Let’s pretend. (Sci-fi.)

 

Let’s pretend. (Sci-fi.)

If you get to be old, you collect many memories. I remember a friend in grade one telling me, “Let’s pretend,” and we went on playing that we were other than ourselves. Later I became a parent and watched my kids pretending and, more recently, my grandkids. It’s not just a kid’s game. I have adult friends who pretend that they own a sports team or even play on it. A group of players from many places is gathered by some business owners and my friends think they are a part of it. “We kicked their butts” or they cheated us and really didn’t win. Our guy is the best goalie in the league.

Let’s pretend that a spaceship came over and rested above Blairmore, or one of our other little towns. A small vessel the size of a train locomotive left it and landed here. Out came humans much like us and, using a translation device much like our cell phones, they talked with us. World media arrived but came against an invisible wall and only we who live here could converse with the aliens. Anashim, they called themselves.

We need some time to study your society, they said, and went on to do so. An invisible force here protected their “vehicle”, and we simply didn’t know what happened to them. At the end of one week, the spokesperson, a middle-aged woman, released a statement. It was a warm summer evening, and the aliens were gathered on the top of their vehicle, illuminated by a light with no visible source. The spokesperson’s voice could be heard clearly by about 5000 of us without being louder when physically closer to the vehicle. A full moon was rising above the trees in the surrounding hills. Media drones and helicopters were gently pushed away without physical means.

We are people like you earthlings, but technologically more advanced, she said. Our efforts went to developing peaceful knowledge while yours has been directed towards competing amongst yourselves. Our weapons are by far inferior to yours, but we have the ability to shut you away and even be invisible to you, so your ability to fight doesn’t concern us. Our world is the same as yours, but affords us more of everything we need. We spent no effort or material on aggression and, consequently, on self-defense. We only produce what we need for comfortable survival and hardly ever get sick. I am now nine hundred and six years old. She demonstrated her agility by jumping off the space vehicle and back to where she was. We excel in medical sciences.

Our world is less populated than yours. Most of us don’t reproduce and we share the children. Since we are all healthy, there is no need to have many children and we study instead of trusting evolution to bring us up to date, as you say.

In your human world, more than half of you are food insecure. The others have overeating problems. We regulate food consumption by following a religious-like rule. Overeating is considered bad manners and is highly unpopular. Using any resources above what we need is frowned upon. Our fashions are simple yet attractive. All of us wear the most efficient and comfortable clothing that we can produce. Individual expression is encouraged, yet conserving is idolized. On special days, we all wear the traditional costumes of our original cultures.

There are no elites amongst us and nothing is inherited. Anashim are valued for their behaviors and achievements. Leadership doesn’t give us additional benefits. People achieve fame and popularity by doing more than the rest to help society. We choose leaders in every aspect of life for their ability and willingness to work harder. If they fail, we will publicly challenge them. Leaders’ terms expire and they serve a transitional period to help train new leaders.

In our world, many resources like land, water, and air, can’t be owned by individuals. Since we live long lives, we exchange places on schedule. It is healthy for us to challenge ourselves and we do. Each of us has lived in every climate but can vacation in others. The change is always exciting.

In our world, we experience the best of all cultures. There are competitions in all things, sports, arts of all forms, and even gladiators fight to their deaths which most people abhor. We do not torture animals by making them fight.

On our planet, there is no poverty and no obscene examples of wealth. We have historical examples of how people lived before the equality revolution. All of us learn about the problems that made us suffer when we had no controls set and our selfishness almost destroyed our world.

People were getting rich by cheating on each other. There was no way to tell what is true or a lie, and stealing from each other was considered beneficial. People were competing for leadership positions to enrich themselves and using the name of the holy spirit to gain upmanship over each other.

The night was warm and the moon bright above Turtle Mountain. The crowd of over 5000 people was almost silent, including the children. Everyone felt that some life-giving secrets were being shared, and we didn’t think that the pretend visitors were chastising us. A jet crossed the sky and was illuminated as it came between us and the noticeable spaceship up above us.

The visitors came down and talked with those nearby for a bit and local photographers and press took pictures. Soon they walked up a ramp into their shuttle and it gently rose. It became a dot of light and shortly after, the ship above began its journey to wherever they came from. There was no mark of where the shuttle rested, but a few cell phones had short videos, which proved nothing. Just the idea that there could be a better life remained. In the morning, it was nothing but a dream.

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