*In the Lab w/ Caroline was lived in front of a citywide audience. Caroline opened the door by waving her hand in front of the sensor. It was locked with a biometric tumbler. There were maybe a handful of locked doors left in the city of Ultima, the last city on Earth, a city of... Continue Reading →
Summertime on the Island of Pain consisted of hot days and cold nights, but with the Autumn came a drop in the temperature that tested Ruth’s powers of concentration once again. There was a chill penetrating Mei Lubaba’s bones. Her muscles twitched, and there was a frosty tingle in her hands and feet. She was... Continue Reading →
Mother Ruth and eleven of her most senior meditation students set out on an extended wilderness retreat in the mountains and forests far away and high above the monastery, the nunnery, the hot and cold running water, and the university’s fully stocked kitchen. The mountain held a place of reverence for the locals. They say... Continue Reading →
“While the heart is awake, the ego is asleep.” Bitter old men in ancient temples have always found a way to elevate human beings into gods. Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Muhammed, Mary, Mary Magdalene — all of them human, all of them miraculous, all of them used as proof that you could never be what they... Continue Reading →
“Forgive me, Great Mother, for I have sinned. It has been several lifetimes since my last confession.” In 1839, before the First Opium War, the Shantideva University was the premier institution of syncretistic education in the known world, folding Christian and Buddhist faiths into its curriculum with a heavy focus on the esoteric. “In my... Continue Reading →
The northernmost island of Shanqui Jian was the Island of Pain, with its mountain peaks, high-altitude steps, and cable cars. It held the university campus, the capital city, and the castle of the king. The rest of the island was an untamed wilderness. “We sort of wanted the same thing,” the younger novice joked. “I... Continue Reading →
Mama Muni was the university’s librarian. She was forgiving and sweet, sharp-witted and patient. She was a matron to even the older women in the nunnery, and she intimidated all but the most senior men. Mama Muni kept the university's vast collection of holy books and ancient truths safe from those not ready to view... Continue Reading →
In the Book of Genesis, man is made flesh by God. In the Garden of Eden, woman is made from man’s bones—and it is she who gives birth to the rest of us. It is woman who bears the messiah, the offspring that crushes Satan. Western religion begins by granting creation to God, then quietly... Continue Reading →
Rebecca waved her arms and it wasn’t working. Rebecca wasn’t even her real name. It was something she had found in a book. Mei knew that she was born in the Capitol, but Mei never knew anything about her family or why she left. Two young hoodlums tried to remove Little Mei Lubaba from the... Continue Reading →
Mei Lubaba was awake before the sun, before the cows, before the milkmaids and the farmhands. She was awake before the roosters, the housemaids, and the field laborers who slept with heavy hearts. It was 1908, and Little Mei Lubaba awoke on the opposite side of the world from Chicago, Illinois, in an island chain... Continue Reading →
In the fall of 1920, the first cars came to the islands of Shanqui Jian and to the streets of the Walled City on the Island of Progress. The cars had four seats and a hand crank to start. They were slower than the oldest horse Mei had ever ridden, and she did not enjoy... Continue Reading →
Mei’s journey to the Walled City began when she was sixteen, on an old Riwoche with solid knees and a pleasant disposition. She remembered hating that old horse when she was a kid. It was light brown with reddish spots, and it had nearly killed her. Every year on her birthday, her stepmother put one... Continue Reading →
In 1909, a year after Mei Lubaba left her father’s farm, slavery was officially abolished on the archipelago near the East China Sea that Mei called home. Deeds of ownership were replaced with contracts, and slavery became indentured servitude. Life went on as usual. From her family’s table on the raised platform at the end... Continue Reading →
In 1893 a man named Herbert Wells uncovered the mysteries of time travel for a universe that would eventually forget his middle name. Little Mei Lubaba knew that it was George. Herbert George Wells would be lost to time behind the letters H and G. A universe of time travelers from thousands of years in... Continue Reading →
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