A Better World

It was a bright and sunny Veriyas morning, evocative of summer, although it was only spring. Jabe Onwill woke, as usual, at seven a.m., with the help of his alarm. As he turned to the right, half expecting to see his wife, he instead made eye contact with the largely nude teenager Diani Meler. Diani was seventeen years old and very beautiful. Her body was slender and petite, her eyes blue, her hair dark brown, long, and large. “Good morning,” she said enthusiastically. She always bubbled with energy.

“Good morning,” said Jabe.

“Good morning,” said his wife, who was on the other side of him.



“Are you ready for school Diani? You did your homework right?” He was aware that he sounded like her father, but he didn’t care.

“No, honey. I did you instead,” she whispered, as she entered the room.

“Right.”

“Just let me get something from upstairs,” said Diani, and she ran up the stairs. Jabe waited. He was planning on dropping her off at high school on the same trip as he dropped his daughter off at primary school on. Five minutes passed.

“Diani!” he shouted. “Come on, Manela will be late.” There was no response. He climbed the stairs, expecting that she would be in the washroom. But the washroom door was open and no one was inside. He looked in the bedroom and saw Diani’s purse, but nobody was in there. He looked in another room and found that no one was in there either. He felt very uncomfortable. It seemed to him that something was wrong. He found his wife at the top of the stairs.

“Have you seen Diani dear?” he asked.

“No,” she said.

“Keep looking, alright? I have a bad feeling about this. I have to take Manela to school now.”

As he left the door, he found one of his fans waiting, as he often did. As an accomplished psychologist, he was something of a celebrity in the city of Veriyas.

“Excuse me, Mr. Onwill, if I could just have a picture of you, it would…”

“It’ll have to be a motion picture,” said Jabe, as he walked with his daughter to the car.



Bessie Hollingwing boarded an electric tram. Like all Veriyas’ public transportation vehicles, it was coloured metallically and boldly, in this case the colour of copper. The ceiling on the inside was painted black, and a romantic picture had been painted of many stars of different colours, as well as a black hole and a supernova. On the walls were state-of-the-art photographs of various nearby planets, along with general information about them.

Before her appointments with Dr. Onwill, her nerves always became racked. Memories that she had repressed for ages came to the surface; memories of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her cold-blooded parents. She could not think clearly. She fidgeted. Normally, she was composed and focused. She even lost her cold demeanor and became nice to people, which disconcerted her as much as anything else.



“Sasa,” said Dr. Onwill to his secretary into his phone. “Is there any word from Bessie yet?”

“None yet Dr. Onwill,” said Sasa. He had been expecting her a half hour earlier. It would not be the first time that Bessie, one of his most challenging patients, would skip an appointment. Jabe waited patiently for the remaining half an hour, but Bessie did not materialize. It was one p.m. His working day was over.



“Sorry that it’s only three of us fellas,” said Jabe to his two poker companions. “It’s very unlike Carp, since he promised to come, to be a no-show.” The poker was played solely for fun, as there was no money in the world.

“You are looking lovely this evening Ayana,” said Jabe’s friend Jab to Jabe’s wife. “Do you have any new tattoos?”

“No, just the old one,” she replied with a sultry smile. Ayana was tall and slender with black hair that was curly. Her eyes were blue. Her face was smooth, symmetrical and beautiful. Her skin was naturally a light tan colour.

“I’ve never seen it before,” said the third man, Besbin.

“Not yet anyway,” said Ayana as she walked out of the room.

“What do you think of our new Prime Minister, Jabe?” asked Besbin.

“I think that Mr. Web is very capable,” said Jabe. “You know me, I see nothing wrong with the status quo. Mr. Web will, I think, maintain it.”

“I guess politics is simpler these days than it used to be,” said Jab. “Politicians don’t have to promise change anymore; just sameness.”

“Damn right,” said Jabe, beaming. He felt proud and happy to be alive.

“Daddy, where is Mom?” asked Jabe’s ten-year-old daughter, Manela.

“She went that way sweetheart,” said Jabe warmly, pointing in the direction Ayana had gone.

“I looked there,” said Manela with irritation in her voice, but she went in that direction anyway.

“Did you see that new piece they put up in Sunrise Boulevard?” asked Besbin.

“No, what is it?” asked Jab.

“It’s a huge painting of a beautiful woman dressed elegantly in white and red. Her whole body is in the painting, a profile except for her face which is glancing at the viewer. I recommend it.”

“Are you working on any games now?” Jabe asked Jab. Jab was a designer of the ultra-popular virtual reality games that constituted the number one pastime of people everywhere.

“Of course Jabe. Mostly working on one now, where you will be in a vast jungle, and you will be pursued by a gang of thieves and murderers. In addition to the gang, you will have to cope with the terrors of the jungle: crocodiles; man-eating cats; a proliferation of poisonous insects; and enormous and deadly spiders. If you are lucky, some villagers may take you in and give you shelter for a short time. Should be a pretty exciting game.”

“What will it be called?” asked Jabe.

“To Die in the Jungle.”

“How appropriate. Jab,” said Jabe coolly, “Did you see Besbin leave?” Jab looked to his left where Besbin had been sitting and found the chair empty.

“Why, no,” said Jab. “That’s peculiar. Seeing as it’s his turn, I guess this is a good time for me to use the washroom.”

“Jab,” said Jabe hotly. “Please don’t go.”

“What?” said Jab, chuckling.

“Please don’t leave me here alone.”

“Alright, Jabe,” said Jab, chuckling again. “But I’ve gotta go sometime.”

“Ayana!” said Jabe, turning his head momentarily. He bit his tongue to have let Jab out of his sight and turned his face back to where Jab had been sitting, but there was nothing but an empty chair.

“Jab!” yelled Jabe. There was no answer. And then, to Jabe’s horror, Jabe began to disappear.