The lone seaman sails to the unpredictable. He had his hands on the wheel as the ship roared along the waters of the great sea around the coast of Nigeria. He felt no presence of warm friends around him. And as he sailed, he longed for a life of slowness and peace.
He continued sailing for a few minutes now until the boat banged shuttered and slowed down into a full stop. The seaman named Jacob looked down in frustration and slammed his fist against the wheel. He then walked down into the common area and looked over one of the railings. His eyebrows raised at the shiny object that floated against the ship.
He looked around him for a fishing net for him to grab the object. Once he found it, he lowered the net over it, caught, and raised it up for himself to view upon closer expection.
He picked up the object and determined it was a mineral by its shiny interface and its rough texture. He squeezed it to see how hard it was. Amused, he stuffed it in his pocket. And luckily for him, the boat started up again.
He continued sailing for half an hour before he noticed a sinking feeling of darkness ahead of him. Fog emerged to eventually fill the entire area of his ship. Jacob squinted his eyes to see ahead of him. He felt it to be a long and dark journey until he saw something else in front of him. Once the fog went away, he fully saw it to be a new island he has never seen before. It looked very old and nature-focused. He became eager to settle his boat along the land so he could explore.
He became close to it enough for him to notice that there was a town with wooden houses built and dirt roads made along them. He docked his boat, came off it, and trudged along the path leading to the town, touching the mineral he thought to be good luck.
Once he came to the center of the town, the doors of the houses opened, revealing people coming out and seeing him. And they soon greeted him as they came close to him. Jacob immediately noticed the clothes they wore. Their bodies were minimally covered with women only wearing beads and a few fabrics around their breasts and hips. Men wore fabric only around their stomachs and had their ears pierced. They greeted Jacob in a language he didn’t understand. Then, they started to speak Hausa, and then English.
Jacob immediately greeted them back in Hausa, and then in English. Throughout the whole day, Jacob has been interacting with these people by going inside their houses, having dinner with them, playing games, sharing stories about their homelands, and even giving Jacob a place to rest.
When Jacob settled in his new place, he immediately dreamed of the wonderful times he’ll spend on this island. Then, he drifted his eyes to sleep.
The next morning, he Jacob awoke to hear moaning and cries coming from the center of the city. He exited his hut to follow the unsettling noise. Once he got there, he became baffled by the number of people wandering the center crying about their stomachs. He looked around for a person to talk to and landed his eyes on an elderly man. He walked up to him and asked him what the problem was. In English, he would’ve said “Everyone had become sick all of a sudden. Yesterday, farmers distributed poisonous corn in their food. I don’t know what we’re going to do.” Jacob touched his forehead and had his hand on his hip in disbelief. He asked him if there was a doctor around.
“Yes. One is coming right now,” the elder said as he pointed to a well-dressed man running to the center with herbs and bowls in his arms. Jacob watched as he interacted with the sick people and sighed a breath of relief. He went back inside his hut and continued to rest there.
A few hours later, he heard thunder and lightning outside. He looked out to see that lightning was hitting people’s houses and huts, even the people. Jacob rushed out to help them, but they were already on the ground, unflinching. He spotted more buildings getting struck and becoming engulfed with fire, thus getting burnt down. As the chaos intensified, Jacob looked all over for the elderly man he talked to. When he came to the forests, he found him hiding behind an abandoned hut.
“Elder!” eh screamed, “What’re we going to do.” The elder paused.
“What could we do?” he asked, “If we lived in a more advanced world, we would find peace and happiness. Not this.” Jacob panicked inside as he realized the mistake he made and held his head from the pain he experienced in his head. Everything was blurry and he soon passed out.
Just then, his eyes immediately opened back up. They drifted around the environment he was in, his boat. Jacob, his mind in a confused state, sat back up on the table he was resting on. He continued to look around until he remembered the mineral in his pocket. He reached inside his pocket only to feel nothing. He pulled out his hand and looked at it strangely. He then reached into his other pocket only to find nothing too. Nonetheless, Jacob hopped off the table to ran to the wheel, checking to see if the boat worked again. With one full turn of the wheel, it swerved around successfully.
Now that the boat was working again, Jacob started to ride back to where he came from. He decided to not look for a land of no technology anymore, as the human mind is the one that starts it.