Luckily, neither of us was injured. We had landed on a sandy beach, but in front of us was thick shrub grass as far as we could see. The pack I jumped out with contained a loaf of bread, some dried fish, and a jug of water—nothing else. It seemed we had no choice but to walk, so we set off into the wilderness.
It turned out that we weren’t actually as far from civilization. Luckily the ship had crashed before it had time to take us very far, just across the bay. It only took about an hour of hiking through the grass until we came across a farm. It was just a most vegetable farm with one small house and a barn, so from a distance it blended into the grass, but it was a real farm nonetheless, with a family of farmers living there.
We knocked on the door, and Summer convinced the farmers to give us a ride into town. Luckily it turned out the father of the family would be going in soon anyway, to sell his vegetables, but I was still impressed by the way she used her business negotiation skills to get him to let us ride along. Or maybe it was just her natural charm. Either way, we were saved, and the farmer went into the barn to bring out his horse.
It was a simple thing, but I’d never actually seen a horse in real life before. And this was a tall, magnificent horse with brown skin and a golden mane. I didn’t know enough about horses to tell if it was a gelding or a mare. Either way, it was breathtaking.
“Are we going to ride this?” I asked. I didn’t want to hurt this beautiful creature.
“Huh? No, don’t be silly. He’s just going to pull us along.”
“Pull us in what?”
“In the aircart, of course! Out here in the country there’s no air trolleys, so we have to use horses like this to pull us. Rustic, isn’t it…” She sighed. I got the impression that this girl really loved country life, or at least the idea of it.
“I suppose! It still looks complicated, though, compared to what I think of for rustic.”
“What do you use?” Summer asked.
“Well…” I paused to consider how I could explain modern logistics to her. “Nowadays, we use trucks—big cars made all out of metal that can move themselves. In the past, we used horses too, but they’d just pull a cart along the ground.”
“Oh no! That’s terrible! Those poor horses!”
“I don’t think the horses really mind pulling something. It was just really slow. And we had to use a whole team of them, not just one like this. Or we used an ox, which is stronger but slower.”
“That sounds really hard!”
“Well… yeah. I’m glad I never had to be a farmer like that. It seems really peaceful here though.”
“It is! I love horses. We can’t have them in the city, but out here in the countryside, they’re perfect, aren’t they? They can run so far, and so fast. I love living in the city, but sometimes I wish I lived out here in the country just so I could have a horse.”
“Yeah… I could see that.” I really could see myself living here. Beautiful and peaceful, floating along behind this lovely horse. Although I suppose I’d still have to do a lot of manual labor, too—that didn’t appeal to me.
“So how does this work, anyway? How do we attach the air-cart?” I asked.
“Well, first we need to get it balanced. You see these sand bags? They’re for ballast. We need to get it properly weighted. Come sit down on it, so we can check the weight.”
I sat down among the vegetables piles on the cart. She untied it from the post it was lashed on to, then sat down herself. At first it remained solidly on the ground, but as she threw off the sandbags one by one, it started to rise. Once it had risen to level with the horses shoulders, she added a sandbag back on, and it remained floating, hovering in midair.
“Is this… stable?” I asked. It seemed like a magic trick, even though I knew it was just a big party balloon.
“Not really. It’ll change with temperature elevation, and air pressure. That’s why we have to carry extra ballast and vent hydrogen, so we can adjust along the way if we need too. But it’s close enough, and it’ll naturally stabilize as the horse walks. See?”
The farmer said ‘Gidyap’ and flicked the reigns, and the horse started walking forward. As it did so, the air cart settled in right behind it, like a water-skier being pulled behind a motorboat.
“See? As long as the horse is moving, it’ll naturally pull us straight. We just have to be close enough to neutral so we stay off the ground, and don’t float away completely.”
That last part made me nervous. “Uh… could that happen?”
“Heh… I guess so! If the air pressure got really high, like in a storm front, it might start to lift us even attached to the horse. Then the whole thing would lift away! But the farmer has a pressure gauge over there”—She gestured at one of the gauges—”So he’d notice long before that happens, and we can just anchor somewhere and wait for the storm to pass.”
“How do you, uh… anchor this thing?”
“What do you mean? You just drop the anchor back there,” she replied. I looked, and there was indeed a small nautical anchor in the back. “Just dig it into the ground a bit. Better if you can find a hitching post though, and there are some of those along the trail, too.”
I thought about it, and this thing was surprisingly well designed. It wasn’t at all like the big airships I’d ridden before—this was designed for ground transport in a world without engines. It wouldn’t fly high, but it would make everything light enough for one horse to pull a heavy load, even without a road. The only catch was that if the hydrogen leaked out, we’d be stuck, but I suppose that was no worse than a car breaking down.
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“Some of the inventions in your world are really amazing,” I told her.
She smiled. “I suppose so. It’s fun to share them with someone new like you. Mostly stuff just… floats, you know? Don’t worry so much about storms and stuff. Just enjoy the ride.”
I laid back, and tried to do as she suggested. It was easy enough. It was a lovely day—the perfect warm temperature, and just a few wispy clouds in the sky. The air cart made for a surprisingly smooth ride, no bumps at all since it wasn’t directly attached to anything solid. Just a gentle rocking motion up and down. I closed my eyes.
“You seem tired. Would you like a lap pillow?” She asked.
“Um… for real?” Once again, this crazy world was throwing me off.
“Yes, of course. It’s no big deal. Well, I’ve never had a boyfriend before so I’ve never given one. But I think most men like it. I see people do it all the time.” She patted her lap. “Come here!”
I did feel weird about it, but I had to admit that I was really interested in that lap of hers. She was wearing shorts, so her thighs were quite visible. And it’s not like I had a pillow here. So, I crawled over, and placed my head in her lap.
