Searching for a Good Word in Utopia - A Short Story

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On a hot summer day in the desert outside Utopia's borders lays a breathing dead body. Eiddwen, the border patrol officer is quickly notified to retreat it. Smelling like a rotten soul left out of its container for more than twenty years, Eiddwen picks up the heavily breathing body and carries into the backseat of her patrol car to take it to the headquarter.

After watering the dead body, Eiddwen, feeling sympathy, asks "What are you doing?"

"I.." The dead body breathes out years of dryness "I just want to find a good word"

In silence, Eiddwen leaves the man more water and food and heads to notify her superior before going to eat during her lunch break.

Fifteen minutes later, Eiddwen hears a voice from behind

"Eiddwen" Says a man with dark "Where did you find this body?"

"Oh hey, Jake" Eiddwen replies "I don't know, I got a call and went to grab it"

"Well, whatever it may be" Jake elaborates "It's not talking"

"What do you want me to do about it?" Eiddwen asks.

"Well" Jake says with a teasing smile "You have been put in charge of getting it to talk"

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Eiddwen wonders loudly "I don't even know what it wants"

"What do all those coming to Utopia's borders want?" Jake answers "Just tell it, that immigration isn't possible and send it packing to where it came from"

Infuriated with her new assignment, Eiddwen heads to the cell where the dead body is kept. Eiddwen sees the dead body staring through the wall.

"Hi" Eiddwen approaches the man "You do realize they are not going to allow you in, right?"

"I know" The dead body responds "No other land has let me it, why should this one be different?"

"Then why are you here?" Eiddwen asks.

"I have roamed all over my country searching" The dead body answers "In the end I figured it was hopeless, and decided to search elsewhere"

"And what are you searching for?" Eiddwen asks

"Just one good word to accompany me" The dead body answers

"What does that even mean" Eiddwen feels dumbfounded

"I don't know either" The dead body answers "All I know is that we have been losing a lot of good words lately"

"Listen" Eiddwen says with a sympathizing tone "I don't think you will find whatever you are looking for here"

"Okay" The dead body says in a surrendering tone.

"Well" Eiddwen says "I will go home now, rest a little and prepare for your trip back"

"Do you" The dead body utters "Do you mind staying for a while? Please"

"I don't know what I can do for you" Eiddwen responds

"Just for an hour" The dead body says "And don't leave me abandoned like everyone else who rejected me before"

"Okay" Eiddwen says hesitantly

"You see" The dead body says "I have known misery since I was a child. He has become a sort of a friend, one I would recognize among a million. He has a heavy hand that can topple down a mountain just by resting his hands on it"

Eiddwen leans in closely to listen to the dead body.

"He carried me out at birth, holding me upside down, like a doctor delivering a baby" The dead body says "He carried me like a falcon carrying its prey up to the highest it can leaving me helpless. If I were to fight and get away I would fall to my death, and if I stay I would end up eaten"

"My only condolence from my killers is death" The man continues "Just like they set out death to come get me, one day it will turn around and get them. For we are the sins of death, and we are plenty, and they are the blessing of death when asked. They reply in speeches and monologues, rudely responding to their accusers"

"Upon every news segment I see our death increase in number and decrease in value" The man explains "I see that death would only take us as a prey, avenging a sin we never committed. And life wouldn't take us an ally to befriend, and we can't stand it an enemy to fight. And that is how we lost all of our good words"

"How exactly did you lose them?" Eiddwen asks

"I am from a far away village" The man explains "Every time someone dies, a word disappears from its dictionary forever. A day by day all the good words started disappearing"

"How so?" Eiddwen leans in

"One day" The man answers "A girl died of thirst, so the word river disappeared. The next day her mother died of a broken heart, so the word rain disappeared. We saw a person displaced by war died in the cold, so the word fire disappeared."

Eiddwen listens carefully.

"Then a little boy died starving, so the word food disappeared" The man continues "And an old man died of loneliness, then the word family disappeared. The last remaining good word we had was God, and it disappeared when we saw child getting shot. One funeral after another, all the good words disappeared"

"So" Eiddwen starts to wonder "How do you communicate now?"

"We slowly started using complicated words to communicate" The man explains "We would see a woman says "Oh, the child who got shot" And we would know that she meant God. Another one says "Can I buy a boy starving to death" And grocery owners would know that they mean food" and so on"

Eiddwen and the man stay in silent for a while before the man gets up, signifying that he is ready to leave now. Eiddwen opens the cell and guides the man out. As they approach the end of their walk, Eiddwen asks "How is the village now? And what are you going to do?"

"There's nothing but bad words in our village now, and people who haven't died yet" The man says as he prepares for his walk back "I will continue to live there, a surviving good word seeking company"