Jeremy McDermott in the Land of Oddkins

      The boy stole back into the hut.  He wiped himself dry from the early morning drizzle with a coarse rag he kept under the sleep sack.  He thought of his secret and covered his mouth to muffle the soft laughter. After looking looked across the room at the two sleeping adults, his parents, the boy breathed a sigh of relief. He sat down on the edge of the sleep sack and eased in.  He heard his mother’s first stirrings seconds after securing himself in his cocoon, “Just in time”, he thought and a smile widened across the small face.  His secret was still safe!  Seconds later, he fell into a deep sleep.

      Dull gray light filtered into the one room hut.  Jill McDermott opened her eyes.  She stretched her thin gray arms and nudged her husband with an elbow before rising from their sleep sack.  She glanced over at the boy snoring soundly across the room.  His mouth curved upward in that curious expression which too often preceded an annoying sound.  Hearing it disturbed and perplexed her.  She wasn’t accustomed to feeling anything.  That child puzzled her when she allowed herself to consider him.

      Jill walked across the hut to the basin filled with sludgy grey liquid collected from the puddles outside.   It would serve for washing up until the new shipment of supplies arrived.  She splashed some on her face and arms before checking on the food.  On a shelf above the basin stood a tall cylindrical container made of dried mud.  She shook the container.  “Good”, she thought, “enough to last until the next shipment. 

      At that moment, Jack joined her to wash and help with food preparation.  The couple looked oddly alike; both short and thin with gray hair, loose gray skin and eyes.  Their faces, vacant of expression, gave only slight indication that life resided within their emaciated frames.  They acknowledged each other with a nod and some grunts.  As Jack washed, Jill poured some dehydrated plant flakes into three gray dried mud vessels and added liquid from another container.  This liquid, only slightly less murky than that used for washing, served to soften the plant matter and make it edible.

      Jack nodded toward the boy.  Answering the silent command, Jill walked to his sleep sack and gave it a soft kick with her bare foot.  The boys did not awaken.  She kicked harder.  He opened his eyes and as he focused on her face, turned his mouth upward even more sharply until his entire visage changed its shape.  “Jeremy, stop,” she grunted.  The boy nodded and tried to control the expression which so irritated his parents.  Finally, Jeremy McDermott sat up in bed.  The boy’s bright black hair and eyes sparkled in contrast with the vast span of gray that permeated his entire world.  He stretched and bounced out of bed.  Jeremy’s lithe body skipped over to the wash basin where he slapped himself with liquid. His quick slim figure contrasted greatly with the others; the frail, slow Oddkinians.  If the people were inclined to think about it, which they weren’t, they might have wondered when the leaders would notice this aberration.

      After Jeremy washed, the family sat on stools at a small table fashioned of the same dried mud that formed all their furnishings and home.  Silently, they spooned the mushy gray substance into their mouths.  Only the sounds of spoon against bowl and munching pierced the silence.  Jeremy had learned long ago to keep his comments to a minimum as his chatter seemed to bother his parents.  To amuse himself, the boy made circles in the porridge with his fingers while he thought of his hidden treasure.  Jill and her mate ignored him.  They stared blankly across the room.

      After the morning meal, Jill removed the bowls from the table, wiped them out with a coarsely made gray cloth, the same cloth of their garments, and placed them back on the shelf.

A hole just outside the gravel floored hut served for bodily elimination.  Jack shoveled gravel over the latest accumulation of waste. 

      Then the three people moved to their personal computer tables and sat down.   A computer with a large screened monitor sat on each table.  A skull cap out of which various electrodes protruded lay next to the monitor.  The electrodes connected the cap to the computer base.  The three family members placed their skull caps on their heads.  The computer screens automatically came to life.  Dull gray images merged into one another on the screens as voices transmitted through the skull caps communicated instructions to the three people.

      The faces of Jill and Jack looked blanker than ever as they sat mesmerized in front of their machines.  Only scant traces of life remained visible in their bodies as the voices in their skull caps droned on and on.  Occasionally, their hands moved to strike keys on the keyboard in obedience to some command.   Otherwise the two sat unmoving while watching and listening passively.

      Luckily for Jeremy, neither parent looked at their son during computer time.   They sat transfixed before their machines.  Jeremy had no patience for the long computer hours required of Oddkinians.  Although his skull cap sat on his head, nine year old Jeremy had learned long ago to tune out the sounds.  Instead of listening to the drone, he thought his own thoughts.   

       He glanced sadly at his parents.  “I wish I understood why I am so different from everyone else.  My parents sit for hours perfectly content listening to this boring noise.  Their faces never change.  I don’t even know if they have thoughts.  Why do I?  If only I could tell someone about my treasure.  It is most amazing, but there’s no one to tell.”

      Jeremy looked again at his parents.  He signed a deep sigh before returning to his daydreaming.

