I will not go into the science behind making water, it is complicated and honestly just pure boring, so I will skip that step and tell you that is what we did. We made some water. Unfortunately, it was very little water, which meant we were only able to travel a small distance, and not able to both get back home. So Michael decided to go to the next best place. We travelled to Ancient Asia.
Michael says that it is one of the most enlightened places, yet still peaceful enough for us to be able to find a source of water without getting into any trouble.
I went through this white abyss feeling again and on the other side I found myself blinded by the light. It was the middle of the day and we were in a rice field somewhere in Asia.
"When in Asia are we? "
"It is still 80 million BC, we just travelled about 300 years into the future and changed our location on earth," he says leading the way through the field. It is hot and I am getting hungry as I haven't eaten anything since breakfast, which was quite a while ago but trying to figure out how long ago starts giving me a headache.
"Michael, I know that we are in the middle of nowhere and we should be home as soon as we find some water, but I haven't eaten anything since breakfast and... I honestly don't know how long ago that was, but I feel it must have been a while..."
he looks at me with a look on his face as if to say - get to your point woman! So I continue hesitantly.
"I am hungry"
There is a long silence as I wait to see what he is going to say. He finally stops and looks at me, he seems quite confused and asks
"What is hungry?"
I look at him shocked and then I start laughing, surely he must be joking! He looks at me all surprised and puts a confused smile on his face to accompany my laugh, but I can see he has no idea what is going on. So I stop and ask him
"Are you serious?"
He still looks at me with the smile on his face, I guess waiting for me to explain.
"Food? Something to eat, to fill our belly up so we can live and carry on? You did give me a drink when we were at the beach, food is the solid part that goes into our bodies like a drink?"
He thinks about it and then says with a realisation on his face. "
Ah, I understand, sorry I thought your century has already passed that stage. Not to worry, we should reach the city soon, you can get some food there." he turns around without waiting for me to respond and carries on walking through the field. I am just starting to process. What did he just say?
"Michael, you don't eat?" I ask puzzled.
"Not really" I hear.
"So how do you live?" he stays silent for a moment, thinking how to explain it to me and says
"soon people will find a different, healthier and more sustainable way to fill their bodies with nourishment, it also helps prevent sickness and many diseases. It has a big impact on sustainability and feeding the world."
I take a moment to think about what he just said. Wow.
We finally reach the end of the rice field and stand at the edge of a cliff. I can see a city in the valley. Massive buildings, very tall spreading out around a river.
" We can get some food there," Michael said " let's go, it's not too far now"
I follow Michael down the path leading to the city. As we get closer I can't believe my eyes!
It is as busy as London, streets filled with people, wooden machines that would hover above the ground, and look like a carriage or a small resemblance of a car as we know it!
The buildings are built out of wood or sand and they were very impressive. Beautiful carvings on the sides, a variety of architectural styles. Some with big windows and some with small. The streets seem like they were paved, but when I was walking on it it didn't feel as hard as our pavement it was a bit more soft or even spongy?
I look around astonished. People talking in a language that I don't know.
"Michael, how is this possible? I never heard of civilisation in 80,000 BC" I look at him puzzled.
"Well, history is not what you think it is. I will tell you later, wait a moment"
He walks over to a man and starts talking. He seems to know their language very well. At the end of the conversation, Michael shakes his head as if to say thank you and returns. "We are near a good pub, I got directions, let's go there so you can eat something?" I smile and nod in agreement.
The pub is inside a large basement. Everything is covered in dark wood that has a slight purple colour. Some walls are made from what looks like colourful wood. I have never seen anything like it. It is strange and yet beautiful. Michael sees what me looking about and smiles as if he knows the answers to my thoughts. Once we sat down he says.
" This type of wood doesn't exist anymore in your time. It's impressive, isn't it? " I nodded in agreement, he continues
"it is the most common wood here and is used for many kinds of building jobs. They use it both for buildings and machines because it has very specific chemical properties."
"All the colours are really lovely," I say while still looking around and noticing more shades of colours in different parts of the room.
" I really like this century " Michael continues " they have managed to achieve high technological development without the resource waste that we notice in other times. That is mostly because of this wood"
We get interrupted by a waitress. She comes and looks straight at me and starts saying something in a language that I don't understand while smiling in my direction. I smile back with confusion on my face and look at Michael for rescue. Michael starts to talk, but the waitress refuses to look at him, her smile disappears and she starts to look down nervously at the table, every few seconds glancing back at me with a small smile. After Michael is done, she gives me a polite nod and walks away.
" How strange," I say " why wouldn't she look at you?"
" she thinks I am your slave, and she doesn't want to be seen talking with a class so low as mine"
"What?! Why would she think that?!"
"I am an old-looking man and according to the customs here, men over 40 become slaves."
"What?! Why would they do that?"
"It is a long and complicated situation that had been evolving for over two centuries. During this time elements in oxygen have developed the woman's brains more than men. The women have become very creative with technological and scientific discoveries. The men who held authority due to his physical power became jealous and began to exploit women and their discoveries. The women stood up, there was a rebellion. To end the rebellion it was agreed that men over 40 become slaves, mostly voluntarily to their family members like wives and daughters."
He stopped and looked down as the waitress served the food in front of me. The rice and chicken in a sauce smelled amazing. So I smiled at the waitress and nodded with acceptance. Once she was gone I dug into the meal while Micheal continued.
"It was a sign of love and protection for the women they loved and cared for and most men didn't feel that they were giving up anything as they were still staying in their home with very intelligent women that would not treat them any less. But now it's been over 650 years since this took place and things only progressed with men truly becoming slaves, full of burden and humiliation after turning 40."
"Oh dear, that's... terrible! When does this end?"
"It actually lasts for quite some time, taking on different forms around the globe, ending with a world disaster that will happen sixty thousand years from now, when the chemicals in the air are erased and man and women will become mentally equal. At this point, it will be when man regains his power with his physical strength which will be needed to rebuild society. From that point forward man holds power over women, which at first is driven by revenge for all the centuries of him feeling punished."
He stops and looks down again.
"You need to finish up quickly, we are in trouble, I talked too much."
As he said that I see 5 women walking towards our table. They all seem tall and very angry walking directly toward us. I understand what Michael means. I swallow my last bite and get up.