Q6.What might you be able to hear outside?

In a world where there has been a great flood, young people make up the majority of leaders and we value practical skills.

By Natalie Harney

Sea levels have risen, the weather has become more and more volatile and a great flood has swept across the world. For a while everything looked like sea. The waters have begun to retreat a little, but where we live is still more lake than land.

The flood reduced our population, leaving only the young to rebuild. We’ve quickly learned how to use our hands and whatever we can find around us to create shelters and our own new civilisation.

Outside I can hear water lapping and reeds and the few surviving trees moving. After the flood everything was very quiet and that was all we could her before we regrouped and started to plan a way forwards.

I can hear birds too, finding their supper and each other. There aren’t many other animals around other than fish and the occasional dog or rat. The flood completely changed what could survive.

I can hear hammering and tying in moments of stillness. But during the day I hear talking, talking and singing all the time. As we try to rebuild we’ve found we work best when we’re together. There’s no real hierarchy, we’re all so young and we’re all working towards the same goal, so there’s constant communication as we try to decide the best way to do everything. We didn’t start with the skills we needed, perhaps there are better ways to build things, but we’ve learned from each other. In fact, I can hear someone explaining how to make a structure more study using those reeds that are always whistling right now.

While we sing while we work, it’s in aid of our building. We don’t have as much time for art.

If I listen really closely I can hear people fishing and finding our dinner, just like the birds. Food has been scarce, for months everything was so damp that we couldn’t cook.

This world is much quieter. I used to hear cars and industrial construction. I could hear trains and planes. I could hear people on phones or only what was playing within my headphones.

Now there are so few big noises, every sound is subtle and limited to the volume one or two of us could make. I’ve gotten better at listening. I’m in tune with the birds and the way the water is lapping because that’s the only way you know where your next meal is. I’ve gotten better at listening, really listening, to other people too. Working together and learning together is the only way we’ll survive.

Imagining Future Spaces is a project by Natalie Harney designed to support and inspire conversations about what alternative worlds might look and feel like.

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