Once upon a time, not so long ago - when the self-terminating nature of modern human civilisation had been painstakingly researched and referenced, and meticulously ignored; and the people of the Earth - deaf to the symphonic wisdom of the forests and the seas - were praying to A.I. for salvation; there lived, in the hills, a five year old orphan girl - whose unapologetic Aunties had named ´Love´.
"What is Love?" Love asked her Auntie Joy, one cosy afternoon in their cottage, over gingerbread and cinnamon tea, "is it when adults kiss?" "It might be" Auntie Joy smiled, "but it might also not".
"Love is what you feel" she said, more contemplatively "when you feel the life in another, and you know that life is also your own". "Oh!" said Love, "then I love Putsy, and Crimble, and Torontonton, and..." (and one by one, she named the cottage cats, and the stick insects who lived out back, the foxes and frogs who lazed about around the pond - and the hundreds of trees who cradled her days).
"Indeed! Indeed you do!" exclaimed Auntie Joy, delightedly "and do you feel they love you?" "They love everything!" said Love, spontaneously – with a casual, yet halting authority.
II
However... all was not well in the hills where love lived with her seven aunties: Auntie Joy, Auntie Oneness, Auntie I-Am-You, Auntie Absolute Equality, Auntie Open Mind, Auntie Magical Adventures, and Auntie The Mystery of Existence... For Love´s seven aunties knew The Evil Needle was coming for her - as seemingly-unstoppably as industrialisation, urbanisation, the pain of alienation, the degeneration of the planetary ecosphere - and the prophecies in fairy tales.
Love´s seven aunties knew that The Needle of Evil would search out Love´s shoulder - because injection was written into the laws of their Earth... When Love´s parents had died, her seven anarchist, activist aunties had snatched her away to the hills - despite the decree of Eugene the Eugenicist, Global Minister of Population and Health - which had made the bio-nanochipping of children obligatory, and recommended it be at birth. But the drones of Smart City Central scanned every millimetre of the mountains; and the seven aunties knew they knew where they were - and that those who saw through the drones´ eyes made no exceptions...
And so it was that the seasons span... Love turned six, and seven, and eight nine ten... Around and around and around the seasons span - until, one unsuspecting, unlikely, windy day: a flyer blew into the hills - and into the hands of Love. And there, in the middle of the leaflet; in mouthwateringly photoshopped deliciousness - was the almost-divine image of a vegan strawberry ice cream. Beneath the image was written, shudderingly: "free with every jab. no parental consent required".
Was the leaflet scented, Love wondered - sniffing it. It smelt SO good! "No Child, it´s not the leaflet" announced the hollow voice of a Transhuman Injection Agent, "it´s this!" And the Injection Agent leapt upon Love - stabbing her in the left shoulder with The Needle of Evil; while, with astonishing, genetically-enhanced dexterity, it simultaneously placed the promised Vegan Ice Cream in the bewildered child´s right hand.
III
"Why have you got such stupid names?" were Love´s last words, as she arrived back at Cosy Cottage, stumbled at its threshold, and fell stiffly to the ground. Her seven activist anarchist aunties picked up her soft, little body, and put her gently to bed - where Love lay looking upwards, her eyeballs pulsing in their sockets as the evil liquid shot through her veins - deciding whether to kill her, or convert her into an Operative of Smart City Central.
Love´s seven aunties placed candles around Love´s bed, and cuddled her in prayer - and watched over her with tearful eyes, infuriated. They watched over her by day, and they watched over her by night. Cats, stick insects, foxes and frogs - creatures of all sorts came to Love´s vigil. Even the trees, who could not get in the room, held vigil - for there was nothing in the hills that did not love Love.
Little Love sweated so much she began to shrivel. Her blood boiled. And when she began to levitate horizontally, and scream vicious curses - much like the little girl in The Exorcist - her seven kind aunties strapped her wrists and ankles to the four posts of her four poster bed. "Ice cream, ice cream!" she screamed, grinning "give me strawberry ice cream!"
"Maybe a handsome prince will kiss her better" said Auntie Oneness - who was a sucker for romantic endings - though, really, she knew full-well that idealisation wasn´t love – and that Love can only happen in equality - since to feel the life in another, one has to be feeling that life in oneself. "The prophecy predicts she will sleep for a hundred years!" wailed Auntie Joy, who would´ve gladly exchanged fates with Love...
The stick insects were more practical: they recited statistics - PCR test efficacy statistics, lockdown and mask and social distancing efficacy statistics, adverse reaction statistics, bribery and censorship statistics, and so on... "Why do you do this?" Auntie The Mystery of Existence asked them, mystified. "First she needs the facts!" they replied, chirpily. "Then what?" asked Auntie Open Mind. "Then we march on Smart City Central! Look!" they replied - and all seven aunties looked out of the window and saw: thousands of stick insects with banners, and rucksacks with picnics; thousands of cats, preening themselves in preparation - and thousands of frogs, mounted like knights, on the backs of wild foxes. "It´s like Avatar!" exclaimed Auntie Magical Adventures.
"If we need to fight... well, who knows - perhaps we will" declared the stick insects - whose forearms were like tiny truncheons, and legs like little lances; "but only Love can awaken Love - so this is not like Avatar" they explained - "at least, not yet..." "And may it never be!" croaked Grandi, the venerable shaman elder of the frog nation, who was squatted on the sill of the open bedroom window.
IV
And so it was that the seven activist anarchist aunties unstrapped Love, and tied her securely upon a palanquin, and set off towards Smart City Central, in the company of many life forms - the trees waving them their blessings... Off they set, singing as they went - singing songs of winter, and songs of the return of spring...
And so it was that they entered Smart City Central, and flabbergasted the thousands upon thousands of screen linked City Surveillance Operatives, whose job it was to watch and inform. "Millions of stick insects, cats, and frogs on foxes, and seven old ladies" have entered the city streets, they reported - unable to believe their eyes; fearing for their insanity...
But the spectacle was too spectacular, and the Song of Love too loud... The Smart City Surveillance Grid spluttered, and spat glitches, and crashed. Serums exploded in their syringes. The knees of the good people of Smart City Central went wobbly, and they were flooded with human memories. And in the midst of it all - as 5G towers tumbled, like the statues of deposed dictators - the compressed intensity of so much Love woke Love, who looked up from her palanquin, confused - though seemingly refreshed.
"Aunties!" she called-out, "where am I?""Oh, My Darling! You have awoken! Is that you? Are you back?" Auntie Oneness asked, almost desperately. "What do you mean? asked Love, "I just nodded off for a bit."
And so it WAS a happy ending, which pleased Auntie Oneness no end! Love herself yawned and stretched, as Auntie Joy unstrapped her - and she hopped off her palanquin, quite gaily. The many creatures cheered. The seven aunties sobbed with happiness. Surveillance cameras crackled, syringes burst, and 5G towers shattered like fireworks – in celebration. And slowly, slowly - for everything takes time - the good people of Smart City Central re-accustomed themselves to feeling the Love in their Blood - and other tender, forgotten emotions.
Chapter 10,
"PARALLEL PLANDEMICS - Short Stories from The Annals of Parallel Earths"
by Mark The Mystic Activist.
"PARALLEL PLANDEMICS" is available for free download (in English and Spanish) here: https://www.markthemysticactivist.com/other-books-otros-libros
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