Madrid 2200

Julen Eizaguirre Aguirr

Hugo wakes up at 7:00 to start his last year at school. It is a special course, since this year the “National Integration Plan” is launched following the example of France, Sweden, Germany and Italy among others. After years of riots and protests in the suburbs, the regime of Carlota II de Borbón has created this plan for the integration of the children of immigrants, so that they do not remain outside of Spanish society. However, despite the fact that Hugo’s family is in favor of the regime of Carlota II de Borbón, they are afraid that her son will have to interact with suburban kids.

When they arrive to class, they all sit in their desks. They sit in a clearly differentiated way from one another. On the left of the class are the white children and the other, black children, all with a green bracelet that identifies them as children within the National Integration Plan. When the teacher arrives to class, he tells them that the final work will be a work in pairs, and that the couples will have to be made up of Spanish children and children from the suburbs. Seeing that there is no willingness on the part of the students to make groups among them, a computer program is the one in charge of making the pairs according to the hobbies and interests of each one of them.

Hugo has to take Ayo. Although Hugo does not want to mix with the new students, he is happy because he is with the most handsome guy in the class. Hugo introduces himself to Ayo and Ayo makes it clear that all he wants is to pass the course and that if he could choose he would be at the school in his neighborhood. After that awkward moment they pass each other the phone numbers to talk about the work. At the end of the classes, Hugo takes his capsule and arrives at his house in 5 minutes. However, Ayo goes to the bus station to get on the bus that after a trip of 1 hour and a half will take him to his shack, next to the national dump.

Hugo comes home very happy and tells at dinner that he has to do a final job with a boy from the suburb, the parents laugh and make jokes about the students in the National Integration Plan, in the end they tell Hugo that he is great to work with Ayo, but do not even think about having anything with him, that they do not want those people in the family. Hugo also laughs and tells them that he does not plan to have a black boyfriend who lives in the landfill.

Ayo arrives home, and does not arrive as angry as his family expected him to arrive. He has told his parents that he has to do the job with a boy on the other side of the fence, a white boy. The father reminds him that if he is going to that school it is so that neither he nor his wife ends up in one of the prisons in Galicia like his uncle Samir, where they force him to rebuild again and again the prison that is torn down by the hurricanes or flooded by the continuous floods. What Ayo’s parents want is for their son to finish the course so that the education ministry of Spain leaves them alone.

The next day everyone returns to class and they start with Spanish history classes. The professor tells how, because of his ancestors, the sea level rose as nobody before could imagine before which also created a climate of storms and hurricanes that would force 99% of Spaniards to move to the center of the peninsula, Madrid. Although it was almost like a desert, thanks to new technologies, temperatures were bearable. The African students were happy with the content of the history class, since it was the subject their parents had warned them would brainwash them.

After the history class came the social sciences. The professor explained that the lack of sex education and religious customs without any sense made continents like Africa multiplied their population by 15 in the last 50 years, making this continent uninhabitable. The spirit among the students of the National Integration Plan begins to warm up. The professor continues explaining that Europe has saved Africa by facilitating their entry into the old continent. Raffik replies that Africa is uninhabitable because it is totally contaminated, that for hundreds of years it has been the landfill of the West, and that now they live on the outskirts of the city, separated by a fence and that they still live in landfills. The answer of the professor of social sciences is that if they had adapted to the new culture from the beginning there would not have been the revolts of 2190 that almost led to a civil war like in Italy, and was the reason for the creation of the Madrid Wall and the ghettos on the outskirts. He also reminded him that if it were not for the Spanish landfills their families would not have anything to eat, since almost everyone is in charge of recycling and in return the Spanish Government gives them some subsidies. Before such explanation, Omar and Raffik exploded, insulted the professor and broke his desk. State forces appeared and neither Raffik nor Omar was seen again by class. The director of the school explained that they were changed school, although in truth everyone knew that they were sent to Galicia, like the uncle of Ayo. Upon arriving at the dump, Ayo explained what happened at home and his parents asked him to please do not do any nonsense that would endanger his family.

Ayo continued going to school every day, and on Friday afternoon he used to stay at school with Hugo doing the work. Over time and although they both had prejudices of each other, they began to establish an increasingly friendship relationship. Hugo was attracted to Ayo, but he could not imagine a relationship with him since they came from completely different worlds. Ayo for his part did not consider a relationship with a boy and in addition from the city.

On Friday they finished the work, they stayed talking to each other at the school until they closed it. They did not realize what time it was. Ayo no longer had buses to his house, because of the floods that week there were fewer buses than usual to the suburbs. Unexpectedly, Hugo offered him dinner and sleep in his house and when both appeared at home and explained the situation, Hugo’s parents were correct and gave him dinner to Hugo and Ayo. Ayo was surprised at the good reception he had at Hugo’s house but Hugo explained that they did it so as not to be labeled as racist and classist.

