Hope a History of the Future: A Novel Read online

  HOPE,

  A HISTORY

  OF THE

  FUTURE

  a novel

  G.G. KELLNER

  Copyright © 2022, G.G. Kellner

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

  Published by SparkPress, a BookSparks imprint,

  A division of SparkPoint Studio, LLC

  Phoenix, Arizona, USA, 85007

  www.gosparkpress.com

  Published 2022

  Printed in the United States of America

  Print ISBN: 978-1-68463-123-0

  E-ISBN: 978-1-68463-124-7

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2021923166

  Interior design by Tabitha Lahr

  Block prints created by G.G. Kellner

  All company and/or product names may be trade names, logos, trademarks, and/or registered trademarks and are the property of their respective owners. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  THE USES OF SORROW from Thirst by Mary Oliver, published by Beacon Press, Boston

  Copyright © 2004 by Mary Oliver, used herewith by permission of the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency, Inc.

  Dedicated to Jordan

  and

  Matao, Madelyn, Lucy, Hannah, Nicole, Leila, Matia, Kian, Leon, Nina, Nicole, Aaron, Eli, Ryan, Caroline, Kellan, Hale, Carter, Brooklyn, Justin, Wilson, Blake, Madison, Chloe, Christian, Oliver, Lucille, Liliana, Aviva, Sam, Lila, Kieran, Zoe, Josephine, Marigold, Isaiah, Maddox, Hendrix, Evelyn, Colton, Emma, Ardea, Julia, Jillian, Jackie …

  and all the world’s children and their children’s children—seven generations from now

  The following story and characters are fictional, but the book uses scientific facts, historical documents, and legal precedence as the basis for a new society in the future that achieves world peace, justice, and verdant sustainability.

  Documents referenced in the book include the Constitution of the United States (1787), the United States Bill of Rights (1791), amendments to the United States Constitution (1794–1992), the Treaty for the Renunciation of War (1928), the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), and the Parliament of the World’s Religions’ fifth directive (2018). These unabridged historical documents are included in the back of the book along with historical photographs and notes from the author.

  There is also a timeline of fictional events and characters, an imagined Universal Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, a set of provocative discussion questions, an about-the-author page and interview, and acknowledgments pages.

  CONTENTS

  Timeline of Fictional Events and Characters

  PART I: THE TIME BEFORE

  Chapter 1: The History of the Future

  Chapter 2: The Book of Grace

  Chapter 3: Alone

  Chapter 4: One Hundred Years of Peace

  Chapter 5: “We the People …”

  Chapter 6: My Second Family

  Chapter 7: Alala

  Chapter 8: The Book of Changes

  Chapter 9: Secrets

  Chapter 10: More Secrets

  PART II: THE WORLD THAT COULD BE

  Chapter 11: The Book of Gabriel

  Chapter 12: The Book of Mia

  Chapter 13: The Book of Ruth

  Chapter 14: The Book of Hope

  Chapter 15: The Book of Samuel

  Chapter 16: There’s a Light On

  Chapter 17: The World That Could Be

  Chapter 18: Trapped

  Chapter 19: The Gyre

  Chapter 20: The Escape

  PART III: THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE

  Chapter 21: The Rule of Law

  Chapter 22: My Third Family

  Chapter 23: The Rule of Love

  Chapter 24: The Book of Belonging

  Chapter 25: The Book of Zen

  Chapter 26: Little Bird

  Chapter 27: The Signal

  PART IV: THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA

  Chapter 28: The Past Is a Magic Box

  Chapter 29: The Breakfast Table

  Chapter 30: Arrival in Newland

  Chapter 31: The Omega

  Chapter 32: The Alpha

  Imagined Universal Bill of Rights and Responsibilities (2042)

  Discussion Questions

  APPENDIX OF ACTUAL HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

  CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES (1787)

  UNITED STATES BILL OF RIGHTS (1791)

  AMENDMENTS TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION (1794–1992)

  TREATY FOR THE RENUNCIATION OF WAR (1928), AND PHOTOGRAPH (1928)

  UNITED NATIONS’ UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (1948), AND PHOTOGRAPHS (1948–1949)

  PARLIAMENT OF THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS’ FIFTH DIRECTIVE (2018), AND PHOTOGRAPHS (1893)

  Acknowledgments

  Interview with G. G. Kellner

  About the Author

  TIMELINE OF FICTIONAL EVENTS AND CHARACTERS

  TTB = The Time Before

  AGC = After The Great Change

  1967 TTB

  Birth of Ruth’s brother, Gaylord Sr.

