If I Ruled the World: Chapter Two
Life on Gat Er can be wonderful, as long as your Dependable remains on their throne.
In the Previous Episode
The darkness and rushing wind stopped as abruptly as it began, leaving Mille on her knees, sputtering and disoriented.
“Where are we? Where have you taken me?” she asked.
Her eyes raced around the rectangular enclosure where they had emerged. It had a steep thatched roof and beveled glass-paned windows on three sides. Heavy orange, purple, and green tapestries hung between the windows and on the opposite wall near a double-hung door. More tapestries in the same colors clad the sparse but well-crafted furniture. The hard wooden floor, dark and smooth, felt cool on her skin.
Klado fingered one of the tapestries with a sneer, then dragged Mille across the floor to the nearest window. “We are on Gat Er.”
“Gat Er!!!” Mille pulled against Klado’s grasp. “No! I want to go home!”
“Do you?” Klado let go of her arm abruptly, and she tumbled back onto the floor. “Your mother said you were on your way to the poor house. Do you want to go home and be poor?”
Mille sat up and rubbed her arm. “I’m not afraid of being poor.”
Klado looked down their nose at her. “Stupid girl.” They turned back to the window, their narrow eyes even narrower. “This is my home. At least, it was my home.”
Mille stood up and looked out the window but saw nothing but myriad hues of green. Dense fern-green foliage covered the ground. Masses of moss-green trees obscured the horizon. Endless curtains of forest-green leaves fanning out from the treetops blocked much of the tea-green sky.
“Does all of Gat look like this or just this part?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“Gujetta Er is mostly water. Gat Er is mostly rainforest.” Klado lifted their chin and threw back their shoulders. “This part used to belong to my father. He is a great Dependable like his fathers before him. A Dependable protects their people and property, keeping them safe from the perils of the forest.” Their shoulders slumped. “Now it belongs to his enemy.”
“His enemy?” Mille looked around anxiously. “Why would you bring us here?”
Klado reached for Mille’s hand. “I was hoping—”
Mille shook her head and backed away. She couldn’t tell if Klado was angry or sad. Their hooded grey eyes, flat forehead, and wide colorless lips were too hard to read.
Oh, no! The door behind them burst open, and several uniformed guards rushed in. One caught Mille as she tried to run, and two grabbed Klado by both arms. The guards yelled at Klado in a language Mille did not recognize. Klado did. They yelled back using the same dialect but to no avail. The guards forced both of them out the door and into a thick tangle of green.
The guards pressed Klado ahead, leaving Mille alone with her captures. They tied her hands behind her back, using only the tips of their fingers. It was as if they were afraid to touch her skin. Had they never seen someone like her? Her skin, flushed pink by three moons that reflected a distant sun, was nothing like theirs. Like Klado, they had no skin pigment at all.
After walking what seemed like miles in the dank air, they reached a building of pale green blocks, stagger-stacked a single-story high. The guards opened the door and dragged her inside. It was a prison. Barred windowless cells sat on either side of a wide hallway that was illuminated by green-tinged light falling through narrow tubes in the ceiling. They pushed her into the first cell, slammed it shut, and locked it. She begged them to let her out, but when they did not, she slid down the far wall and cried.
She must have fallen asleep, for she woke up with a start when she heard the guards shoving Klado into the cell across from hers. The light was dim, but she could still see the bruises on Klado’s face.
She looked away.
“Mille.” Klado, standing near the bars, waited for her to answer—she didn’t. “Mille, listen to me.”
She turned to face them. “What do you have to say to me? You stole me away from my Er, my parents, from everything I know and brought me here to die.” She leaned forward as fresh tears ran down her face. “They are going to kill you, and they are going to kill me, too.”
“They will not kill us if you listen to me carefully.”
Mille was not listening. She was too upset to listen. “Why do they want to kill you, anyway? Aren’t they Travelers, too? They look like you. You speak their language.”
“Travelers are not from my people, and my people do not know I am a Traveler.”
Mille leaned back on the cell wall. She had assumed the Travelers were some rare humanoid breed, born with an innate ability to travel across space. “So, how did you become a Traveler?”
Klado recounted how they were once a Dependable, but a neighboring clan coveted the estate bequeathed to Klado and plotted in secret to seize it. On the day of the attack, Klado, taken by surprise, was unprepared for that battle. Klado implored their people to flee into the forest, then stayed back to confront the neighbor, turned enemy, alone. That would give their people a chance to escape. Then, as the enemy reached the place where Klado stood firm, a Traveler appeared out of nowhere and whisked them off to the stars.
Klado turned away. “On Gat Er, people of a conquered territory are killed, but a captured Dependable is imprisoned and forced to live the rest of their life in poverty and shame.” They hung their head. “The Traveler saved me from that fate, and now it’s my turn to save you from yours.”
Mille jumped up and grabbed the bars. “You are not saving me! You are getting me killed!” She pressed her face into the bars until deep depressions formed in her flushed cheeks. “Why don’t you use your powers and leave?!”
Klado moved to the back of their cell and sat on the floor. “I can’t leave without you.”
Mille’s mouth fell open and she stepped back from the bars. “Well then, what are you waiting for? Let’s go!”
“We can’t. Not yet. For you to come with me—,” Klado said. “You must touch me.”
“Touch you?” Mille stretched her hand through the bars as far as she could. The gap was too wide even if Klado had reached out, too. “It’s too far,” she said.
Klado nodded. “They are going to transport us to the tribunal shortly. We will ride together but seated apart, but when I tell you what to do, do exactly what I say. Do not try to make sense of my instructions.” They stood up and walked to the bars. “Do what I say. Immediately. That is the only way we can escape.”
Sometime later, just as Klado said, four guards in dark green uniforms opened the doors to their cells, pulled them out, and tied their hands behind their backs. They led them to a transport where two guards sat in the front cab while the other two, guarding their prisoners, sat on opposite benches in the open wagon in the back.
As they rode along, the road ahead was visible, winding precariously through thick groves of trees whose limbs, full of leaves, cast ghastly shadows across their faces.
Klado mouthed the words. “Fall onto my chest.”
Mille could not see Klado’s face. “What?” she asked.
Klado repeated the words out loud. “Fall on my chest!”
The guard sitting to the left struck Klado hard, yelling something Mille did not understand. Probably Shut up!
Klado focused on the road as the transport headed into another sharp curve. “Now!”
Mille leaped up from her bench, and using the momentum, she hurled herself into the middle of Klado’s chest. She felt something malleable give beneath her elbow. It released an almost inaudible click.
In the Next Episode
Did they escape? Find out when episode 3 hits your inbox in just 2 short weeks.
Publishing Updates
Literary agents and publishing houses require a short list of comparable books when you ask them to publish yours. To prepare, I have been searching for and reading books that I think are similar to In Our Bones.
In Our Bones is a classic African American story filled with many recognizable tropes; the religious Grandma, the close-knit family, and the undertones of racial tension. But unlike most contemporary African American stories, there is a hint of Magical Realism. (Thanks, Ruth!)
If you like stories like Kindred by Octavia Butler, The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, or Long Division by Kiese Laymon, you will love In Our Bones.
In Our Bones
The story is about Nancy. She was an enslaved Black woman exploited for her exceptional talent for nurturing children. The setting is not in the 1800s, though. This coming-of-age, African American novel takes place in the near-future as seen through the extraordinary eyes of Jean Earl. Can the faith that saved Nancy keep Jean from succumbing to the perp…
These are ending in a great place each time. I love a cliffhanger... 😎
😊😊😊