John and Sapphire journey along the river Ia with their new friend Dedjerba, arriving at the city Ntia.
Timmy Vilgiate played the part of John, Eurycleo, and several miscellaneous sailors and crowd members, Michael Merriam played the part of Dedjerba, Sophia Doss played the part of Sapphire, and Nicholas Kline played the part of Telemakso.
Rivers of the Mind is written, produced, and scored by Timmy Vilgiate. Sound effects were provided by Freesound.org, including "a little bit drunk" by carmsie, "crowd cheering" by soundsexciting, "crowd cheer 2" by adam n, "water dam on teterev river" by gerainsan, "italy venice square day amb with live music" by yoh, "noises and music in the alleys of venice" by michel, "lakesup-park-summerafternoorfrontlr" by mitchell sounds, "gentle creek in rainforest with cicadas" by flood mix, "waterfall" by straget, "footsteps on a dock" by mmaruska, "footsteps wood 01" by anthousai, "footsteps shoes hollow wood platform" by kyles, "footsteps on wood" by mydo1, "Moored sailboat interior in strong breeze." by August Sandberg, "strumming sounds" by gobby 12, "tie the boat" by laurent, and "plastic creek 01" by dheming.
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J: The first night that I discovered I could read minds, the first night I realized that I would never come down from this trip, I felt as though I was floating in a massive river, drifting with the current, letting it push me along. Trusting it. For a moment it was a peaceful, zenlike thought to which I latched onto; it quieted my anxious mind for a few days. But now I looked out over the side of the boat at the churning blue water underneath the hull and instead of serenity the thought of the river filled my heart and mind with fear, knowledge of the uncertainty of trusting the course of the water, of the fragility of the boat we traveled in, of the loneliness of our passage.
The river narrowed to a canyon shortly after we boarded the ship, one with high walls streaked with blue veins. Metamorphic rock, most of it, with igneous rock that grew more abundant the higher you got. On the tops of the canyon walls, rows of strange looking trees glistened in the light of that seemed angelic, unreal to us from down in the shadow of the canyon’s walls. Enchanted by the sight, I looked up to the sky, hoping to avoid looking at the river. But the sky above our heads became a river instead, the trees and their leaves eddies lashing at the shoreline. The sound of the immense roaring filled my heart with dread—a waterfall off in the distance. I could hear Dedjerba think of it, for a moment—I shut my eyes. I strained to shut myself out from the minds around me. Inevitably, I still heard their sounds, their colors; I felt the contours of their movements and meanderings bending around me, but I did not want to let them in, or listen to them. Struggling against that was little use. My telepathy didn’t have a very clear off button, just a sort of “volume” knob that never really went all the way to zero. Sapphire leaned against the railing next to me. Not quite talking. Thinking about the bird—I couldn’t help but hear her. I wanted to comfort her but didn’t know what to say yet.
“There’s a waterfall coming, isn’t there?”, I said, turning to Dedjerba as he passed behind me. His heart grew grim but his chest puffed up with a near-suicidal bravado.
Ded: “Aye, but nothing that I haven’t seen before. Far, far to the south there are waterfalls so great you cannot see the sky behind them—an entire city could drift into its depths and you would not so much as notice the sound, much less the sight, so wide and tall they are. And layered atop one another, nonetheless. Seven days it took for us to pass them.”,
J: he boasted, though he feared as he made such claims that I would have traveled to the South, and that I would know that the supposedly great waterfall was not half as high as he made it sound. Dedjerba hadn’t seen half the things he’d expected to see at the edge of the world—just a blank white page streaked with lines of deep blue, surrounded by a slowly receding darkness. Knowing his secret, whenever I needed to tell him a story about my exploration, I would only draw from the things he had expected to see there. “It reminds me of the cataracts of the Sheba River; they pour from the mountains of Nuur at a place where the land splits apart and buckles over itself—in the caves alongside this great rockwall, there live people who fly along ropes and bathe themselves nude in the glorious downpour of the river.” Dedjerba hoped that if he met strange and foreign people some day in his exploits, they would bathe nude beneath a waterfall and swing from ropes—it was wishful, oddly specific thinking. Smirking with envy, he leaned up against the railing next to me.
Ded: “Many wondrous things there are to see in this world.”
John: “Surely. But one I haven’t heard you speak of.”
Ded: “Oh?”
