Revolution

On a snowy late evening in the last vestiges of the month of November, XAEleon walked into a café that sat on the corner of a stone-brick street perched right at the highest spot of the town of Aornos, nicely nestled between mountains on one side and river on the other. The desolateness of the café gave its visitors the breath of defiance and a scent of rebellion to the café, an absolute rarity now in the country of Tyranation. XAEleon didn’t seem a familiar face and seeing the unwanted guest inside, the café regulars stayed away from the secret whispers and the conspiring revolts; just ordering their drinks, laughing or crying over their sob stories. “Welcome to our café” said XYlily the young owner of the café with a broad smile. “Can you make this gentleman comfortable by taking him to a table near the fireplace” she asked one of the waiters. After a couple of hours, the night had dragged all out of the café. XAEleon too left only to return within about quarter an hour, knocking on the now locked doors of the café. “Who is it” asked XYlily. “Hey, it’s me. My name is XAEleon, he screamed showing his face through the window after wiping it clear off the fog with his gloved hands. I was here a while ago at the café. There is a landslide on the way back to the Capital. I need to stay somewhere for the night”. “Okay, come in” and XYlily let him in, got him a bed and a couple of quilts, moved a couple of tables and chairs to make space for the bed and said “you can sleep here. There is the washroom and the water is over there”.    

The sun kissed the blinds of the windows early next morning waking XAEleon up. XYlily was awake already as were the others who were used to early sunrises in these higher mountainous parts of Tyranation.  He got ready in a few hours to go to the Capital only to return shortly with worse news. “The landslide has rendered this town disconnected with the entire nation. It seems like I would need to stay for a few months here till the snow melts in March and construction begins” He said in a very worrying voice to XYlily. The chilling winds blew away his hood revealing his handsome chiseled face with beautiful blond hair and an impressive moustache and beard combination. XYlily was instantly attracted by what she just saw  “Then I would need to find you a space in my room” XYlily blurted out in excitement “ I meant, a room for you, in my house behind the café” she said after gathering composure and realizing the laws of Tyranation that forbade any relationships between man and woman other than those created by the nation’s dictator X who they need to call as their saviour seven times in a day daily in front of the surveillance cameras installed in every home, street and gathering place of the nation.   “You can work from here on your laptop. And pay me later for your food and stay. You can also read books from the library just behind the service counter. Don’t worry, it will all be fine soon”

Young as they were, it wasn’t unnatural that soon they both exchanged shy smiles and quiet conversations about the weather, books, and the mountains outside in the coming days. Each moment together felt electric, but they knew the risks of getting too close. While the two were getting along, the regular café visitors felt uncomfortable discussing matters as in the past. Least said, they were becoming a restive bunch with every passing day.  

One day, as the sun set behind the mountains, painting the sky in shades of red, blue, white and orange, XYlily noticed the small stray puppy XPup hiding behind the door of the café. She couldn’t resist. She quietly left the café, scooped up the little creature, and brought it inside. “Look!” she said, holding the puppy gently. “It’s so cute” he said. They took turns petting the puppy, sharing laughter and warmth. In that moment, the world outside faded away.  

One night, as the stars twinkled in the clear sky, XAEleon took XYlily for a walk by the river after closing time. The moonlight danced on the water, casting a silvery glow. They sat on a round stone. “I wish we could just be ourselves,” he said softly. She nodded, her heart racing. “I know. But it’s not safe.” “I can’t help but feel something special when I’m with you,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. XYlily’s breath caught in her throat. She wanted to confess her feelings, but the fear of the consequences held her back. Instead, she smiled and said, “We can enjoy this moment. Just this.” As they sat in silence, the night wrapped around them like a warm blanket. But deep down, they both knew that the laws of their country were strict, and they had heard stories of those who had been caught expressing their feelings.

As a couple of weeks went by, their connection deepened. He opened up about how unhappy he was being an officer in the online surveillance department of the nation and how his algorithms  end up sadly spotting the various fatal crimes for the dictator like those who have a haircut that are differently styled than X’s, or those whose names don’t start with X, or those who watch any other media other than Xmedia and so on. Both talked about their families. He shared dreams of traveling to places where he could be free, where feelings could be spoken aloud without fear. She too, confided to him about similar thoughts of free speech, free actions and free thoughts. They had started liking each other. They couldn’t express it openly but were keen to elope out of the nation.

One of the nights, she took him to the bottommost shelf of the library behind the counter. She kept all the books down from the shelf, removed the floor of the shelf to reveal an underground shelf of books.  She picked out a book gifted by her grandfather to her father, that escaped the burning of all old books as part of the Clean Culture diktat of X immediately after he assumed power by winning the last democratic elections held four decades ago by promising to make the nation and its people superior amongst all.  “Read this” she requested XAEleon and left for her sleep.

The next morning, XYlily found XAEleon had clearly not slept the whole night reading the book, rather reading what was in the book. “We need to do something. It seems like our nation was better off before X. We had elections. People could choose. What would be their names starting with. Who they wanted to marry. Their leader who could govern the country.  They could speak against the government. They could protest. Do you have other books of the past?” “Sure, now you are like my townsmen. A rebel in Tyranation” she said and got him a couple more to read in his bedroom which was made off a corner of the living room of XYlily’s house.

