A Good Situation

A Good Situation

Translator:

I remember when we first met them. They were nervous. That was understandable. So were we. It took a while for them to become comfortable with us. Some of them never would be, but that’s OK, we were the same way.

We had hoped they would be welcoming, maybe even grateful. And at first they seemed to be. “We’re so glad you’re here, they said. “We really need your help.” But that didn’t last. Once we began our work, they barely noticed us. Occasionally nods or awkward smiles were all we got.

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I remember when we first met them. They were different of course. We had to tell the kids not to make a big deal out of it. Not to stare. But of course they did, kids being kids and all. “You know, inside they are just the same as us.” we would tell them. “They have families just like we do. But their families are a long way away right now and they probably miss each other.” If I’m being completely honest, we had no idea what their families were like, or even if they had families. But it seemed like a good thing to tell the kids. Make it seem like deep down, we’re all the same.

We didn’t talk with them much - just the details of the work usually. Once, one of us did try to strike up a casual conversation. It didn’t go well. They don’t get sarcasm, puns and metaphors, like we do. They had no interest in our pop culture and we had no interest in what they did outside of work. We didn’t have a lot in common - obviously.

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Translator:

We did our best to fit in. Not socially of course. It’s not like they were going to invite us over to their homes for a cookout or something. Culturally we were not capable of meshing with them. Ours is so much different and theirs is so hard for us to understand. They would try to engage with us sometimes but what they would say didn’t make any sense. At least to us. I’m sure we were supposed to react in some way, but we didn’t know in what way. So we would just stare at them. We didn’t know what else to do. I think that made them uncomfortable so mostly we just stayed apart and continued our work

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They were hard workers, I’ll give them that. They always showed up on time and finished the jobs before leaving for the day. I was never sure where they would go when they were done. They would come and leave together. And if there was more work on certain days, there would be more of them that showed up. They were an ambitious group. It seemed like they were always looking for more work. Any kind of work. They started doing more than just the simple jobs. As it turned out they could do more complicated jobs as well. That was fine with us. The more they did, the less we had to do. I suppose looking back on it, that was where we made the mistake.

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Translator:

It seemed there was no limit to the amount of work they had for us. It was like they were getting lazier and lazier. We would reliably clean up their messes. And there were a lot of messes to clean up. We all thought it was unbelievable that they lived in such a beautiful place but they didn’t seem to care if they ruined it. But that’s why we were there, to clean everything up and make it look nice again. We all were a little envious of what they had, and it was upsetting to see how little they appreciated it. But we knew the more they ignored their problems, the more they needed us and the more of us they needed. It was a good situation. So more of us came and went wherever the work took us.

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Before long, it seemed like they were everywhere doing all sorts of jobs. They worked cheap, they worked hard and as long as they understood their role it was a good situation. It gave us plenty more time for leisure activities, or just to spend time, haha, not working. Of course some people started to worry they were taking jobs away from us. But honestly, for the most part they were doing jobs we couldn’t or didn’t want to do. We needed them and they were happy to be here.

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Translator:

We were happy to be here doing the work they didn’t want to do. In some areas it got to a point where they had completely forgotten how to do the work. We didn’t. So we were their only option. We would do a job and then they would ask if we could do another, maybe different job. Of course we could. More of us came. Occasionally someone would comment, “There sure are a lot of you here now aren’t there?” We would just smile and nod. Experience though had taught us to expect what was coming next.

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Eventually people started to realize how many of them were here and how dependent we had become on them. It was concerning. There was talk of sending them back but we really didn’t know how to go about doing that. And they just kept coming. We had never thought to put in place any rules about how many could come and what they would do. It was easier to look the other way and let someone else be in charge.

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Translator:

Sure, there were some of them that weren’t happy about us being here. They wanted us to go back. But then others would point out that without us there would be no one to do the work. We were a necessity for their society to continue to function. Becoming invaluable to others is how we continue to thrive. Sure, we took some liberties with the back stories – all the hardships we had to overcome to get here, how we were only trying to make a better life for ourselves. Each time the stories were a little different, to fit the culture. Here they really were very kind and caring. The hardship story played well.

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I think they were playing on our emotions with stories about how dangerous their journey to get here was and how difficult their lives were before. We didn’t know if any of that was true. It could have been but none of us knew where they actually came from. No one bothered to ask. That’s on us.

There were others who started to claim they were dangerous – with stories on the news about crimes they allegedly committed. I never saw them do anything wrong. I think a lot of those stories were made up. But there sure were a lot of them. If they were like us, there would certainly be a few of them that were undesirable in such a large population. But they weren’t like us. I don’t know why we didn’t notice that sooner.

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Translator:

They tried to turn public opinion against us at one point, claiming that we were dangerous and were committing crimes. A larger percentage of people believed that than I would have thought. They didn’t realize that we are not like them – we are incapable of causing harm to others. We don’t accomplish our goals through war and violence. Our ways are far more subtle and effective.

As is always the case, they eventually realized what was going on, but, as is also always the case, it was too late. We had a new world to live on. We had transformed it and made it beautiful again. We had hoped they would be grateful and some were. Others were not but they would come around, they always did. It would be a good situation, as long as they understood their new role.

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I forget when I first realized what had happened. I think I was in a crowd somewhere when it struck me the predominant skin color was no longer white, black or anything in between. It was clearly green. Humans were a minority on our own planet. Granted, it was a beautiful planet now. They had gotten rid of all the pollution and climate issues. All the war and violence. We have unlimited clean energy. We are all incredibly healthy. Our leaders are no longer in charge, but I have to admit, I think that is a good thing. They are what put us in the position of needing them in the first place. Not all, but most of us appreciate the new world we have. All in all, it’s a good situation.

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Translator:

I forget how long it was after they understood what had happened when one of them approached me. I had braced for anger—or at least resentment. Instead she moved toward me slowly, almost shy, unsure whether she should speak. I told her it was all right, that I could understand her.

“I just want to say… thank you,” she said. “Things are better now. I don’t think we realized what we had—or how close we came to losing it. Many of us are grateful.”

I nodded. “Yes. It is a good situation”