  1969 TTB

  Birth of Ruth

  1984 TTB

  Birth of Mia’s parents

  1985 TTB

  Birth of Ruth’s sister—Gabe’s deceased mother

  1985 TTB

  Birth of Marq

  1987 TTB

  Birth of Joyce

  2007 TTB

  Birth of Sam, Marq’s oldest son by his first marriage

  2016 TTB

  Birth of Kate, Zen, Gabe, and Mia

  2022 TTB

  Marriage of Marq and Joyce

  2023 TTB

  Birth of Grace

  2033 TTB

  Approximate birth of Little Bird

  2040 TTB

  Gabe and Mia’s moon marriage

  2042

  The Great Change

  2042

  First child of Gabe and Mia is born at sea

  2042

  Universal Bill of Rights and Responsibilities is signed by world leaders

  2045 AGC

  Birth of Gabe and Mia’s daughter

  2093 AGC

  Birth of Le, Gabe and Mia’s great granddaughter

  2109 AGC

  Little Bird passes away

  2142 AGC

  The world celebrates One Hundred Years of Peace

  PART I:

  THE TIME BEFORE

  “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

  —MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

  Chapter 1:

  THE HISTORY OF THE FUTURE

  The clatter of something falling in the library startled Joyce, who was in the kitchen making a cup of tea. She went to investigate. Through the old wavy glass panes of the French doors that separated the library from the rest of the timeworn house, she saw a large book lying facedown in the middle of the room.

  It was a completely quiet afternoon—not a breath of wind outside, no music playing inside. No one else was in the house besides her daughter Grace, home from school sick, sleeping in her bedroom. Their cat, Plato, curled in his favorite library chair, seemed unconcerned by the noise or the large book on the floor.

  Most of the books, antiques, odd collections, and curiosities in the library had come with the house when Joyce and her husband, Marq, bought it. A condition of the sale had been that Joyce and Marq be willing to take everything in the house along with the house itself. The previous owner, an
old man, had left everything when he disappeared. Apparently “everything in the house” included the cat, for he’d insisted on staying too. Joyce had named him Plato because of his habit of holding his tail upright, in the shape of a question mark.

  Joyce looked around the library. She suspected that had anyone attempted to remove the stacks of books inside, the entire room would have collapsed like a house of cards. It was filled, ceiling to floor. Books lined the walls and occupied every crack and cranny that wasn’t stuffed with unusual collections and strange artifacts left behind by the old man—seashells from distant shores, maps of faraway places, fossils of leaves and insects, birds’ nests of various species, and tiny colored glass bottles whose former contents she could only guess at.

  The book in the center of the library floor was large and hardbound.

  Joyce wasn’t a believer in “signs”—but now, there was a book lying facedown in the middle of the room. Maybe a sign. But what does it mean? She walked in hesitantly. Peering down the hallway toward Grace’s room, she could see her daughter’s door was shut and that there was no one in the library—besides the sleeping cat.

  Joyce looked up, half expecting to see a hole in the ceiling.

  She turned the book over.

  “The History of the World” was scrolled in elaborate gold-leaf cursive across the front. The finely woven cloth was the color of a ripe plum. She ran her hand over the cover. It wore no jacket. She definitely didn’t recognize this book.

  Where did it come from? How did it get to the middle of the floor? Joyce pondered this for a moment.

  She was an avid collector of used books, especially history books. She was sure she hadn’t picked it up in any of her travels up and down the rows of half-empty bookshelves that now occupied the dark corners and back rooms of what were once thriving bookstores and libraries; she would remember it if she had.

  It must have come with the house, she decided.

  Joyce went quietly down the hallway and cracked open the door to her daughter’s room. Grace was sleeping soundly, her tight curls spread around her head on the pillow like a bright halo. Joyce went back to the library.

  Her hands shook a little as she felt behind a set of old leather-bound encyclopedias. She had two secrets; smoking was one of them.

  “Ahh,” Joyce sighed audibly. Behind volume VII—giraffe to hieroglyphic—she found a pack of cigarettes. One dry, lonely cigarette rattled around in the light cardboard box, like a slightly loony inmate in solitary confinement—for everyone’s good.

  She plucked it out.

  I should take this outside to hide the smell, she thought as she lit it right there in the library.

  She looked around the room at all the books. She was a reader. That was her job, to read—but it was also her passion. She took a nervous puff of the cigarette and cracked the window open. Then she knelt down on the threadbare carpet. The old-growth fir floor under the worn rug groaned slightly. Joyce’s knees creaked back a reply. She opened the cover and turned to the first of the onionskin-thin pages, crisp in her fingers. Smoke and a bit of dust circled her head as she leaned close to read the delicate print.

  THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD

  To the Best of Our Knowledge

  Researched and Compiled for the Hall of Records by

  The World Council Committee for Remembrance

  Published 2200

  Published in 2200? That seems unbelievable! She shook her head.

  But then again … the book had appeared out of nowhere. And Joyce was not above thinking there were things that she didn’t know or understand, things about the workings of time and the universe no one could explain.

  She turned to the table of contents.

