Cascade
Cascade
Synopsis: What begins with pollution ends in the entire
world being snowbound. Many die due to
hypothermia and scientists scramble for ways to warm the planet once more.
Chapter 1—We Were Warned
For so many years,
climatologists and other environmental scientists had been debating,
postulating on how the world would ‘end’.
It was either through fire or ice, and due to the subsequent pollution
of our little blue dot, the world had become snowbound. Many of us had already died due to the
bitter cold, but those of us who hadn’t had learned to adapt and make clothing
that could handle the gelid temperatures.
I however, was not one to be cloaked in the harsh overcoat of winter
forever. Like my fellow scientists, I
wanted to assist them in regaining the warmth of summer.
I was in the lab, suited
up and ready to begin work on my latest reverse osmosis machine. Such an experiment had been tried before and
my colleague and brilliant husband, Dr. Suresh Kumar had been readjusting some
schematics in our makeshift greenhouse.
We had grown all the produce that our tristate area had been surviving
on for the last few years. With a baby
on the way, Suresh and I knew that Lani would grow up to be big and strong and
have a network of people willing to surround her with love, wisdom and the
freedom to do as she pleased, of course, within reason.
Chapter 2—Fighting Back Depression
Suresh and myself don’t
have SADD, otherwise known as Seasonal Affective Depressive Disorder, but for
those in the community that do suffer from this condition, the present earth is
the 9th circle of Hell to them.
It’s a horrible existence, coupled with bouts of what seem to be
never-ending melancholy. If Poe were
alive, he would find plenty of dark, dismal things to write in this awful
climate. Yet somehow, Suresh and I don’t
find it difficult to find positive spins on everything. The only greenery we see is in the hothouse
or ‘greenhouse’ as I call it. Suresh calls
it a hothouse. It’s rather adorable and
charming I think. One of the many
reasons I fell for him other than his massive intellect, spellbinding beauty
and incomparable wit.
Suresh often tells me he loves me in little
ways before we begin our experimentation with the updated reverse osmosis
machine. Sometimes it’s a flower, a
poem, a piece of my favorite chocolate recreated by his mad chemistry skills or
just a simple embrace from behind, his hands on my ever-growing belly. I couldn’t be more fortunate to have him in
my life as well as the head of our reverse climatology team. It has taken us years to get our greenhouse
to become so fertile. Now our intentions
and attention has been turned to getting our earth warmed up. So far, the experiments have been
unsuccessful but if at first you don’t succeed, you know the rest of the
adage.
Chapter 3—The Millionth Try
Lani had been born in May
on Memorial Day. That made my mother
ebullient. She said,
‘How magnificent, Jolie
! My granddaughter has my birthday !’,
she joked. She knew she would have to be
taking care of little Lani while Suresh, I and the rest of the team worked day
and night to start playing around with the earth’s climate once more. We had gone through all the necessary calculations
and flux in charting our failures, but we could taste success on the
horizon.
‘I made one small
adjustment. Let’s see how it holds
out.’, Suresh said. I felt akin to Igor
flipping the switch for Victor in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. The machine
began to hum a concert A until suddenly the weather in the greenhouse became
warmer and held steady. We wanted to
celebrate because it was not just my ingenious husband’s victory but every
scientist in the room’s.
‘We will have to make
certain this is consistent with our findings.’, he said, double checking his
math. We would go forward with our
testing in the next few days but our experiments would be held off momentarily
since a big blizzard was on its way.
Chapter 4—Stockpiling
We knew how to survive,
and I, having grown up in the upper Midwest, Au Claire, Wisconsin, knew that
winters could be a real bitch when they wanted to be. It was as if Old Man Winter himself sat on
his throne and declared ‘None Shall Pass’ from his icy reign. Old Man Winter sometimes could be a real
bastard. We were going to show him
though, right as soon as we had the ability to use an augur to get to our
greenhouse again.
We were so close to using
the Reverse Osmosis Flux that we could virtually feel our weather improving but the blizzard had been harsher than
we thought. Everyone knew how to ride
out the storm and it was up to me, Suresh and our team to get the ROF up and
running again. Lani would be left with
her grandparents to care for her. We didn’t
know if the mission we were heading on was suicide, but we weren’t doing it out
of selfish ambition. Getting the climate
fixed was in everyone’s best interest
and it would be like pushing a reset button for good ol’ Gaia.
Chapter 5—Forging Ahead
Suresh and I packed the
necessary provisions in a rucksack for our journey. We were outfitted for the gelid weather in
our parkas, gloves, scarves and thermal hats against the unforgiving chilly
breeze. Our head scientist, geology
professor Doctor Patrick Tyndale started up the augur and began drilling to our
greenhouse. The progress was slow
going, but eventually we began making our way through the thick
permafrost. At one point we had to
stop midway and make a fire out of what we had lying around. It was like an episode of Survivorman, just colder and more
innovation. We didn’t let the cold sap
our spirits. Eventually we had gotten
to the greenhouse and could start the machine up again, but the ROF was
frozen. Fortunately, Suresh had a
solution to thaw the ROF and get it humming.
Seeing him at work got my blood boiling but made me realize we would
have plenty of time to be intimate once the warmth had returned. For now I had my fantasies to warm the
cockles of my heart and I know Suresh felt their intention. I could see it in his dark, chocolate,
infinite eyes.
To Be Continued…
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