The Big Wide Beyond!

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room.

And as she did, she jumped back in shock as two big old wrinkly brown eyes appeared so suddenly on the other side of that window! The depths of those eyes drilled deep into her soul and she felt like this man knew her every thought!

And just as swiftly, he bashed his spear point against the glass while screaming, “baaaaah!”. His black curls wildly blowing about as his mouth opened wide and his eyes grew bigger than the sun!

She jumped away, her heart pounding but not before noticing a faint crack in the everything-proof glass! She gulped in fear not believing her eyes!

This bunker, her sanctuary, was built especially to protect and not just anyone, but HER! It was all she could remember, all she knew! If that crack in the glass grew, what could she do?

Did she have the strength to fight off anyone, or did she have the courage to do what her heart ached for and actually cross through that window to speak to these people!

_____

Sometimes she lay on her back staring at the ceiling. It was painted like the azure blue sky with fluffy clouds lazing about!

So often she would dream of how the sun would feel on her olive skin or what a cool breeze would feel like!

Her best friend Daisy had described it to her after excursions into the Big Wide Beyond (well that’s what she called ‘out there’), but SHE, Eden, was never allowed out of the compound.

She’d been told since the death of her big brother when she was six years old what her destiny was. She remembered him a bit: mid brown short hair handsomely cut, throwing her in the air with laughing eyes or crawling about on the floor as she rode his back, her personal pet pony or running to him with her scraped knees or big dreams!

She missed him so much even though it was many years ago he ‘left’ her. His room had been made into a kind of shrine and no one was supposed to enter except cleaners but she sometimes snuck in and just lay there for hours, on his bed wishing he was lying there with her sharing her thoughts and dreams and wishes. She felt so alone!

She WAS alone! Her brother was the last of her family to survive the revolt and now he was gone too!

So she had to make her own family and gather around her people she knew loved her and she could trust. But it was never enough. She wanted a mum and dad to run to; siblings to fight and play with.

Too old now to actually play, she still yearned for them, just as much as she yearned to escape this prison, as beautiful as it was!

Her thoughts moved back to that man and the crack in the window! Who was he? What did he want? Why did he try to frighten her?

_____

She was only a toddler when The Revolt happened, when her parents died during the uprising of The Originals!

She didn’t remember but she’d learnt about it in her studies.

All the first nations of the world came together in a huge gathering and overthrew all the world’s governments.

It first began with Australia and America; the Aboriginal and Indian people.

They wanted their laws back. Believing they are the true Original protectors of their countries they thought they had a right to go back to their ‘old ways’ of lore and custodianship in order to fix the damage done to their lands by ‘The Colonists’ - the people from other countries who took over their lands and put them on reservations!

So they overran their governments and when the other countries saw their success, they led ‘The Gathering’ (a summit to teach other Indigenous leaders how to do the same) and then 3 years of anarchy and war followed!

The end result was that Eden’s family was gone, and she, the lone survivor of her country’s ruling family is living in a mostly underground bunker until she comes of age and can rule!

The responsibility of trying to win back her country from these… these Originals, seemed so overwhelming and she wasn’t sure she actually WANTED to do it!

_____

A shadow fell over her and she looked at the window again but this time saw a friendly face smiling back at her! That smile was like pure sunshine and she ran forward to the window again, hands bumping the glass where they met his!

And the crack grew!

Moses was her friend! Her secret ‘Originals’ friend. No one could know about him and she only saw him through this one window! All the other windows in the bunker were monitored by security but for some reason, this one never was. Maybe they thought, being her brother’s room and off limits, no one would ever go to it!

Except Eden. And Moses!

Over the course of the last year, the two had slowly developed a friendship. First through signing gestures and then other ways; Moses had a lot of fun he acted out his words, while Eden talked through drawing pictures.

Moses often drew patterns and images in the red sand outside the window for her and like charades, she loved to guess what it was as he used a stick or his foot to draw!

If she listened oh so carefully, she could make out his voice. But she couldn’t talk back to him through the thick glass unless she shouted and she couldn’t do that for fear of someone hearing her.

They seemed to instinctively know what the other was thinking and Eden longed for the day she could see him, in person, no glass between them! To touch his curly hair; to hear his resonating voice, not muffled but deep and gravelly and clear.

