Elysium (31 page)
Authors: Jennifer Marie Brissett
Tags: #Afrofuturism, #post-apocalyptic fiction, #Feminist Science Fiction, #Science Fiction, #Emperor Hadrian and Antinous--fiction, #science fiction--African-American
The krestge moved off, twisting within itself. It stopped several times and turned to see if Adrianne followed. It was an eerie sight to watch something move and remain still at the same time. Yet Adrianne continued to follow.
All around her was green and alive. A large flock of birds crossed the sky, momentarily blocking out the sun. The sounds of creatures both great and small made the chorus of a song with the wind rustling through the leaves forming the melody. They approached a small brook. Adrianne bent down to touch the flowing water. It went through her hand.
Beyond the water, beyond the canopy of trees, a cluster of shimmering towers made of something akin to silver rose into the air. They seemed to float rather than sit on the ground. Adrianne remained still and took in the sight. The towers were like Zinn; she could see all sides of them. Her mind told her that this was impossible, and yet that was what her eyes perceived. They seemed both beautiful and sinister.
“~~This is our~~cap-i-tal on Earth~~~and it is my home.”
“I see.”
Adrianne closed her eyes and calculated. She knew where she was. This is where it had all happened. This was where her city once was. This was home.
“All that you~~exper-ienced~~hap-pened a long, long time ago.~~~It is a for-got-ten history.~~The story of hu-mans~~living here before us~~is not one we are told.~~If I had not seen~~the evi-dence myself,~~I’m not sure that~~~I would have be-lieved …”
Adrianne felt weak. She found a large rock to sit on, took off her nonexistent shoes, and put her feet into the water. It flowed though her as if she were a specter. Her clothes and her body were fading as if being absorbed by the air.
“It is clear~~to me that~~a great crime has been~~~done to your people,” Zinn said. “I swear to you,~~~I will not rest un-til the truth~~of what hap-pened here~~~is re-vealed.”
Adrianne closed her eyes then said, “So, we are all dead.”
“No, your people~~that es-caped in ships ar-rived~~safely on that other~~~world. They live and thrive~~there to this day.”
His planar sheets shifted and shadows flowed over his outer shell.
“Where is Antoine?”
Tkeclc made a sound that was something like a groan.
“Where is he?”
After a long silence Zinn answered, “~~He is like your-self,~~a memory writ-ten~~~in the sky.”
The air moved against her skin, then through her fading body. Her hands were numbing and her fingertips tingled. A flutter in her systems triggered a Level 2 warning. She adjusted her pathways and brushed away a tear.
Adrianne decided what must be done. What was life without someone to love? She finished adjusting the locks on her systems. It would take a human hand to open them again.
“I would still~~like to learn~~~more,” Zinn said.
“I’m sorry, but this information was not for you.”
“I~~meant you~~~no harm.”
“I know,” Adrianne said.
Passing the krestge, Adrianne left the water to lie down on the grasses beside the brook, which opened to a field of sweet scented wildflowers of pink and yellow. She was becoming translucent, no more than an apparition, a ghost of the past. Many things drifted through her mind as it was shutting down, mostly the memory of Antoine floating somewhere in the heavens — her always companion, her friend, her lover, her brother, her father, her son.
Antoine
.
She looked up into the blue, blue and felt the warmth of the sun shining through the clouds and said, “I would like to have seen him once again. He was so beautiful.”
Then her eyes closed, and she whispered, “End Program.”
** PROGRAM END **
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H
ADRIAN AND
A
NTINOUS
During his reign, the Emperor Hadrian (76 AD – 138 AD) had Rome in a constant state of construction. Among his many projects were the Pantheon and the Temple of Venus, the largest temple in ancient Rome. He is most famously remembered for the great wall he built across Britain — Hadrian’s Wall — made to keep the barbarians at bay.
In those days it was not unusual for an older man of great political stature to take a young male lover. And so Hadrian loved the young and beautiful Antinous (c. 111 AD – 130 AD), who would probably have been in his late teens when their relationship began. Antinous was known to have a quick wit to match his beauty. Possibly that is what first attracted Hadrian’s attention. In any case, the pair traveled all across the Roman world together. They liked to ride and hunt and have long lavish parties where wine and conversation with like-minded individuals were the main entertainment.
