Fidel - 23. -Sanity/Insanity - Nothing Lasts Forever

Back in the real world of cities and large towns, where brainwashed nonentities lived in a constructed reality, the tyrannical triumvirate was going the way of all such attempts to share power peacefully—jousting for influence and wealth. At first the troubles were a poorly kept secret behind the walls of official buildings, army barracks and Protector training schools. But when a JE official was poisoned at a banquet, an IS official was drowned in his bath, and two CH officials were discovered without heads and genitals, a toxic state of affairs became outright war, spreading onto the streets where collateral damage was severe. Thousands died. Not from their wounds so much as from lack of even minimal first aid and antibiotics. When bullets and knives didn’t kill, bacteria did. On the up side, unemployment, which had been rising, was now falling with vacancies in numerous key and not so key positions.

At the nightly Oasis updates, Steven Snupe continued to hold his audience in thrall with tales from the world of politics. Of interest, but not especially worrying, was that having disposed of the JEs and ISs, the CH group renamed Queensland “The Christian Kingdom”, and appointed a Lord Cardinal as head of state, supported by Cardinal-Dukes and Bishop-Barons, each with their Ministers. Eschewing the colourful gowns, capes and cloth of gold, mitres and jewelled rings and sandals of their medieval predecessors, the new lords of the realm dressed in plain black suits embellished with a simple gold cross on the lapel. Thus they proclaimed their adoption of the simple life preached by their tripartite God.

What was worrying, was that the deposed JE party’s interstate and international financial manipulators put an embargo on all Christian Kingdom banks and lending institutions. As the Christian Kingdom had already taken over all Queensland banks and financial institutions, they responded by launching the Christian Kingdom Angel, or CKA (usually referred to as sikka), which was pegged at parity to the old dollar. It was a digital currency with one hundred Souls to the Angel, and only tradeable in the Christian Kingdom so its value would be stable. Depositor accounts had been automatically converted to CKAs, to be used in the same way as the old currency.

‘Will there be any physical money?’ A voice from the floor.

‘Not at this stage. Everyone will have a debit card that can be topped up on-line, and in the banks.’

What about poor people?’

‘They’ll be paid with debit cards.’

‘And big brother will know the spending habits of every citizen.’

‘They’ve known that since electronic banking was introduced. The only difference is there’s no escaping the net now.’

Steven consulted his notes. ‘As you know, a great deal of infrastructure has been damaged by unseasonable storms, and without sufficient heavy machinery to rebuild, and no international currency to buy stuff with, universal forced labour has been reintroduced.’

‘What do you mean, reintroduced?’

‘Until the nineteen seventies, much of Queensland’s infrastructure was built using indigenous and Pacific Islander forced or slave labour—paying them only enough to feed and clothe themselves. It made it impossible for them to accumulate enough assets to join in the affluence enjoyed by whites, but you can’t make omelettes without breaking eggs, as they say.’

Four weeks after the dismissal of their servants, complaints from women and girls about having to do all the cleaning, cooking and just about everything else while their menfolk sat on their fat arses and did nothing, suddenly stopped because of tests conducted by Penelope and Hercules, which proved they were leaner, fitter, had clearer skin, glossier hair and felt more energetic than they could remember. All said they slept like logs and no one had had felt depressed for weeks.

‘So why are you all complaining?’ Hercules asked.

‘Everyone else was so we thought…’

‘You didn’t think about the effect it was having on your sons and husbands who are working just as hard as you, or on the noble savages who are also working their butts off trying to make you happy.’

‘Sorry.’

‘Are you missing having servants?’

‘No!’

All felt relieved at having the house to themselves and not having to be careful about speaking in front of servants. All had learned to get the chores done quickly and then get out in the garden, or to other activities. At meetings they swapped recipes, cleaning tips, and ways to work more efficiently. Three of the retrenched men took over their household, leaving their wives to become gardeners, playwrights, wrestlers, joiners and maintenance workers under the guidance of Fidel, Robert and others. Fidel and Zadig ploughed up a large grassed area that was seldom used, divided it into allotments, spread tons of mulch and compost that had been piling up in the forest, and with unlimited water from deep wells, and shade cloths to ward off the sun, they were soon self sufficient in vegetables and fruits of every variety. The volcanic soil was rich and several metres deep, and produced up to three crops per year.

The weather continued it’s erratic behaviour, dumping either too much rain or too little. Heatwaves and hurricanes. Seldom a middle ground. Relentlessly rising seas were forcing people further inland, and temporary camps and trailer parks were moving closer to Oasis. This triggered the dismissal of the gate-keeper with very generous severance pay, and the dumping of several truck loads of gravel and huge rocks directly outside the ostentatious gateway, which was removed and replaced with a tangled barbed wire fence preventing access to all traffic—foot and wheeled.

