The Future
“People were created by god, and god has provided for our living in this great forest with its river and fish… blah blah blah.” After our morning lecture with the Shaman, my younger brothers, friends, and I went down to the river to help the fish by the riverside. Suddenly, a large moving beast, growling as it goes, with unnatural features, goes up the river.
“Sound the beast alarm!”
All people line up along the riverbed and begin shooting. Muffled sounds come from inside. Our arrows are being deflected by thick hide. When we wound the monster, no blood came out. What is this thing? Then, a person, basically white all over, steps out. It is a canoe!
The giant canoe comes to the beach. Lacking bows and arrows, only sticks, the white uncivilized man comes to our village. He cannot talk. Only grunts. Who are these other people? Are they even human?
Later, after he showed us his dry, thick food, he pointed at a fit young man, my uncle, and grunted. What does he want? The next day, he does the same thing, just from his canoe. My uncle gets into the canoe, and the canoe begins to leave, without a rower. How does this work? Wait, he is being kidnapped! No time to think about the rower. I run back to get my bow as arrows rain down again, but most bounce off the canoe.
The next day, the canoe is back, with the white man, a correct skin-colored woman, and my Uncle! Why is he back? And there are other real humans outside of our village?!
“There is another village down the river, and many more after that, according to her,” my uncle says. “He wants some people to come and check out the future.” The woman waves, trying to be friendly. My uncle stays in the canoe. My father goes. The man grunts at my friends and me-no words needed. But seriously, he needs to learn to talk.
I have so many questions, like who is rowing, but I don’t ask them. Far downstream, we discover the first small village. A bunch of big canoes, a couple of houses, and some big … things. I say nothing, while the rest of the group descends into chaos. But the houses! Made of some kind of stone. Are they made from one stone? I look at all the other dwellings. Then I see. At the edge of the village, people are pouring stones!? I still say nothing, but walk over and look. Could this be the future?
Here, we stop to eat, according to the women. She has been deflecting questions about her name. Lumps are placed in front of us. I poke them. The brown one is hard, but the red and white ones are soft. They are cut, with the brown one revealing a squishy, white, and bubbly inside. The people-not-people start to put the red and white ones on top of the brown ones and put them in their mouths. This is food!? I decided to try one, to see if this is the future. No one else I know does. The food is rather bland. It is not the future. Finally, fruits come out that I know. Everyone devours them.
The meal continued uneventfully, and we got back on the canoe. I see the woman looking at a rock in her hand. There’s paint on the rock. Wait. The paint is changing! It is magic! Is this the future?
The canoe abruptly stops. We probably got stuck on a rock. I hurry outside, and whoa! I see buildings taller than even the highest trees, canoes the size of mountains. People are in big things that move them around. There’s just so much stuff. So this is the future!
The others come out, look, and promptly collapse, one after the other, just like the funny stories the Shaman tells. While looking down, I notice red dots on my skin.
We go into the big things and stop at a modest house, where there are beds. We manage to sleep, despite the weirdness. The next day, more dots appeared. They notice the dots and take us to a large building, and a white man dressed in white meets us. What’s up with the white?
The man inspects all of us, then inspects the dots. He grumbles something, and the woman whispers something. My father and friends start crying, and I am put on a bed. They move the bed to a room full of sick patients. Then I understood. This is the future. For all of us.