John: “Ntia. Your city. From others lips, yes, I’ve heard its name, but never truly glimpsed its wonders.”
Ded: “I am sure word of its greatness has spread”
John: He said, though he remained actually quite surprised that anyone had heard of Ntia, let alone spoken of its supposed wonders. He wondered for a moment if I would be as disappointed with his city as he was with the many “legendary” cities he had visited. Mindful of what it felt like me to be an explorer expected to bring back magnificent stories to my home city, Dedjerba continued,
Ded: “It truly is a sight to behold. A city interwoven with the river Ia, a city built on peace and love.”
Sph: “Peace and love?”
Ded: “A long time ago, Ia rose up above the houses of the ancestors. He drowned their cities for they were wicked, they had grown hateful and violent. He did away with their old languages and ushered in new and different words so that the people would need to learn to understand one another, to build a new city of peace and love, and so was built my Ntia. Fair, beautiful, free; as a waterlily blooming in the light of dawn, her rooftops glisten with the colors of fresh amber; forever set in her dance with the great river Ia, powered by his ceaseless motion that presses up against the great levybreaks and turns the waterwheels of her factories.”
John: he sighed, looking off romantically, if forlorn, before turning his ear down river, cupping it with his hand.
Ded: “The falls are near. Come. We will go ashore and lower the boat down. From there, it is a smooth trip to Ntia.” (he walks away)
Sph: “How long were we asleep...?”
John: “Long enough for you to become a male river god in a newly industrializing society.”
Sph: “But short enough that I still feel tired, eh? (Drawing out each word) That’s just great.”
John: “I guess your gambit paid off, though, at least.”
Sapphire: “Maybe. I hope you’re right. It wasn’t really my idea though. It was the...
(Bird)
“The bird.”
(Bird)
“There it goes again...Do you know what it’s saying?”
(Bird)
John: “I can hear it, but it doesn’t think words very often. Just pictures.”
(Bird)
Sapphire: “What do you think it’s trying to say?”
(Bird)
John: “I don’t know. Something to do with trees.”
(Bird)
“Or maybe not.”
(Bird)
Sapphire: “It was doing this the other night, too.”
John: “I think it just likes hearing your voice.”
Sapphire: “Is that it? You need some attention?”
(Bird)
Eurycleo: “Hey friends, we are getting ready to lower the ship.”
John: “Right, uh, we’ll be right there. Come on.”
Sapphire: “Alright. (Sighs) Let’s go birdy.”
Eurycleo: “Can you toss me that rope?”
Milozie: “Aye sir.” (Bird starts freaking the heck out)
Sapphire: “What’s wrong? Calm down!” (Bird continues freaking out. Sapphire starts having a panic attack) “We’ve got to get off the boat.”
Eurycleo: “Here, I’ll help you...don’t fall over.”
Sapphire: “Uh, th..thanks…” (Bird)
John: “Sapphire, are you okay? Can you hear me?”
Sapphire: (She cannot hear John) “What’s happening to me?” (Bird) “Am I going crazy?” (Bird) “Are you doing this?”
John: (They have reached the base of the falls) “Sapphire, are you okay?”
Sapphire: (Nervous laughter) “Yeah. I guess we made it already, huh?”
John: “Uh, yeah. We did.”
Sapphire: “Yeah, cool. It’s pretty out here.” (Bird) “The bird thinks so too. (Breaths) The water looks like...like glass.”
John: “The lights are going down.”
Sapphire: “The bird got pretty freaked out back there.”
John: “I picked up on that.”
Sapphire: “I didn’t...do anything crazy, did I?”
John: “No, you just, didn’t answer anyone, so I had to...make up something.”
Sapphire: “What’d you make up?”
John: “I told them it’s part of our religion for women not to speak while going down waterfalls.”
Sapphire: “Alright then. If it works, it works. (Beat) He said it was a city built on peace and love. I can’t wait to see what it looks like.”
John: “Me neither.”
Sapphire: “Can’t you see it, you know, in his mind?”
John: “It’s blurry. But we should be there any minute now.”