The boy often squirmed while he sat thinking.  He could not remain still like his parents.  When he got to the point of feeling he would explode, he had to escape outside.                                                          

      Jeremy pulled an object from under his table.  It was a dried mud ball with pieces of his hair glued on.  This will keep the circuits going while I leave.”  The boy smiled to himself as he prepared his deception.

      At last, Jeremy escaped from the hut.   His heart raced wildly within his chest and at the same speeding pace, thoughts rushed through his head.  “I wonder what causes my body to pulsate so.  It happens whenever I step out.  I like it.   I wonder if the leaders will discover that I defy the rules.  What would they do” Perhaps one day I will be caught.   Maybe they would answer my questions.”

       Jeremy looked around him.  The bland vista and still air insulted his senses.  A few puddles remained from the evening rain, and a few gray bushes dotted the landscape. 

      Then, Jeremy put his thoughts aside.  Now he ran, skipped and rolled somersaults on the rough gray ground.  Free from scrutiny, the boy whooped and chortled as he danced about the terrain in front of his home.

      When Jeremy satisfactorily expended his bottled up energy, he cautiously looked about him for signs of being watched.  After assuring himself that he spotted nothing but bleak landscape, the boy quietly walked to the back of the hut and knelt down.  He engaged in his favorite activity, digging for rocks.  This time, however he looked for something specific; his buried treasure.

      A few years earlier, Jeremy found the first rock.  It was a small gray pebble the size of a thumb nail.  It lay atop the ground.  He felt its rough surface with his toes and bent to pick it up.  He examined his find carefully turning it over and over.  He rubbed it on his skin then licked and bit it.  He tapped it with fingernails to hear the sounds they made on its surface. “This is something new.  I wonder how many more of these lie around here.”  He spent many hours since trying to answer that question.

      The boy pursed his lips as his hands scraped the soil.  His fingers had toughened after all the time spent digging.  Piles of course dirt lay aside the small hole of Jeremy’s current investigation.  Finally, he felt something more solid than dirt.  “Whee!” he shrieked.  He dug more furiously with his fingers until he uncovered the round glowing stone.  Rainbow colors, Jeremy’s first experience beyond gray, melded into each other causing the sensory starved child to giggle with delight.  Soft humming sounds of varying pitches accompanied the visual display further enhancing the boy’s pleasure as he rocked to and fro with the cadence of its pulses.                                             

      Remembering the computer and his parents, Jeremy said to himself, “I must return now before I am discovered.”  Jeremy refilled his excavation, patted down the soil, and cautiously entered the hut.  Again, he felt the pounding within his chest. He placed the ball back under the table with rapid motion.   Then, sighing, he sat at the computer and replaced the skull cap. Looking at his parents’ total fixation on their computer screens, Jeremy knew they noticed neither his departure nor his return.  “Good,” he whispered and then resumed his thinking and day dreaming unobserved. 

      Much later, heeding a signal that Jeremy ignored, Jack and Jill removed their skull caps and pushed themselves away from their computers.  Their activity served as a warning to Jeremy that he needed to do the same.  Nodding to each other, the boy and his father sat at the table as Jill prepared the evening meal which was identical to their breakfast.

      After the dinner, the family retired to the sleep sacks.  They never changed their clothing or bathed.  Water, fabric and food, scarce commodities, had to be conserved.  They became accustomed to body odors and didn’t notice the smell.

      Another Oddkinian day had passed.  Jeremy lay still until he heard the shallow breathing of his parents.  He sighed.  When they slept he felt free to examine his growing rock collection hidden beneath the sleep sack.  He used his fingers to search out any unusual curves or crevices within the rock pile.  Until he had found his special rock, this had served as his only evening entertainment.  Jeremy then sought out the sharpest rock to carve a notch in the dried mud wall next to his bed.  He ran his fingers over the myriad of marks that now decorated his wall.  In this manner, Jeremy McDermott recorded his days.  Later, when he knew his parents slept soundly, Jeremy would revisit his treasure.

      The next morning, Jill shouted to Jeremy, “Hurry, Jeremy, time for gathering.  Jeremy groaned.  The weekly social gatherings used to interest him but not anymore. Jeremy thought, “I wish I could find a way to avoid these meetings.  Mother and father insist I go and drag me along if I don’t.  They won’t tell me why we need to go each time.  Nothing new happens there.  Still, it is a change from the computers.”

      En route he watched as other Oddkinians, old and young, trudged breathlessly while their emaciated frames struggled with the three minute exertion. For a while Jeremy dragged his feet along the rough dirt path.  He savored any sensation against his skin even if it stung a little.  He noticed that his feet made marks in the dirt.   He amused himself by making little patterns of circles and swirls.  He tried to invent variations on the patterns by extending or smoothing over parts with his bare toes.  As usual, his parents ignored this activity.  They found it prudent to ignore the boy unless he forced their unwanted attention.  Jeremy dragged his feet in circular motion while he moved forward.  He paused to add marks inside the circles with his toes. 

