AncilPrologue
My name is Jedakiah Balfour, but some people call me Jed for short. I’m nineteen years old and a proud citizen of the Twin Republic. Well, I’m supposed to be proud since I live here, right? I am, but sometimes I just wish that the country could go back to the way it was. I wasn’t around for all the good times, but I always love to hear stories of back in the days when the Twin Republic was a fun and exciting place to be. It may sound a bit corny, but the country was a paradise. The beaches were stunning, the sun was bright for most of the year, and the best part was that it was available to the public, free of charge. People from all around the world visited the country just to bask in our sun and “jump up” with us for an annual event called Carnival. The people definitely knew how to have fun. The education was free, the music was good, and don’t let me get started on the food. I get hungry even imagining it.
Yeah, people complained sometimes, but that’s the nature of human beings: to want what we don’t have. But the people thrived for perfection. They just wanted the country to be a better place for their children and their children’s children. They fought so that future generations wouldn’t have to. That was just being ambitious, and everyone had the right to be ambitious. My father always told me that those were the good old days, although it was a blissful past that he never had the privilege of experiencing himself. He simply relied on the stories of old passed on from generation to generation of a place that was formerly known as Trinidad and Tobago.
Now we are in the year 2562, and most would have expected the place to get better over time, but the opposite occurred. The money got bigger, but the hearts got smaller. Ever since Port of Spain succumbed to the deep ocean, the entire country fell into chaos.
The signs of Port of Spain’s watery grave were very evident, but they were constantly ignored. I heard that the United States of America, Russia, England, and even Jamaica offered help, but it was refused. That’s just a rumor, of course; no one really knows why the government allowed the city to drown. It was a disaster that could have been avoided if the right set of infrastructure had been built in time. Right now, Port of Spain is a barren water world with rusty buildings and abandoned oil rigs poking out of the murky waters. But tourists visit the sunken town every year in their helicopters and hovercrafts to marvel at the amazing spectacle. Port of Spain became nothing more than a tourist attraction. But it wasn’t the only place to face a watery death. Most of the cities and towns along the coast, such as Chaguaramas, Toco, Guayaguayare, Moruga, and a few others, also went under. San Fernando and all the other territories located on the southern peninsula were also overtaken by the sea, but the people of San Fernando and its environs prepared for it in advance. They built high-raised hotels and houses and rented them to people from all over the Twin Republic and the rest of the United Caribbean, whose homes were taken away by the sea and destroyed by hurricanes. The entire southern peninsula, which consisted of Port Fortin, La Brea, Siparia, Debe, and Princes Town, was considered San Fernando. San Fernando eventually became the most flourishing city in the Twin Republic and was now the Capital. The part of the Capital called Princes Town was the point of entry into the submerged city, and the part called Point Fortin was the exit. No oil, no gas, just good old-fashioned real estate.
During all the chaos, the government had a lot of work to do and a lot of changes to implement after the floods ravaged the island. One of the most significant changes made was the changing of the country’s name from Trinidad and Tobago to the Twin Republic. The name came about when the majority of Tobagonians moved to Trinidad because of the high flood levels and increased amount of hurricanes that battered the island every year. Living on the island had become quite hazardous to life, so in order to survive, the Tobagonians took refuge in Trinidad. Some loyal country folks stayed on the island, but they eventually died out. It’s still a mystery how they died, but everyone just assumed that it was because of the floods. The ones that moved to Trinidad either rented houses in San Fernando or squatted in the central areas of the country, such as Arima and Talparo.
The government officials still reside in Port of Spain despite the fact that the city was underwater. Among the remnants of the great city, the Red House stood towering into the sky. It was the last remaining sturdy structure in Port of Spain, and it housed all the government officials and political parties. The rest of the buildings crumbled as the soil eroded deeper into the ocean. Only politicians, media personnel, and rich folks were allowed to reside in the sunken city, which was only accessible by air and sea. Only two parties ran for government, Party 1 and Party 2. During election time, both parties would go throughout the Twin Republic and rally for votes.
There was barely any interaction between the people of the nation, and everyone preferred to only talk to people who were important to them. However, there was always one time in the week when people mingled with random strangers. One time of the week that was embedded into the culture and the very fabric of the people of the Twin Republic for hundreds of years: Market Time.
