Harold feels forced to tell some lies but begins to learn about the world he has dropped into. He accepts an invitation to a birthday party and goes for a bike ride with new friends as they show him the Mutual Nation of Hawaii.
"Is it your first time to the Mutual Nation of Hawai'i?" Brian asked Harold.
It was the first time Harold had heard the name but needless to say, he liked it. Mutuality was one of those keystone principles in building a better future that he and nearly all of his comrades could ever agree upon. The idea that people are responsible for people - he had never heard it put in front of the word nation but it instantly made complete and total sense to him.
A nation was a group of people unified by a shared culture. A mutual nation would be a group of people who put taking care of each other first. He had no doubt whatsoever that there were other mutual nations and that there was some sort of a legislative body called the Mutual Nations. It was one of those concepts that once he heard it, it would never make sense for it to go away.
Harold decided to hold on to the useful fiction of his having been originally from Hawaii and had been living in the eff-ess, the failed republican states. He didn't know how long he would be able to maintain the fiction - but if he were found out - the worst that would happen was that he would have to explain that he was from two hundred and eighty years in the past.
"I left Hawaii when I was quite young," Harold said. "I wanted to know about the people who live in the RSA - the eff-ess - it seemed like they must be different than we thought of them, I thought there must be some piece of information they didn't understand which made them behave as they do. I wanted to understand them - and so, I left and lived among them for many years. Now I have returned."
"It must have been difficult to arrange," Brian said. "I've never heard of anyone coming or going freely - though of course we are in contact with them and offer to have ho'o'ponopono several times a year. We want to offer aid, open dialogues, or even to learn what went wrong but they have no interest. It's truly astounding that you are here."
Harold didn't want to manufacture more of a fiction than he already had - in fact, having figured out where and when he was - he was more interested in learning about the Mutual State of Hawaii than anything else. He decided to go on the informational offensive.
"It's nice to be home, that's for certain," he said. "Before I can really process what I've seen, I feel like I need to learn about the changes that have taken place here. You will pardon me for saying that it feels like a completely different world from the one I left. I feel like a stranger in a strange land but with the memories of this place still strong enough to make the whole experience rather dreamlike."
"Pardon me for asking, sir," Brian said "But were you gone for a very long time?" Harold suddenly felt incredibly old. In fact, looking around the room, he was the oldest one there by at least several decades. These were all healthy, fit, happy young people in the prime years of their lives.
"Yes," Harold said. "Though it feels like just yesterday I was here and looking at a completely different world."
Klee jumped in. "I knew you two were going to hit it off. I'm going to get more of that delicious melon...would you guys like some?" They both said yes. It was delicious - a beautiful vibrant green honeydew melon that tasted of flowers and honey, but yet carried the full creamy goodness of the melon itself. Harold had never tasted better. She left the table to go get more of it.
Harold realized that this was a perfect opportunity for him to get information about the fictitious life he had chosen to portray for himself. He would have preferred to simply tell everyone he met "Hello, I'm a time traveler and I don't know how I got here" but he suspected that even though things had changed dramatically, a person making such a claim would be considered delusional. He didn't like the idea of lying, but he liked the idea of being taken into the custody of a mental institution even less.
"Brian," he said "before you ask me any more questions - I think it would make sense to tell me what you know about the RSA - I've been gone a long time and I'm sure that there are many different ideas about what happened than when I learned about these things."
As he had suspected, Brian was eager to show his expertise and needed no further encouragement to jump into explanatory mode.
"The history certainly hasn't changed, but since you've asked I'll be happy to share what I know. The three elections of the 2020s were the end of the United States of America. By the time the 2nd Trump administration came to power, the writing was on the wall. In 2028, after the sham election in which Republicans took 100% of the vote - it was clear to the states of the Western and Northeastern USA that the democratic process was never going to recover. Led by California and New York - the dissolution took place. I won't bore you with all the dates and battles but by 2030, the modern borders of the Republican States of America had mostly been defined by walls and troops."
This wasn't a surprise to Harold, even in his time it had seemed pretty obvious that it was the sunset of the USA.
"What were the borders? Do you remember what states were included?" Harold was eager to find out if his suspicions were going to play out.
Brian looked at him with curiosity. "Surely you can't wander about that...the borders are the same as they were back then."
Harold realized he had made a mistake and he took a calculated risk. "I'm guessing you haven't been there - but the history they tell is quite different - please assume that I know nothing while we establish this baseline."
This satisfied Brian and he answered Harold's question. "The RSA was originally made up of everything from Florida to Washington DC and then east all the way to Washington State. The California Republic originally contained Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado and the New York Alliance originally had the Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. In 2031, the suitcase nuclear attacks on Denver, Phoenix, Chicago, and Detroit caused chaos and the RSA was able to consolidate all of those states under Republican rule by blaming the attacks on California and New York even though history has pretty clearly showed that they were detonated by Trumpers. The RSA contained everything east of Nevada and south of Pennsylvania until 2050 when the Texican Nation declared independence and took control of what was formerly Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Mexico. Today the RSA is made up of what used to be known as the mid-west, the south, and the mountain states - excluding those states which joined the Texican Nation."
Harold had to interject. "So, by 2050 - North America was made up of the New York Alliance in the Northeast, the California Republic on the West Coast, the Texican Nation, and the RSA. What about Canada?"
