Five Islands of Lonliness

Five islands co-existed within the sea of Oceania. Each island had its own exotic way of life, only nobody knew it. Everyone was restricted to his or her own island and there was to be absolutely no communication between the five of them. Some of the inhabitants did not even know that all the islands existed and thought that they, themselves were the only important thing on Earth.

One Island, named Technolund praised itself due to the technology it had produced. A shining city as big as anyone had ever known stood like a glowing flame upon the crest of the island’s largest mountain with vibrant coloured hover cars zipping to and fro around it. This city was one of wonders and had instantaneous building creators that constantly popped up new and updated skyscrapers. Also, teleportation devices that could take a person anywhere on the island that they wanted to go in a manner of seconds were a common possession among the islanders. The only complications with these fantastic and innovative devices and designs were that they weren’t so fantastic or innovative for those living on the island.

Yes, they had cars that could fly; but where would they fly them to?

Their teleportation devices really did work; but where would one go with only an island the size of a large country town?

The instantaneous building creators were extremely efficient with saving time; but there was no longer anywhere to build skyscrapers, the only way that this invention could be put to use was by putting skyscrapers on top of other skyscrapers.

To the citizens of this island, the world they lived in was boring with no sense of variety or diversity. Day after day, their ears throbbed with the beeping of new watches, the buzzing of incessant new communication devices and their eyes strained from flashes of glare reflected off all the polished buildings as they walked down the main street. Large piles of wasted technology gathered in every home, continuing to accumulate more pointless devices in a pyramid of unbalanced uselessness.

While all this was occurring, the fridges and coolers of the population of the island remained near empty. They did not know how to cook or fish or create dishes from the plants around them; all they knew what to do was invent. When somebody fell ill, they were rejected from the island and given the prognosis that they were going to die and that no one could do anything about it. When it came to their spare time, all they did was sit there and think about more things to invent; nothing else came to mind as to what to do. There was no one there on the island to teach them new ways or varying techniques on how to live life. Everything on this island was the same day after day; even the people were near-identical after years of breeding on the same isle.

The island just over the way from Technolund was named Foodaplenty. This island was the largest island of them all but the tribes of this land mass restricted themselves to the coasts as they lacked the ability or technology to find their way across the treacherous volcanic centre of this particular island. No one knew what was there. It was just one big mystery; big enough to appear pointless to all those that existed on the island. What they did everyday was eat. They ate and ate and ate from dawn till dusk and in between various extensive periods of eating, they fished and collected and farmed more food so that they would be forever full to the brim with dishes of various tastes, sizes and compositions. These islanders could create a dish out of about anything they came across. They knew every spice to be found, every fishing technique, how to sauté, steam, roast and season, every edible plant and every possible means of hunting the various extensive amounts of fauna that was located on Foodaplenty.

The issue with this seemingly peaceful life was that every single member of the population was morbidly obese. They could no longer walk anymore and were known to roll from place to place (resulting in the casualties of many poor unsuspecting animals, plants and fellow tribe members). They did not know anything different other than eating. They could certainly cook a proper feast that would be better and beyond the dizziest daydreams of any king but they could not for the life of them think about anything else to do. They did not understand the word exercise or group meetings and could not even cure themselves from pains in their stomach. If someone was to be found with some strange obscurity, the tribes of the island would banish them to bob away on the currents of the ocean located around the island; to where they expected the person in question to die as they had no other way of getting rid of any other sickness or strangeness.

Overall, aside from eating, the tribes of Foodaplenty were essentially bored with the monotonous grind of everyday life. They did not know the meaning of the word fun and the only excitement of their week was if the large central volcano on the island exploded sending a shower of sparks down upon them. There was no one there on the island to teach them new ways or varying techniques on how to live life. Everything on this island was the same day after day; even the people were near-identical after years of breeding on the same isle.

Jumping over the volcano on the island of Foodaplenty and travelling approximately 90 kilometres east, is the island of Celebay. This island was smaller than Foodaplenty but had mountain ranges that reached up to the heavens and poked their heads out among the clouds. All over the island was a thick layer of dense jungle with stunning white beaches around the very outer edge of its coasts. If you were to look down at the isle during the day it would look uninhabited but, it was a very different story if you were to look at it between the hours of 6 o’clock in the evening and 5 o’clock in the morning.

