AFTER THE DAY, The history of the Valley Part 1: The History of 'The Day', Lukes Story.

June 15th, 15AtD.

Lukes story of the day.

Luke tells the story of the day best. "Before, 'The Day', for as long I could remember," he would begin, "there had been TV news stories about the Isms." And there, we children would interrupt, at first because we didn't know things,  but later it became a ritual of the story. Three questions: "What's TV?" And, "What's News?" And "What's Isms?"

And Luke would dutifully answer, "A, TV was a screen that could show you people telling stories from anywhere in the world, that anyone in the world could watch. The News was hearing what had really happened, sometimes nearby, sometimes far away. Like listening to Peter giving us news about the crops, but a little bit more exciting." There would be giggles and laughs, and Peter would fold his arms and scowl as if to say, 'you may mock, but them crops feed us all.'

Luke's face would become more serious as he leant forward and said, "I have never quite been sure what the Isms were, there was Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, Consumerism, Islamism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and one called Christianity, which no one seemed to call an Ism, but seemed no different from the rest."

Later when I was grown up  Luke always said the children had first called them the 'Isms'. But I only remember him telling the story and him calling them the Isms.

He would go on, "One or other of the Ism's was always on the News saying one of the other Isms had done something wrong, or that their Ism was the only one that knew the truth. Or another Ism was lying. And some of the Isms had very big powerful weapons that they didn't want the other Isms to have. Some of the Isms used to kill people (there was usually a gasp at this point) and show them dying on a kind of TV story called Utube. And it was always being said, that this or that Ism was the only one interested in peace, and all the others were evil or wrong."

"Different nations seemed to follow different Isms, and one Judaism said another Islamism,  had got weapons it shouldn't have. Then it becomes confusing different Isms and Nations started siding with one side or the other, the accusations got louder and more frequent, and then there were reports of a huge explosion, one of the ones they called 'nuclear' in a city of one of these Isms, I thought it was the one called 'Jerusalem', others remember one called, 'Tehran'. Whichever it was it seemed like minutes later the news was talking of the same kind of explosion over the other."

By this time there was always a deep hush, as everyone children and adults all listened.

"My mother was almost literally pulling her hair out. And was screaming at the TV, using some very bad words, the kind Pete uses when he drops a Bale on his foot."

This always produced a laugh, and Peter would add something like, "keep me out of it."

Luke would continue, "In the next hour there were pictures of lots of important people getting onto planes," he would pause and add as explanation, "great flying machines, that could go all over the world, really quickly." and continue, "and in and out of big fancy cars." After the laugh the listeners slipped back into serious attention.

"Mum kept changing the TV between different people talking about what was happening, checking her phone, looking on the 'internet'," He would lean forwards to the smaller children and say, "other ways of finding things out, quite like books, but like every book in the world in the palm of your hand." He would nod sagely, and the children would nod back.

And then he would return to his story, "But none of them really seemed to know, what was going on. Then there was another 'nuke' about 2 hours after the first, over another City known as Tel Aviv, and then another in one of the central Asian republics, and then everything went dark, all the power in our house went off. For a moment, we were in darkness, then there was the brightest flash of light I have ever seen, it seemed to shine through solid walls. Then we felt a massive, thump as if the ground were a huge drum that had been struck. Then a great wind rushed over the tops of the hills round the valley."

"My mother was wild eyed, saying &no! No! No!" Over and over.then there was another flash, not as bright as the first, and another thump in the ground further away this time, and then others further away still, as if a giant was stamping its way across the landscape. I was more frightened than I can ever remember."

"After about 10 minutes, this deathly hush fell over the world, the wind subsided, and Mum grabbed her coat, saying that she had to see. I grabbed my own coat and followed her as she climbed the hill behind our house at the head of the valley. The pathway was well worn, we often went up there to look at the view in the days, before 'The Day'. Mum climbed quickly and I was breathing heavily when, after 20 minutes of climbing, we got to the top. If I close my eyes, I can still see what I saw at that moment. My mother looking out across the plain towards the city, yellow gold and red flickering light all around, infernos coruscating across the horison, lighting the underside of a gigantic black menacing cloud, in the distance another cloud, like the first. My mother framed against a landscape of darkness and fire."

"We stood for what seems like the longest time. Until my mother said, 'It's gone, it's all gone,' she turned to look at me, her eyes seemed wild and both frightened and frightening, &It wasn't supposed to happen now. The wall came down! It was the 'end of history' they said! But they did it anyway!' She slumped to the ground, weeping uncontrollably. And I tried to comfort her, hold her. And I realised my father was gone, he worked in the city, and... well he was just gone, the chasm in my heart opened up so far I thought my heart would actually explode. I wept with my mother, and I was angry,  so angry that if I could have done, I would have smashed, what remained of the world."

Luke would pause, and there was always a low murmur around the room. Before he ended with, "But the world was not destroyed that day, we survived, we are here and go on. And if we can remember how the Ism's destroyed the world to prove the benevolence of their gods, perhaps we can avoid the same fate."

That last phrase is something of a mantra for Luke, he really worries the Isms will return.

And that is Luke's story of 'The Day,' I always think he was good at telling what he thought was true in a way that didn'the seem to frighten the children. The stories were never quite the same after Peter died in the storm. Lukes story is not the only one,  there are others.