The Dreamland

The Dreamtime

They had been walking all day and the air was still cold even though they were headed to a warmer region. At ten years of age, this was the first time she was given the chance to join the elders in the hunt. She looked over at her older brother walking alongside her and he seemed very tired at the moment but she knew better as he was just saving his energy for the chance to make a kill and help their people back home. The group had to make their way further and further south each year as animals were becoming scarcer up north.

Somewhere in Australia 65,000 years ago

Waru gazed up into the night sky, distracted for a moment from his hunt for food. He was going through his rite of passage later in history to be termed “Walkabout”. What had caught his attention was the bright comet streaking across the horizon. Death was coming soon. He could only hope that it was not his time yet.

February 12, 1946

Margaret had a hard time sitting still while she waited for the train to pull into the station. It had been more than two weeks since she last saw her husband Henry and wanted to share the exciting news with him. He was coming back from a work-related trip to Melbourne and was supposed to be on this morning’s train. She craned her neck trying the see above the crowd so that she could run to him. Finally, she spotted the familiar yellow fedora that he liked to wear and ran to his arms. “Welcome home honey! Two weeks has been far too long!” she said while laying a big kiss on him. “One day was too long for me my dear, Henry replied!

These were the best of times as far as Margaret was concerned. The economy was continuing to do well after the end of the war and thank goodness Henry and his brother returned unharmed. Now it was time to spring the great news on him. “Well honey, if you missed me for two weeks, just imagine how you are going to feel missing the two of us when you have to leave again,” she teased? “Well, I guess I would….wait a sec, by two of us you didn’t mean you and me did you,” the realization dawning on Henry’s face? “That’s right honey, you are going to be a father, she said!

Henry was on cloud nine as he and Margaret hugged for what felt like an hour. As he pulled back to look into her eyes he spoke “Oh my dear that is just so wonderful, I am almost at a loss for words!” He took her hand and walked towards the exit ramp before suddenly stopping halfway there. “Come to think of it, I think now is as good a time just as any to do this. I was going to surprise you when we got home, but now that just won’t do.” Henry reached into his pocket and pulled out a small felt box. “This is for you my dear. I picked it up after spotting it as I walked past a jewelry store in mid-town.” He handed it to Margaret and as she opened it, she saw that it was a beautiful heart-shaped gold locket on a gold necklace. Seeing that his wife was speechless Henry spoke first. “Here, let me put it on for you right now”. As he locked the clasp securing the necklace and pendant to her neck, Margaret turned to Henry and told him how much she loved him.

June 17, 2029

The sadness was palpable all around her. Hope had had a good life and having lost her husband a few years ago made her time on Earth a little more lonely even though she had three children and 8 grandchildren. She was grateful that her children had helped with the hospice services that allow her to pass in her home of 40 years. Two of her three children were here along with their spouses. She called her eldest daughter into the bedroom. Nurrin was in her early fifties and had been lucky enough to make it back to Australia in time to spend what would be the last few hours with her mother. Her job did not spare her much time as she had to spend most of her time flying from one part of the world to another helping to resolve one crisis or another. She knelt next to her mother at the side of the bed so she could hear her faint voice. “My dear one. I am so proud of the person you are and always knew you were bound to do meaningful things in your life. This was something that your grandmother gave me and now I want you to have it”. Hope opened her hand to show Nurrin the gold heart-shaped locket and chain. “Your grandmother told me that it was a special gift from your grandfather. When I was born she had it inscribed with my name. I want you to now have it.” Nurrin wept as she gazed into her mother’s eyes.

March 23, 2042, Shanghai, China

Nurrin gazed out over the city from her room in the 400 meter Shanghai Central Tower. She was feeling exhausted but in a good way. Today would go down as a monumental day in the history of mankind and all the tireless years of struggle started to ebb away. Her husband Omeo was along with her three children were with her today when in the United Nations assembly, every nation voted to give up their sovereignty and join the one-world congress. As Secretary-General, she almost could not believe that just twenty years earlier no one would have ever dreamt such a thing possible. The threat of war was always seemingly on the edge of breaking out. The fear of a new world order that had corrupted the thinking of so many fringe groups throughout the world was quelled when in 2029 unprecedented cooperation between nations led to overcoming the worldwide Varha virus pandemic. The devastation that the pandemic left made it necessary for nations to cooperate for survival. No one was immune from the fallout.

August 25, 2045, Roxby Downs in the Outback

The trip to visit Omeo’s family members had been a welcome relaxation from the hustle and bustle of the big cities and countless interviews she had been asked to do after retiring from her position that was no longer needed. Nurrin and Omeo watched from the porch swing while her grandson Jiemba held his baby, her great-granddaughter Kalina in his arms as sat at the edge of the porch telling stories of great faraway places to the kids who had gathered around. The day was growing late and the dust was starting to kick up a little. Suddenly Kirra, Omeo’s younger sister came out of the doorway just off to her left and turned immediately to face them with fear in her eyes. “Come right away,” she said trying to keep her voice down so that the others around wouldn’t hear. When Omeo and I followed her into the living room, we saw that she had been watching a broadcast of the nationwide news. As she was trying to make sense of what was happening on the video being shown on screen, she gasped at the ticker on the bottom. “Millions dying from sudden illness!” It read. The three stood there in dead silence taking in the horror while the news anchor explained how people were dying in the streets all over the world from a mysterious illness that seemed to kill in hours. Was it natural? Was it man-made? No one knew for sure nor where it started or how it spread.

They had decided to stop from the day and prepare for the night. This was the second time they passed an area where there appeared to be funny patterns in the ground and hills that seemed out of place. Her brother tapped her on the shoulder and signaled for her to follow him. They walked for a while until they came upon a slope. It was a bit steep, but they managed to wind their way down carefully and near the bottom is where she noticed what appeared to be a spring of water. Her brother smiled and indicated that she should fill her water sack while he filled his and that of the others. After she was done, her brother was still filling up the remaining sacks so she began to circle the spring which was a fairly large size. As she made her way to the far end, she suddenly caught a glimpse of something shiny protruding slightly out of the bank. She called her brother over to have a look. Upon seeing what his sister was pointing at, he grabbed his walking stick and struck the object. It made a sound like he never heard before and it bent slightly. Knowing now that it presented no danger to him, he scraped the ground around the edge and noticed that the object continued into the ground. Using his stick he began to dig around and down slowly exposing more of the strange object. While he was doing this, his sister continued to walk around the spring. Near the opposite end, she happened to glance into the spring and noticed a shiny object under the water. Stretching her arms out, she found that it was a little beyond her reach. She was unable to take her eyes off of the object and stepped into the spring. She did not want to put her head under the water, so she stuck her hands down into it trying to grasp the object. Due to refraction, she missed several times before finally grabbing the item and she started to pull her hand up. She wanted to get out of the water quickly fearing what might be in it. As she climbed out, her brother had just finished digging up the object. To the both of them it kind of looked like the flat shell that they had seen along the seashore, but much bigger. Weirder still was the markings on it “FOXTEL”. “Gwandalan! Koen!” they turned to look and saw their mother at the top of the hill. She was angry and asked them what was taking so long. Koen showed her the strange artifact he had dug up. As her mother called for the others to come to see, Gwandalan opened her hands which up until now had been clasped shut. That is when she saw the tiny shiny object with a shiny string attached to it. As she held it up to the waning sunlight it swung open and she could see more strange marks inscribed in it “Hope”.