Wormwood

City Of A Billion Stars

       For twenty one days we resided with the woodens, they fed us and gave us shelter in their kings palace; although we were restricted from going to certain places. In those days we discussed plans for the coming war and our survival through it. With their help we were able to bring in the president with his retinue which included some American Dixiecrats, some of great Britain's parliamentarians, Dukes, and Aristocrats from Saudi Arabia. The city of Calabar became the most guarded city on the planet. A week before their arrival the president ordered a troop of soldiers to join us and assist the woodens to drive out every threat in the city whether stars or humans. Automated weapons were mounted at major entry points into the city, the parts that we couldn't guard, the woodens took upon themselves to guard. Their hospitality grew from disgusting to first class, the president and his retinue were in awe for days. One member of the presidents retinue from America nicknamed wormwood "the city of a billion stars" during one of his speeches.

     The city itself was a thought invigorating and mouth watering pâté de foie gras: the boundary walls was like a see through gown but it could not be passed. The wall was made of colorful gases and stood about two hundred feet in the air, the houses were made from tiny stars joined together by some really strong cohesive substance to form roof shapes and poles stronger than steel and it served as their foundations. They had no mosquitoes or bugs so they had no need for windows or doors; their streets were made of precious stones. One could say their civilization and economy was the richest in the cosmos seeing that what was considered as priceless and rare on earth was in abundance in wormwood. A river ran through the city that reminded me of caviar gold, but it never poured out of the city, when it got to the edge of the city it disappeared.

    Wormwood was built on a strict hierarchy from the king down to the woodens, also known as commoners: there is the royalty class, the aristo class, the high class and the commoners.

    The royalty class consisted of king Saros, the princess and the prince only. They are the only ones in wormwood that have the right to choose their surname and bear any name of their choice, wormwood has no constitution so the royal class is the law. When king Saros ascended the throne he changed his name and that of his children. The royal class also have the privilege of naming the other classes, they possesses the ability to shape shift to other forms, only their faces remained the same. This ability was rumored to come from the throne and the two dying stars that laid at the foot of the throne. They said the gold from the throne dripped directly from the throne of God and the two dying stars were their ancestors that smuggled themselves into the throne room of the holiest and managed to smelt the gold from the base of the throne but were caught in the process and were banished to a state of oblivion. The royalty class wore stars of sparkling white with starry embroidery running around the neck and edges that made it look like a Dansiki, a robe of gases with the most beautiful colors known and unknown to man hung from their shoulders and ran to their feet, a golden sash went around their waist and on their feet they wore sandals that glowed a thousand colors in the dark ---Vincent once said that their city was more lit up than Los Angeles (city of angels).

     The aristo-class consisted of the nobles; the kings cabinet or Parliament. The king surnamed the aristo-class 'Taurus'. They wore a flowing gown made from stars with all the colors of the rainbow; around their waist was a silver sash and their sandals glowed only three colors: red, turquoise, and indigo. The parliamentarians rarely made decisions except when the king was absent, so their job basically was to act as tools the king could use to bounce off ideas. Their quarters were built on the palace ground seeing that no king allowed his nobles live amongst commoners.

   The high class is made up of the kings guard and soldiers; the king surnamed this class 'cree'. Commoners could become 'Nonjhach' or 'soldiers' but had to undergo brutal and strenuous training for twenty years before getting conscripted into the royal army. It proved worthiness and patriotism to the cause of the nation and tenacity to survive regardless of brutal conditions. They wore a sky blue robe and a transparent anorak with a bronze sash around their waist, their sandals glowed only a single color, bright yellow. The nonjhach didn't have houses but they were given authority to take any house that pleased them to sleep but they were not allowed to expel or abuse the owners, they also had the right to take food from the market without paying.

    Lastly are the commoners both old and young, strangers or family members altogether were surnamed 'wooden', they wore a pale blue gown without a sash and with no colors on their sandals. The president signed an agreement with other world leaders to join forces with the colony both intellectually and militarily to raise an army that has never been recorded before. After several hours of meetings and disputes, the president and his retinue were ready to go back to the nations capital. In those days, the president issued a decree that any man caught fighting his fellow man would be flogged, his plan was to reduce mortality rate so that people did not kill themselves before the war. Treaties were made with street thugs to give them houses and provide food just so we could reduce bloodshed and increase military force. Other leaders went back to their countries and replicated the same act, reports came from all over the world that the unity experienced by mankind had never been espied before. We reduced greatly the number of fallen stars that had been terrorizing communities. Leaders sent their leading experts to come and learn from the woodens. The president put me in charge of everything that went on and raised my rank. Every soldier in Nigeria was under my command; he also raised the ranks of my closest friends and family. We rebuilt the house, the houses surrounding ours were rebuilt to accommodate the growing number of foreigners that came to learn from the woodens. We destroyed the stadium at the center of the city and renovated it into an ultramodern Colosseum so we could contain as many soldiers as possible. This, i recorded on the 31st January, 2017.