Something Like a Utopia

People have begun to forget. Forget how things were before everything that happened did. Memories of vast cities with millions of people going about their day everyday without a worry of what was to come. I have no doubt it crossed their minds. My mom says that they spoke about it often, yet too many made the choice to do nothing.

They had somewhat mocked her when she told them about her idea of buying a large amount of acreage in the mountains that had a cave on it. When the coastal cities began to empty from the smell of decaying sea life that began showing up on their shores because of the desalination of the oceans due to the ice caps melting people began to run around in a hushed worried state. I was six then, yet the memories of my mom’s taking me to the coast to see the carcasses of the giant blue whales, great white sharks, the mighty tuna, and all other salty sea creatures was ingrained into my mind, my heart, my very soul.

We finished building this place soon after. One hundred acres in what used to be known as the Utah Rocky Mountains. Three years later when the geyser known as Old Faithful turned out to be the center of the volcano under Yellowstone National Park anything within a five hundred square mile radius was all but destroyed as the ash and heat from the eruption consumed it all.

The people who had thought my mother crazy came to her to be saved. Even with mass evacuations millions were lost. The eruption had triggered a chain reaction of volcanoes around the world to clear a path for resetting what the human race had done to the planet. She saved as many as she could within the time we had before it was unsafe to leave the cave opening exposed. My mom had to hold my mother back as she detonated the explosives on the outside of the ten inch thick lead lined door.

I do not know how long she sat with her hand pressed against the door grieving for the world and people in it that she could not save. I just remember the moment she stood. Walking over to me she crouched down, taking off the necklace I had never seen her not have around her neck. She traced the infinity symbol engraved on the front. Lacing my small young fingers between hers she ran my fingers over the rough marking, “Most people say that this symbol is one that stands for love. I think differently. For me it stands for hope because without hope we can have nothing else.” Opening it was a picture of the three of us with a small folded piece of paper. Standing she kissed my forehead as my mom held her as they walked back towards. Opening the paper it has the same saying that was written on the back of the door, When we stop caring for one another is when humanity is lost. For the next ten years I held onto those thoughts every night as I fell asleep in that cave with the eighty-seven others that we had saved. I held onto hope.

I smile softly as I look around five years after we raised the door digging our way out of the mountain's rubble. The land around us was still healing from the destruction that it had gone through. Watching my mother as she went back and forth with one of her friends who was closer to my age than hers. He was one of the many from the coffee shop that she used to visit. Almost all of them came. My mother Cate was a force in her own right. She was kind, brave, brilliant, and had a courage that could not be defined. She considered herself average looking, but her soul was something that held the universe itself. She was the heart that held us all together. She was the type of person that when everything was ending she even invited my father and his new family. He did not come and while I knew what he had done to her. Yet, she never had anything harsh to say about him in my presence.

She met Lara, my mom right after we returned from the coast. With a trailer full of pallets heading to our home in the mountains we stopped at a local farm to pick up a few llamas. Lara was on her way to the city that was behind us and I watched magic happen. One conversation was all it took. Granted they dated for just about a year before she moved in with us. Every weekend though Lara who had never lived anywhere but the city came and learned from my mother everything that nature could offer. My mother was by no means a hippie but she could explain how an ant moving a single piece of dirt made it snow in the mountain. Lara was the head around here helping to keep everything in order, keep people on task. They were each other's balance.

Cate had named me Sydney when I was born. My father hated the name but it was my name anyway. They divorced when I was three. While I might not remember all that happened before we left. I remember fear and the weight being lifted from me the day my mother walked away from him. I remember the three years that followed, her giving me a childhood that was bright. I remember her teaching me how to ride a bike, apologizing when she lost her temper and wiping her tears because of how she had thought that she had failed me. I was allowed to make my own choices. She helped me when I needed it, yet always allowed me to figure things out in my own way. I learned how to embrace new things and with the five bite rule for dinner I found foods that I loved and I at least tried foods that I could say that I did not enjoy. Even when the world was going to hell. I was still allowed to be a child. In the cave all of us kids had school time. My mother preferred hard copy books to digital ones. One whole section of the honeycombs that led off of the main cave was dedicated to books, the arts and music. A couple of the former basisitas from the coffee shop had become teachers so we all learned. The information was now outdated of course but in a time of uncertainty we knew that we had class three days a week. We had structure, we had a family, we had love and most of all we had hope that the next day would come.

By now word had spread about our little comune. Our numbers had grown to two hundred and forty-three. Our system was simple, every person got an acre. If you had a family of five you got five acres. If you were a single person you got one. Every property grew a crop. Everyone helped each other. Those who were on the outside perimeter were our first line of defence. Every half circle inward had key households that were in charge of holding their line. Children were sent inward if anything was happening, the older taking care that the younger made it safely. Our land, all sixteen acres, was the strong hold with the cave as our safe room as it were. If an outsider made it this far with the threat of trying to take us over, they would not walk out alive, more so if we had to enter the cave once again.

If you made the choice not to take part in how things were done then you would be asked to leave. We knew that a utopian society was not achievable, but anyone who became a part of our family, our village, our town. They knew that we all could handle ourselves and we took care of each other. We had our humanity with the understanding that while the world was burning some had lost theirs. Stranger were not given trust, they earned it.

Seeing my mom walk over to my mother kissing her softly I always smiled. We still had hope after all these years which meant we still had love. Watching my mother taking in a deep breath I looked at the main trailhead to see one of our most trusted families with a group of newcomers. Taking in a deep breath I walk back into the greenhouse to the third hydroponic table. Opening up the front panel I pull out the set of Heckler & Koch USP’s. Time to say hello and show them around.With the hope that they would not be as stupid as the last group.