LoopThe sign by the large brass gate read:
Welcome to YourPerfectCommunity
Red Wing, Minnesota
Population: 100
Cellular Number: 1-800-Per-Fect
Established 2030
If you have always dreamed of living the perfect life, you must come here. It is the utopia of all imagined utopias. (At this point you're probably remembering your folks telling you that no such place could ever exist). But it does exist right here in Red Wing, Minnesota. And I, Lauren Nelson, built it from the ground up.
Perhaps I should start the story from the beginning. It's only fair that you understand why you would want to come to a place that you have never been to before.
The world as I knew it had started to fall apart. People could no longer leave their homes without fear of becoming deathly ill from an invisible but very prevalent disease. The streets were filled with protesters carrying colorful signs of doomsday being around the corner, and wildfires in the west leaving people without homes, and finally the most corrupt government in history. It got to the point that I was afraid to step out my own front door.
It shouldn't be surprising that you understand what I am telling you was in the year 2020. Living in the year 2020 did bring with it certain advantages. We had computers, cell phones, and the internet. I was a high level research writer and was comfortable with these modes of communication.
I took out my Mac laptop one afternoon and searched the internet for the world's best architect. The laptop came to life whirring and shaking and displayed one name...Asher Luv, of Sweden. Asher was known for his work in building self-sufficient homes in the most barren places in the world, places devoid of electricity, water, and vegetation. With his knowledgeable experience in all three areas he had already completed designs for some wealthy landowners.
I looked up his personal information and was lucky enough to reach him by phone a few days later. I shared with him my vision of the perfect life and was successful enough to peak his interest in my project. You could say that he is the reason why YourPerfectCommunity exists today.
Red Wing, Minnesota is not any place that anyone would visit. It had some stores, made of cheap tiles and sandstone, a few dairy farms, and a red brick town hall. That's why I chose that site. It was PERFECT.
Asher started the community by building the brass gate that you will pass through when you arrive. No cars are permitted in YourPerfectCommunity.
Each house in the community is built with glass walls that allow the sunshine and moonlight to control the outline of nature's surroundings, but if you happen to be standing outside those same walls you cannot see inside because those same windows are also transparent.
The temperature of the house is controlled by solar panels on the roof and heating units below the house. As a result you are never too hot or cold.
Severe winter storms are very common in Minnesota, often leaving huge snow piles along with winds cause up to six feet of snow drifts. But in YourPerfectCommunity, heating pipes below the house melt the snow before it freezes.
Once you pass through the gate, you walk on a red brick pathway; a pathway so smooth it feels like you are walking on thick carpet. It is designed so that women wearing heels won't be in danger of spraining an ankle, or getting their heels caught in the spaces between the brick.
To your left of the pathway is thick plush grass and various types of flowers and bushes that carry the scent of a sweet smell of perfume in the air that will remain in your nostrils, even as you close the doors to the most modern home you will ever live in,
To the right of the pathway are tall fir trees that leave the area just right for walking or running through the trees in any kind of weather.
The homes are built to your specific orders, because this is the way you see yourself living a perfect life. You are free to add rooms or take them away; to make counters and walls that fit your height or width.
When Asher first started to develop the community, he expressed his concerns about expanding the commun with other professional types of people to invite to the community.
So I took out my laptop again and searched for the perfect chef, who would make perfectly healthy meals, the perfect dentist, the perfect doctor to help avoid early unnatural deaths and provide them with the perfect diet, and the perfect farmer to be able to provide farm fresh dairy to each dweller in the community,
It took ten years to build our perfect community and not a dime was spent to build it. That is because everyone who joined the community had unanimously volunteered their talents and services for the good of all others. Teaching and learning from others brought the community strong.
Right now there are one hundred people living in YourPerfectCommunity because 100 is the perfect number and we are committed to inviting 1000 more members, because 1000 will be the next perfect number.
Before you decide to join us in YourPerfectCommunity understand that there ard no banks or investment companies here, so leave your money and treasures at home.
There are no government officials, laws, police or firefighters here. We all live together in peace and harmony.
Everyone offers their own talents and skills to each other and that allows us to learn and grow.
There are no religions practiced here because we do not need gods to tell us how to live.
Finally, we want you to lead successful happy lives so drop your stresses off at the gate and create your own perfection.
Epilog
YourPerfectCommunity survived for rwenty years. Unfortunately nothing can last forever. One summer night an argument pursued over a petty issue and one neighbor ended up shooting the other. When word got around about the incident, neighbors started spilling out into the street, looting and fires were started, and kitchen utensils became the favored choice of weaponry.
The community could not be saved because there were no police to enforce law and order, buildings burned to the ground because there were no trained firefighters, and YourPerfectCommunity ceased to exist.
I remember my parents telling me that no such place could ever exist. I guess they were right after all.
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4 comments
Wow! This story was so creative. I love the idea of a ‘perfect place’, although, of course, it can’t exist for long. The fact that it took place in the future was pretty cool as well! YourPerfectCommunity reminds me of books like The Giver...just, less violent. Like, they’re supposedly perfect, but quite a few things aren’t allowed and it’s just very DIFFERENT than what we’re used to. No cars? No money? Wait, do you have to pay to get in? I feel like they should, because they’re being granting free food and medical care. Anyways, awesome job...
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Thank you for enjoying my story. Do you think I have potential? Would really like your opinion.
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Yes!!
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Thank you for your feedback.
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