  THE TIME BEFORE Plants and Animals

  The Oceans and the Sky

  Civilizations from the Past

  Gifts from the Past

  THE GREAT CHANGE What Is Known of the Evolution

  Survivors’ Stories

  Founding Principles Constitution

  Universal Bill of Rights and Responsibilities

  Declarations of Independence

  Appendices Illustrations

  Maps

  Index

  Plato jumped off of the chair where he had been napping and came to investigate too. He curled his long tail around his feet as he sat upright, watching her. His long white whiskers twitched as he bent to sniff the pages. He was black with white paws and a white chest. One small white patch hovered above his left eye, giving him the appearance that he was always raising an eyebrow at the happenings around him. To Joyce, he looked like a butler wearing white gloves, ready to receive guests at a formal dinner party.

  Or ready to go around the house checking for dust, she thought. He’d definitely find plenty in here.

  As the smoke from her cigarette rose into her eyes, she scolded herself—I really should quit—and stubbed the cigarette out in what was a clumsy attempt at a clay “bowl,” now turned ashtray, she had made in a pottery class one Saturday afternoon. Embarrassed by her creation that was more like a round brick or a paperweight than a bowl, she tucked the pottery back in its hiding place behind the encyclopedias. She never came close to mastering the potter’s wheel. Of course, it was only a three-hour class. Her expectations might have been too high.

  Joyce retrieved her lukewarm tea from the kitchen. But when she returned to the library the book was open to a new spot. She looked at Plato who was innocently licking one white paw with a pink tongue. The big book now revealed the section titled “Survivors’ Stories.” Joyce settled down on the cracked green leather chair with the book. The cat joined her, seemingly reading over her shoulder.

  Under the starlit sky the children huddled close together, both for warmth and to be close to the presence of “Grandmother,” as she was lovingly called by her community (and as all respected aging women were known). However, this Grandmother was special, for she moved throughout the daylight seasons surrounded by birds—small brown wrens, swallows, bright yellow finches, and, of course, her crow, Darkness, who was always near her. Some even called her Little Bird.

  Tonight, Darkness rested on her left shoulder. His iridescent black feathers flickered in the firelight. He was her constant companion, as a crow had been since her arrival in the colony with her third family after The Great Change.

  Darkness accepted the small gifts of food the children brought. This was a night of a Telling. The children came early to Tellings, for they knew they would not get to stay long. Only the adults and the oldest among them would get to hear the whole story.

  “Tell us of The Time Before,” the children’s voices chanted musically.

  Grandmother’s features were strong, but her expression was gentle. Her hands, resting peacefully in her lap, were curled like old talons, but her eyes were sharp on either side of her beak-like nose.

  “Yes, tonight I will tell of The Time Before, and then one last time of The Great Change and my arrival at the colony.”

  Le, a bright-eyed girl of sixteen known for her keen memory, sat closest to Grandmother. Grandmother touched Le’s shoulder. “May you always live in the light of love,” she said to Le, glancing up also at the other children in the circle, their faces lit by the fire’s glow. Le’s hands gracefully moved in the air, interpreting for the crowd that had gathered from far and wide to hear Grandmother’s epic saga.

  “This is not an easy story to tell, and it is even harder to hear. So go away now and think the happy thoughts of children,” Grandmother said, and Le signed her words fluidly. Grandmother waited as several of the older children whispered to the younger ones to go on to bed, now that they had fed their treats to Darkness. It was not yet their time to hear this tale.

  Le sent her brother off with the other youngsters. She promised to tell him the story one day, when he was old enough, for she knew she was now the Keeper of this story. Grandmother stroked the soft feathers along Darkness’s back. Then, taking out a drum and closing her eyes,
she began to tap it softly, singing under her breath:

  Yene o‘ti Maa koo

  Hene Hene hono Yoko he Ashi kono kaa

  Heya kana Wa‘a ana Omi yori

  Weyee kaw …

  The sun, just below the horizon, cast a strange light upon the gathering. Before the Telling was over, it would nearly circle the sky.

  The flames reached up like lively dancers into the night, lighting up the faces of the crowd. As Grandmother’s drumming subsided, everyone leaned forward. No one wanted to miss this last chance to hear her tell the story.

  Grandmother’s song had been a combination of birdcalls and words no one understood, in a language no one any longer spoke. But her ancient song ended with lyrics and gestures everyone knew.

  Her voice floated like an ageless river over smooth rocks as she chanted:

  Water, water, cleanse my mind,

  Make me peaceful, make me kind.

  Water, water, cleanse my soul,

  Make me peaceful, make me whole.

  As she repeated the song a second time, everyone joined in, their voices filling the night air.

  Joyce took a sip of her tea and looked at the grandfather clock, its back against the wall. She needed to get on with her day, but the story had already caught her imagination. She read on.

  “With time,” Grandmother said, “the memories have become easier to bear, but no one ever really forgets, for memories are stored deep in the body.”

  A tear traced its way down one of the many valleys of Grandmother’s wrinkled face.

  “In The Time Before The Great Change, the oceans were cool and waves lapped on the sandy shores of my faraway island. The sea around my home was full of giant turtles and bright-colored fish. Dolphins swam in great pods. Huge whales breached and splashed, frolicking with their babies in the turquoise waters.”