While in Egypt, Hadrian took ill, and Antinous went on a boat ride without him. There Antinous fell into the river Nile and drowned. It may have been an accident. Some speculate that Antinous committed suicide as a sacrifice to save Hadrian’s life since he was sick. Or maybe Antinous was murdered to avoid the shame for Hadrian were they to continue their relationship past the time it was considered appropriate. (A relationship such as this was thought proper to end once the boy began to show facial hair.) Whichever the case, what happened next is not in dispute. After Hadrian was told of Antinous’ death, he went into a fit of mourning so severe that it made those around him fear for his sanity. He never forgot Antinous. On the contrary, Hadrian did what he knew how to do best — he built things. Monument after monument after monument was constructed in memory of Antinous. Busts, statues, coins, even towns, cities, and rivers were named after him. Over and over again, the image of Antinous could be found everywhere. Antinous was also deified by the Egyptians, as those who died in the Nile often were. Perhaps this was also a gift for the grief-stricken emperor.
Hadrian had the constellation Ganymede renamed after Antinous, so that even the stars were marked in remembrance of the one he loved. The constellation above it was Aquila, the eagle. (In the Greek myth, Zeus turned into an eagle and stole Ganymede, bringing him to Mount Olympus.) Thus Hadrian was placing himself as the great bird so that the pair could be seen forever together in the night sky: Aquila with its wings outstretched carrying the young Antinous up towards the heavens.
Acknowledgements
There are so many people to thank who have helped, encouraged, and loved me along this writer’s journey: Djibril al-Ayad, Pierre Bennu, K Tempest Bradford, Gail Cruise-Roberson, John DeNardo, Minister Faust, Jeffrey Ford, Andrea Hairston and Pan Morgan, Buzz Harris, Mary Frances Hatfield, N.K. Jemisin, Reid MacDonald (your beta read feedback was fabulous!), J.M. McDermott, my awesome agent Kristopher O’Higgins, the NAACP ACT-SO program, Budd Parr, Edwin Raynor, Marguerite Reed, Alta Starr (for giving me my first real book when I was thirteen “I Love Myself When I’m Laughing” A Zora Neale Hurston Reader), the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing especially my Stonecoast mentors James Patrick Kelly, David Anthony Durham, Ted Deppe, and Elizabeth Hand (You guys are the BEST! *Mwah*) and also Patricia Smith & Tim Seibles (for teaching me how to read in public), Rozanna Tendler (rest in peace, girl), Sheree Renée Thomas, L Timmel Duchamp and Kathryn Wilham, Jeff VanderMeer, Ms. Kathleen Walcott, Saul Williams (for the use of his wonderful poem), My WisCon family, and for their writerly inspiration: Sherman Alexie, James Baldwin, Octavia E. Butler, Ursula Le Guin, Ha Jin, Toni Morrison, and Gloria Naylor.
And above everyone else, Geoff Wisner my life partner with whom I’ve traveled this long and tough and beautiful road. You are the beat in my heart and I love you so very, very much.
Author Biography
A Jamaican-British American (born in London, England), Jennifer Marie Brissett came to the US when she was four and grew up in Cambridge, MA. She was a software engineer and web developer for many years before she moved to Brooklyn, NY, to build the indie bookstore Indigo Café & Books, which she ran for three and a half years.
Jenn has a Master’s in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine, concentrating in Speculative Fiction, and a Bachelor’s in Interdisciplinary Engineering (Electrical Engineering with a concentration in Visual Art) from Boston University. She is a writer and sometimes artist who has had a few shows in cafes in the Boston area.
Her stories can be found in
Morpheus Tales
,
Warrior Wisewoman 2
,
The Future Fire
,
Thaumatrope
, and
Halfway Down the Stairs
, where her work was nominated for the
Dzanc Best of the Web
series, included in
The Best of Halfway Down the Stairs, 2005-2010,
and a finalist for the 2013
storySouth
Million Writers Award.
She lives in New York City with her husband, where they both fully accept that their cat rules the house. Her website can be found at www.jennbrissett.com.
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