The inhabitants of this island were certainly night owls for what you would see between the afore mentioned hours would be sparklers, fireworks and countless numbers of tiki torches lighting up the foliage around them. Upon the mountain ranges; mesmerising, glowing patterns and in the sky, beautiful lanterns strung up amongst the clouds. Also the racket that you would hear as you watched would be of loud music, screaming and much talking as the islanders partied their way till sunrise.

Of course, this island was a seasonal one and took on different appearances throughout the year. During the months of March and April, large glowing and patterned eggs would speckle the island; February was the time for large red and heart-shaped hot-air balloons to fill the night sky and December would show bright canes of white and red candy striped colours as well as countless number of multicoloured gift boxes filling the clouds with their wonders. As well as many other changes throughout the year.

The Celebayans loved to spend their nights dancing, singing and partying their hearts out while drinking mysterious mixtures of various island liquids and mashed up plants. They could boogie, tango, cha-cha and even conga line their way around the island all night long jumping from one dance floor to another. But as soon as the sun began to rise, they would all be so exhausted that they fell asleep until the sun went down again. These islanders loved to party but when you party as a lifestyle and all you ever do is party, the novelty of it wears out and you just begin to dance for the sake of dancing and sing for the sake of singing. For the Celebayans, the fireworks and vibrant decorations had lost their original brightness and were now dull. Also, the dancing that was once fun and energetic had lost its excitement a long time ago.

Everyday their feet would ache, muscles creak and bones would clack. They did not understand the meaning of proper nutrition and were constantly hungry – only ever eating jungle canapés and rainforest sausage rolls when they were offered at events. Their houses consisted of caves and stick huts as their technology had never evolved from basic stone tools and candles. When a virus spread around the island, they had no choice but to party on and hope they did not faint. When an islander demanded a break from partying for reasons such as their feet were sore or their bones were aching so much that they could not stand, the rest of the Celebayans would pile that person onto a hastily made raft and banish them to the wider sea – for if you could not party – you were not allowed to stay on the island. There was no one there on the island to teach them new ways or varying techniques on how to live life. Everything on this island was the same day after day; even the people were near-identical after years of breeding on the same isle.

If you were to catch a February hot-air balloon from Celebay Island and float several leagues north, you would find yourself hovering over the small island of Medopolis. This island was very minimalistic and contained only a few dense forests located in the 4 corners of this particularly rectangular island. In the centre of this flat landscape was a very clean and clinically perfect township where the inhabitants lived very long lives in small identical houses that lined perfectly geometric streets.

The reason for their long lives was due to their perfect hygiene and meticulous medical procedures, cures and treatments. If a virus or mild case of the flu broke out on this island, the epidemic would only last a maximum of an hour as the several thousand doctors on the island worked at once to quash it. Everyone ate little, did little and spoke little to each other (so as to prevent the dreaded spread of disease).

Out of all of the islands, Medopolis had the lowest mortality rate and amount of sickness as well as the highest amount of cleanliness throughout the island. The inhabitants of this island led neat lives and almost never left their houses. The jobs on the island included either being a nurse, doctor or a medical technician at the large hospital that was next to the township and was about the same size as a current-day airfield. Plants with medicinal qualities were cultivated in the four forests that cornered the island and were shipped to the hospital daily.

However long the lives of the Medopolonians were, they were dull ones. If they were not getting their daily check-up or were being treated at the hospital, they were sitting at home looking out their windows at the grey rocky landscape outside. Many were constantly bored due to lack of things to do and as electricity was only strictly used at the hospital, they did not have any electrical technology in their homes. In fact, due to their lack of technological advancement, the island was constantly washed with radiation from the amateur-made radio medicine technologies that were located in the hospital’s basements. Due to this, deformities were common in children (but were soon corrected by the doctors at the hospital). Aside from deformities, the Medopolonians also suffered from stomach aches from eating so little food and needed to eat several thousand tablets a day to keep their nutrition up.

Their lives were dull but many ignored this fact for the simple reason that their lives were so long and they did not need to worry about early death. However, whenever one islander attempted to make their lives more interesting or disagree with becoming a doctor, nurse or technician, the other islanders would place them in a tub that was once used to package medical goods and send them away from the island on the swift currents that first shaped it. There was no one there on the island to teach them new ways or varying techniques on how to live life. Everything on this island was the same day after day; even the people were near-identical after years of breeding on the same isle.

