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A Perfect World
Copyright © 2005-2007 by Aster Rose - All rights reserved		 

A Perfect World
by Aster Rose
People a thousand years ago would have loved to live in the future. If they stayed for a day, they would be completely content with their own time. 3000 is messed up. Everything is done by machine. The only jobs you can get are making and running machines. But the worst part is that everyone is alike. Boys are all named Jack and have brown hair and brown eyes. Girls are all named Sara and are blonde with blue eyes. Our only identification is a number. I am Sara 25433982.
Children who hated school in 2000, had different reasons than why they would hate school now. They hated teachers because of their personality, or the tone of voice they used, or how many detentions they’d given you. Teachers today are machines. Their voices are dull and flat. They never look different, you can’t hug them, and you can’t try to be the teacher’s pet. It’s horrible. Back in 2530 the world was in chaos. There were millions of suicides each year, and most people were slaves to drugs and alcohol. That’s when scientists invented perfect humans. They genetically altered everyone on Earth to look exactly alike. Since Americans invented perfect humans, they made everyone Caucasian. No African Americans, Chinese, Indians, Latinos. Diversity is something of the past. Even our brains function similarly. Except me. I guess I’m a mutation or something. Nobody but me seems to challenge the sameness.
They tell us that the sameness is good because when our brains function in a similar manner there is no disagreement so there are no wars. The other times were bad they say. There were wars and disagreements. No one was happy. It’s not true. This world is bad too. Everything is dull. Nothing or no one ever changes. Sure we grow, but it seems like we are all one and the same. There is only one mind, not many. They are all puppets. Lifeless puppets. The only reason they are happy is because their brains function that way. Once when I was little I questioned the sameness. I was put in detention for two weeks. They are scared. They are scared because they don’t know what it’s like to be different. The sameness is a comfortable shelter and they don’t wish to venture out of it. One day I’ll venture out of it. One day I’ll get out of here.
My chance came very soon. In school we were going to go on a “field trip.” Now mind you, this isn’t your 2000 field trip. You are guided by voices who tell you the whole history of blah and blah artifact. Nothing is hands on. And sometime the guiding voice always has to tell you why you don’t want to live in that time. It is more boring than boring. This field trip was to the Super Space Station. I don’t even know why we have it. Scientists are so busy making everyone the same that they haven’t done anything space related for 200 years. But our astronomical technology is still advanced. We’ve invented cryogenic preservation and a shot that enables you to breathe every kind of air permanently.
I sat on the automatic bus. I was scared. I was about to attempt…no, carry out what I’d only dreamed of. The bus jerked to stop. We all filed out of the bus and into the space station.
“Hello children, I will be your guide today,” blared a speaker when we walked in.
“Please walk towards the door on the right and remember don’t TOUCH ANYTHING!”
“Looks like I’m going to disobey for once,” I thought. First there was the space shuttle parts, then the control room, blahddy, blahddy, blah. Finally I saw it. EXPERIMENTS read the plaque on the door. The guide didn’t point it out to us. I lingered at the back of the group then slipped into the room. The first room was filled with computers and that’s all. I tip-toed into the next room. It was filled with bodies. Several bodies were lying on shelves in cases. Cryogenic preservation experiments. I wondered if the people would ever be thawed out or they’d stay like this forever. In the next room I found what I wanted. Shots that let you permanently breathe every kind of air on any planet and well….I guess you would call them rocket boosters. Basically they allowed you to self-launch yourself into space. I injected the shot into my arm and fastened the rocket boosters to my back as well as a space suit I found in the next room. I then raided a boxfull of savings in a drawer and stuffed them in the space suit. I tip-toed out of the room and peered into the hallway. It was empty. I skidded down the hall in my new suit and made a run for the nearest door. I made it. I stood in the launching yard and pressed the button that activated the boosters. “10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0!!” I muttered under my breath. And I was off. I watched the world get small as I went up, up, up. I saw people give me strange looks as they stared in wonder at the sky. Up, up, up. Higher, higher. The world was small now and I was high above the clouds. Up, up, up…and I blasted through the atmosphere. “Whoa!” I thought.
