Disillusionment in living is finding that no one can really ever be agreeing with you completely in anything. Gertrude Stein
A while later, when we ascended the ladder and started walking towards the Hydro Majestic Hotel, I voiced some of the questions that had been cooking in my mind.
‘But where do these moral rules come from? What does human dignity mean? Is it just an empty sentiment detached from any foundation? And what about psychopaths and serial killers? Do they have worth and dignity? Then I added. ‘And shouldn’t we be doing something about the Sovereigns? They might attack the settlement here.’
‘Don't worry, young striplings, we have siege towers with catapults, barbed wire fences, trenches and booby traps set all around, as they do at Sydney Town,’ Dr Doohickey chirped jovially as we crossed the long, straight road.
‘So much for ethics, human dignity and moral rules,’ Fred muttered.
I could see shrouds of dust like giant clouds in the distance. When, like a surrealist painting, a phantasm emerged like a hallucination from the eye of the dust storm. A huge elephant, followed by another, and topped by riders.
‘Stone the ‘flamin crows!’ Fred hollered as he lifted his legs and began to gallop. I started to run too and looked behind to see Dr Doohickey sauntering along as though partaking in a delightful Sunday stroll through the pleasure gardens.
Tom was standing still with Fred’s spyglass smack in the middle of the road, examining the scene like he was Darwin observing finches in the Galapagos Islands.
The elephants were rampaging down the straight road towards us, along with a great many flying people and stamping of feet, with diabolical-looking swords or spears in their hands. I had to wonder what the plan was here, as the foetid, stewing smells of the group reached my nose and my peepers began to discern the crazed eyes of the stampeding elephants.
They were almost upon us when whoosh, suddenly the whole invading group disappeared as if by magic.
‘Ah, very good!’ Dr Doohickey pronounced as he commenced a little jig.
‘Eh, what?’ Fred said, scratching his head and looking like a stunned mullet.
‘They've fallen into one of our giant camouflaged snake pits.’ Dr Doohicky stated cheerfully. ‘Lots of brown snakes in there, sent down by some banana benders in the middle of whoop-whoop. Wonderful! I’ll check on some of the other pits later.’
Outraged, I fumed, ‘What about those elephants?’ Those people knew what they were getting into, I reasoned. Or did they?’ I was discovering that it was very hard to be absolutely sure of anything, as there was stuff that you didn’t know and people were always trying to convince you of the Truth, ideas that Dion said were generally fictions. My brain felt like it was exploding.
‘Come along,’ Dr Doohickey called to us as he headed towards The Hydro Majestic with a capering, heel-clicking dance.
All the talk of high-minded ideals and ethics, it seemed, came to nothing as soon as the other party refused to play along. Then, everything descended into a bun fight.
‘We are a bit better off than many of the Sovereigns, as most don’t read any history or read only selected bits that suit them, and so, it’s like they are trying to invent the wheel anew,’ Dr Doohickey remarked happily. ‘Those who don’t know where they come from often don’t know where they are going.’
‘What about those elephants?’ Tom asked, ‘There is a historical precedent…..’
‘We either underestimated them or someone has watched an old movie,’ Dr Doohickey dismissively replied.
An extremely antique-looking man dressed in deep purple, like a berserk hippie-wizard, trotted towards us and Fred mumbled from the side of his mouth, ‘The residents of the Blue Mountains haven’t changed much, I see.’
‘Salutations,’ he said, in a whistling voice like you find in a dream, then bowed. ‘Praise and welcoming acknowledgements upon you. I am in the middle of screen printing, but I will be with you momentarily. Please allow Freckle to take you to your rooms.’
We all looked around, then down, to see a small person, as perfect as a doll, with intelligent eyes, looking up at us.
‘My name is Pepper Speckles, but Thelugi always gets mixed up. He’s a smart fellow but tends to get his facts turned about. Though, he has times of lucidity and sense. Just call me Pepper.’