After dinner, they went to Hugo’s room. Ayo wanted to thank him for not letting him spend the night in the street illegally since he could be arrested or beaten.

-Hugo, thank you very much for feeding me and letting me into your house.
-Don’t give them to me, in fact I have to ask your forgiveness, at all times I knew what time it was. I also knew that today you had fewer buses due to flooding in your neighborhood. I wanted us to have dinner and spend the night together, because I think I’m falling in love with you.
-Fuck Hugo, what are you saying, dude? I do not know what to say…
-I want to apologize Ayo ..
-It does not matter Hugo
And then it was Ayo who approached Hugo and kissed him in the mouth, after
that kiss they spent a night of passion and they fell asleep side by side with
their naked bodies.

The next day, Hugo’s mother came to Hugo’s room to wake them up and saw what had happened, woke them up scandalized and left without saying anything to the kitchen, Hugo and Ayo dressed as quickly as possible and Hugo went to the kitchen to talk to his mother.

Ayo’s parents became very angry with their son, they blamed their son’s homosexual behavior on the new school and they considered taking their son out of the National Integration Plan. After meditating, they decided not to remove him
from the program since they would be the ones sent to the prisons of Galicia, what they did was to throw Ayo out of the house, who had to build a small shack in the neighborhood. Ayo was left without friends in the neighborhood, the neighbors broke their shack again and again and used to insult him in the neighborhood. In addition, the father of Ayo organized a wedding with a girl from the neighborhood of which there were also rumors that she was a lesbian.

On the other hand, Hugo’s mother and father made it clear to Hugo that they did not want any kind of scum in their family. If they saw him again with Ayo, they would take more drastic measures.

Time passed, and even though Ayo was married to a girl from the dump, he continued to go to class so as not to embarrass his family. Hugo also went to class and every day at the end of the classes they were looking for a moment to be together without anyone knowing … However, one day the Social Sciences teacher saw them together and did not hesitate a second to tell the Hugo’s parents.Hugo’s parents went into a rage, they did not know how to get Ayo away from Hugo, but suddenly he came up with an idea that he could carry out.

Hugo’s father works in a high position of the regime of Carlota II de Borbón, which was carrying out a plan to better integrate the children of immigrants into society. After several meetings, he convinced the people who make the decisions that they had to throw the immigrants out of landfills, since they lived in painful and unhealthy environmental conditions. In the same way, they would have to move all the inhabitants of that landfill to the north of Madrid, where there was no pollution, but neither was there fertile soil, nor almost water, since it is all sand. In addition, Ayo would be sent to another school away from Hugo’s.

And so it was, under the pretext that they wanted to help immigrants, a private company took control of recycling in Madrid and expelled all the immigrants who live there north of Madrid. The vast majority of immigrants were happy with the change since they had talks with scientists who told them of the dangers of continuing to live. However, a small minority opposed the change and were sent to Galicia.

Ayo was forced to move north of Madrid with his wife and the National Integration Plan assigned him another school. Hugo and Ayo did not know anything about each other even though they used to think a lot about each other. No one dared to write a message until June.

A wave of heat arrived in Madrid in May to stay, night temperatures did not drop below 27 degrees and during the day they could reach 60 degrees. In the new neighborhood of Ayo there was almost no water and fights for food happened every day. On June 15, Ayo’s wife went to the market for food, where she fought in the market for 1kg of lentils and received a knife. The ambulance took 30 minutes to arrive at the scene, too late for Ayo’s wife who bleed to death.

That night Ayo cried inconsolably and promised himself to change the destiny of his life, took courage and searched his list of contacts to Hugo, told him what was happening and that he needed his help.

Hugo, reading the message, wept with emotion and replied saying that he could not stop thinking about him and that he would help him if he needed it. They stayed the next day on the wall to see each other through the fence and talk. Hugo brought him food for the week and pills to make up for the lack of water. That’s how they spent the whole summer, staying every 2 days on the wall to be together for a while imagining a future together.

In the end, Hugo’s parents found out what his son was doing and what he was still seeing with Ayo. They managed to understand that his son was really in love with Ayo and that there was nothing they could do. Hugo’s father decided to convince his wife to support Hugo’s relationship with Ayo.

Ayo suffered homophobia in his suburb as well as insults for dating someone from the city. Hugo’s father used that argument with Carlota II de Borbón to convert Ayo into a refugee and thus be able to live freely in the city and he got it. After performing all the procedures Ayo began to live as a normal person in the city and took off the bracelet that identified him as a student in the National Integration Plan.

In the end, Ayo met Carlota II de Borbón and was a key person to carry out effective actions and plans for an effective integration of the people of the suburbs in the city.