Official signs were attached to the barrier, and smaller ones appeared around the eight-kilometre boundary fence, informing curious eyes that the Toxic Waste Dump was now closed, but poison residues including low-level radiation remained. So Keep Out.

The only access to Oasis now was through the overgrown garden of a vaguely commercial-type property of no interest, with a long back yard that reached the estate border; it was one of several properties bought by the body Corporate years before as an address for Internet financial transactions and taxation. Vehicles could drive through the garage and then through a gap in the boundary fence. But it was a fuss, so the fifteen men who went to the city daily, parked their cars behind the building and rode bicycles through the forest to their residences. Oasis schoolboys had been riding their bikes that way for years as it was shorter than using the main gate.

As residents learned to enjoy taking care of their own needs, some attempted to bridge the social gap between them and the savages. These attempts were always sternly rebuffed by Hercules and his men who, having experienced the euphoric freedom of living outside all the usual social restrictions, weren't about to shackle themselves again.

Perses’ decision after his performance on stage to swim and do sport naked, because he loved the feel of air flowing around his balls and the sensation of total freedom, was eventually taken up by several other youths and men—but not females unless there were no males present. They realised intuitively that a gash could not compete with a spear, and their attraction lay in the mystery granted by concealing it. Several women became angry and dismissive of their nudist husbands and sons, sneering at their less than perfect bodies—calling them perverted exhibitionists. This undermined the happiness of these perfectly healthy men and led to marital and social disharmony.

And then it rained. And rained. And rained.

The soil on the north slope of the crater, on which all the residents’ houses had been so perfectly designed, built and landscaped, began to slide over the granite beneath. Not because of faulty construction—the drainage had been meticulously planned, but because of tree clearance in the suburbs near the rim, to accommodate the ever expanding cancer of cheap housing where builders, in the interests of profit, had simply directed all storm water towards the ‘uninhabited’ forest of Oasis instead of constructing proper drains.

None of the resident’s mansions crumbled, they were too well built. They simply slid slowly down hill until they reached the bottom, then gently piled up, leaning, twisting, reclining against each other like amorous behemoths—amusing if it wasn’t your house. Cautiously, so as not to precipitate a catastrophe, furniture and valuables were removed and stored in large marquees. As many personal effects as possible were taken to the public rooms—females to the Assembly Room because it was larger and had a pleasant aspect onto parklands, and men to the Hercules room, which accommodated them easily and was but a hop, step and jump from the swimming pool.

No one grumbled, complained or made problems. Both dormitories had small kitchens where they could make themselves snacks and drinks whenever they liked, and the large covered barbeque area beside the main swimming pool, only fifty metres from both the Hercules and Assembly rooms, was perfect for making and consuming all main meals. Hylas drew up a roster and discreetly supervised the cooks, so meal preparation became a time of gossip and companionship, and eating a communal pleasure; better than the city restaurants they were used to because they could call across to friends, make a noise, laugh and sing and enjoy the eating as well as the food—some for the first time in their lives.

By the end of the week it was acknowledged, if not spoken aloud, that this was a much more pleasant arrangement than rattling around with a spouse and one or two children in a vast house; having to go out for everything—even to find someone to talk to. In the evenings after the theatre, cards, dancing or whatever they'd been doing, women and girls could sit around, or lie in their beds and enjoy a gossip about what they’d been doing, their hair, clothes, perfume, and what book they were reading.

In their enclave, the men deliberated about the state of the world, the weather, the crops, the condition of their vehicles and other mechanical equipment, and planned improvements to everything, while their sons in their area did homework, talked about sex, girls, cars, sport and everything else that interested them.

The Hercules room now resembled the lounge of a gentleman’s club; an elegant, classical space dotted with armchairs, statues, and other less conventional furniture. Each occupant had a small carpet, his favourite armchair, a wardrobe and desk or table, as well as their own bed or chaise longue as some now called it. Privacy, to everyone’s surprise, wasn’t an issue. It was a relief to know other men were nearby in case of… in case of anything. Men, they discovered, were happier together; sharing the ‘male burden’, even if it was imaginary.

Personal cleanliness was ensured when Fidel and Zadig constructed superb shower facilities for both the Assembly and Hercules rooms.