We nodded, and Tom shook Pepper’s hand. I don’t know if I was imagining it but Tom’s and Pepper’s eyes kind of locked and flashed, and electricity surged into the room. Not another romance, I thought tiredly. Though, maybe that would mean the possibility of babies. Nan used to have a great big family tree chart at our cave in Springwood, and she used to worry that our family was finished and that she had failed her ancestors.
‘What’s the news of the Sydney Mob?’ Fred, asked Pepper as we stepped into the portico and entered the front door, where I could see the floor carpeting rippling and floating like magic.
‘It’s just the wind,’ Pepper said dismissively, after I asked about it. I was quiet after that, as I had wondered briefly if some magic was involved. Fred seemed to intuit my thoughts as he chuckled and pointed to the carpet. ‘Maybe our friend in the wizard robes is responsible.’ He mischievously winked at me then.
‘Thelugi believes there are various ghosts about the property, including someone called Utnapishtim who survived a great flood,’ Pepper declared. Then nodding to Tom, ‘You will be in the room that Australia’s first prime minister died in. I hope that you are not alarmed by this.’ This was made as a statement, not a question, and Tom just nodded.
Pepper continued, nodding at Fred. ‘The Sydney Settlement is safe. They met danger and did not flee from it. We received a message via telegraph a short time ago. They outsmarted the invaders by pouring boiling oil on them from tall buildings. Then, there was the use of snipers; tripwires in the no-go zones triggered swinging spiked balls. Some captives are in the underground train tunnels.’
Pepper continued, ‘The leader of the Commune launched various attacks to divert the people away from following an agitator who wanted to overthrow him. Dion managed to capture this agitator, which riled up the enemy fighters pretty well. Then Panda released him, leading to a full-scale uprising. They forgot about their fight with the Sydney Settlement and began to fight each other. Panda’s not some dewy-faced Kumbaya clown, you know.’
Whoah, that was an acceleration, I thought.
‘Yes, a Panglossian babe-in-the-woods should not take on the mantle of leadership,’ Tom replied, nodding. ‘It’s the lion and the fox: cunning and strength.’
All this nodding and ruthlessness was making me feel nauseated and queasy. I also remembered that Tom had recently read a book about leading a nation with the power of kindness and caring, and he had approved. I nervously tucked my handless hand into my pocket.
Pepper turned to face us and looked straight at me. ‘Panda said that if the Sydney Settlement disarmed, they would all be dead. But if the Sovereigns disarmed, there would be peace for everyone. We stopped dying when we found solidarity and our swords.’
Continuing in a more gentle manner, Pepper added that ‘Bunyip and Candy had not only been mascots, but they had also delivered important messages during battles. They are the doggy parents of a healthy litter.’ We all smiled.
‘My hope is that we don’t fall into the delusions of the time before,’ Fred said. ‘There was authoritarianism on both sides. In fact, they were mirror images of each other. One side kowtowed to the established hierarchy and wanted to control peoples’ actions and words, and the other side just wanted to rip it all down and also control actions and words. Both were convinced of their moral righteousness, blind to the truth if it didn’t suit them, and ruthless to those who didn’t conform to their ideological purity. Count me out if that rubbish starts again!’
Thelugi called out from somewhere, ‘Ideology is like a fart; you don’t think your own smells.’
Pepper started to laugh, a lovely bubbling arpeggio which produced more smiles. ‘Thank you, Thelugi, for your wisdom. And Fred, you are very refreshing.’ Then more seriously. ‘We are trying to create something from the ruins of the time before by sifting through the remains and selecting as well as we can. We hope that we will eventually build a much better world. That is our hope.’ Then, looking serious, she said, ‘It would be good if we could stop cycling from one orthodoxy to another…’
I blurted, ‘Dion said that we need to get more advanced so that aliens can contact us.’ I was stung with a stinging flush of embarrassment as Pepper regarded me with the side eye. Then, she laughed and smiled, and all was well.
‘We have come to help Agra and the carbon capture crews,’ Tom said as we travelled along a snaking corridor lined with an assortment of lovely lamps, overstuffed armchairs and bookshelves crammed with well-used reading matter.
