THE GUITAR MAN (Part One) by Leela
This is a story about a brave man. But before I tell you about him I must tell you what a terrible, challenging time he was born into.
It is the year 2331 AD. Men still walk upon the earth, but her resources have been completely depleted. Rivers and lakes are things of the past, the ozone artificially supported, and worst of all there are no trees left. Humanity survives on a government regulated diet of sea algae and desalinated water which becomes more scarce each day, and the ecologists, who have become outlaws, whisper on the grapevine that there will not be enough to last twenty more Rishhaa, about a decade in the Christian calendar.
Almasta was born this year, on the forty-fifth day of the second Rishhaa, also known as Kisa, the wet season. It is experienced as a global monsoon period, with torrential rains for the entire ninety days of the Rishhaa. The outlaws estimate that almost a billion selas (sela - a man or woman not in the employ of the All Allied Power government) die during this season, due to flooding, lack of food and rioting in ration lines.
Fortunately for Almasta, he was born warm and dry in a stone house in the Zuincy prefecture. His father was the general manager of Roo distribution for the prefecture. Warren Feltina was therefore responsible for the Roo food pellets for the 1.3 billion people living in Zuincy. He was a rich, powerful and corrupt man. And on this day he was happy. He had a son.
Almasta was the sixteenth child born to Warren Feltina and his five wives. He had fifteen sisters aged between three months and thirty-two years. By AAP law, men who could afford the Roo could have up to five wives, but the biological mother of each child was not to be known, except by the yaya, the group of mothers themselves. This rule was established by the mothers in order to protect barren women, or those only able to bear daughters, a side effect of the Roo dominated diet. So in effect Almasta had five mothers and they were a caring yaya, filling him with love and hope and milk for as long as they could.
His closest companion was Neeta, his youngest sister. (His yaya had all been sterilized after the birth of a son, another AAP decree.) She was three months older and the two of them had been inseparable since birth, suckling together and refusing to even sleep apart. He had other playmates, the children of prefecture officials and teachers, but even then, when he was only three years old, they were always nagging him for Roo pellets. Since had plenty in the pockets of his robes, he gave away whatever he had even though his father had warned him against this. And in a short time the parents of these little boys also started to pester him about the same thing, asking him to remember their names and mention them to his father. So Neeta, having access to almost as many Roo as himself, was a fine partner. Not only did she never ask him for anything, she was also brave and sure of herself and would leap from terrace to rooftop across the neighbouring houses without even looking down or seeming nervous at all. And Almasta always had to follow, not only because she was a girl and it would have been embarrassing not to, but because he loved her so much it did not enter his head to say no to her. If he had been able to look into Neeta's heart, he would have seen that she loved him with such totality that she would never take a jump that she wasn't sure he could make, and perhaps he sensed this, and learned to trust her utterly.
The finest day of Almasta's life came just after his thirtieth birthday (ten years old by the Christian calendar). It was during a particularly heavy Kisa and everyone had been flooded in for half the season. His father had gone on a trip to the AAP capital of Palak, and had not been heard from since leaving to return to Zuincy. Almasta's yaya were very concerned and had shut themselves up in their communal chambers to try and contact him on the astral plane, even though Warren Feltina did not approve of this practice. So everyone was relieved when his kayjaa paddled into the underwater courtyard. The servants rushed out of the house and waded into the water to steer him in, and others immediately began to unload the heavy cargo of packages inside it, but the bulkiest package he uncharacteristically insisted on carrying in himself.
There was a hush as the head of the Feltina family pulled his heavy body out of the medium sized craft, clutching the mysterious box to himself. His yaya wives, who had been nagging in unison about the length of his absence, fell silent. Warren went straight towards his only son and called out "Almasta!"
The boy drew back in extreme fear for he knew little of this man, his father, but the look in Warren's eyes was soft and they were even a little misty, so he allowed himself to be pushed towards the big man in front of him. Warren Feltina took Almasta's hand in his own and smiled joyfully at his son. Then he turned his head and bellowed "Everyone clear this space!" Within seconds the room was empty accept for little Neeta who wanted to see what was in the box. "Get going you little brat, before I send you off to The College!" and she too scurried off. Almasta twisted his neck to watch her leave and just caught the sour look on her face.
When they were alone, Warren turned his attention to the funny shaped box in front of him. It was made out of some sort of papier mâché which he was tearing through with his knife and underneath this was a leather case shaped like a pear with an elongated neck. Warren instructed Almasta to sit down, and sitting himself gently clicked open the latches on the case.
