Dream's End at Reality's Gate: The Freeway Fare Between Worlds

04 | The Neighbourhoods

Finally, we touched down in the most adorable, eco-friendly city ever (according to me)!

I spotted one of the many huge holographic billboards displaying visual spectacles of our advanced technology and lifestyles. The Councillors' voices broadcast from the echo-positional speakers inside our ecocars. Councillors urged us to keep with them in restoring the environment. Displaced panels to contemplate whenever you are wandering around.

One video displayed three individuals, in white jumpsuits, walking through lush ecologically restored dense forests.

As I watched, Councillor's voice-over broadcast from the echo-positional speakers inside my ecocars, "New Eden had made significant efforts towards regrowing Miyawaki's dense forests. The ecological restoration has been going smoothly for many years, despite the challenges we have faced—"

And then, another mega banner appeared, playing a montage of a group of handsome and brilliant individuals, each with their unique talents and skills, coming together to save the earth from ecological disasters, daring individuals from diverse backgrounds and disciplines — environmental science and agriculture, computer engineering and gadgetry, geological and many technical consulting — working collectively in secret to save the biosphere from the brink of disaster.

Again, to each hexagon ward, a new billboard playing, this time: "...genuine goodness is like water. Water's good for everything, it doesn't compete. No competition, so no blame."

As my vehicle rides through the ecocity's districts towards Harmony Plaza, I can't help but every time descry how orderly and planned everything was. The ecocity planners laid out the streets in a huge honeycomb-like pattern, where the inside of each hexagon lays the domestic housing, and the outer and intersections where avenues with boulevards of all the utilities, facilities and outlets, placing no fences or barriers between the houses. It's like they all belong to one sizeable community. And the green spaces that divide the buildings... it almost feels like I'm driving through the scenery instead of a city.

This time at the new billboard, "..even the best weapon is a sad tool, hateful to living things. It is right that a victory in battle be received with funeral ceremonies." Yikes, these are deep ones.

I glanced around the domestics' area entrance nearby, their enchanting beauty captivated me. They were like majestic, with covering shimmering glass tent roof, each with a perfect combination of human creativity and nature's wildness; some angles were soft, some polygons, while some were jagged. These translucent tents made of three-layer gas-filled glass panes, which absorbed the sun's rays and transformed them into renewable heat energy.

They looked so invitingly cosy under bright sunlight—The pre-planned districts of my ecocity were designed to be urban utopias, there are main categories of outer bonds to each hexagon: commercial ones used mostly during business hours (and sometimes night) when residents need supplies such as multi-story farms, industrial zones located mainly near manufacturing plants. No one had to drive over 15 minutes to get anything they may needed. The result was a city of wide roads and the proximity of all its amenities.

Most of the inhabitants know their hexagon ward neighbourhoods' names — I didn't.

In time for a new billboard of Councillors propaganda, shall we, "..the unwanting soul see what's hidden, and the ever-wanting soul see only what it wants."

To each major cardinal district, they had a self-managed council in it, and the original block had infrastructure to hold eventual social gatherings and local sports.

As for the revolutionaries who pioneered all of this, they later dubbed this new era as 'solar punk society'.

It is a cute place to live, filled with charming, short-storey buildings painted with pastel hues. In the spare green facing the breezy boulevard, youthful men and women walked arm in arm, stopping at the departments. Older men sat at wooden tables in the centre, puffing away on long pipes filled with herbs and sipping biodynamic wine. And amidst all this, students in their uniforms dashed around, their bodies glistening with sweat from intense martial arts training.

I couldn't help but notice the lively energy that filled the air. Merchants eagerly greeted clients while women in beautiful silk dresses gracefully glided by. The men exuded confidence with their tailored suits hugging their proportional frames. It seemed like everyone had a purpose, heading towards their destinations with a sense of excitement. This place was unlike any other, where even strangers felt like old friends.

Then, another propaganda playing nearby catches my attention as it shows six individuals walking around ecologically restored areas where green foliage has sprouted, birds chiming.

A Councillors' voice-over says, "...New Eden's effort may seem to focus on just stabilising the planet's ecological crisis, but all should remember that New Eden's actions have saved billions of lives worldwide—"

Ugh, I totally got lost in my thoughts again! Oh wow, look at the Harmony Plaza outside. Those sleigh bells are so dreamy and the fountain is like something out of a fairy tale. And look at that huge clock! It's like a giant neon dish in the sky. Wait, why does it feel like it's pointing right at me? Is this a sign? Is something about to happen? Oh god, I hope not. Maybe it's only the sun playing tricks on me. Yeah, that has to be it...right?

I breathed, "It's like a jungle out there." The saplings from the tropics cornered the landscape and created an amphitheatre-like topiary of ferns and flowers that sprouted from their branches. We stood in the middle of it all, amidst the lush greenery that felt like tropical.

"You seem to be enjoying the view," my caregiver's voice comes through the commlink at echo-positional speakers.

"I am," I replied. "It's not just beautiful."

I had to talk to them about my desire, "But sorry, ladies, I can't make it to the plaza today... I have an orchkids emergency, I just remembered that I have to tend them at home to fix the watering system."

They both laughed back in response.

Joanne said, "C'mon, Mari, let's take a walk around the plaza. You won' regret it!"

"Oh, I'll be reflecting upon it alright."

They roared with laughter, "Ya, well, we'll see if you'll be doing any of that."

I smiled. "You never know. Maybe when I'm back for my birthday next year."

They laughed again and said, "Don't forget."

I shook my head and said, "Never. Meet you later."

I turn my vehicle around to head back and switched off my vehicle's commlink. Perhaps I would should have gone to the plaza.