Smartystan

Flags flew freely in the summer breeze. They consisted of a gray and white human brain against a black background. Scales of gold sat just overtop the image of the organ. The sun rose at just the zenith and shared its light and warmth with the attendees to one of the country-states’ greatest accomplishments: the graduation of two women who had been in a halfway house and found their passions for art design and communications. Mala and Sheltham looked on with sunglasses and cheered the graduates. With the knowledge they had months to go before being up on that stage, they looked at each other and grinned. After the ceremony, they walked into a pizza restaurant that fit their budgets.

“Extraordinary, no?” Mala asked.

“I’m just glad for them. That’s what this whole experiment is about,” Sheltham remarked.

“If we–– when we graduate, we’ll beam just the way they did.”

“I think you were right before you corrected yourself.”

“You don’t think I can graduate?”

“I’m not talking about you sweet stuff, I mean me. Your boys are much younger and you’re a woman. While they are all for merit, those thoughts often bubble to the surface.”

“So you are saying I can’t do this.”

“No, of course you can. I’m not worried about you. I’m thinking as a black man in this new setting with three young men to raise is not going to be looked at as favorably.”

“Favorably?”

“Yes. No matter how much is built on skill and ability in this society, there will always be that lurking suspicion that someone like me won’t be able to hack it because of my disposition,” Sheltham said.

“I call nonsense on that, sir,” Mala replied with a sneaking grin.

“What?! It’s true. Women have been dogged so much in history, that to have this country-state, women are going to be looked at with greater understanding and compassion,” Sheltham stated.

“I grant you that it is sometimes a little biased, but for the most part, this new place is so focused on merit and morality. That’s all.”

“I hear you talking,” he retorted.

“I’m serious. I didn’t trek through a forest and get scooped by a Founder no less just to not work smart and earn my position. It’s a noble one. It is one fraught with the excellence of my capabilities and character.”

They never ordered. Sheltham leaned in and Mala looked askance. “Just who do you think you are, Mr. Felton Sheltham?” her smirk said he still intrigued her.

“I’m just a truck driver. Father. That’s all I am.”

“How do you suppose you’re going to fight the class system? Inequality is still out here.”

“Inequality is just a facet of a free system. I know that much,” he said. “If there is someone earning more than me, it is because they produced something that is more valuable than the time it took me to produce something. That’s not unfair, that’s justice.”

“I happen to agree with that. I think that once you have people making millions and billions of dollars, it’s just like people who make tens of thousands of dollars. Know your worth,” Mala concluded.

“The way to achieve this is in the fact that I could go from just driving trucks to owning my own company. That’s how I plan to work through all of this. I could have a conglomerate of various businesses all under one trucking umbrella. Apparel, nutrition products, shops for truckers on the road…, it’s all endless. I mean, I have no impediments in front of me.”

Mala looked deep into Sheltham’s eyes. Her search for the soul of a man yielded a great deal of pleasure and joy. She could see within his gaze the markings of a truly great man. He felt the same for her. In a quick glance of her eyes, he saw a woman of superb intellect and robust moral standing.

“I don’t care about the class distinctions…” he picked up the previous conversation. “I like the fact that people make more than me. So? They probably have morals beyond just productiveness in the first place.”

“Right. I know you’re going to make it because you are worthy of worship. You are an awesome guy who just happens to be a truck driver. In the future, your vision will be crafted into reality and you will make tons of money. And you will be good and selfish.”

“Yes, I like the term ‘selfish.’ It just simply means care for one’s own interests. Let that be the de facto motto of Smartystan,” Sheltham declared.

“I agree. Let’s just keep the idea rolling because I think it’s in the Constitution in conjunction with the US Constitution. This country-state was a second chance at a clearer eyed version of a very good but not excellent document. Now, though the US never has really lived up to the noblest document in human political history, the Declaration of Independence, this country-state has corrected all the errors of the former to highlight the best parts of the latter.”

“Absolutely. No class is set against the rights provided by these documents. Each man and woman fully understand their roles in forming a State that consists of not making America great again but the greatest,” Sheltham asserted.

“Now we’re seeing on the same level. In my estimation, I think we’re supposed to discover the sublime nature of every inhabitant in this space. I would have been swallowed whole if I had stayed in Pennsylvania. Those draconian laws and disturbing acts by the people in power became too overwhelming and unbearable to cope.”

“Now, you’re here…all you have to do is continue on your journey. That means you never submit, never cast your eyes down, and raise those two boys with as much love and comprehension as you can muster.”

“I could say the same to you, you know?”

Sheltham’s eyes turned to saucers. He looked at her with complete sincerity. “How so?”

“Those boys need a daddy. And you’ve been caring for them for this long? They may need a mama, too.”

“We’ll see about that.”