Science fiction. The savage boy

 

Science fiction. The savage boy

In the 9th month of the year, 3050. A boy, who famously went by the title : Savage Boy. Was seen doing something that was impossible for anyone from our species to accomplish. And that too by someone who has the word “savage” tied to his name. It made all of us wonder if he really was the one we thought he was- A boy, who was a savage! A ruthless and least sensitive being, who would do anything to satisfy the savage residing within him. 

Whatever he was like, this was our impression about him, and that is why we all referred to him as the Savage Boy.

His story is not what you get to hear usually from people around you. Because the Savage Boy does not live among the ordinary people i.e. within the boundaries of the society where you and I live. He lives somewhere else, somewhere where only he can live. And it is so, in spite of the fact that he is a castaway who has been banished from the main society. Not because he was born of savage parents, or he was raised in a savage like society, but only due to one reason: He chose to be one. A Savage!

The boy who later came to be known as the Savage Boy!

His story, as far as we know goes somewhat like this.

It was the 1st month of the year 3030, and it had been raining without a break for more than a month. We all knew something very strange was going to happen, something that we had never witnessed before. Most of us were preparing for the great flood. Because we knew everything would be inundated, and finally life would drown in this water world. With rain that had been pouring from the skies for almost a month now, our apprehensions were based on well established observations of the rising water levels, making the great flood inevitable. 

We rarely went out because there was no dry place to set foot on; and we were leading lives of extreme subsistence. All our lakes and rivers were overflowing 7 meters above the danger mark. Our cities had been transformed into a water logged world, where even the fish feared to venture. 

Our land had experienced a great flood before as well, but we all were so busy living our lives and recovering our losses that we let it be. Eventually the day we should have prepared for in advance knocked at our door. And when it did, we were taken by complete surprise. 

Total unpreparedness and lack of resources left us completely vulnerable. Had we been fully prepared, and had we learned from our past experiences, we could have prevented the devastation we were witnessing now due to the rising water levels. To the extent that we only saw water, wherever we looked. There was nothing else, but water.

It was then, that someone who had been monitoring the rising water levels, gave us the news that everything will now be completely submerged under water in the next two weeks. 

The higher grounds, high altitude valleys, had been already occupied by people who could find the means to go there. But most of us were still stranded in these low lying areas, and we knew this was the end of everything. So, we waited for the next announcement that would declare the end of every hope and every rescue operation as well. 

Because it was not only our city that was dealing with this new reality, it was a global phenomenon that had claimed every part of the world. A global crisis!

If the water world looked like anything, it surely would look like this. Exactly like the world we were surrounded by.

On the 15th day of the 1st month of the year 3030, when we all had given up, because it seemed hope too had given up on us. Something happened, and it changed everything, and forever.

The boy whom all of us knew as Tamraz. A quiet, submissive and an average boy. With nothing special about him, nothing at all. You would pass him for a fool of the town. And many of us thought so about him. Because he was too reluctant to believe in what he thought was not correct and interfered with the logical makeup of the universe and that of the Earth as well.

On this day. Yes, on the 15th day of the 1st month of the year 3030, Tamraz did something phenomenal. And this act of his earned him the title: The Savage Boy!

What did he do that made him a savage or what was so heinous that it was considered savagery by all of us?

As is the norm of our new world; we punish bodies and we condemn souls. But with the Savage Boy, there was neither body nor soul, there was just the boy, who was about to do something that would change our world forever.

In the afternoon of this day, he began climbing the peak of the mountain, there he did something, something about which we do not know anything at all. Because when he returned, he was shining like a massive glow worm. And wherever he placed his finger tips, the water levels sank and as he waded through these receding water covered alleys and avenues, the water levels began dropping everywhere. 

It was nearly after a month that we could see the ground again. Covered in mud, strange looking shells, sludge and soaked dirt that flowed like small gullies of viscous liquid.

And in the middle of this soaked and mud covered wasteland, stood the Savage Boy. Still glowing like the brightest glow worm. Then he looked skyward and the Sun finally appeared in the sky. Clear and bright, and more pleasant than it had ever felt. 

The Savage Boy had saved our world, but he had paid a personal price for this. A huge price, that none of us could compensate him for. He had acquired the brightness of the glow worm that now needed to find the sunlight to stay active; and whatever liquid he touched it instantly evaporated. A quality that became his curse!