That’s when I looked around. I was in a vast plain of dark emptiness. Stars were dotted here and there like cactuses in a desert. “Whoa!” I thought again. Now to find another world. They said that there were no other worlds. There were no such things as aliens. Yeah, right. I had my own theories. What were black holes for? They just sucked you up and you were gone. Why couldn’t black holes be entrances to other worlds? It made sense. Besides the way a black hole works is very similar to bolt-holes. Then there was the super-black hole in the middle of the milky way. My belief was that it was the entrance to another universe altogether. So, I needed to somehow get myself to the super black hole. This might take a while. Or not. I just remembered the rocket boosters had another use. Fast transportation. I fumbled around with the controls for the rocket boosters until I found the one labeled Spd. Actv. ( Speed Activator). I pressed the button. I was hurled through the air at top speed. After traveling for awhile I felt a pulling towards an unknown source. It became steadily stronger . Before I knew it I was being pulled at top speed into a massive hole blacker than black itself. I was sucked into the hole. I felt myself being flattened than inflate again. I was like being run over by a steam roller. And then it was alright.
I was floating in a mirror image of our universe. Except for the fact that there were black holes every where. “Weird,” I thought. I floated over to one. There was no force coming from it. I cautiously stuck my finger in the hole. I was sucked in. I landed on a hill. In the distance I could see a city. I activated my rocket boosters and got to the city in no time. Asian people were walking around the streets. Some were dressed in regular clothes like that of America but others wore traditional robes and kimonos. I realized that I was still in my space suit. I walked into the nearest clothes store and managed to buy some a blouse and skirt by using hand motions. I gave the man at the counter my American money. He frowned at it then nodded. He pushed the coins to the side of the counter. I assumed he would exchange them at the airport. After changing and stuffing my space suit into a bag I realized I should find out the date. I picked up a Japanese newspaper from a stand on the sidewalk. It was all in Japanese characters. I couldn’t understand it at all. As some people walked by I heard one of them say Hiroshima. So this was Hiroshima. Something tugged at the back of my mind. There was something about Hiroshima…what was it? “Hmmm,” I thought, “ just in case, why don’t I go back to the hills.”
I attached the rocket boosters to my back and flew to the hills. I settled myself beside the portal. I heard a buzzing noise over my head. I looked up. Several planes flew over my head. They flew until they were little black dots over Hiroshima. Maybe I could take a nap .. I thought dreamily. “KAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!” A mushroom cloud erupted from Hiroshima. Now I remembered. The bomb. It was 1945. World War II. I had to get out of here. I stepped into the portal.
I was back in the other universe again. I shivered. I never wanted to live in that world. I walked up to the next hole and stepped in. This place was completely different from 1945. It was green for one thing. No office buildings. No roads, no cars. No sign of civilization at all.. I leaned back onto the grass. Paradise. No robots, no sameness. This, not there, was perfection. I sighed. I had found my destination at last. A roar erupted from the forest on my left side. I scrambled to my feet. A cow burst through the trees.
“What the…” I murmured. The cow roared again. I saw razor teeth glinting in the sun protruding from the cows mouth. Uh-oh. It stomped towards me. It had spines down its back and a dragon tail. It walked like a tyrannosaurus rex but was still a cow spots and all. After studying the dino-cow I realized that I was in immediate danger. The dino-cow roared again. It stomped forward heading for me. “Looks like I’m lunch,” I thought. I cringed waiting for the razor teeth to sink into my neck. Waiting for the pain to come. It never did. There were a shouts and a low groan that seemed to echo off every where.
“Oaaaaoaaahhhhooaaaaooooo!!!!” Came the groan.
“Oaaoaahooaaaaaooooo!!” Came the echo. Then silence. Dead silence. A strong arm picked me up and carried me away. I could not see my rescuers face. Only the blue perfect sky. Perfect sky. Perfect sky…
I awoke bewildered and unsure of where I was. For a moment I thought I was still dreaming. And then I remembered. I looked around. There was a cave. In the middle was a fire burning on dry twigs. I raised my eyes. The rescuers were human. But a different kind of human. Not quite fully evolved. Their hair, men and women alike was straggly and tangled. Their clothes ragged and badly made. They looked like something out of one of my schoolbooks. I shuddered. They stared at me to disbelieving. I was still in the Japanese clothes I had bought in Hiroshima. To them I must have been an odd sight wearing a blue blouse and a skirt. Finally an older man spoke. Excuse me grunted. He made gestures toward me and frowned several times. The others listened intently. Then he stopped and folded his arms across his chest as if to say “I rest my case.” A young woman spoke this time. She smiled as she did it. She too pointed to me but it was a friendly gesture. After she finished the old man snorted. He pointed to her and held his arms as if he was holding a baby. The woman frowned at him but the others around the circle nodded in agreement with the old man. A wrinkled old woman stood. She made gestures to the young woman and made several signs with her fingers. Everyone in the circle looked startled. The woman frowned at them. The others rose, turned to me and smiled weakly.
