Under the Above

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. Zaphia never knew her grandfather well, carrying only a few dusty, faded memories of him in her mind, as his Day of Absolution came when she was barely more than a toddler. Sometimes, picturing the view from that one small window in his room was the only thing keeping her sanity intact, and kindling the flames of hope that burned within her, a hope for a different future than the mundane one that was already planned for her... and for everyone. She had heard stories about the grandfather all her life, and among her favorites, were the stories he had shared with his children, her parents, about the world and the ways of life before the Great Retreat. She had only heard him tell the stories a few times, and could only faintly remember his voice, but clearly remembered his face. She always thought he resembled that "Santa" character she had seen in pictures in his secret room and heard about in some of the stories, a jolly old man who would give everyone a gift on something called "Christmas". She loved hearing about the grandfather's experiences on The Old Above, and her mind would race with exciting, colorful images as his stories described a beautifully fascinating world that she, nor her parents, had ever experienced. She had never seen most of the things mentioned and described in the stories, things like flowers, and butterflies, dogs, or kittens, or fish, and couldn't fathom what it must have been like to live in a house, which was a type of home people lived in on the Old Above, built on top of the ground instead of beneath it. She had never seen a bicycle or car or airplane, but she knew what they were, and had seen plenty of pictures of them and read about them in books, and something called a "magazine", that she had discovered in her grandfather's room. She wondered if others in her family knew about the grandfather's room, and if they had seen those pictures and read those documents, and were accurately imagining and envisioning the things in grandfather's stories whenever someone told them. Zaphia knew he must have been very wise to have taken such care to ensure that the details of these stories were kept every time they were retold. Before each retelling, an explicit set of instructions were also recited by the "rheto", or rhetorician, stressing the importance of telling each story the exact same way every time, defining some of the terms that were unknown, and the listeners were encouraged to memorize and relish the details of the stories and the way they were being told, so as to ensure the preservation of the lost truths they conveyed, and perhaps, someday share these stories themselves as rhetoricians. Those instructions also stressed the importance of secrecy and privacy when reciting any part of the stories, as they contained forbidden vocabulary, and were considered blasphemy against Social Refinement. It was dangerous to allow these stories to be heard by the wrong ears, especially by those loyal to The Governance. No one dared record these stories in writing either, because it was even more dangerous to have written evidence of heresy. To make that grave mistake and be the subject of Social Arrest would mean one's family being confined to quarters while The Ministers of Governance conducted investigations and interrogations, during which, sustenance rations and life comforts were suspended. If evidence was found, or a confession extracted from just one family member, the Social Arrest was upgraded to a Governance Citation, and the entire family would likely be convicted of heresy against The Doctrines of Social Refinement and sentenced to one of the two purification punishments. Zaphia shuddered at the thoughts of both and simply pondering on which would be worse made a sick feeling in her stomach, even though she wasn't entirely sure whether to believe the conclusions and speculations that dwelled in her mind, or to accept the prescribed belief that was presented to all the people during the morning and evening Governance Broadcasts. The common consensus was that the latter was the easiest and safest. No matter which was the truth, neither was pleasant.

         Zaphia had been sneaking into the grandfather's hidden room for the last five of her fifteen years, after remembering watching him move a faux block in the floor of his sleeping room, and shimmying under the wall through a secret space under the floor, and into a part of his personal quarters that was hidden from the rest the home. At age ten, she was finally strong enough to move the block herself and slip through the secret passage under the floor to the room on the other side of the wall whenever the rare opportunity came to access it without her family knowing. After the grandfather's Day of Absolution, she and her older brother no longer had to share quarters, as he was allowed to move into the grandfather's quarters. As far as she suspected, her brother, Zeddian, never discovered the grandfather's secret room. When Zeddian was sixteen, he was reported by a neighbor and placed under social arrest for conspiracy to mate with a member of an unapproved family, but since no proof was found and no confession was extracted, he was given the option of being sentenced to serve as an Expansion Worker in lieu of Early Absolution. It was a sad day for Zaphia and her family, when her brother had to be taken by The Governance so early, but she found some comfort in thinking that he was still alive somewhere, perhaps even advancing into higher servitude on one of the expansion projects somewhere. Maybe he was even assigned a mate and now had a family of his own. She missed him. She was so glad that he wasn't sentenced to be exiled to The Abyss. Aside from being denied the honor of Absolution by the Governance, no one really knew what happened when someone was exiled, that is, if they even survived the fall. It was assumed that most died at the bottom, but some didn't, and it was said rumored that, dead or not, their flesh was consumed by the Lessers. She wasn't sure what a "Lesser" was, and could only imagine, based on the rumors that were whispered among the people, and the sounds that were heard coming from The Abyss in Governance Broadcasts when they told of people who had been exiled into the pit. The Ministers of Governance were very vague about The Abyss and The Lessers, and everyone feared The Abyss and what was believed to be non-human people-things in its depths that survived on refuse from The Society and the flesh of the exiled. Some of the rumors speculated that the Lessers might be people who survived being thrown in and went mad in the darkness, writhing in agony from their injuries, starvation, and the immense remorse for their evil and non-conformity, and transformed into something not so human. Some speculated that they might be demons, but that word was "of religious origin" and therefore forbidden vocabulary. Zaphia had seen The Abyss twice, once when her father took her along as he was discarding some refuse that had no further purpose, and another time when all of the people in her sector were required to witness the exile of a Broadcast Proctor that was convicted of heresy for not making a social arrest on a family that was not present at their home's Broadcast Viewer during two consecutive broadcasts. It was later rumored that the family had somehow died, which was unheard of, since The Governance could almost always keep all people healthy and alive, able to heal even the worst injuries and illnesses, giving the Ministers of Governance, or more specifically, the Ministers of Wellness and Life, control over death. The Governance said little else about the incident, but the family was purportedly elevated to Elite status, though some whisperings claim they were secretly exiled to the Abyss.  