Brian smiled like a school boy who had figured out a trick question. "Ha! You thought that maybe I didn't study that part of history! Well, of course I did. Eastern Canada joined the New York Alliance and the Western Provinces requested annexation with the California Republic - which is why many Northwest CR natives still call it Cranada and also why the maple leaf is prominent in both the NYA and the CR."
"And Hawai'i just reclaimed it's sovereignty and became a mutual nation." Harold knew this question might get him in trouble but Brian was enjoying the game of sharing what he knew and was happy to jump right in with the answer.
"Of course not. I mean, well, sort of. With the wars on the continent going full steam, Hawai'i set about forming alliances with - first - the island nations of the Pacific - Polynesia, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia - soon the Southeast Asian nations became a part of it - it was a very different sort of Pacific in those days. Hawai'i played her diplomatic and military cards extremely well and introduced the concept of ho'oponopono as the main means of dispute resolution. Vietnam and Australia brought some amazing innovations in governance and the old mutual assistance concept went from an under utilized idea to the foundation of all of our cultures. Climate change and the devastations of the 2100s really brought all of us together and by the time the continent had settled its borders and recovered from the Republican Wars - there was nothing those powers could do. United, the Pacific Mutual Nations held more power than China or North America especially broken up as they were into multiple antagonistic nations."
All of this was more than a little disappointing to Harold. He had hoped that the entire world had become one huge socialist utopia.
"And what about Europe, Africa, and South America?" Harold hoped that the progressive thinking of European nations had continued and evolved and that the Southern Hemisphere was finally sharing in the world's prosperity - or - he caught himself - at least not being exploited and despoiled as had happened up to his own time.
"You really want all that too?" Brian asked but went on good naturedly. "The South American nations have largely become Mutualistic and form a fairly unified block. Africa is a whole different story with the religious and cultural divisions making unification a near impossibility. The Afrinese countries tend to be loaded down with the state run communist policies of the mainland Chinese colonial state but Islamic Africa and the so called 'Middle East' have thrived under the mutual non-interaction pacts of the early 22nd century. They are officially 'the Semitic Mutual States' but a lot of us call them the 'Semi- Mutuals' because they tend to be much more focused on naval gazing. It's funny how long it took the interventionist states to understand that local people actually know how to govern themselves and get along with one another. Madagascar, Sri Lanka, and the other island nations have all joined the Mutual Nations as a whole and now with India form the Indian Ocean Mutual Nations. As for Europe..."
Harold sensed that something terrible was coming.
He was right. "Russia along with North Korea and Angola remain the only allies of the RSA. After the atrocities in Belarus, Seoul, and West Africa - the rest of the world turned their backs on them. The Chinese still trade with them all, of course. When the Russian terrorists set off that suitcase nuke in London - the solidarity of the rest of Europe brought the former UK fully into the fold. It was the only positive thing to come out of those terrible times. The Russians tried to run the Trumper playbook of blaming it on Europe, but the people of the UK didn't fall for it."
They were far off track from what Harold had originally asked about. "You have some impressive knowledge of history, Brian. What about the RSA internal governance and policies? Are you familiar with any of that?"
Brian nodded. "Every child in the Mutual Nations learns about the re-introduction of slavery, the indoctrination schools, the attempts at forming Caribbean and Central American plantations, and the fall of the USA. As far as we know, the forms haven't changed much since the Trump the First took power. The RSA is a farce democracy with hereditary 'elected' rulers. Each 'state' is governed by a house of nobles descended from the ruling political parties of the 21st century. The Congress of Lords is composed of three senators from each Republican State. When the American Papacy was formed in early 2200, Fundamental American Christianity was declared as the official state religion with the Supreme Leader as highest authority of the faithful and all decisions in matters of morality decided by his or her Supreme Court. All elected officials must be officially vetted and approved by the Supreme Leader to run for election - so all elections are between 'rival houses' who are both friendly to those in power. There has never been a more totalitarian regime in the history of the world and there have never been more effective control systems put in place over any other population."
Brian paused from this horrific telling "Which is why you are such a big deal. You're the first independent observer that I've ever heard about that experienced the modern RSA but comes from the Mutuals. The only contact we've had with the RSA for centuries has been through their ponderously bureaucratic official channels with totally indoctrinated and brain washed officials or with people who were rescued after hare-brained misadventures. Even those few eff-ess citizens have been so completely buried in propaganda that they have begged to be sent back to the RSA - which our officials have done - even though none of our citizens who have ventured there - on purpose or accidentally - have ever been returned to us. Until you..."
Harold's jubilation at waking into this world had morphed into a kind of horror at learning of the nuclear bombs, the policies of the failed states, and the fact that humanity was still not coexisting peacefully even hundreds of years in his future. He felt tears in his eyes. Brian noticed them.
"I'm sorry. It can't have been easy for you. Please, let's stop talking about the world you've been suffering through and allow me to show you what we hope is a model for the future for all of humanity. The Mutual Nation of Hawai'i has only gotten better since you left - so many decades ago."
Klee returned. She noticed the somber mood and immediately changed it. "Check out this amazing melon, you guys! And guess what - you are both invited to my birthday party tomorrow!" Her smile alone was enough to make Harold forget the dark thoughts he had been drowning in moments before.
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