Places of the Mind and Heart

And so, after a family vacation on a remote island in the South Pacific, I went to Lux and built a life there with Anches. I savored every day, living in the moment, not hurrying to learn the language or worrying about the inevitable end. 

My parents and brother lived in Lux with us, too. Why not? They could live in our home without anyone in Lux being any the wiser. 

My mother handed me a stack of handpainted maps. She said some woman on Earth centuries ago created a map of every country in the world. There were so many! They were beautiful.

I asked my father why he couldn’t just tell me where the artifact was located. He said for it to imprint in my brain I needed to discover it myself. It was the only way. 

I knew that I wouldn’t be ready when the day came and I wasn’t. We were on a hike in the hills outside the city, scouting the best place to see the setting of the suns. Now that I look back, it was my father’s idea to go there. And now that I think about it, it was also his idea to bring shovels for the children to dig with while we were enjoying the view. 

My adventurous son, Smitten, was the one who called out that he’d found something in the cave. He pulled at my arm to come and see, so I went to where he’d been digging. There was something sticking out. Something metal. We dug around it with shovels and hands until I was holding it. An iPhone. How did that get here? That would be centuries ago on Earth. That would mean centuries ago people from Earth were on Lux. That would mean…

It was happening. It was the artifact. 

I looked right into Smitten’s eyes. He was waiting to hear what it was, so he looked back at me in such an open, accepting, and loving way that I was trying very hard not to cry.

The people of Lux studied the iPhone and the site. They were able to date it based on their system of years and figured out that it originated on Earth and eventually determined that the people of Lux came from Earth centuries earlier.

Every morning, I woke wondering if this would be the day that the simulation would end and I would wake up for real. I supposed the simulation was allowing me to practice interacting with the people of Lux as they figured out what the artifact was and where it came from. Once it was safely in their version of a museum and plans were in the works to make contact with Earth, friendly contact this time, I knew that at any second it all would end.

I stared so long and hard at Anches, Smitten, Echel, Sabren, and my parents. 

One morning, the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. She’d been holding it, I realized, because she knew that I didn’t want it to end. For some reason, she chose that morning. Maybe she could see how difficult wondering when it would happen was becoming, like an airport goodbye lasting unbearably long. 

“You were born,” began my mother, Carmen, sitting next to me on our backyard bench, “on the Earth station on Mars. Gordon created training simulations and I was a pilot. You were our only child.”

She took my hand. Being a simulated being did not prevent her from emotion.

“It all happened very quickly. The people of Earth discovered Lux and attempted contact. They came at us with force, invading the station. So many people died. We tried to reason with them, but they wouldn’t listen. Because of our dark skin, they thought we were evil. They didn’t realize we were the same human race. We managed to befriend a woman from Lux. She told us about a foreign artifact her son had uncovered up in the hills. Afraid of what power it might have, she reburied it and made sure her son knew to leave it alone. I asked her questions about the object and discussed it with Gordon. We figured out it was an iPhone from Earth. We tried to think of a way to discuss it with the people of Lux, but they were too fearful to hear anything. We asked the woman to help us reason with her people and she tried, but things had gone too far by then. The woman was put into prison.

“When it became clear that we were all going to perish, we had very little time. Gordon had already created the simulation and modified it as a training program for you and a way to pass on the information about the artifact and how to find it. Our hope is that you’ll be able to determine the best way to reason with the people of Lux about our common origins. It might be too late for the people of Earth and Mars by then, but we had to to try something. At the very least, it won’t be too late for you and your future.

“We needed someone to bring you to safety. One of the last to get on an evacuation ship said he’d take you, that he and his wife wanted a child and wouldn’t mind that you’re dark. They lived in a remote part of Lux, so they could keep you safe.

“Althea, I wish you the very best. I love you.”

I looked at the spunky, creative woman who helped me learn English, taught me to read books and about working in libraries, and had always been right with me even when I had no idea who she really was. I would miss her. But I didn’t feel a sense of loss. Instead, I felt grateful. How many people get to live so many different lives? I wondered how much time had actually passed out in that real world I was about to enter. What would real even feel like after all of this? Would I be able to tell a difference?

We smiled and I put my arms around her neck and shut my eyes. “I love you, Mom.”

An then, instead of hugging, I was being carried in someone’s arms and the sounds around me were in the Lux language. I could think the words, but when I tried to speak, only nonsense came out. I wasn’t ready yet for speech. I’d have to hold on to the memory of all those things I’d experienced and learned. Especially, I’d have to remember to point the way to the artifact, where it was buried and how to get there. I determined to force myself to think about it every day so that I wouldn’t forget.

One life ended and another began. Nothing lasts except the things of the mind and heart. There is something of eternity about the things we learn and love. We carry the places of the mind and heart with us always.