Sapphire: “Cool.” (Bird) “Yeah?” (Bird) “Really?” (Bird) “Well, don’t get any ideas.” (Bird)
John: The sunlight all around us turned a solemn and brilliant orange, and the water turned to a dark, almost black purple, we saw the rooves of houses—all neat, wooden triangular houses facing in different directions. Many different houses, all different sizes, silhouetted by the light...As we grew closer to the city, the shingles in the rooves gained a sense of form—all amber just like he said, their shingles were shaped like rose petals. As night fell, men and women emerged from their houses to light lanterns that cast a warm and homely light out onto the water for miles—they paddled the streets in their gondolas, laughing and singing and breaking bread. I could just barely hear the sound over the noise of the river softly pushing us along, but it filled my heart with hope. The closer we grew, the more details popped out to me—the round wooden windows above the rectangular doors—the porches and docks on which people shared conversations with friends—the flags and banners waving overhead—the small exposed island from which a complex for the harbor had been built—the ships arriving in the harbor to bring food, oil, metals, woods, and fibers from cities that must exist closer to the lake’s edge, next to towering warehouses built clumsily onto the lonely hillside. Networks of catwalks connected shops in what looked like a bustling downtown—a few larger buildings on stilts in the foreground appeared to be factories.
S: “It’s fucking beautiful man!”,
J: “I know, all of this is beautiful. You know, you’re a pretty good person to get trapped in a hexateron with.”
S: “You too, John. I wonder if they’ve discovered grass yet, or anything like that here.”
J: “Grass? You mean like...oh. Grass. Yeah, I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out.”
JOHN: (Sapphire reads the first sentence too, and they crossfade) Dedjerba descended from his perch at the top of the ship and came up beside us,
Ded: “My good friends, we have arrived! I trust you will find our fair city to your liking. If I may, I would most certainly welcome you to board with me.”
J: He assumed the mantle of helmsman, letting he who had served as helmsman go below deck to rest his hands a little bit. We reached the port, welcomed by a gleeful and ecstatic crowd. The ship knocked against the pier and two men hopped out to tether it to posts.
Sai1: “There’s quite the crowd, Captain!”
Sai2: “I’m sure they’re all anxious to hear of what you’ve found!”
John: Dedjerba crossed his arms, with a melancholy look in his eyes that seemed to others who looked at him like a triumphant confidence--behind the shadow of his furrowed brow, he brooded and stroked his magnificent beard. Above all other things on his mind, he was really concerned with whether or not he had it in him to give a rousing enough speech for the crowd to carry him all the way home, or if they’d only make it halfway, and, in so doing, leave him at the tavern, from where he’d have to walk the entire way home. That happened when he went to the Forests of Tur-Ang-Sheul-Beth. He didn’t want to walk, though, either way—home was a long way from the harbor. He’d also hate for them to carry him home in celebration and leave his guests stranded at the harbor too—after the voyage to the Legendary Crystal Caves of Burhaal, he’d felt bad enough that they’d left behind a sailor who’d done a perfectly fair share of the work. But the crew on deck probably wanted to get drunk anyhow—they were all young, and neophytes to the whole exploration game. He also reckoned that the crowd also probably didn’t know the addresses of the other sailors so well as they knew his from his numerous celebrated journeys to afar. They’d have to give directions, which is a difficult thing to do when being carried by a crowd of cheering admirers. Beyond the logistics of getting carried home, Dedjerba felt a second weight press on him, one that I couldn’t quite understand well enough to express yet—something to do with the crowd, reading its tastes and predicting what kinds of stories the crowd would best like to hear, relevant to the stories he most wanted to tell, stories that sat in a set of thirteen sealed wooden chests in the ships cargo hold.
Eventually, he climbed up onto the highest point of the boat, pulling Sapphire and I up with him.
Sapphire: (whisper) John, look
John: What?
Sapphire: That’s the dam.
J: I saw it looming in the distance, lit up by the lights of the city—I saw its huge waterwheels with their churning canals. The look on Sapphire’s face was the kind of look that would lead up to something between a shrug and a sigh, but she didn’t move or make a sound. She just looked at the dam. Watched its wheels turning. Watched the water pour through them. Dedjerba rose his hands before the crowd—hundreds if not thousands had gathered beside the harbor to hear him speak.
Ded: “Oh my dear people of Ntia! How I have longed to come home to you! To see again this city unlike any city on this earth, this sparkling jewel in the River God’s crown! To tell you of the wonders which I have seen in my travels to far off lands, the likes of which cannot be imagined. Places where men walk on stilts and balance tea cups on their noses; where Spirit Birds with magnificent songs and soar through the skies with spectacular wings, belching fire and aether; where queer dwarves scurry about in castles made of gemstones; lands where there are mountains made of glass, other mountains made of fire; deserts in which there live warrior women who walk on their hands and carry their baskets on the tops of their feet; lands where the people speak in whistles; where flowers of unseen colors bloom beneath the light of dancing suns. And yet after all I have seen, nothing compares to seeing this city again. To see the love on your faces, the peace in your hearts. Please cherish this peace. Do not let yourselves falter.
