Historical Holograms From A Runaway Punk

It took me a few days, but I got settled into the Archery Range, a strange and rustic little village that seemed to be in hiding, yet filled with warm and more loving people, not like the people I remembered in Tech City. The city was bustling with people, electricity, tall skyscrapers, Skypoe cruisers, computers, lights, and hologram screens everywhere. But this Range has no power, no electricity, or computer technology. I asked Zora why, and she said it was because having electricity would attract attention. She didn’t want anyone to know where they were, that they wanted to stay “off-the-grid.” I wondered how it was possible to survive that way. But apparently, they did. I’m even sleeping in a fabric hut, wearing these new mottled green clothes. And I even get to walk around these dirt trails winding throughout the range. I see old wooden statues of animals dotted around the trails, most of them now covered in moss and grass. I heard someone say that they were once used for target practice for many years.

I met a strange old lady living in her unique pine tree cave away from the village. I didn’t know she was out there at first; I was just following one of the trails. I thought there was a bear, and it freaked me out! I ran to tell Zora about the bear, but she laughed and told me her name was Nami. So, she had me go back to meet Nami since she would be my new teacher officially.

Nami was an aging spirit with very dark skin and long braided brown hair. She wore shabby robes that dragged in the dirt, making the bottom of her robes caked with dust. She was known among the others as a witch. But I didn’t let that scare me, pushing my way towards the entrance of her cave of pine trees.

I heard a low rumble yelling from inside that said, “Get out!” I was scared but didn’t move a muscle because I knew it came from an old lady.

I yelled back, “Zora sent me!”

Nami hobbled out of her cave with the help of a cane.

“Why?” she asked.

“I want to learn how to read and write,” I said.

She looked a little confused, straightened her posture, and sized up my appearance.

“Then clean this place up. It’s filthy,” she said.

Nami had a mysterious presence that seemed to demand my respect. I moved all the loose branches on the ground and created neat piles so she could move around more easily. Then I made small piles of rocks on either side of her entrance so she wouldn’t trip and fall on them, smiling at my work completed.

Nami noticed I was done and waved me away, hobbling back inside her cave, “Today, you just learned your first lesson, how to clean. Now go back and think about it. Come back in the morning.”

Think about cleaning? I didn’t get that. On my way back through the forest, I was rudely interrupted by rocks thrown at my head again by Zi-Yen. I couldn’t see him, but I knew who it was because I could hear him giggling. He seemed to be enjoying using me as some kind of target practice. He’s just lucky he’s half my size.

I did go back the next day, but when she saw me, she said, “You are not a normal girl. Now come inside and clean.”

I almost jumped at the invitation, entering a treasure trove of little jeweled trinkets and sparkling mini-metal figurines.

“You dare think of takin? Law ’round here, if you take without asking, something will be taken from you. There is more to this world than you think.” said Nami as she handed me a dirty old rag to dust with.

“What are these?” I asked her.

“Evidence of what used to be… faith,” replied Nami.

“I don’t understand?”

“They’re idols of worship; symbols men used to help keep them going, that there is more to this world than what we see with our eyes.”

“Is there?” I asked her.

She looked right at me, expecting me to answer my very own question. In which case I said, “There is.”

She nodded her head and said, “Good.”

While I was dusting, I found this holo-rec and asked her why she had it; Zora didn’t allow anyone to use electricity.

“It works off the grid, trust me,” she said. She said she got one in case she was implanted with the Neuralink brain chip while living in Tech City. She heard that it was creating memory problems. But she was exiled before she was implanted, so she never had to use her holo-rec and decided to hang onto it.