The timeline

How I remember

Feeling the leaves touching the grass, how much do I long for those days to come back to me. Crushing the yellow crisp leaves. A sign of winter coming.

Soon all the leaves would have fallen to the ground and the trees would have to survive a whole season without the ability to create food.

Except for this season, this winter might be much longer than usual.

I wish I could tell you everything went normally. I wish I could tell you there was no deviation from the normal. That there was eternal peace and everyone was eternally happy.

But there would be no story to tell, no adventure to follow if there was.

When you looked at it from a distance it would seem like a skyscraper with a huge base and sinister windows. Once you got nearer though you would be able to see in more vivid detail. It would look like the pentagon of your world except much bigger. The human eyes would be able to distinguish the towers that emerged from this base and the spaces between the towers. These towers would have elevators in them and different floors for different purposes. The towers would lie above the clouds.

You would wonder if the people would enjoy watching the scenery or whether it would just be blocked by the water that evaporated from the ground in the form of clouds. Of course, anyone can guess but will anyone know.

This story is about one of those people as well as the countless others that contributed to the building of the towers with the pentagon base, the city and the whole world upon which this story is based upon. After all, each person contributes to this massive links and emotional bonds that we have with each other.

This massive building was called Dorthrim. The children were playing by throwing rocks that skipped over water. The rocks skipped over the reflection of the Dorthrim. These children would marvel at the land and play all day.

"Tomorrow let's play all day", said one of the child

Dorthrim was the result of a massive project undertaken by thousands of architects. It could be as large as any capital city of your world. Built specifically by a state it was considered to be made for the council of ministers and the Parliament. However, with time it would later be open to many people and people would look up to it not only as a huge project made up by their hands but also as art made by their hearts and minds.

Dorthrim had also captured the emotions of the parents of the children who helped preserve the building. This building was preserved by countless others who lived kilometres away. But high speed trains and hovercrafts allowed Dorthrim to remain isolated from the commercial areas and residential areas of the workers.

But children would travel with their working parents to visit the isolated city where Dorthrim lies. It was easy to get lost. Yet no one did. Even without cameras were installed everywhere  people and parents seemed to instinctively know where their children would be doing their daily routine activites.

In Dorthrim the voices of children playing, the songs of the birds and the businesses of the people working could be heard.

Dorthrim had been one of those rare places where everyone lived equally and in peace. But it hadn't always been this way.

There were those days when humans lived in caves. Neanderthals lived in dark places. There were also those days before they discovered fire and how people learned to cook. Finally, humans were able to feast on a wide variety of food after the discovery of fire. Whether it was eating tiny insects such as ants or feasting upon grilled mammoths' meat humans found a way to share what they had.

Sharing homes and sharing food, sharing with their children, wives, husband and neighbours. Building of larger communities and tribes. A certain kinship developed between the people who lived together.

 
But there was a limit in nature to how big a community could grow. People would fight over resources. Different tribes fought against each other to gather rations. It had seemed war and peace seemed inevitable until a new kind of invention was found by the humans

The art of farming.

People experienced a population boom with the ability to grow crops.

Homo sapiens could feed their families, export crops to other areas as well as breed domestic animals. People didn't have to worry that their families might be broken or would be lost in a hunting expedition. Such was security given by this discovery. People searched and dived into the unknown with firm knowledge and economic security. People in these agricultural lands gave their workers and scholars social status.

But there was one problem.

We know what happened. Was it a natural consequence? Or could it be controlled? We look at nature and the resources and wonder what more could we possibly discover. And we happen to come across many theories. Anthropological, biological, physical, political and chemical. All sciences tend to point out the obvious and the possibilities and the limitations.

Crop failure, famine over a period of years and epidemics were the causes. The population could be explained by these two biological reasons. Women would survive the famines better than men, according to unknown reasons. But both genders would die nonetheless. The population of some countries of your world increased from 150 million to 300 million. Whenever the population increased the epidemics would spread more easily as it was more crowded and famine occurred more easily as there were more mouths to feed. And back and forth within these ranges, the population would fluctuate.

Where do I come from? Well, Dorthrim has those answers. Let's say I come from another universe. Another part of space and time.

How can someone from another dimension understand nature, the nature of earth? How can he feel the leaves? Do the birds still sing in his part of the universe? Does he have similarities with the species called homo sapiens? Does he even speak languages at all? Or does he translate his languages from the other part of space and time? Does he use the translate app? How old is he anyway? Does he celebrate birthdays?

Most importantly does he search for meaning and purpose in his life? Does he feel?

Whenever we study a good story we learn our limitations as well as abilities. Hopefully, this story will do the same.

A long winter has yet to come.