So, as our world turned drier and warmer, his thirst grew stronger and stronger. And with every passing day, his glow evolved into a fire like brightness that now felt warm. And eventually he began dissipating heat, a lot of heat.

One day, when all the ground had dried and we walked around freely; and happily just like before. Attending to life’s calls and rebuilding our lost reserves of hope. The Savage Boy stood on one of the roof tops, soaking all the sunlight he could. He must have been there for 2 hours when he began resembling fire. The fire that burnt. He was now the boy on fire and no more a boy who glowed like a glow worm.

The boy that radiated light, had been transformed into fire. Walking fire! And whatever he touched dried and turned into ashes. While he kept burning. 

What caused this fire in him to burn ceaselessly was a mystery to all of us, and since that day he has been living at the top of the mountain, with his fire. What else, we do not know. Nobody knows! Because nobody cares. 

As such, humans only care when they are in crisis or when they are in need. And our behaviour towards him proved this human trait.

Ungratefulness is a part of our societies and we displayed its superlative example, when we forgot all the sacrifices the boy had made for us and we began calling him : The Savage Boy. Although he became what he became, for our sake and for the sake of our well being. Maybe he was the answer to our prayers when we had lost all our hopes. But we decided to forget all that, to the extent that today none of us remembers the boy he once was, we all remember the savage in the boy. Although he has not committed even a single act so far that would qualify him to be a savage. None at all!

Maybe it is the savage within us that actually wants to recognise everyone else as a savage too. Otherwise, we would feel lowly, worthy of being reviled. The beings who in reality belong to the underworld of extreme savagery. And to overcome this passive self confession of debasement, we always tend to somehow convince ourselves into believing that everyone else is a savage too. And in case the person is very powerful and deeply anchored in rudimentary principles of leading a just life. Then we do not hesitate to use the word Savage with their names, and we refer to them by these names in public. Do you know why? It satisfies our guilty conscience somewhere. 

And that is what happened in the case of the Savage Boy too.

Nevertheless, he seems to be at peace with himself in spite of the fire that burns around him, who knows maybe within him too. The fire to which he was not used to at all. And do you know how he manages to isolate the savage from the boy so effortlessly? He somehow adapts to everything and anything that fate throws at him. Yet, he filters the best, and retains it. While disavowing the bad filtrate.

Many years went by, the Savage Boy lived in the mountain as usual. And once again we dealt with the affairs of life as if nothing had happened. We had almost forgotten about the flood and the panic it had created in our midst. 

Life kept us busy and the Savage Boy walked past us everyday. Yes, almost everyday. 

One afternoon, in the year 3050, it began to rain. It rained for a few hours and then it stopped. We all went to work, few of us noticed the Savage Boy at the corner of the street constantly looking at the sky. His eyes did not want to disengage from whatever he was visually interacting with in the sky. We observed him, just a few of us. 

It was as if he wanted something from the sky, and to a few of us watching him. We felt the sky had finally granted him his wish. After standing there for almost 20 minutes, he left and began climbing the mountain. Leaving behind a trail of fire, blazing fire that it seemed only burned him and nothing else, nothing else at all.

That day, few of us who had been watching him, decided to follow his trail of fire. Because we could feel something ominous was about to happen. 

We began following the trail of his fire, and at the peak of the mountain where he usually sat, we saw the fire like figure, his figure. It turned motionless and we realised the Savage Boy had placed himself on the stone where he usually sat.

The moment he sat on the stone, it began to rain again. It reminded the few of us of the year when it had rained ceaselessly for more than a month. The rain fell with the same intensity and it exuded a savage like feeling. Merciless and relentless.

Finally, after having walked for more than 2 hours we stood next to him. He turned his head and looked at us. He did not say even a word. He chose to stay silent and we felt he wanted us to talk first.

The place where he sat was dry, because the rain did not fall there. It was as if the sky had developed a hole reserved especially for him, and it wanted to keep him and the place around him dry. And we, who stood in this circle of dryness that surrounded him, did not feel strange, but we felt relaxed, for whatever reason that might be! But that is how we felt.

From the peak, we could see that the water level was rising and he was looking at it constantly. It seemed he wanted to do this forever.

Then one of us decided it was time to address him.

“What will happen now, please tell us?”

