The year was 2070, and the young ones could not believe how different life was only half a century ago. Nehemiah, the youngest, at eight-years-old, loved to hear the stories of the old days the most.
The grandmother had fed the children enough to eat for supper, so she finally ate herself. She had half a sweet potato, a bit of fish, and a tomato. The potato was sweet, and the old woman sucked it down like it would be her last. The fish was dry, but nourishing. Tomatoes had always been her favorite. For a moment, she remembered her own girlhood sitting on the back porch with her own grandmother eating juicy, red tomatoes seasoned with only salt and pepper.
“Tell us about the year everything changed,” Nathaniel, the second youngest, at twelve-years-old, said.
It had been dark for a couple hours. If she had a watch, or a clock, the grandmother would say it was about 8 p.m.
None of the children had been able to sleep lately, so she figured she could tell them about her old life until they dozed off.
The old woman looked around the shack. It was clean. It had been swept. Their few dishes had been washed. Though water was scarce, they always managed to get enough from the ever drying up river, but that wouldn’t be for long. Their shack had been built using oaks in 2030 at the hands of the old woman’s husband. Then, it was only two rooms. They’d added two more when their only son married and his wife bore six children of their own.
“The year the Second Civil War began was 2025. Before that, we didn’t know the South had been so determined to rise again.”
The old woman shivered thinking about those days. One day, she was a newlywed, and the next, life as she knew it was over…forever.
“The years before the Second Civil War were a bit challenging. A lot of people died from the pandemic, COVID-19, but life went on. And no one thought that the man who was elected president in 2016 and 2024 would destroy so much, because everyone thought he was dumb.”
When the old woman’s eyes got that faraway look, the children went silent. The two oldest, Jeremiah and Faith, were about to turn seventeen.
“Tell us about the money, Grandma,” Faith said.
“Money made the world go ‘round. Literally. It was green paper, backed by gold, and you could buy anything and almost anybody with it. The way we trade eggs for corn from our neighbors is the same you used money. Only you could trade money for everything, and it was called buying goods.”
The old woman looked down at her knobby arthritic fingers and rocked back and forth in the mahogany chair. She was tired, and increasingly so each day she woke. She covered her lower half with a blanket she’d just finished knitting.
The twins instinctively went to the fire and added more kindling.
The children had lost their parents to the latest virus a month ago. There had been one every decade, like clockwork, since 2020. This one caused the inflicted to break out into a rash with a high temperature. They’d separated them from the rest of the community. Some had survived. The old woman’s son and his wife didn’t.
Death was common these days. The children didn’t react like she would have if she’d lost both her parents at their age. They’d already lost two siblings. Word around their small community was that the world’s population was less than half of what it was 50 years ago.
Before 2025, life was…easy…compared to now. Not for everyone, but in a way, for most. Everything was much more advanced. We didn’t have to grow our own food or make our own clothing. Everyone could shop at stores for anything they needed.
Everything changed when war broke out…everywhere.
This used to be America. The country collapsed…what seemed like overnight. The north v. the south wasn’t as much geographical as it was ideological. It all depended on how you believed people like us, Black people, should be treated. Of course there were those who thought individuals should have freedom to love and live how they chose, to vote for leaders, to decide when to start a family, and to read and learn about the world. Those who only wanted white people to have rights, and to live under a warped Christian dictatorship, had no idea how things would turn out. Black people who had lots of money, or enough of it, moved when the man elected president, for a second time, in 2024 named himself a dictator. The rest of us had to stay and fight, and when it came down to life and death, we didn’t have as many allies as we thought.
Violence…was everywhere. But war wasn’t only in the United States. It was in the Middle East. It was in Africa. It was in Asia. It was in Europe. It was in South America. We never knew who we could trust. Every day was a fight for our lives. After a year or so, the white people who’d taken over the government under the dictator tried to enslave us again. The old woman laughed a deep laugh from the pit of her belly. But never again. And it wasn’t just Black people, it was people of color, and some white people too who were supposed to be enslaved. When that failed, Black people were relocated to what used to be Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Kansas, and Arkansas. It was rough at first, but we got rid of the bad seeds and made it work. When news comes over from the other side, apart from the rich leaders, we’re faring as well as anyone else. But the rich are over there living like kings and queens.
Money became worthless for everyday people. It was used in fires to burn to stay warm. The banks collapsed. What used to be the world’s greatest nation fell into total and complete chaos.
The new government, ironically, is like servitude for the so-called American citizens. That’s what the spies say.
Jeremiah was always quiet, but he was becoming more aloof lately. But tonight even he was interested in the old woman’s stories after a long day of work.
Their schedule was the same most days. They woke up with the sun and worked the land. They had a half acre of land with a pecan and pear tree that had helped them through many lean days. They grew sweet potatoes, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, peas, and onions. The children went to school from anywhere between 3–4 hours.
They also had chickens and one goat.
More than anything, they had community.
They traded with each other everything they had and needed.
Every time they made plans for a proper town, or got one started, there came another pandemic.
In the big cities, they didn’t have land, and they didn’t know how to grow their own foods. People went on the side of the South, or the dictator, if it meant getting fed…
That’s how we ended up here.
consider a coffee tip here :-) ☕️✨
What a fabulous writer you are. I look forward to every line you post.
You are an amazing writer. My stomach literally burned as I read your speculative dystopian short story.