As for sex, wives were usually not averse to a wander in the forest as long as their hair wasn’t disturbed, but for the men, wanking in their own bed was less of a fuss because it didn’t involve cajoling, flattering, and wondering if they'd provided enough foreplay and other stimulation. Nor did they worry they wouldn’t get an erection, ejaculate too soon, or have bad breath or sweaty armpits or a multitude of other sins. If their cock wilted before orgasm, they didn’t have to apologise and feel inadequate. And as every man on earth masturbates, there was no shame in that. So they did.

Then, with the example of the savages as a guide, some began to experiment, and discover the calm pleasure of sexual activity with someone who, because they had the same equipment, understood the sort of things that arouse and can bring on exquisite orgasms.

Mort's father’s house had gone the way of all the other residences, so as the two cottages belonging to Zadig and Hercules were intact, being situated behind the unaffected public buildings, Robert and Bart moved in with Hercules and Hylas, while Fidel and Arnold shared Mort and Zadig’s cottage. Instead of Oasis being a collection of isolated individuals, it became, in Hercules’ words, a termite nest of like-minded people with plenty of forest to lose themselves in when the urge to be alone replaced the desire for company.

Relationships between the sexes improved to such an extent that men and women actually became friends, sharing ideas, experiences and laughs with each other as equals. No one in Oasis wanted a baby, in fact they didn’t want a baby with such force that the very idea of sexual activity that might lead to that, was enough to shrink the boldest penis… at least among those over forty.

To accommodate the desire of young singles to experiment with sex, Fidel and Zadig made the two least damaged houses safe, setting one up as a clubhouse for the youngsters, and the other as a place for married couples to copulate in private, away from the creepy crawlies in the forest.

Contrary to popular wisdom, spending very little time alone with their husband or wife and enjoying casual bonking with same-sex lovers, had the effect of cementing the marriage bond. Dressing for a date with their spouse, then collecting her from the Assembly Room to go to the theatre, or a dance or whatever activity was on, became almost as exciting as when they were young.

In case curious walkers crossed the standard chain link fence of the legal boundary of Oasis, a high-tensile steel-mesh barrier, had been constructed ten metres inside it. Electrified and laced with security sensors, it threaded its way between dense, tangled old forest and scrub that on its own would deter all but the most determined walker. An added security measure when it was first installed was to plant the dreaded gympie-gympie bushes every few metres against the outside of the wire. The slightest touch caused extremely painful rashes that lasted for days—sometimes weeks. Only someone deliberately wanting to enter Oasis would find the security barrier, but as the entire estate had been digitally removed from all Lands Department electronic plans, it was unlikely anyone would be looking for it. Furthermore, being situated in a shallow crater, the trees were scarcely noticeable from outside. Looking towards Oasis from the city the eye passed over the rise and saw only the distant hills of the escarpment. And as the rainforest canopy covered most of the area, Google maps showed only patches of apparently unremarkable buildings dotted here and there among trees. Nothing to excite interest.

*****

Over the next couple of years occasional sorties into the city by residents to see for themselves what had become of the relaxed and carefree topical city they loved, proved their wisdom in having no part of a society in which queues of unemployed men grew longer, soup kitchens appeared on every second corner, ragged boys begged, and chain gangs of emaciated slaves with picks and shovels were whipped into repairing and building new commercial infrastructure.

With the demise of the two coalition partners, the Lord Cardinal, ensconced in his palace in Brisbane, proclaimed a return to traditional Christian values, whatever that meant. Public executions and floggings continued, but on a reduced scale for political rather than humane reasons. The Christian Kingdom needed to distance itself from their erstwhile collaborators to regain the support of the middle classes. Booming poverty and the enslavement of potential troublemakers had rendered severe public chastisement no longer popular. From now on it would be mainly an in-house affair. And so it came to pass that torture, flaying, castration, rape and similar methods of demonstrating god’s love and mercy, were now conducted before select, paying audiences behind the secretive walls of army garrisons, Protector barracks, seminaries, religious schools and cloisters.

However, anyone who thought the purveyors of godliness were going soft on dissent, were disabused by notices displayed on the doors of all houses of worship, warning that opposing the will of god as interpreted by the Lord Cardinal would be punished by death.

Every school became the means by which the Christian Kingdom spread the word of god and not much else. Girls were again permitted to attend school, but in strictly segregated establishments.

The children of wealthy families supportive of the Lord Cardinal and his Cardinal-Dukes and Bishop-Barons, had access to single sex schools that taught all subjects to the highest standards, to the production of future scientists and innovators. Clearly, the administrators were unaware that most new ideas come from those who've had to struggle a bit and so desire change, not from fat cats who enjoy the status quo and have no need to excel.