‘Ah, they have departed to the four corners of the compass already,’ Thelugi’s voice rumbled from somewhere.
Tom’s shoulders slumped, but Pepper added quickly, ‘We have many more jobs here to do. We are only just recovering from the removal of a maverick who tried to take over our settlement.’
‘No, no, not exactly, Freckle; he charmed the people with his potent mix of flattery, promises and intimidation. He simplified the problems we face and claimed to have all the answers, even as he said he was an ordinary bloke who despised the elite…which supposedly meant us…’
‘The governing team,’ Pepper mouthed. Then continued, ‘He delighted us with his swearing and outrageous behaviour. It was all a bit of a side show, really, except that he was dangerous.’
Thelugi’s disembodied voice added, ‘I wondered if it was a spirit possession, as he had the talent of enraging people and fomenting violence and accusing those of us who disapproved of him of being weak and spineless. He also blinded people with his deluded optimism. Buzz was cunning and reckless, with a body like a great white and a voice like a stamper battery that could make lies sound like truth and crookedness appear as integrity. How old he was, it was hard to say, maybe 20, maybe 80.’
I wondered when we stop being an innocent child and become wicked and blameworthy. Is the seed within, or is it put there?
‘These firebrand promoter types who big-note themselves are often empty within,’ a vaporous fellow with a snoz like a yacht sail added, drifting in, then out. ‘There were weapons in a storage bench.’
‘Yes, he was sitting on his arsenal,’ Thelugi twittered.
Pepper inhaled, ‘People like Buzz are not really interested in other people; they want to create distrust and confusion and exploit the situation for their own ambitions and enrichment. Though most people don’t deserve the total adoration or condemnation that comes their way, I have found it hard to find some favourable aspects of Buzz’s overall character. But what puzzles me is how other people see a noble champion where we see a swaggering scoundrel.’
‘Valour says that the way you walk is related to your personality. Swaggering people are generally arrogant and aggressive…’
‘What happened?’ Fred interrupted.
"We overheard his plot to take power by any means and then keep it by any means. So, we had to act,’ Thelugi said, appearing with a paint bottle in his very large hand. ‘At first, I thought that a simple spell to expel demons may work….’
Fred stumbled backwards and looked aghast.
‘I burned a bit of sage and chanted a mantra or two, but no, he was still here.’
‘So, where is he?’ I asked.
Pepper smiled tightly. ‘Buzz died from the plague.’
“Memento mori,’ Tom murmured solemnly.
‘How? Why? No. That is impossible!’ Fred spluttered.
‘We had assumed that Buzz was out hunting and searching for food for the settlement, as he would return with great loads of rice, canned meat and other delectable eats that the people here fell upon and devoured gratefully,’ Pepper said grimly. ‘What he was actually doing was bringing in narcotics and other drugs off boats from overseas. He had a deal to supply some Sovereign groups. We didn’t know this at the time.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Tom said, looking puzzled. ‘Was his intention psychochemical warfare, to cause delirium or mind control in his adversaries? And how did he contract plague?’
‘Rats are out of control in many places, and bubonic plague is rampant, we believe,’ Pepper added. ‘We have no antibiotics, of course, and could only have treated him with our mixture of garlic, honey and vinegar, which I have no way of testing properly……..But, he infected a Sovereign enclave….one of the parallel societies…. and he died alongside them. That is all I know. The few survivors live with us now but claim that we are boring.’
‘How anybody would think being attacked by rampaging elephants and harbouring a plague-infected drug dealer is boring is beyond me!’ Fred declared.
‘It was Divine retribution, karma. The cosmos spoke,’ Thelugi proclaimed, arms wide.
Fred snorted and said gruffly, ‘It always amazes me how charisma, smooth talk and flattery can stupefy folk to the true nature of a sinister character.’
‘We want to rewrite the future,’ Pepper said, walking away on her tiny feet down the hallway lit with crisp sunlight rushing through the windows, making her curls gleam.
