Parallel Lives
Nemo and Casey have driven over an hour to the outskirts of Zeitville—an unzoned area now dubbed “The Borderlands” by punks, squatters, crypto enthusiasts and other futurists.
It’s late afternoon, but the sun will set soon on this early March day.
They’re here to start a new life. The Borderlands has everything: a local food system; various currencies; housing; entertainment; places to roam.
Parking on a dusty stretch they overlook a field of people milling around. Amplifiers are stacked randomly, run by generators that are fueled by seed oils. Someone appears to be reading poetry over the PA system—or is it a manifesto?
“We believe in exploring the unknown, in bringing form to the unseen,” the voice says over crackling speakers.
Casey pulls a box out of her rucksack. It’s the box that was presented in the trial—the one that contained an OriginalSyn mask, and made Nemo think she had betrayed him in the fall.
“What are you going to do with that?” Nemo asks.
“There’s a bonfire soon, I heard,” Casey replies. “I think it’s a good time to burn this mask.”
“You decided you didn’t want all that fame and glory after all, huh?” Nemo asks, a bit defensively.
“I never really wanted it in the first place,” Casey says after a pause. “I kept their gift to show you that I’d be loyal to you over them, but we just never got a chance to connect.”
“Yeah, it’s been a long fall and winter, hasn’t it?”
“Like an unending test,” Casey says, stepping out into the cool air.
Casey’s wearing the gold locket that Nemo won for her at the fair last summer—the locket containing the key to the box, as he learned at the trial.
She laughs to herself, takes it off and places it around Nemo’s neck.
“For your valor, after a great test,” she says with mock grandiloquence.
“Ah, no, no,” Nemo says with a sheepish chuckle. “I ain’t wearing no jewelry. What kind of first impression you think I’m trying to make?”
“They’ll know you as the King of The Borderlands,” Casey says with a grin, stopping him from removing the golden chain. “Go, see your people. Didn’t you want to go talk to those crypto guys, who want to use your TruthToken as a currency here? They’re over by that big tree. I’m going to walk around, maybe chat up those eco fashion people we heard about. . .”
“But how will I find you, so we can burn the mask?” Nemo says, tucking the locket inside the neck of his shirt. “You know that cell reception is bad out here until they get a mesh network running. . .and I have the key to your box, after all.”
“You’ll always be able to find your way back to me,” Casey says, turning to go. She presses against the gold heart, now hidden by Nemo’s shirt. “That’s what this was about. We had to lose our way, so we could return to a home that’s truly our own, truly new. . .”