There are not only beautiful things I have seen at the edge of the world, but terrible things also. Famines caused by greedy kings; droughts that have turned entire forests to cinders and ashes; wars that have turned brother against brother, sister against sister, hisster against hisster, herther against herther, husband against wives, wives against husbands, liaisons against clients, and clients against liaisons. And having seen the dreadful things that go on there at the edges of the world, I must tell you that this peace here in Ntia is more precious than any of the foreign riches I have brought you, more valuable than any of the colonies that we will soon attend to from afar, more sacred than all of the fish and rice and gold in this river. Peace, as the great Nti himself once said, being not order, but freedom. May our lanterns all run out of oil, our hearths all run out of firewood, our warehouses run out of grain before we let the soul of our great city go the way of the despotic kingdoms I have known in foreign lands, before we let the words peace and love ever be worn away from our hearts.
We have certainly brought back splendid bounty to share with you all in peace and in love. We bring, from the foreign lands, seeds and leaves of plants that the foreigner smokes in a pipe through his nose to produce a state like drunkenness...”
S: “They’ve got grass here John.”
J: “Sounds like it, huh?”
S: “We’re gonna get high in a city in another fucking dimension.”
J: The appeal was lost on me. I had been high on acid for about a thousand years or something.
Ded: ...”Fruits and vegetables with peculiar flavors and aromas; yards upon yards of silk; gold, silver, iron, steel, zinc, quartz, micah, doldum powders, unthings, and voidstuffs”...
S: “The fuck is a voidstuff?”
J: “It’s like a specialized type of unthing.”
S: “Oh, thanks for answering my question. Really clears it up.”
J: “It’s what forms at the edges of this universe as it starts to fall apart. That’s my best guess from what he pictures when he says it.”
Ded:...“and even two fellow explorers from a far away kingdom, who have seen things just as wondrous as I! They traveled to the Nuur mountains, where oxen with huge feathered wings and tails of scorpions stampede across radiant open valleys; where kingdoms of dwarf-men who speak peculiar tongues partake in strange orgies around towering bonfires, where the flowers glow in the night so that the fields look like far away cities. Their whole expedition unfortunately met their deaths while trekking through a dreaded place called the fire swamp. Perhaps you would like to here from them as well! (Crowd cheers, some folks say “Tell us about the orgies!”)”
John: Dedjerba motioned for me to speak. I cleared my throat and moved forward. So many people. Seeing so many of them all waiting for me to tell them of my adventures, hearing all of their thoughts coming in at once, comprehending at the same time all of their faces paralyzed all of my senses. “Greetings, people of Ntia. Nice to see all of you. I have heard of your city from afar, many marvelous things, but none were so great as what you all...seeing you all...this...(chokes) Sorry. I caught something in my...throat. I am called John. This is my navigator, Sapphire. We are both from the kingdom of...of...California!” A hush fell over the crowd. Dedjerba raised his eyebrows, stunned. California, they all thought at once in different words, was one of the fifty mystical domains in the heavenly sphere where all of the spirits of the ancestors lived. Perhaps the name was a coincidence, but a strange coincidence it was. California was home to the God of Quartz—perhaps we were his emissaries. Just then it hit me. This place had once been the real world—the world that I remembered—the names of the states must have been passed down through generations. Engrained into the religion. My heart sank as I realized that, in all likelihood, the people and places we once knew were long gone--that in killing Ryan, we had altered the fabric of reality itself. “Were it not for the generous and heroic assistance of Dedjerba, perhaps myself and my navigator would have perished trying to reach this place. And so we will be eternally grateful for his assistance, and hope you will be so kind as to let us stay here as we rest and recover for our return home.”
Dedjerba, relieved that I had cut my speech short and not taken the opportunity to expound upon the wonders of the foreign lands, climbed down from on top of the ships cabin, and dove into the arms of the adoring crowd. He motioned subtly for us to join him, and we too lept into their arms, carried over boardwalks, alongside canals, up stairways, to a tall wooden house.