He looked at us, but we could not tell whether it was a thoughtless look or a thoughtful look. Because fire has a singular expression, the expression of red, fire red!

Then, after a few minutes he chose his words carefully, but just a few, “ It will soon be like the 1st day of the 1st month of the year 3030!”

He said these words and resumed his visual interaction with the water level that was continuously rising. 

And the person who had spoken before, chose to speak again, “can we stay here with you and bring our families as well? Please,”

This time he did not wait, but spoke immediately, “Yes you may. The mountain belongs to all of you. And my dry circle belongs to all of you too. As long as you do not come too close because then my fire might burn you. Because in this circle, when it is raining, my fire loses its few properties. If it comes in contact with something, it tends to burn it. 

So, please be aware of this fact. Now hurry up! You just have 1 day.”

“Just a day. That is it!” 

This is all we could think of as a sensible and immediate reaction.

We ran towards our homes, we carried whatever we could to survive. And our family members followed us. We did not tell others and they did not bother to ask as well, because they had completely forgotten about the 15th day of the 1st month of the year 3030. And this deliberate ignorance would become their greatest folly.

We arrived at the peak of the mountain, we carefully accommodated ourselves within his circle, while making sure we did not get too close to him.

On the 4th day of rain, everything got flooded just like it had on the 15th day of the 1st month of the year 3030.

Then, the Savage Boy rose from his stone, and looked at the flood water. As he stood there, he focused on it with his eyes and the water rose like a huge whirlpool. Then he once again touched it with his finger tips and it began receding. But it did not stop raining. 

Then the fire that rose from him from everywhere, began to die out; and he once again glowed like a glow worm. And in 10 minutes, this glow too vanished, and he transformed into the boy he had always been. A boy who was not a savage.

At this moment he looked at us and asked us to tell the population that they should not treat their cities like dump yards of human greed and selfishness, whereby every water outlet gets choked, to the extent that when it rains it leads to floods. 

Then he summoned one of us and asked him to take a cartridge like thing. Which according to him was a self powered drill that could bore holes through toughest and hardest materials. Its micro jaws moved with such intensity that they crushed any hard substance to pieces. He asked him to place it inside one of the manholes.

Offering him assurance that when it would begin churning the sludge, the underground water channels would be unblocked, Then the rain would stop and the Sun would rise again.

But he warned us that the flood and flood causing rain will return if the city becomes callous, careless and heedless towards nature’s calls for help.

We did as instructed by him and everything became normal once again.

The boy who was now not covered in fire, had received a bounty. He could turn into fire as and when he wished so. Not only that, when he touched water it dried completely, but only when he wished so.

Two days later, we went to see him, he was again looking at the sky in the same direction where he had looked the first time when he had turned into a glowing being, that finally evolved into fire. The sky appeared to open. Yes it literally opened, we could see a void in the sky. And through the void we could see a different world that existed beyond the skies and beyond the stars of our galaxy.

The boy suddenly disappeared and the void closed forever.

But we, just a few of us, who believed in the boy and not the Savage Boy, visit the mountain, and we too look at the sky, in the same direction. But we only see the sky, just blue sky during the day, and dark sky during the night. 

Maybe it is about how we look at things, and with what intentions we seek things, that actually opens voids where secrets of the universe lie hidden. The boy had somehow mastered the art of opening this void at his wish. And he could interact with its secrets like symphonies that his mind understood, because the universe created them for him. Just him! And this was his greatest gift. Unfortunately it was largely misunderstood by most of us.

And on realising this fact, we wished him well!

To know what the boy discovered when he entered the void, you must read the science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075. In this science fiction there too is a boy, but now he is in love with a beautiful woman. And this sci-fi talks about the void that will consume humanity in 2075, because the Earth will be battling with a different kind of crisis. That of emotional drought and famine of feelings. And this shall qualify for true savagery!

It is then the void should open, it is then the Savage Boy should reappear, because if he does not, the famine will end everything, and in it shall lie the humanity’s graveyard. 

To know more, read the science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075. 

While you are at your own pleasuresome pace turning the pages of this wonderfully engaging scifi novel, we will return to the mountain peak. And make a best effort to look at the sky and look at life too. The way the Savage Boy did! The savage who was a boy, but not a savage at all!

But unfortunately, most of us knew him by one name, “The Savage Boy!” And it certainly was our act of absolute savagery.