Solomon's Corridor

The Original Corridor

Their little shop had stayed in its place for four generations, but their once beautiful development had fallen into disrepair. Their sector of Solomon’s Corridors and the four levels above it were now more commonly called the Old corridors. The name Solomon was more of a jest to the old than a name.  It was the name of the first leader that ruled on the other side of the river. Shahi Rein Solomon crossed the river now called Rein’s River with a band of followers to build a colony in the sides of two mountainous peaks. He had gathered his followers to cross the river with him as crowding grew in the towns. He came to the twin peaks and built the Corridors.  On the other side of Rein’s river more families left and crossed over to settle in the new Corridor colony bringing in labor and goods to furnish the growing economy of Solomon’s people. As the population grew so did the corridors. Long platforms extended further from the sides of the mountain building more corridors for new families. Those were the golden days of Solomon’s corridors. But it like all things new grew old and lost.

By the time Ah-mah was a young woman a civil war had erupted between Solomon’s Corridor and the older colonies across the river. When she reached adulthood she had already lost a brother. Later on married and with child the war continued. Death surrounded her. As the civil war drew on she lost her husband, her only son and finally a daughter-in-law. Now an old woman left alone in a small seed shop she slaved away protecting and earning money to care for two hungry infants one with deformed hands.  It was a pity to Ah-mah as both were porcelain children and could have been sold to a good family, but alas the fates intervened and the girl child was found to possess Solomon’s arthritis. In truth Ah-mah did not want to sell her two grandchildren, but she knew that with her as their only caretaker living in the lowest corridor they would live a suffered life. To protect the female child she claimed the disease newborn had already been paid for by a merchant across the river in one of the older towns. Papers were forged to show records of the transaction to the Shahi authorities. Then the child was stowed away for many years from the world. The same was done with the boy, but in his case he was bought by an actual Shahi family from the surface. Child adoption was illegal in the Shahi city. The authorities wanted to weed out families with stillborns afflicted by Solomon’s arthritis. It was a ghastly sight to doctors and new parents alike, and in most cases the mother of the child was removed from the city in the most unpleasant ways. It was also called the Mother’s disease as it was found in her blood to be the dominant carrier. So it was decreed that all children must be born of their biological parents, or in the event of the parent’s untimely death a blood relative must claim guardian to them. There could be no child adopted from outside of the city for fear of new contaminated blood entering Shahi city. That was the law, but the truth of the matter was there were many people living in Shahi city who had Solomon’s arthritis. It was evident in the family that adopted the boy child from Ah-mah. In the final months of the Shahi woman’s pregnancy she stopped feeling her child’s movement in the womb. Fearing the worst the family hired a midwife to deliver the child privately in their home. As their fears proved their own little boy was stillborn. If it were found out that this prominent family had Solomon’s disease then most certainly the mother and all her female relatives would be “Advised” into the lower levels of the old corridors. In their grief the family made the hasty decision to meet with Ah-mah through a third party. They agreed to the adoption when they then laid eyes on Ah-mah’s grandson. The Shahi mother cried when Ah-mah handed her grandson into the stranger’s arms. There in her little seed shop fifteen years ago they met both of Ah-mah’s grandchildren. Before they left with the baby boy Ah-mah made them swear secrecy to the knowledge of the sister. They made their promise as they knew Ah-mah would also keep their secret too. That night the young parents traveled out of the Loam corridor back up to the surface. For Ah-mah she was willing to take the chance of giving her children a better life, and if this life did not want him…it could give him back to her. At least one of her babies could live in comfort.