them up?”
“Yes but it isn’t pure and you have to refine it before it would be any good in the reactor.”
“Thank you, that is what I wanted to know. You may go.”
“Yes wise one.” I respond reflexively rising and moving to leave. Pausing I turn and look at her. “You shouldn’t hide things like this because we are what we pretend to be so we must be careful what we pretend to be.” Leaving her I am overwhelmed by how much things have changed since I was here last and the secrets that are being kept. I thought we all agreed not to keep secrets like that. What else is Ora hiding these days?
Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berries
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand.
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.
I walk around thinking about what Ora has done while I was gone and hoping that the same love and light I learned to expect from this place is still here and that nothing has been truly perverted by her decisions.
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