A star-shaped island was located in the middle diagonally between the islands of Technolund and Medopolis. This particular island was named Activus and contained a strange race of people. They were continuously moving, talking and interacting with each other as they came up with more and more things to do.

This small island was packed with a library, theatre, night club, sporting ground, zoological enclosure, arena, cinemas, galleries and art centres. All day long the inhabitants of Acitivus would jump from reading a book to writing one, watching a play to making one, observing animals to training them, judging art to making it and organising sporting events to participating in them. They would run, hop, skip, jump and spin in various dance classes all day long until they reached midnight. At which point in time they allowed themselves 5 hours precisely to power nap with intervals of 10 minutes between each nap for poetry writing.

They decided that there was no time for eating and hence this race of people was so incredibly skinny that their bones poked through their skin. Especially in comparison to the Foodaplentians, they looked little more than skeletons that rattled around all day inventing new things to do. Instead of having a kitchen in each person’s living quarters, they would have a gym that replaced it and contained all forms of equipment. This room would help them keep busy for those early hours of the morning when it wasn’t appropriate to have a dance recital.

Although their lives were incredibly busy, according Activians, their lives were little more than a waste of time to think about! They needed to keep themselves busy for fear of boredom however, whenever they had already done everything that there was to do on the island, they had to keep inventing new things to do. Plays, books, dances, sports, even animals were constantly invented and reinvented to keep the inhabitants entertained. However, even though they did absolutely everything possible (literally) they were still bored.

Their lives were lacking in appropriate technology and medicine so whenever someone fell ill, they just carried on like usual and soon enough that person would drop to the floor lifeless due to the combination of sheer exhaustion and too much physical exertion. The only time that the islanders did stop to do something together was when one Activian claimed that he or she wished to have a short break. At that, the entire population bid that one person farewell as they banished that citizen away from the island through the means of swimming off the coast on a boogie board (to be taken away on a current from the coast of the island). This was due to the fact that no one was ever allowed to waste time on Activus by having a break - let alone even think about having one! There was no one there on the island to teach them new ways or varying techniques on how to live life. Everything on this island was the same day after day; even the people were near-identical after years of breeding on the same isle.

Every single island was one that thought it important and did not even know about the others. They were so ignorant about the cultures and lives of the world around them that they all had no clue that their little group of islands was located a few hundred kilometres west of the coast of a large mainland that was twice the size of all the islands put together. On this island was where those that were banished from their homes took refuge and began to learn more about the world around them.

Those that came from Technolund helped teach the others about how to make extraordinary technology that will benefit everyone through their various practices including cooking, medicine and entertainment. The survivors from Foodaplenty taught the rest about the importance of eating (especially to the skeleton-like Activians) and good nutrition as well as where to find food and how to whip it up into amazing dishes. Those from Celebay taught the others about different celebrations, when they occur and how to have a good time throughout them. The banished Medopolonians taught everyone about good hygiene and provided them with the secrets for cures, and medical procedures that would help extend all their lives and prevent severe illness breakouts. Also, those left over from Activus helped teach the others about various activities that could both help you keep fit and entertained for hours on end (they especially emphasised the need for fitness to the Foodaplentians). Together all the survivors thrived in their new country each contributing something different to their lives and helping them all survive.

The Foodaplentians got skinnier, the Activians got flesh on their bones, and those from Medopolis no longer had to worry about radiation due to the people from Technolund who learned how to protect themselves against disease from the Medopolonians. The Celebayans began to eat more and all of the various islanders were no longer bored as they learnt how to party and party hard as well as celebrate different events throughout the year. They all lived in harmony within a vast pot of multiculturalism and still live to this day whilst those selective people that remained on the five islands of loneliness remained lonely for the rest of their days and died out before most of the greater Earth knew about them. On the new continent, there were many people there to teach each other new ways or varying techniques on how to live life. Everything on this continent was not the same day after day as things were vastly different. Also, the people were nowhere near-identical after years of being with other cultures on the same continent and each held different talents and peals of wisdom that helped them create a diverse and culturally-rich society.

(Satire)