Land of Sod

I traveled north from Jacob’s cabin, took me two days to reach one of the main roads that crossed through the area. It was a long, winding path of small, dark rocks that connected two distant points. That was, however, not what I was immediately interested in. The road was nearly filled with machines that Jacob had called autos, many of them larger than the one that I had spent the past two days on.

There was no sight comparable to that in the village I had spent my childhood in or even in the strange things that Jacob had described to me and that I had seen in his shed. The rumbling of all those autos shook the earth and the sound of their passing was a deafening roar. For a good ten minutes, I just sat and watched the frenzied procession, completely in awe of what I was seeing.

I finally came to myself and found a break between autos. Riding along the black road was much smoother than the old path through the forest. It allowed me to make good time, covering many miles as every hour went by. Around late evening, I came across a fork in the road. One branch went off to the north and the other continued on to the west. A nearby sign read “Mektalis” in one direction and in the other “Sod”.

I knew something of Mektalis from the stories that Jacob had told me, but I knew nothing of a place called Sod. Even the road heading in that direction seemed to be less traveled and worn by auto wheels. This was my chance for adventure, I could go straight to Mektalis, which was not unknown to me and which was the capital of this region, or I could go to Sod, which I knew nothing about and which seemed to be a more lonely sort of place. I took the road to the north.

The sun dropped quickly out of the sky and darkness covered the land while I was still on the road. As I was about to stop for the night, I noticed a faint glow on the horizon, as if a smaller version of the sun was just beyond my sight. My curiosity piqued, I restarted the auto and continued on.

After an hour or so, I came across the origin of that strange glow. It was none other than the city of Sod. It was large town, covering many square miles. A multitude of brightly glowing lights crowded each street corner and still more shown faintly in open windows here and there. A tall, wide wall encircled the city and there was a gate where the road met with it.

I stopped at a small out-building that was a dozen or so feet away from the wall. A man stepped out and greeted me.

“My name is Thomas Ratliff and I’m traveling through these parts,” I said to the man.

“And how long will you be staying in our city, Mr. Ratliff?”

“Not more than three days, I should think.”

“Very well,” the man said, making a few marks on a sheet of paper, “I assume you have money for your stay?”

“Of course.”

“And what is your opinion of sod?”

“Pardon me?”

“Well? Are you for or against it?”

“I don’t believe I understand the question.” I replied, confusion and curiosity doing battle within my mind.

The man frowned and then shrugged his shoulders. “You’re new to these parts, I suppose. Can’t expect you to make a decision like that right away. However, you should make up your mind before you leave, it’s very important you know.”

“I…see,” although I did not, “I will endeavor to come to a proper conclusion during me stay here.”

The man smiled and held out a small card, “Take this card, you can fill it out later and then submit it to the City Council.”

I took the card from his hand and examined it. There was a blank spot for my name and below that were two square boxes with the words “Sod” and “Anti-Sod” beside them. Perhaps it was not so good an idea to come to this place after all. The gate opened with a low groan, beckoning me to enter. Who was I to refuse?

The wide street that led away from the gate ultimately met with other such roads at a spot near the center of town, which was dominated by a large basin with a device that shot water up into the air. I noticed that two groups of townsfolk had gathered in the square and seemed to be engaged in a heated argument.

“You take back what you said, Walter!” One man shouted.

“I will not!” The other man shouted back, “I stand by what I say, and I say that sod is nothing but a big bunch of nonsense! You tell Leonard that I said that!”

“You’ll regret this; just you wait ‘till I tell Leonard! Don’t think I won’t!”

The argument was nearly past the point of exchanging words and into the point of exchanging fists when one of the men standing around noticed me coming up the road. They quickly fell silent.

“Good evening, sirs,” I said, ignoring their earlier yells, “Is there a place where I might stay nearby?”

One man spoke up. “Sure, stranger, there’s a hotel on your left, one of the best in Sod.”

“Thank you,” I replied, getting down from my auto. Before I could take more than a step, the two groups of men had crowded around me. They jostled me from all sides and looked up at me expectantly.

“What do you think of sod, stranger?”

“It’s a nice enough town, I suppose. But, I’m afraid I don’t really have anything to compare it to.”

“No, no, no,” said another man, “Are you for it or against it?”

“I don’t see how I can be for or against something that know nothing about.”

“If you would just…”

“…over here a minute…”

“…don’t listen to…”

“…Sod…”

“…listen to us…”

I pushed my way through the crowd and entered the nearby hotel. Then, I shut the door, and the crowd, behind me. Most of them looked sullen that I had not taken up their gracious invitation to listen to their respective arguments, but I was in little mood for that sort of thing, particularly so late in the evening.

“They’ll probably be back for you tomorrow,” a man standing behind a long desk on my right said, “It’s been a while since anyone new came around. “

“What’s all this business about sod?” I asked, “That’s the name of the town, but it seems to me that they are talking about something else entirely.”

“It’s not an easy thing to explain to someone who doesn’t live here, been goin’ on for a while though.”

“What about you? Are you for or against it?”

The man smiled, but he didn’t answer. In exchange for a few bills, he handed me a large key. My room was up on the second floor and it overlooked the square. I noted that the two groups were still arguing, though not loud enough for me to hear what they were saying.

Sod was certainly a rather strange place. The whole business with sod, it just didn’t make any sense. Why were people so passionate about it and, for that matter, what exactly was it? Well, seeing different places was the reason I left Jacob’s cabin in the woods. Perhaps tomorrow would shed some light on the situation.