Inside there was something Almasta had never seen. It was a sort of brown color, but like no brown he had seen before. It was alive, and in the middle was a large hole with thick strings running over it attached to some sort of long handle. It had a design of small flowers, which Almasta had seen in pictures on his computer screen, inlaid with some sort of milky white stone.
"This is your guitar," his father said and now his eyes were not just misty, there were tears actually running down his cheeks. "It has been in our family for over nine hundred Rishhaa, and only a young man before his fiftieth birthday may touch it, and once he does no other may touch it until its previous owner is dead."
"What is it made of?" asked Almasta, still mesmerized by the warm brown gleaming up at him.
"Wood."
"What is wood?"
"Wood used to come from trees."
"Oh." Almasta had seen pictures of trees too, they looked like big flowers to him.
"Touch it," his father said.
And so Almasta did. First he stroked the wood panel of the guitar, then let his hand fall across the threads which trembled and produced a beautiful, unknown sound. Almasta pulled his hand back quickly, afraid he had gone too far, but his father was ecstatic.
"He's a natural!" he bellowed, "Now close the case!"
Almasta shut the case while Warren yelled for everyone to come back into the foyer. When the entire family had assembled Warren Feltina made an announcement. "At the end of this Kisa Almasta is coming with me to Palak, the capital. He is going to the Academy."
Everyone cheered and clapped, though none of them really knew what 'The Academy' was. Everyone except Neeta, who understood only that her beloved Al would be leaving her.
Almasta spent the remainder of the rainy season in chaos, packing and being fussed over all day. He had new robes made and a year's supply of Roo packed. He took lessons in protocol in order to be received by his father's associates in Palak. At night he lay awake staring at the guitar, which he had left in its case since his father's arrival. It was the most amazing thing he had ever touched or seen and he was already deeply attached to it, but it was changing his life radically and he was scared. He would have spoken to Neeta about it but she had made herself unavailable by cloistering herself with her sisters in the Moon Chamber. Men were not allowed in this part of the estate so Almasta sat outside until she emerged.
"Why are you mad at me?" he asked.
"I'm not mad!" she yelled, "I just think you are stupid! What if 'The Academy' is like 'The College', where bad people and selas get sent to? Don't you know we will never see each other again?" and she flung her arms around him, sobbing, but when Almasta put his arms around her she pushed him away and ran back into the Moon Chamber.
Poor Almasta was in quite a state when it came time to step into the Feltina kayjaa with his father. The whole household was assembled to see him off. Fatima, the head of his yaya, approached him with something in her hand. "Bina wanted you to have this. It belonged to her father. He had no sons." She placed a string with one solitary seed around his neck. It was a treasure. Almasta had never seen one, but he had heard that heads of state wore them pinned in their hair for galas and events and that they were the most precious commodity in the AAP.
He stood before Bina, the youngest in his yaya. She had been bound by tradition to let Fatima, the eldest, present him with such a gift. When he looked into her round brown eyes he saw himself and in that moment realized she must be the yaya who birthed him and he dropped to his knees and touched her feet. She quickly bent down to pull him back up and when they were almost cheek to cheek he whispered "Thankyou, mother," in the old tongue. Bina only smiled and placed both her palms over his head in a gesture of love and protection. Kisa rains were so polluted as to be deadly and this movement of the hands over a beloved's head translated as 'I protect you from all with blood and skin.'
Almasta was so overcome by his yaya's gift and the reality of leaving his only home and going into the dangers of the unknown that he began to cry. He struggled to keep his emotions in check but this seemed to make the love and sadness in him grow and he burst into sobs. Warren Feltina, dismayed and embarrassed at this unmanly show, grabbed Almasta's shoulder and steered him aboard the Kayjaa. Almasta hesitated, but Warren's grip was firm and Almasta was pushed along.
"AL!" someone cried out. Everyone, including Warren and Almasta, froze. "Wait for me! Take me with you!"
"Nonsense!" Warren Feltina roared, and shoving Almasta into the kayjaa he jumped aboard and ordered the servants to push off.
Neeta stood on the pier of the great house of Feltina calling out to her only brother but her cries were carried away by the wind into the distance that grew between them. Almasta watched her shout and wave her arms and shouted back, "Wait for me! I will come back. I will come back when I am a Guitar man!"
But he had no idea if she heard him, for after a few moments longer she stretched out her arms and let herself fall into the deadly rainwater.
end of part one........to be continued
Part 2
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