The young woman beamed and walked over to me. I noticed something I hadn’t seen before. The people had fins behind their ears. I pointed to the fins and shrugged. The woman pointed to some pictures on the cave wall. There was lots of water and fish people. There was another picture of the sun sucking up all the water and the fish people drying up. I nodded. The woman smiled again. I found myself wondering if the people had names. I turned to the woman and said
"Name?” The woman frowned at me.
“Name,” I repeated. The woman opened her ,mouth and struggled to pronounce the word.
“Na-nae-nam-naem----Name!” she said happily. “Name, name, name, name, name,” she said.
The other woman came over and said, “Name?” The whole circle gathered around me and said “Name?” They didn’t understand. They didn’t have names even though I needed them to so I could stop using stereotypes like old man young woman. I sighed. I would have to name them myself. I pointed to the old woman.
“Name, Elizabeth,” I said sternly.
“Liaeth,” said the old woman.
“E-li-za-beth,” I said.
“ Elizabeth,” said the woman. I named everyone 18 people in all. And after that favor they accepted me.
I don’t know how long I stayed there. It could have been years. I learned to hunt to gather to draw on the cave walls. I learned there odd language. This I thought is paradise. Simplicity. I didn’t even think of leaving. I practically forgot I had ever been anything but this. One day when I was poking around the ashes from the fire I found a scrap from my old blouse. I frowned at it. I wondered what it was. Then I remembered. Hiroshima. Mushroom cloud. Robots. Perfect Humans. Same. I shuddered at the thought of these things. I was never leaving here never! It will just turn out the same way said my mind. I can change it. You won’t be around forever to stop all the bad things in the world. You can’t live that long. There are ways… Besides these people still have a long way to go. Even if you could live that long you couldn’t stop everything. You can’t be in a million places at once. You can’t stop killing. But these people need help. Help? They are doing just fine. Leave them alone to evolve in peace. I sighed. I had to go. This wasn’t a perfect world after all. It wouldn’t be perfect forever. I took my space suit from a hollow in the cave walls were I kept it and changed. I wandered through the trees until I found a place in the grass were the air around it was hazy and blurred. I stepped thorough the portal. Back in the other universe again. I stepped into another portal.
I landed with a thud onto hard concrete. “Ow,” I thought rubbing my head. I looked around. There was a huge sign that read “the year is 4000.” 4000?! This is the future! I looked around for people. I didn’t see any. All there was were robots and machines. I looked up. In the sky there was a giant computer chip. “Big brother,” I thought. Suddenly the computer chip began to flash with bright light. All the robots looked at the sky.
“Invader,” said all the machines. All the robots turned to me.
“Invader. Human. Bad. Terminate,” Said the robots. Their eyes turned red. I ran. The nearest ones tried to grab me but I dodged away from them. I ran down the streets my heart pounding. Metal hands and claws reached for me everywhere trying to get me.
“Terminate,” said voices all around me. Suddenly I was back where I had first landed. I made a dash for the portal. A metal finger clawed on the back of my space suit. Too late. I was already in the portal and had disappeared. I sighed from inside my space suit. I could go searching like this forever! “I’ll just have to search forever, then,” I thought. I stepped into the next portal.
This time I landed in a park. It was green. I could hear the honking of cars from the road nearby. I began to wander towards the direction of the road. When I got there I crossed the street with a group of other people. There was a newsstand on the other side. I picked up a New York Times and looked at the date. It was July 12, 2000. 2000! My heart leapt. 2000 was a year that I liked. No perfection. No wars at the moment. A good president. It would all change eventually, but I had found my place. 2000. A girl walked up to me.
“Hi! What’s your name?” She asked.
“2543…,”I began. “No,” I thought, “that was the past my name now is….” “Peace,” I answered. “My name is Caroline,” said the girl “wanna be friends?”
“ Sure,” I said and smiled. This moment was perfect. It wouldn’t always be perfect, but for now it was, so there. I had found a place where I belonged.

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