‘I have noticed that post-apocalyptic fiction mostly seems to have these cycles of civilisational boom and bust. So, we need to be very careful and thoughtful about building our future, and we want to maintain it. We have to check our delusions at the door.’ She winked at Fred.
‘Too late,’ murmured Fred.
Tom walked past me into the sunlight and followed Pepper, his broadening shoulders blocking the sun. Tom was almost a man, I realised with a jolt, and he would soon make his own life and leave me. The memory then crept into my brain of Nan’s words, about how many people seem to choose the most incompatible romantic partners, which makes life a misery. Her advice to us was, ‘Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.’ Of course, I have no intention of getting married.
As though on a soapbox, Pepper said, ‘Aristotle wrote that a community needs to have interests in common, but there needs to be an ordering of the inhabitants, an organising principle, a constitution which states “the way of life” and the responsibilities and limits of a ruling authority. This constitution is something we are working on with other communities. And integral to this is eudaimonia, pursuing a life of the highest good, with purpose, values and virtue.’
‘Aristotle also said that women require male supervision,’ Fred interjected from the side of his mouth.
‘We only borrow the good ideas, Fred, and hope that the bad ones slide into oblivion. You have to be selective and thoughtful in what constitutes the common good and keep in mind the balance between the individual and collective,’ Pepper added, closing her eyes a moment to think.
‘Having a middle class, which is neither too rich nor too poor, was seen as a stabilising force in society by Aristotle, and this seems to be borne out by the fact that Denmark, although much depleted in population, is still going strong, from the reports I’ve received. They tend to have high trust in government and in their fellow citizens. The active participation of each citizen is essential.’
Tom added, ‘You need the bohemian and counterculture people who challenge conventions, habits and understandings, but before the fall, counterculture became orthodoxy.’
‘Good ideas live on and flourish, so you have to have an open mind to the magic that is out there,‘ Thelugi advised.
‘Not so open that your brain falls out,’ Fred replied. ‘Nobody wants a kangaroo loose in the top paddock.’
Tom added, ‘You may believe certain things and take certain actions, but eventually reality will show you whether your ideas have merit, if they work out ….or, not.’
‘A stopped clock is right twice a day,’ Fred gruffly replied.
Slam, smash, shatter. An airborne figure crashed through the glass where Pepper and Tom were standing. Glass exploded as the masked person wielded a blade and kicked out.
Blood flew, and Tom and Pepper went down as the figure leapt upon them, ready to run them through.
I felt a flurry of air and turned to see Fred whip the musket from his bag and point it at the attacker as I watched, as though in slow motion, jittery and fearful.
Without warning, Thelugi vaulted towards Fred, grabbed the musket, and the shot detonated.
The intruder lay bloody and fallen, and silence shimmered.
Tom got up, covered in cuts, but he seemed alright. He looked closely at Pepper, my heart bucked, and then he pulled her to her feet. She was holding her arm, which was bleeding. Tom quickly ripped a shirt from his bag, looked at the cut, nodded and proceeded to staunch the blood.
‘See,’ stated Thelugi, ‘you all thought that I couldn’t fight my way out of a wet paper bag. But I can actually be very practical.’
A woman rushed in, togged out in a magnificent colourful dress, face tattoos, and a pair of polished tiki earrings. ‘Is he did?’ She squeaked. Bewildered, we all looked about.
‘Kahu is from the Land of the Long White Cloud,’ explained Thelugi. And we all bobbed our heads with understanding.
Thelugi then added, ‘I think he’s just knocked out (I wasn’t sure about that!). The shot went through that poster of The Aunty Jack Show. He then bellowed, ‘I'll rip ‘yer bloody arms off!!’ causing me to vault into the air.
Pepper stood taller as people came running from many directions due to the sound of the gunshot and said, ‘We have all faced hard times and difficult decisions in this world in which we find ourselves. We have looked death in the eye, but we must keep moving forward. Thelugi has helped save us, for now, with a choice that I would not like to make myself. One thing we all know is that we will be fighting again, as the battle for peace and a better world never ends.
© Copyright 2025 Democritus Jones