For the sake of pairing some of these adjuncts to the novel alongside their respective chapters, I am taking liberties with the Alphabet for the next couple of days and so we come to E and not C…

My goal in the 2021 A2Z Challenge is to complete a novel I started a few years ago but which has languished for lack of love (writing!). Each Post, daily in April (Sundays excepted), will consist of some aspect of the novel plus a chapter from it. I hope that the Alphabetical items will give a bit of extra background, muse on the writing process, but most of all, help me develop certain ideas to improve the novel. Some 12 chapters are already written so I have a bit of a head start…
Please comment with any opinions good or bad – you have no idea how much I need feedback at this stage…

 

We learn in Chapter 4 of “Train Wreck”, that the capital of Hawaii 2 is called New Orleans because of its location on the delta of a great river but that “The mighty river which drained more than half the area of the continent was not named the Mississippi after the river on which the original New Orleans was located but rather the Euphrates whose status as the possible location of the mythical Garden of Eden was a story that had survived”.

Arguably, Hawaii 2, might well rather have been named Eden instead – but more of that in a later post – Hawaii 2 it was and it is only in naming its great river Euphrates, that tribute is paid to the Eden story. Naturally, one book that did survive the journey to the stars – in the last days of old Earth – was the Bible, as did the sacred works of all the great religions, even if they were carried forth by individuals, as digital editions, as we saw in the previous post.

To understand why Hawaii 2 might have been considered a veritable Garden of Eden, before and most certainly after the climate-altering activities of the settlers (changes for the best) – we may consider this quote from the seventeenth century poet, Andrew Marvel, from his poem, appropriately called “The Garden”.

“What wond’rous life in this I lead!

Ripe apples drop about my head;

The luscious clusters of the vine

Upon my mouth do crush their wine;

The nectarine and curious peach

Into my hands themselves do reach;

Stumbling on melons as I pass,

Ensnar’d with flow’rs, I fall on grass.”

For this is almost the nature of the planet blessed with a perfect climate for agriculture, fertilised with a planetwide, gentle fertilising rain of volcanic dust – the early settlers could hardly believe their luck. Not only that, but no apex predators that would seriously threaten them and no highly sentient rivals either. Just as in the first transition of humans from hunter-gatherer to agriculturalist and pastoralist, in the original, postulated Garden of Eden, thought to have been between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in ancient Mesopotamia, the blessing of abundance liberated mankind to develop more culture and art and  assured surpluses.

There is a theory, to which I heartily subscribe, that the Garden of Eden story, is an ancient race memory of that transition. Not that hunter-gatherer society and life was lacking in culture, art and pleasant times of surplus and not that agricultural life was all plain sailing – and of course, the flaws, were all the women’s fault! It’s easy to see how, whilst the men went off hunting for a few days, came back, cock-of-the-roost and feasted, and lay about for a few days before swanning off with their mates for another hunt – the women, left babysitting and child-minding, had to go off into the bush and gather food for all they were worth, both to feed themselves, and garnish the next feast.

What this lifestyle did give the women, was the time to develop a profound understanding of the workings of plants and natural phenomena like weather and seasons. When did it click that instead of searching an area for the edible grains, it was possible to keep the seeds and plant them in one place and produce a crop. Just one snag… Other creatures could take advantage of this unnatural abundance and so it was necessary to guard the putative crop. So now, instead of the life of Reilly, hunting with your besties, man was forced to “work by the sweat of his brow” – ploughing, planting, guarding, weeding and de-pesting before finally harvesting. A similar story can be told about animal husbandry. Some, might not have found this a good trade and they might have accused the women of “eating from the Tree of Knowledge” and characterized this as a sin against God’s word…

Still, by and large, farming caught on, though a terrible rash of grumblers than farmers it’s hard to find, women kept quiet about their part in the innovation and eventually, after some thousands of years of stability under agriculture, the Urban revolution followed as night follows day. The development of human activity seems to have been long plateaux of stability followed by brief revolutions that change the face of human existence and the mystery, in hindsight, is what took them so long.

What does seem to be the case is that, with the benefit of hindsight for the terrible demise of Earth, and with the carefully balanced introduction of Earth species both of plants and their concomitant pollinators, plus the judicious use of native plants and fruits, and the very careful planning of settlements and transport links, a veritable Garden of Eden was established with remarkable ease and the promise of great stability.