Under JECHIS, the forward-thinking, secular, pluralistic school that the children of Oasis attended, had been spared the fate of other educational establishments because most of the parents had wealth and influence with the other two religions. As that no longer was the case all godless staff members were being replaced by god-fearing evangelicals. Perses was furious that Alfred, his lover and physics teacher would be one of the banned teachers, so he objected forcefully and publicly. Despite a warning from the other Oasis students, he jumped onto the stage during assembly to denounce the new system. A cheer erupted, only to be stifled when a Protector leaped onto the stage and punched Perses with all his force three times in quick succession, head, kidneys and stomach. Perses swayed, eyes popping, dazed, then crumpled in a writhing heap. The entire school froze in shock as the Protector took one foot and dragged the limp body off the stage, the head banging audibly on the steps. Then without apparent effort he slung Perses over his shoulder, carried him downstairs, and locked him in one of a row of basement storerooms.

Watching in horror from the back of the hall, Alfred followed discreetly, noted which storeroom it was, and then taking great care not to be seen, made his way outside to the rear of the building where small, barred windows at ground level gave light to each basement room. Using the cover of a hydrangea hedge, he slithered on his belly to the window and peered in. Perses was sprawled, unconscious on the concrete floor, two metres below the windowsill. Boxes of textbooks lined one wall; the rest of the room was bare. He jiggled the bars. Steel as thick as his little finger, well embedded. A careful inspection revealed a thin wire checked into the centre bar and camouflaged with paint. The window was ajar so Alfred picked up a small stone and tossed it to land on Perses’ cheek. The youth stirred, groaned, opened an eye and whimpered.

‘Perses,’ Alfred whispered. ‘Perses. Can you move?’

Perses tried, and groaned again. Peered blindly up. ‘Alfred?’

‘Yes. Can you climb up to this window? I’m going for tools.’ Without waiting for an answer he slithered back, checked he was unseen, then walked briskly to the groundsman’s shed as if on an important errand. It was empty of humans but lined with well-organised tools. Thirty seconds later he was strolling uncomfortably back to the main building with bolt cutters stuffed down the front of his trousers. Back at the cellar window, he tapped on the glass. Perses looked up and smiled groggily. Alfred showed the bolt cutters and mouthed, ‘get ready’. While he was removing the five bars, leaving the central one till last, Perses was slowly and painfully dragging boxes under the window. When the fifth bar was pulled away security hooters sounded all over the school. Perses struggled manfully, but had to be dragged through the narrow gap, leaving a trail of blood where the end of the bars scraped his legs and arms.

Thinking it was a fire alarm or bomb scare, the school was emptying rapidly, students hurrying anxiously to prescribed areas to be counted by their teachers, which is probably why they didn’t take any notice of the hobbling student supported by his teacher. By cutting around the end of a building they bypassed the assembly areas and approached the car park from the playing fields. After a fifty-metre crawl to Alfred’s car, Perses curled up behind the driver’s seat, dragged a blanket over himself, and Alfred drove to the gate where a security guard stopped him.

‘Why aren't you checking your class?’

‘Because I’ve been fired,’ Alfred replied, ‘and there’s no chance of another job.’

‘Poor bugger,’ the guard shook his head in commiseration. ‘Off you go and good luck.’

But where could they go? Alfred’s address was known. Perses was registered as living in one of the fake houses nearby.

‘You'll have to come home with me.’

‘Your parents made it clear visitors weren't allowed.’

Perses groaned, tried to smile, then lifted his shirt to show a giant bruise. One eye was closed and a large contusion was growing on his forehead. ‘I think something’s really wrong with me… and with my back.’

‘Alfred panicked. ‘Oh fuck! Perses. Tell me where to go!’

Minutes later they had driven through the garage of the safety house and Alfred was opening the gate into the forest. He drove through, closed it at Perses’ insistence, then sounding his horn wildly, arrived in front of the theatre.

Perses had fainted. Penelope arrived, he was carried to the first aid room where she kept all her tools of the trade, checked him, became alarmed, did all she could for the head wound and broken rib, but the kick in the back was looking very serious. The skin was turning blue-black and swelling. His urine was more blood than piss. He was in agony. Morphine helped. Alfred, weeping silently, helped as much as possible, not daring to ask Penelope for a prognosis. After an hour Perses became calm. His breathing slowed, he gazed up at Alfred and managed a weak smile. Alfred leaned down and kissed him gently.

‘I love you,’ Perses whispered, then seemed to slowly shrink back into the mattress.

‘I love you too,’ Alfred whispered. But Perses didn’t hear. His heart had stopped beating.

Penelope turned to Alfred, wrapped her arms around him and they hugged desperately.