After almost two months, the townsmen who by now had known through half-true rumours that XAEleon was a surveillance officer of X’s government, were irritated enough to start plotting against him in a dilapidated five-hundred-year-old prison-in-disuse inside the forests that bordered the town on the southern side.  “Now I hear, he is also asking for those old books to read from XYlily. I am sure that he is out to get us all executed for treason by trapping the naïve little girl with his looks” said one of the oldest rebels. “Do we have a plan to get the thorn off the flesh?” asked one of them. “How about turning him over to X for violations? X considers us more trustworthy, and this officer gets off our way too.” “Great idea, let us wait for the right moment”

“I will write an algorithm that will trigger a revolution across the country. It will first deactivate censorship and power outage capabilities of the dictator. Then it will bring out parts of these books to Xmedia: XTV, Xdigital, Xbooks, Xsocial and so on. I will then talk in a recorded video about the beauty of the consenting relationship between two adults that isn’t forced upon by anyone, something that was there in our beautiful nation before it was renamed Tyranation. A nation where two adults could feel for one another and settle for a longer-term relationship by their own choice, freely. Let me tap the hearts with failed romances and those with budding romances and let us see what happens. I will tell them that only X gets a choice in our country because the God’s will lies buried below the pillars of his palace and they need to break them, dig them out and get that treasure for themselves too ” XAEleon said to XYlily “and to emphasize the motive, I will kiss you in front of all in the café and in front of the laptop’s camera which will be the visual key for the algorithm to start running the revolution program.” “Wow, this sounds great. Better and braver plan than eloping and getting killed like all in the past. And risky. Let me get my townsmen in the café in the evening on top of this. We would need their protection from X in case something goes wrong” XYlily said and left to prepare lunch.

“I have been able to get a few townsmen to get the mountain tribes loyal to X, the ones who live way higher than us in the land of ‘Y bear ya’. They have agreed to come in the evening today and arrest XAEleon on one condition. They say he is an officer of X’s government, and it is impossible to arrest him without visual evidence of a crime. If they don’t see it, they will return. Since XAEleon will not show anything untoward to unfamiliar faces, I have asked them to hide in backyard of my house, which as you all know, gives a clear view of the happenings in the café through the windows ” XJudas said to all present in the rebel outpost in the forests.

The café was unusually bustling with noise that evening. XAEleon’s and XYlily’s tummies were having butterflies fluttering in them. The situation for the recent forest outpost visitors was not anything different either. “what if he doesn’t do anything visible” whispered XTomas to XJudas. “Let’s wait” XJudas responded after sipping his drink. “Ah, here they are, can you see” he said. “Yes, I can. Just a few inches above the windowsill, the mountain tribesmen.” XTomas replied. “Now, let’s wait for XAEleon to make the mistake”

XAEleon came with his laptop, placed it on a table, sat on a chair with his back to the service counter. To his left were the mountain tribesmen who he was unaware of,  to his right were XJudas, XTomas and other conspirators. XYlily was busy serving the visitors along with the waiters to cater to the evening rush. In about an hour, XAEleon looked up the clock that rang eight bells. XYlily got the signal, walked up to him and was getting ready to make a speech to the people in the café. She was shocked when he quickly pulled her tightly closer to him with her arm and kissed her hard. All in front of the camera of his laptop. XAEleon shouted to all “Will you marry me” Not able to comprehend what just happened and what to do, she just let her heart speak through her screaming out “Yes, I do” and continued with the kiss. Many in the café clapped. XJudas, XTomas and other conspirators got very worried with so many supporting the couple and were about to leave. Hearing so many people clapping, the mountain tribes abandoned their entry into the café to avoid getting killed themselves even though they did see a visual crime by the officer of the dictator. They instead went about killing the couple then and there using their guns. Everyone ran helter skelter in the commotion that followed. There was a deathly silence falling on the café soon after. XJudas, XTomas and other conspirators were finally relieved.

XAEleon’s algorithm had taken over. The happenings of the café were beamed live on all Xmedia. People across the nation saw their past. Many who rued their chances of losing out on partners of their choice and many who wanted to not miss such a chance marched with hammers, crowbars on the streets towards X’s palace. All roads across the nation were moving towards it. To their surprise, they found even the security guards of the palace digging the pillars out or breaking them for the same reason. More and more crowds gathered in the palace grounds soon and their might was enough to bring the dictatorship and the palace down in less than an hour.

“And this here, in front of the government’s parliament, is the statue of XAEleon and XYlily whose real names were Leon and Lily, kissing each other, their last kiss; to remind us all in our nation of the right to be free to choose, to speak, to act” said the tourist guide, two years later to a bunch of tourists and schoolkids, in the capital of Tyranation now renamed Romancination that had just reopened itself to tourists from abroad. 

Note : I have used all the five prompts in my story. Check it out.