           After Zeddian was taken, Zaphia was the only child left in her immediate family, and since his was more spacious quarters, she was eventually allowed to occupy that room. She finally had the privacy to access the grandfather's hidden library for more than a few nervous and fleeting moments, giving her more opportunities to read and explore its contents. She would often escape into the secret room during her family's assigned rest period. It didn't matter that no one knew of day and night, nor had ever witnessed either one, because The Governance assigned everyone's sleep and wake periods. They controlled the lighting and temperature everywhere in The Under, in everyone's home. They controlled sustenance rations, life and wellness care, water, power, education. It was the norm. It was the accepted way of things. Zaphia knew that it hadn't always been that way, and considered that it was likely that very few of The Society had even heard any stories of how different life used to be before The Great Retreat, when the people had to leave The Above and hide underground to escape some unknown catastrophe. She guessed that very few people her age had even heard of The Above. The Ministers of Governance controlled all information too, and imposed severe penalties, most often Early Absolution or worse, exile into The Abyss, on anyone who used forbidden vocabulary or told unapproved stories, or otherwise spoke or wrote anything that challenged The Doctrines of Social Refinement, The Governance, or the integrity or merit of either.

              Zaphia pondered these things as she stared out the little window, lackadaisically watching the tiny dots of light on the black "sky" that she long ago had learned, through the stories and in grandfather's library, are called "stars". During some of her rest periods, there was a really different one, "the Moon", a much bigger "celestial body" that would brighten the dark sky and the land beneath it, and appeared to have a face when it was whole, or rather "full". She had read that it wasn't really a face, but something else. She noticed that one side of the sky was beginning to get lighter, and knew that it meant that "the Sun" was rising, and it would soon be "daytime" on The Above. She had come to know that her family's assigned rest period coincided with the "night". She often wondered if anyone else had ever seen day or night, or even believed it occurred, or if most of the people, not having heard The Stories, believed only what they were told by The Governance. How could they know? Zaphia knew, because she could see the difference for herself through the two feet of zirconized glass between her and The Above, which really wasn't all that "above" after all, at least to the extent that her parents were taught after the second Minister Elite banned the teaching of what he called, and convinced The Ministers of Governance to call, "twisted truths and inaccuracies'', and made it a crime to recite these false teachings. The people of The Society were made to believe that The Under was miles beneath the surface, and that there was no air, a formidable and hostile place where the acid rains and radioactive winds would take the flesh right off your bones. But she saw the truth every time she looked out her window. There might not be air, but it wasn't the hell that the Governance led all people to believe, and it wasn't miles beneath The Above. She had always hoped to see a bird fly by the window, or an animal or insect to scurry past, but in her five years of watching, she had seen none... no animals, no plants, just rock and sky. The Stories came to include the experiences and knowledge of Zaphia's parents and their generation, and through them, the knowledge that The Under wasn't as deep below The Above as The Governance would have The Society believe. Zaphia could only wonder why these untruths were being enforced, and she speculated that it was all about control. But for now, the sun was shining and she knew it was time to get into her bed on the other side of the wall and try to get a little sleep before it was time for the family to gather for the morning Governance Broadcast. 

She laid in her bed and wished that she could sleep in the hidden room, safe and out of reach. She had heard terrible stories about how sometimes The Governance would enter a home and take people during their sleep. She sometimes wondered if she should wish that she didn't know the stories, or know about the grandfather's secret room, and all of the wondrous forbidden things and information in there. Sometimes she thought that if she didn't know of those things, she might be happier. Ignorance is bliss, or so she'd heard. She decided she was glad she knew. Even though she couldn't share it all, she was glad. She turned her mind away from those things and drifted into thoughts of all the fantastic things on the other side of the wall. She smiled softly as the hope that they would take her on an exciting adventure far away whispered across her mind.