Of course, that is – if nobody upsets the apple cart…

The previous chapter laid out the premise of what is unique about Hawaii 2 and why it is so suitable for a Utopian experiment. Throughout the novel there is a mixture of technical stuff, history and in the last chapter, even a bit of sex thrown in – by no means gratuitously I hasten to add. The next chapter is purely  the human story – so my question to you, Dear Reader, is this – does it work? Is there a balance between exposition and conversation – human narrative and science fiction? Please comment…

Chapter 3
Loss and Gain.

The nurses and Doctor made themselves scarce as quickly as they could leaving Jack alone with his mother and the baby who with no further ado, she tucked into the crook of Jack’s arm. The baby lay calmly and looked up at him whilst he, feeling anything but calm inside was mesmerized by its gaze. Eventually, he looked up at his mother and asked “Where’s Anna? I don’t understand!”
His mother sat down on the edge of the bed.
“You have been in hospital in a coma for a long time, six months in fact! What’s the last thing you remember?”
Jack thought for a moment. “I was on the train. I went to meet Anna at the space lift. Where is she mum? How can this be my baby – Anna wasn’t pregnant!”
Jack’s agitation conveys itself to the baby even though his body has scarcely moved so weak was it after 6 months of immobility. His mother gently removes the baby and soothes it – the necessary pause while she does this soothes her son also.
“Anna must have got pregnant just before she left for her trip. She hadn’t told you?”
“No, though she said she had something special to tell me but she wanted to wait till we got home. She did look a bit different come to think of it.”
“Jack I have some bad news.” She paused to let it sink in. “There was an explosion on the train. You and Anna were nearest to the seat of it and were lucky to survive. You were both in the toilet and it’s what saved you. They brought you both here and mended all the bones and gashes but you both remained in a coma. They found out Anna was pregnant and that the baby was okay, growing in fact and they put you in a room together. I, your brothers and sister, Anna’s family and friends of the two of you came to talk to both of you, play music and hold your hands hoping you would wake up. The doctors are so good these days with physical things but when it comes to the brain sometimes you just have to wait – old school.”
She stood with the baby leaning into her shoulder, twisting from side to side and rubbing its back gently – willing it to sleep.
“The doctor’s hoped that when the baby was full-term that Anna might wake up going into labour but allowing a few days before she left Hawaii once she reached nine months and nothing happened, they had to perform a C-section Jack I am so sorry – but she never recovered after the operation it was as if the body had kept the baby alive and growing but once it was born she had nothing left.”
Jack had realised what was coming before she said it but the shock of hearing the words brought a strangled cry from him and then tears coursed down his face. His mother laid the baby down in a cot at the other side of Jack’s bed and then sat on his bed and gathered him into her arms.

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

It was a few days later when the doctors having made their rounds and, declaring themselves “very happy” with Jack’s progress, Jack and his mother sat talking. The last few days had been busy with nurses fussing and feeding him and eventually freeing him of catheters drips and monitors.
“You know Mum I know it sounds funny, but if it had been a girl, I think I would have felt quite differently. It would have been as if I lost Anna but got a part of her back – a new little Anna. But being a boy, it feels like we have both lost everything – a wife and a mother.”
“But you do have each other don’t you.”
“Yes Mum, it feels like we’re in it together.”
“You are going to be a wonderful dad, Jack. Anna would have been so proud of you!” She saw the tears well up and could have bitten off her tongue! Oh! I’m sorry love, I didn’t mean to …!
“It’s alright Mum I know you didn’t…
They sat in silence for a minute.
“You know Jack, there is one very important task that can’t wait any longer! The baby needs a name – we can’t go on calling it “It” now can we?”
Jack was silent for a moment and reaching for his mother’s hand he said
“Would you mind if we called him after Anna’s Dad Douglas? I always liked the name, but I want her family to feel they have a real stake in his life – you know what I mean…”
“I think that’s a lovely idea Jack and of course I don’t mind. Maybe you could call him Jack for a middle name for you and for your father.”
“Of course Mum! That’s a brilliant idea and it sounds well -Douglas Jack Gulliver!”
“Well that’s sorted then! No-one wanted to name the baby, Douglas that is, until you woke up, so the poor little chat has been nameless for 3 weeks!”
“Good job I woke up then, eh?” Jack managed a smile.
“I always knew you would dear, I was certain of it!”
Jack looked down at young Douglas who was sleeping contentedly in his arms blissfully unaware of his new status as a named citizen of Hawaii 2.
“Okay Douglas, it’s you and me against the world kid!”