      Jill noticed he lagged behind.  Heat rose up her face as she saw that once again the child defied custom.  “Jeremy, move!” shouted Jill.  She didn’t want to exert herself by walking back three feet to grab him.   He stood transfixed moving his toes in the dirt.  “Jeremy!” she shouted again this time with more menace in the call.  He looked up and decided he’d better move on. 

      So, identical to every other week, Jeremy and his family trudged to the large hall left over from an old world that no one remembered.  The gray empty hall lacked any furniture or adornments to warm its interior.  The people always clustered together in the middle of the cavernous space waiting.   A wall sized computer screen hung on one wall.  From this screen the leaders greeted their subjects.                     

       Jeremy followed his parents to their spot in the middle of the gathering place.  They always stood in the same spot.  A few adults nodded and grunted greetings to Jill and Jack.  They moved ever so slightly away from Jeremy.

      The Oddkinians stood awaiting the hum that proceeded messages.  After the hum crackled through the room, a voice from the screen announced, “Greetings from your leaders.  Prepare for exercise time.”  Some of the Oddkinian adults groaned.  Each week everyone participated in the exercise program to keep their flaccid bodies strong enough for survival.  During his earlier childhood Jeremy tried using this time to jump and twirl in abandon.   He desisted after Jill pulled on him to stop and said, “Jeremy, the leaders.”  He did not want to risk the wrath of the leaders whoever they were.   On cue, the Oddkinians reached upwards and then bent down as far as they could.  Some of the stronger youth attempted to jump up once or twice.  Like his compatriots, Jeremy despised the exercise routine but for different reasons.  To amuse himself he made up little ditties which he sang to himself while moving, “It’s so boring, very boring.  Up and down we go.  The time has passed; we’re done at last!  Then to home we go.” “Well,” he thought to himself, “I can really exercise my own way when no one watches.”

      During exercise time everyone performed their “calisthenics” in front of the screen.  Jeremy watched the animation of an Oddkinian demonstrating a variety of stretches and very slow jumping jacks. “Come on everyone; one two, one two.  You can do it!”  After two minutes, the majority of Oddkinian adults were gasping and staggering.  Within five minutes, even the children had reached their limit.  Jeremy, yawning, felt nothing. 

      The voice from the loud speaker blasted out, “Complete.”  The cartoon figure vanished and the frail population of Oddkins puffed, panted and slowly recovered from their weekly exertion.

      Then the voice from the speakers returned to further capture the attention of the crowd.  “Announcing new arrivals: Welcome Juliette Horton, Paul Cranston, and Pat Harvey.  The voice droned on.  “Leave containers outside tonight for replenishing.  You will find new supplies in the morning.” 

      Long ago, Jeremy had longed to play with the other children.  In his mind he envisioned them running together squealing in delight.  He had once attempted to engage them in play.  “Come,” he shouted.  “Let’s run around the room.”  The other children simply stared at him without moving.  Finally, Jeremy gave up trying.

      After the announcements, the people spent a few moments exchanging bland pleasantries.  “Welcome little Juliette to our gathering.  Katrina and Lewis, we offer congratulations on your pairing.  Hello to you Jill and Jack.”

      “They never say anything new or different,” thought Jeremy.  “Why, why, why?  How do they stand this monotony when I cannot?”  He knew better than to say anything out loud.  It was best to keep still and innocuous during the gatherings.  He focused on his prized rock and tuned out the sounds around him.

      Finally, the Oddkinians nodded to each other and shuffled off to their homes.  Jeremy sighed in relief.  Another community ordeal had ended.

      On gathering day everyone ate a noon day meal which they cherished after all the exertion. Jeremy, lost in thought about his rock, made humming sounds while his parents prepared the food and set the table. 

      Jill looked at the boy.  He made new noises.  Would he never stop finding ways to disturb her?  The sounds grated on her nerves.  She told the boy to stop, but he ignored her.  Then Jill did something she had never done before.  She slapped her son’s face with great force.  He looked up at her with wide eyes.  He put his hand to his face where her slap still stung.  Water ran from his eyes.  He thought about telling Jill that she hurt him, but decided not to.  The family ate in silence. 

      While they ate, Jill shook with newly born emotions.  She pictured Jeremy’s face in her mind with the water falling from his eyes.  She shuddered.  Something like remorse filled her.  She thought, “No other children in the village behave in this way.  I need the skull cap.”  She looked at jack.  He quietly ate his porridge while staring into space.  She wondered why he remained so calm.  She could not.  Only the skull cap could bring Jill back to her normal state of emptiness. 

      After they ate their extra meal, the family returned to the computer monitors.  For most Oddkinians, identical days passed to months and years in their gray, gray world.  Jeremy promised himself, “I will make my time count for something.”

      Each evening, in their remote underground fortress, the leaders droned a nighttime salutation to each other before pulling their switches to sleep mode.