He taught her as much as he could about The Originals, while she shared all she knew of her people!

They were both intensely curious about each other’s culture and it was a good way for Eden to use up her endless hours of boredom!

As always, Moses tried to get Eden to sneak out of the bunker. One of these days the temptation would be too much to bare and she’d cave!

He was pulling silly faces at her, trying to make her laugh! He danced like a crazy man, swinging his spear in such unruly patterns that made no sense!

She was laughing hard at him but stopped at the sound of footsteps marching. With big eyes she gestured to Moses to hide.

Expectantly, she leapt to the bed and turned to face the door.

_____

Moses was so frustrated! Every time he visited Eden, it was never long enough! He could tell by the look on her face it was time to hide.

He could also hear people rustling in the bush only metres away. They would find him soon and then the lectures about staying at a distance from the compound would start!

They were meant to be hunting and the best places for that were around The Colonist settlements. They were known for leaving scraps of food just lying around… easy ‘prey’ for animals.

“Idiots” Moses thought yet again! The Colonists really just didn’t THINK!

For Moses, hunting was just an excuse to visit Eden and hope she was there, in that room with the window above ground.

He couldn’t really remember The Revolt! He was very little when it happened and at the time had been focussing his young mind on learning ceremony and how to spear fish!

He loved his life. He loved that his family was so big and each person had a part to play in the survival of his people and the land they cared for!

His land!

He loved his country so much that he felt he was part of it! His curly dark hair became the creeks and rivers where he swam with his cousins; his long lanky legs turned into the smooth bark of the ghost gums he loved to climb, and his heart and soul lived in every creature he encountered - THIS was his bush home!

He could understand why his people had to fight in The Revolt! He agreed with them as his Elders shared stories around the campfires. Stories of before The Revolt when The Colonists ran the world!

Great cement cities and smelly things called cars that emitted burnt rubber and awful fumes! So much sickness and what on earth was that they ATE????

Give him the fresh air of his homelands any day. The wide open spaces, the richness of wildlife and sounds of running water and leaves in the wind!

Such peace!

He knew, from his Elders, that The Colonists had begun destroying the land, that tides and weather were drastically changing because of the way The Colonists built, produced and lived.

It broke his heart to even think about.

He remembered riding in the back of a Ute once. He loved the freedom of it. It was so fast and what took him days to walk he could traverse in hours. He loved the way the wind blew his hair and thought the dogs licking the wind so hilarious.

But the drawback for him was the noise and fumes. He’d gladly give that up for the fresh clean peaceful life of his bush. And to know he was actively playing his part to rejuvenate the land, to nourish it and guide it along to change it back to its natural form, he lived for that!

But he was finding more and more that even though he loved this life, he also loved Eden and was utterly intrigued by her. He never dreamt he would be friends with a Colonist but it happened all the same!

That first time, Moses remembered, he was on the trail of a goanna and the markings in the sand led right past that window! Overcome by curiousness he peeked his left eye through the pane to have a look!

He was stunned to see a girl, maybe his age? He was terrible at guessing, and she was lying on a bed staring up at the roof and he could see she was crying!

He very softly tapped on the window and she jumped up, screwing her fists into her wet eyes before looking up! He smiled at her surprised face and lifted his hand as if to wave.

As she came closer, hesitant and nervous, he didn’t know what to do!

“Hallo” he said feeling stupid! Is that all he could say?

“Hello” she mouthed back, he couldn’t hear her so tapped the glass again. She tapped back and his grin grew wide showing his teeth and pink gums!

And that was the beginning of their friendship!

He tried to teach her over the months, how important it was to care for the country. He really believed that if only they could teach The Colonists their ways, they could come together as one people to look after their land.

Big dreams and Moses had an inkling that Eden felt the same.

She seemed so discontent with her life. Who wouldn’t be, stuck in a dank underground place like that? How badly he wanted to break in and take her out. To show her what life was really like out here in the fresh air and the bush with its many moods!

He knew she was scared of his people. He didn’t know why. He secretly thought it quite funny thing to be scared of them. But he was also smart enough to know that because of The Revolt, life in general changed and there were two sides to what happened.