“Not like that!” She protested. “Don’t put your face… there! Face away from me!”
“Sorry!” I readjusted. “Like this?”
“Yeah. How is it? Is it comfortable?” She asked.
“It’s great! It feels, um… smooth!”
“Sheesh! Don’t say that. This is a little embarrassing for me, you know?”
“I thought you said it was no big deal!”
“It isn’t! But… still. Don’t say anything.”
So we stayed like that in silence. Summer, sitting upright and watching the horse. Me, lying in her lap, enjoying the sensations. The warmth of the day mixed with her body heat, and the fragrance of the wind mixed with her body scent. It was… heavenly.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked.
“Huh? What do you mean? I don’t think I did anything special for you.”
“You did though! You found me lying in the street, unconscious. You took care of me, explained everything to me, and even paid for my hospital visit.”
“Like I said, it didn’t really cost much…”
“But still! We had never met before, you didn’t have to do anything for me. And then you got me a job, and a room, and now you’re stuck out here in the country with me, after almost crashing because some madwoman tried to kill me. But instead of getting mad at me for causing trouble, you’re giving a lap pillow to rest on.”
Summer didn’t respond for a bit. I wished I could see her expression, but I didn’t want to turn my head and look.
“Thank you. That really means a lot to me. You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that. But… I think maybe you have the wrong idea.”
“I’m wrong? Uh… are you expecting something from me in return…?” I didn’t have anything to give her.
“No, of course not! I would never! I mean, the things that I did, they’re just what any good woman here would do for a man in trouble. I guess since you’ve been her, you’ve met a lot of strange women, like the one who tried to kill you. But most women here are like me… we have a strong instinct to care for, and protect men, since there’s so few of them and they’re so valuable. So even though we just met, it makes me happy to be able to help you and take care of you, without expecting anything in return.”
I felt a surge of warmth in my heart. This girl was just too cute and kind for me to handle.
“I don’t think it was like that in my world.” I said.
“Oh right… you have a lot more men there. That must change things. As a merchant I’m very familiar with ‘Supply and Demand’. What are the relations like between men and women where you’re from?”
“Um… it’s complicated.” I paused. How could I possibly answer that question? “We like each other, mostly, but there’s a lot of problems because we’re so different. I guess some women are afraid of men, or they’re just annoyed at them for constantly hitting on them. They wouldn’t do much to care for us, like you just did, unless they knew us personally. There’s a lot of homeless men out on the streets who have nothing, and no one really cares about them at all.”
“Oh no! That’s awful! What happens to them?”
“Um… I don’t really know.” I felt guilty, but it was the truth. “I never made much effort to help them either. They’re kind of gross and scary, even for me. After a while you just get used to it and stop trying to help them.”
“But don’t you need them? There’s a lot of unpleasant men here too, working in the docks or the mines, but we still have to put up with them to get the heavy labor done.”
“I guess we don’t. At least not anymore. All the heaviest manual labor is done with machines, and there aren’t enough jobs for all the men. If one man gets injured on the job, they’ll just find another to replace him.”
“That’s horrible!”
“Yeah, it is. I guess in the past it was different—they needed men more for manual labor back then. But also, uh, to fight wars.”
“Wars?” She asked. “What’s that?”
“Huh?”
“Can you explain what wars are?”
“Wow… do you really not know? Or is this a joke?”
“No, I swear I’m not joking! Please tell me!” She sounded painfully sincere.
“Well… a war is when a country fights another country, basically. They gather up an army, which is mostly young men (although they have some women too). And the army marches off to kill the army from the other country. And if your country loses, then the other country takes over, and bad stuff happens. That’s… the simple explanation, anyway.”
“That’s horrible! How many people die in these wars?”
“A lot. It varies of course. But it’s always a lot. It’s really, really awful.”
“But I don’t understand. If it’s so awful, why do you have them?”
I pondered this for a bit. “I don’t know. I thought it was just human nature. We’ve been trying really hard to stop having wars, and it’s gotten better lately. But we still have a big army, to protect us from everyone else’s army. And sometimes people just… go crazy, and get really mad, and they fight a war. Doesn’t that ever happen here?”
“No! We have a few police, to fight criminals, but we don’t have anything like an ‘army’. We barely have enough men to keep the heavy industry running, we can’t spare a huge force of men for something like that. And I don’t think women would want to join. Besides, none of the other countries have armies either, so we’re not in any danger.”
“But what do you do if there’s a problem with another country? How do you settle things?”
“We talk it out. Everything gets settled eventually.”
“Is it really that easy?” I couldn’t believe it.
She laughed. “No, of course not. We’ve been squabbling with Canada for like 100 years now. The national leaders pretend to be all friendly together when they meet, but then they say really nasty things about each other later. Right now they’re arguing over the lumber trade, so the Canadian Prime Minister spread a rumor in Europe that American lumber is infested with termites. It caused a huge international incident.”
“I see…” I was struggling not to laugh at how petty their problems sounded. But I was also in awe at how they had built a world without war.
“I guess your world would handle things differently?”
“Well, maybe. We have a lot of things like that too, with politicians slinging insults at each other. But sometimes it goes too far and turns into actual war. For something like this, if people are really angry, they might start sinking each other’s ships.”
“Wow… deliberately making them crash, like what that gangster tried to do to you? Is your world run by mafia?”
“Not exactly but… sometimes it feels that way. Anyway… even though I think our technology is more advanced than yours, and I’ve had some rough experiences here, I still really like your world better. Thanks again, for taking care of me here.”
“My pleasure” she answered.
With a feeling of great warmth and peace, forgetting about all the trouble we were in, I drifted off to sleep in Summer’s lap.