‘My son! My beautiful crazy son. I couldn’t save him! What use am I if I can’t save my son.’ She sobbed inconsolably and clung to Alfred in total misery.

Hercules and the five residents who had been with them, left the room quietly. Perses father, Aristo, arrived minutes later and knelt in wretched distress beside his son, as broken by the news as mother and lover.

Hercules and Hylas made tea and sandwiches and informed the residents as they returned. There would be a meeting that evening in the theatre for the residents to work through the tragedy. The savages would not be there, but whatever the residents decided, they would assist with.

After a dinner that no one could eat, everyone assembled in the theatre. Alfred sat with Perses’ parents and gave a detailed account of what had happened. The two Oasis pupils who had witnessed the atrocity, tearfully confirmed it.

‘There must be something we can do!’ someone said hopelessly.

‘Surely a Protector isn't allowed to kick a boy to death just because he opposed sacking all non religious teachers?’

‘Perses opposed it publicly. We all knew the punishment for opposing the fucking Lord Cardinal’s edicts was death.’

‘Yes. But not a beautiful young man.’ The speaker subsided into quiet tears of grief, unable to be consoled. Soon every person in the theatre was slumped in hopeless silence, contemplating the world they’d somehow allowed to come into being.

Everyone agreed it was now too dangerous for Oasis boys to go to school; they'd been brought up to be independent thinkers so it was too easy for them to make a fatal mistake, like Perses.

Aristo frowned in an attempt to stop his tears, and asked if Alfred would be permitted to remain in Oasis. ‘They’ll have looked at security videos by now and know Alfred rescued Perses, so he can’t go home.’

‘Of course he must stay! What are you thinking Aristo? Alfred, how can we help you?’

Alfred buried his head in his hands. ‘I loved Perses so much. So much. We were going to...’

‘You have us, Alfred,’ Aristo stated firmly. ‘Tonight and for as long as you like you can sleep in Perses’ bed, and live with us. There'll be plenty of time later to discuss your future.’

Ever practical, Penelope asked quietly what was to be done with the body. The question shocked everyone to silence. He really was dead. The first Oasis resident to die at the brutal hands of the new dictators.

‘The authorities can’t know he is dead,’ someone said thoughtfully. ‘And they don’t know Perses lived here. Alfred’s car has disappeared, so they’ll imagine they’ve gone south, or west, or north…’ he lapsed into silence.

‘Is there any benefit in keeping Perses above ground?’ The elderly man looked around nervously. ‘It might sound callous, but we don’t have cooling facilities, it’s going to be twenty-eight degrees tonight and in the high thirties tomorrow, we…’ He sat down, red faced.

‘Thanks, Alphonse,’ Penelope said softly. ‘You are right. Our son is dead. He is not going to come to life again. I would like to sit with him, Aristo and Alfred for a while, and then we must bury him. Will someone ask Zadig to choose a suitable place in the forest and prepare a grave?’

No one felt like doing anything when the three left them to sit with their son, so they remained on their cushions, fighting against the reality of the situation that had been forced upon them. Their little bubble of sanity was not inviolate. Flesh crawled as they understood for what seemed the first time, what was happening all over Queensland, and no doubt the rest of Australia.

Empathy, not one of the things humans are good at, swelled in hearts unused to caring much about others. And involuntary sobs escaped the chests of most men when they pictured the horrors, the pain, shame and misery of thousands of innocent people whose lives had been destroyed by these messengers of a loving God. The women appeared to have more control over their feelings than the men, so after sitting a short time with everyone else, they stood and, as if embarrassed by their inadequacy, patted the heads and shoulders of their menfolk, and left them to grieve.

An hour later, Mort and Hercules, followed by mother, father and lover, carried the young corpse on a bier to a quiet part of the forest where the other six savages had used a mechanical digger to prepare a very deep pit that would not be disturbed by any normal activity. Perses was passed gently down to Hylas, who laid him out, naked as the day he was born, in the earth that had sustained him. Hercules pulled Hylas out and handed shovels to the three weeping mourners who covered the body in earth, pleased to be able to perform this last act of love. Zadig then completed the task and they strewed the grave with leaves, twigs and other natural debris until it became part of the forest floor again.

‘Perses is at one with the nature he loved,’ Aristo whispered taking the hands of his wife and Alfred.

No one spoke on the way back.

Meanwhile, in the Hercules room, Perses’ bed and furniture had been moved next to Aristo’s, by men who understood that the two mourning men needed each other. After fifteen minutes of sleepless tossing Alfred was drawn into Aristo’s bed, where they comforted each other. Morning found them deep asleep in each other’s arms, to the relief of their friends. Now both men would recover completely.