Terran Oblivion

Chapter 5

Sean Sanon

May 22, 2203

Port Au Prince - Montague Noire

5:14 PM

It's up to history to judge.

-Pol Pot

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"Go up to the gate," said his boss in Creole, patting him on the head. "There will be a present for you."

Sean hated this part of the job, guarding the gate that is. So boring. Nothing ever happened in this place anyway. All the oligarchs and feudalists had long since fled or had been killed by either him or his comrades. The other boys from his hometown of Limbe were out in the city or in the south helping to squash the last bits of resistance to the new order. Why did he have to be here in the middle of the wealthiest part of the city guarding a mansion belonging to an oligarch? It didn't make sense.

"Bossman, why are we here?" Sean asked his boss.

Bossman, as he and the other boys called him, wore little more than tattered jeans and a rotten jacket, but he still managed to make it look imposing. At some point, he managed to loot some expensive sunglasses that he now wore all the time, even indoors, but he still looked as if he could fit in with all the other farmers and poor workers in Northern Haiti at the same time. His beard, rugged and poorly shaven, smelled of cigarettes and weed. Behind him, a tinny speaker blasted some of the latest Haitian rap with heavy bass interspersed with African drums. Sean hardly understood anything but he didn't quite have to–music like this helped to bind people to the Revolution at hand. Much of Haiti blasted with the primal beats.

"We are here because that is where the bossman tells us to be," he said in quick creole. "We do not question."

"Of course."

"You are young in the ways of the world but you will soon be a man. You will be in charge. Then you will understand why we are here and what we do."

"Yes, boss."

"Enjoy it. Moments like this, peace guarding a place like this, will not be here forever. The fighting will soon be fully over."

"I only wish I could have killed more oligarchs."

Bossman chuckled. "No fear. That is what we like to see. Now go to the gate. I left some brown brown for you there. You might enjoy it."

Sean's heart began to beat in his chest. "That is hard to get."

"Yes, but a true man like yourself deserves it. Now go. Enjoy your gift and then we will talk later." The sound of a woman laughing in a shower came behind. Sean didn't quite understand but the bossman never was happy when he or any of the boys intruded when a girl was near him, so he learned quickly to stay away from the boss in those situations. Perhaps one day Sean would understand all of this and do something about it, but that day was not quite here. Sean saluted with a fist and turned to head back outside.

Despite having been here for a few days now, Sean never quite got used to the wealth of the place. His parents had a small shack by a creek filled with garbage, and when it rained they had to cover the bed with plastic to keep the mattress from getting wet when water leaked through all the holes in the tin roof. When it rained at night they huddled under plastic on the floor and tried to sleep the best that they could, often failing to entirely. Sean knew nothing else. He remembered wanting to go to school, to be with his friends who were there learning about things, but his father just couldn't afford all the uniforms and the books, so Sean went without. Truth be told, he knew nothing else but his miserable state of existence. The local police chief terrorized the people of the town of Limbe, often stealing money, requiring bribes to avoid going to jail, or just all around arresting anyone that he didn't like. Once, Sean's father got on the police's shitlist and ended up locked away for a few weeks until the family managed to scrounge up what meager savings they had to pay his way out. Sean recalled hearing a moaning sound coming from the office when his mother went inside to pay the bribe but he didn't know what that meant. Things were terrible, poor, a frantic state of subsistence.