The following morning, there was a man waiting for me on the first floor of the hotel. He said that his name was Marcus Daniel and he would show me around the town and answer any questions I might have.

“We don’t get many travelers these days,” Marcus said, “Not since they put in that new highway.”

“I see.”

“Hmm. Yeah, Sod used to be quite the tourist town; we’d get people from all over the country and even further than that. Oh, that’s the old library,” he said, pointing to large stone building, “It was built nearly two hundred years ago, oldest building in Sod, or so they say.”

It was very nearly the largest as well. The columns that lined the front half of the building must have been at least thirty feet tall. I asked Marcus if I could see the inside, he was more than happy to show me.

The interior of the building was every much as impressive as the exterior, with soaring ceilings that stretched up towards the sky and beautiful colored glass windows that shown with a kind of brilliance that I never knew was possible. And everywhere I looked there were books and more books, enough to give any man a lifetime of unique stories.

Marcus gestured for me to sit down at a small table in an out-of-the-way corner of the library. He took a large book off one of the shelves and set it down on the table between us.

“This,” he said, “Is a book about the history of Sod, dating all the way back to its founding over three hundred years ago.”

“That’s amazing!” I exclaimed, “Do you mean to tell me that everything that has happened in this town in those three hundred years is contained in this book?”

Marcus laughed. “Not quite everything, but near enough.” He opened the book and turned to a page in the middle. “Here it tells about Michel Daniels and how he saved the whole town from the worst fire it’d ever seen. Apparently someone left a fireplace going in their house one night and it just got out of control from there. He was the first one to notice it and ran through the whole town waking everybody up. That was my granddaddy.”

There was pride in his voice when he said that.

“He must’ve been a great man.”

“Yeah, that he was. A truly great man.” He seemed lost in thought for moment, likely thinking about some distant memory, then he came to himself. “Ah, is there anything in particular that you’d like to hear about?”

“Yes, actually. What can you tell about this whole sod business?”

Marcus quickly looked around upon hearing the word. Then he leaned in closer to me and motioned for me to do the same.

“Let me tell you something, son, sod is the best thing to happen to this town in its three hundred year history. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise! We probably wouldn’t even be here today if it weren’t for sod. Now, others’re telling you wrong if they say that’s not the case. Sod…it’s done so much for us, that it has. I wish everyone in this town knew as much about all its done for us as I do.

“I see, it must truly be a great thing to inspire you so.”

“Yes, that it is. Truly great.”

Soon after that we left the library and Marcus showed me around the rest of the town. My own home town was simply no comparison to it, everything was larger there, taller, and more advanced. Quite simply, I probably could have lived there under different circumstances.

Upon my return to the hotel, I was greeted by a man who called himself Gregory Renoir.

“Would you care to join me for a drink?” He asked. “I’ll pay for it, of course.”

“I don’t see how I could turn down an invitation, especially if I’m not out anything.”

“The hotel has a fine selection of drinks, you may choose whatever strikes you.”

“A glass of their freshest milk would be just fine.” I said to Gregory as I took a seat at his table.

Gregory smiled as I sat down. “There’s something that I wanted to talk to you about.”

“And what might that be?”

“Sod,” he said, “I’m sure that old fool Marcus told you all about how wonderful it is.”

“He mentioned it,” I said carefully.

“I thought so. But I don’t suppose he really told you anything at all about it, did he? A lot of vague hints and meaningless words, right? Yes, I thought so. Well let me tell you something, sod is no good. We’d be a lot better off around here if it weren’t for that blasted thing, make no mistake of that. Why it’s practically the reason things are so bad around here in the first place! If only everyone in town knew as much about how bad it is as I do, things would finally change for the better.”

“I see, it must truly be a terrible thing to anger you so.”

“Yes, it is. Truly terrible.”

The second morning, I got up early and headed out into town. There was much that I still had not seen and likely much that I simply would not have the time to see before I was on my way again. The streets were fairly quiet most of the day and those citizens who were out and about were doing their daily chores and jobs. And yet, there was a heavy feeling in the air, like they were waiting for something to happen. It was not a feeling that I cared anything for.

That evening, I was on my way back to the hotel when I was confronted by two groups.

“Well?” Asked one man, “Have you decided yet?”

“You’ve got to side with sod,” said an older woman, “You’ve just got to.”

“Don’t listen to them, sod’s done nothing good for us!” Yelled yet another person.

I could see in all their eyes a look of profoundly disturbing hope, as if my answer would either be cause for great celebration or great disappointment. Or both.

I spoke up, so that all of them could hear me. “Good people, I have made my decision based on everything that I have seen and that you have told me. I have decided that I will be…neutral. Sod holds no interest for me either way, so I will side with neither group. That is my decision.”

The crowd, to put things mildly, was stunned. I brushed past them and went to the hotel. The manager of the hotel, who was watching from the doorway, shut the door behind me.

On the third morning, I packed up all of my belongings and returned the key to the front desk. I was about to leave when something stopped me. I turned and looked back at the manager.

“Just what is sod anyway?” I asked him.

He smiled slightly. “It’s everything…and nothing. Maybe it never even existed in the first place. That feud has been going on since as long as I can remember and so far no one’s every come up with a good answer.”

“You aren’t from this town, are you?”

“No, though I’ve lived here for nearly ten years now. How’d you know?”

“Just a guess.”

Out in the town square, a voice rose over the din of the various gathered peoples.

“We do not care about sod!” The woman said, “It has nothing to do with us and we neither love nor hate it! We are sod-neutral!”

The end of “Land of Sod”