Call Me Ibrahim Chapter 6

Story
He was thirty-three years old now. His English had improved somewhat. His Arab accent did not attract as much ridicule as it had in the past, but English fluency continued to elude him. He thought he wasn't good with languages.

Their first city grew day by day. By the time someone started calling the city "Metro," the number of inhabitants exceeded 5,000 people. If everyone that had migrated to the other side of the island had survived, their numbers should be even higher. The low current, shaky little power plant managed to supply enough power to the city.

A team of scientists, led by Denver, was able to build fairly reliable anti-aircraft artillery. It was hard to aim and didn't have much fire power, but it did the job scaring the monsters away. They were more like noisy scarecrows. Denver was all about efficiency. It even left the shooter with a loud ringing in his ears. They no longer had to worry about sudden destruction and sudden death. Denver's own death would be an especially fatal blow. Much of Denver's knowledge had been written down into books during the last decade, but they still needed more time.

Elijah came in running. He was already sixty years old, and the hardships of the island had weakened him. If he was this excited, it meant that they had found a resolution for an urgent problem. He was prepared to be happy even before Elijah began to speak.

"We found oil, Joshua, just as you had said."

Of course, just as he had said. He did create this world, after all. Seek and ye shall find. Would they also one day find uranium as well? Oil refining was a time-consuming process. It would take even more time to build the cars that would run on that oil. It will take even longer still to heat up homes during the winter. Unlike the more complicated processes, they still possessed technical skills. Advanced science, like nanotechnology, along with research in biotechnology and neuroscience, were being slowly but surely forgotten. No one had brought books of that nature, and it was low priority compared to the urgent matters at hand. Civilization may someday engage in such research again. In a hundred years, perhaps. Or maybe, even in a thousand.

"Aren't you happy, Joshua? What are you thinking about?" Those words suddenly brought him back out of his thoughts.

"I'm happy, Elijah. Of course I'm happy."

"You don't look very happy. Look, you've been wearing yourself thin. You should take a rest, take a vacation."

"I have a lot to do, Elijah."

"You've done enough. No one ever expected that civilization could be rebuilt so quickly. I thought it's enough that we reached the level of the Roman Empire before we could even blink. Joshua?"

"Yes?"

"Try to enjoy life. There's a limit to what we can do in a single lifetime. You're not trying to see a big city like New York rise again, are you?"

"I've never even seen New York," though he had seen it in his dreams. He couldn't quite remember the dream, so to an extent, it was true. "I have a lot to do. There's going to be an explosion of kids. I hear free love has taken root. We'll need institutions to protect the children. There will be jealousy, and it'll create social unrest. Public safety needs to be enforced."

"You're right, but speaking of love," he smiled with a shake of his curly hair.

Joshua knew what Elijah was going to say next. "You should be nice to Herman. I heard that she likes you. And she's pretty, too. There are lots of fellows in the assembly who would love to hold her in the darkness just once."

"Dad, what does it mean to hold someone in the darkness?" Elijah Junior had been following them, the son the elderly Elijah had in this place. He was around thirteen years old. Elijah's other children had all perished together in the deluge. Elijah was overcome by sadness whenever his children were mentioned, and his heart would ache greatly.

"You don't have to know right now," Elijah replied bluntly, but with a softness that could still be felt. He loved this child deeply. Junior smiled widely, as if he already knew the answer. He was extremely smart, and just as big of a jokester.

"Who's holding whom now?" It was Herman's voice. Everyone shut their mouths in surprise. Junior ran over to Herman, who was walking through the door carrying something, and hugged her tightly. She looked around the room to see who was present, her short red hair glowing. She had thrown on clothes that came from bulk production, but they made her look even more brilliant.

"Herman, Herman! Dad and Joshua are talking about you!" Herman glowered at them.

Elijah excused himself, declaring that he must be on his way now due to oil having been discovered, dragging Junior after him. Elijah still made sure to turn around and wink.

"What were you two saying about me?" It was finally time for Joshua to confront the situation.

"...That you're doing a very good job," he managed to answer.

"Joshua, you're a terrible liar. Your face is all red. But, if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine." She was famous for her cold demeanor, but she was different around him. "Here, drink this." She pushed the wooden pail she was carrying toward him. He took it and began gulping down its contents. Sweet taste. Strong fragrance. It evoked faint memories of something he had tasted a long time ago. It was honey.

"It's honey. The apiary must be thriving, then."

"Yup. The older men remember something about beekeeping, although, we don't know what kind of honey this is. Drink it all."

"Oh, what's this? Why has the Ice Princess prepared this all for me?"

"It's good for virility."

He quickly spat out the honey.

"Why'd you do that? We're not even producing that much honey right now," she grumbled. He couldn't look at her.

"Joshua."

"..."

"Give me a baby. You're the one I'm waiting for." It was the truth. She could've had a child by now, as many men expressed interest in her, but she remained aloof, so much so that some began to call her the ice princess. He knew she had her sights set on him, but he could not afford to have a child of his own. No one can dream again. He must not have a family, and he could not be happy. She had dropped him numerous hints, but he dismissed all of them. She decided to adjust her strategy. Now the time had come to decisively turn her down.

"I don't love you."

Her face hardened. She appeared to be thinking for quite some time.

"Can't you just give me a child? Everyone else is doing it. Just sleep together and make a baby. I mean, that is what you wanted everyone to do. Why don't you practice what you preach?"

"Look, Herman. Find someone else. I am busy."

"I'm asking you one last time," she said, pleading in a manner that was out of character. He turned away.

They both stayed silent. She did not cry, but merely stared at him. She gave up. She turned her body with full force and ran out, colliding with the next person on his way in.

"Ow, miss, you should be careful." It was the priest. He watched as Herman ran off.

"Make a woman cry and God will punish you." If that were the case, he would've been punished a long time ago. He hadn't believed in any god since he was sixteen years old.

didn't outwardly display his absence of faith. He did not want to break the priest's heart.

"Here, the draft." He handed Joshua a stack of reddish brown paper. Tiny words were densely written all over the poor quality paper. High quality paper was plentiful now, but even a few years ago, it was difficult to come by. Write small. That was the prevailing attitude at that time, a habit proving to be difficult for the old man to abandon.

"You finished it." It was the newest book of the Bible, which they had embarked on a few years ago. It should flow well after the Book of Kings. The descendants of this land will believe that it was God's wrath that brought the flood again. Or might they confuse the Second Deluge for the First? Or were both part of the same incident? It didn't matter.

Just as long as he was erased from history.