Summer's Return (conclusion to Cascade)
Summer’s Return
Synopsis: After the ROF is
thawed, Suresh and his team begin using it on a global scale, and it actually functions !
‘Look inside yourself and
see that change starts with you, it starts with me, it starts with all of us.’—Judy
Hopps, Zootopia
Chapter 1—That’s What Green Looks Like
It hadn’t taken Suresh
long to get the ROF singing like a choir boy before the permafrost began to
melt. First the permafrost and then the
snow all around the greenhouse.
Underneath, nothing had been disturbed.
All the foliage after the winter apocalypse we had forgotten foliage is surprisingly
resilient. Many of the species we
thought had gone extinct were still thriving and surviving under the snow. We found it amusing that many of us had
forgotten how magnificent green really was or the color itself. Or so we had perceived. It’s like the kaleidoscope in the fall. Those hues are always there. It’s simply the chlorophyll leaving the
leaves to retreat into the tree to prepare it for winter. It seemed, like the plants around us, we
would have to acclimate to everything that had happened. It was going to take many years to adjust to
warmer weather, but hopefully the remnant had learned its lesson about using
more natural forms of energy rather than those that would pollute our
Earth. We all knew this was a rare
chance to start again and we couldn’t take it for granted. We wouldn’t screw up this time.
Chapter 2—Brave New World
People had become more
agrarian and lifestyles and technology was more attuned with nature and the
natural rhythms and cycles all around us.
Fruits and vegetables that we had never known in Wisconsin were growing
in abundance around us. Lani had tended
to a robust mango tree, avocado and lemon in our backyard. She was so happy that she wouldn’t have to
mulch them by herself, thanks to the fact that her little brother Clark had
recently come into the world. Suresh
and I gently explained to her that Clark was just a baby and he’d have to grow
up big and strong before he could help her.
Lani didn’t find it fair, however, she relished being his big
sister. She loved playing with him,
especially fine motor skill games like catch, hide-n’-seek and peak-a-boo. He’s already babbling quite a bit. He can understand Suresh’s Hindi and my
multilingual background. I think we
might have a bit of a prodigy on our hands.
Lani doesn’t mind, she’s just as smart as Clark is and equally matched.
Some things have
changed. People have become more
spiritual, coupling the mind and faith as it was during the Enlightenment eons
ago. There were still traditions that
made people comfortable, but they are as much a part of our identity as music
is our international language.
Our communities, though
diverse, coexist quite well in spite of their differences. You can find influences of different
cultures everywhere. It’s really quite a
beautiful world we live in now.
Chapter 3—The More You Know
Lani gets bigger every
day and Clark isn’t far behind her.
Traditional schooling is no longer a set pattern but a hands-on
environment where students can gain skills that will last them their entire
lives. They are counselled in areas that
interest them, courses that will give them the most impact amongst others and
with themselves. It’s hard to find
someone in a position nowadays where you hear complaints. After all, money is a thing of the
past. Assets were literally frozen after
all during the aftermath of the killer blizzard. With summer having returned, we have a new
way of conducting business deals. It’s
called bartering. No, it’s not exactly
a new system but something that evolved out of necessity. We’re still social beings by nature and we
know we have to work hand in hand to survive even though things have begun growing
again. We look past the trivial and
temporary, knowing that someday we’ll move beyond this orb to realms
unknown. CERN is still working on the
project to devise light speed. If it’s
anything like Suresh’s ROF, it’ll take many years before it is perfected. Suresh and I may never see it or try it, but
our children are. What is that adage
? Oh, yes. Children are a living message of the
future. They’re sent to a place we will
never see. Do I have misgivings or
jealousy over that ? Heavens, no. Suresh and I have seen many wondrous events
take hold and the global consciousness shift.
It only took a massive snowstorm to shake us all up and make us realize
just how dearly we rely on one another and that deep down, we’re all just human
beings at our matrix.
Epilogue
Society has begun to
enlarge and we’re living in bigger, more bustling communities. So called ‘city’ life is more laid back and
less zippy than it was in the 20th and 21st century. We’re now in the 22nd century and
yes, indeed, light speed exists. We
haven’t gotten to our new Goldilocks’ planet as of yet, but we’re very close to
it. Oddly though, we don’t need to
relocate. The environment has readjusted
and we are healthier now than we have ever been.
We are becoming extra-spective as well as introspective. Everything we need and know is here, but the
more we branch out the more we learn.
We still haven’t made contact with other civilizations but who’s to say
they’re not there, or even amongst us ?
I wouldn’t put anything past an infinite mind that created a vast
universe that is far beyond anything that my feeble mind can grasp. What fascinates me most is how I am reliving
the awe of children again through my grandchildren, Morgan, who is Lani’s
daughter, Tyler and Gavin, Clark’s twins.
They’re all quite the handful but they give me more joy than even my research
allows. Suresh is still one of the most
renowned scientists in the greater continental US, but he is the humblest man I
have ever known. He says he owes all his
success to his team, and most especially me.
I often don’t know how to respond to this unnecessary praise, but I do
know that without him, I would be half the woman I am now.
~*~From the digital logs of Jolie Marie Suresh, climatologist,
agrarian, philosopher, mother, lover, friend and believer in the possible.
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