In The Colonist settlements and Eden’s bunker, he knew they tried to continue living ‘The Old Way’ but he couldn’t understand how when all the factories had been destroyed. Nothing was being produced the way it did back then.

Of course people salvaged a lot from the war, looting and other acts a common thing. His family took nothing except a few pans for cooking.

His dad, with a wry smile, had sheepishly admitted The Colonists were good for SOMEthing.

But Moses knew in other parts of Australia, his people took a lot more and lived half in and half out of culture.

But he was an idealist. A purist! He preferred living exactly how his ancestors lived for thousands of years passing culture down through story and song.

To make The Revolt WORTH something, they HAD to live this way. Otherwise the war was a complete waste. Of time, of lives lost and of resources.

Slowly over the years many Colonists had joined their ranks and it warmed his heart to see them get in touch with nature and really understand the spiritual aspect of healing country.

_____

He snuck a look back in the window and found she had gone. He worried for her not knowing what the consequences would be of their ‘police’ finding her in a forbidden room.

Now the room was empty, he decided to risk a little more time at the window to see if he could lengthen that crack.

He picked up his woomera and used the point to gently knock at the crack in the glass. Nothing happened so he used more force and to his delight the fracture grew.

Looking around to see where the other hunters were he saw nothing; the noises had died away and he supposed they had moved further on.

Eagerly he continued working at the defective glass. The cracks appearing everywhere like the ice on the river when he smashed holes through, to fish. Rivulets making their own roadmap along ice and the glass.

A piece suddenly dropped to the sill; just a small thick piece and he could see the hole like a gaping open mouth to her world. He picked up the shard and dropped it quickly as blood pooled on his finger.

Moses knew he couldn’t leave the window like that. The hole was so obvious. What should he do? Without shame, he decided to try and remove all the glass. It would be less obvious that way, and just perhaps, next time Eden came, she could climb through it. He was sure the window was big enough for her tiny frame.

_____

Eden decided to try her luck in her brother’s room. She missed Moses and desperately wanted to tell him her woes of the last few months!

Watched like a hawk after she was discovered in ‘The Shrine’ she tried to be the model teen, following the schedules they had for her to a T. But she felt herself shrivelling inside.

This was not the life she dreamed of. She wanted to be free. Not just of time tables and rigid rules, but free, ‘out there’. How desperately she longed to be outside and just to run and run and run. To plunge into rivers and hear the sounds of the birds.

She ached for that. But it wasn’t to be for her. She had a crucial role to play in her society and it suffocated her.

As she snuck down the passage - the guards had finally stopped shadowing her believing she had accepted her fate, she noticed a difference in the air.

Usually thick and moist and suffocating, it had a tang of freshness she’d never experienced before. The closer she got to his door, the more her heart pounded. What was going on? Why was it so different?

Upon opening the door, she could see dried gum leaves were strewn on the floor near the window. Leaping to them she discovered the source of this freshness.

The window… wait, what? The crack was gone! The entire GLASS was gone!

Her heart in her mouth, she had a million exciting taboo thoughts racing through her head.

She could escape! She could be free!

If she could squeeze through that hole, in her mind, the size of a dinner plate, her dreams could be realised. If only Moses was there.

She stuck her head as far as she dared through the opening. Finding it bigger than she initially thought, with her limbs on automatic pilot she found herself crawling through.

She fell to the ground. The soft red sand cushioning her short fall, and a tree casting long shadows, hiding her in its depths as she just sat, stunned.

As she waited for her mind to catch up to her body she took some deep breathes. This was so surreal. There was the cool breeze she’d dreamt of. It gave her goosebumps and made the hairs on her arms stick up.

She loved it. Everything in her world was so controlled, even down to the air. Always the same temperature, never a wind or breeze.

This was intoxicating and she lifted her face higher out of the shadow to feel the warmth of the late afternoon sun on her cheeks.

Lost in the feeling of nature caressing her, she didn’t hear Moses approach until he was in front of her crying “Eden!”

She opened her eyes and just smiled at him as tears slid down her face, finding her mirror in his black face as he smile back and held out his hand.

She grasped it as he pulled her up and couldn’t help but embrace him for freeing her.

Without words, he led her away from her prison and into the Big Wide Beyond!