The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Cold sweat dripped down the curves of my body, seeping into my dried pores. I wiped my hand across my forehead to keep the fluid from entering my eyes. It’s the beginning of spring, the time of year when all the plants begin to die because of the drastic weather changes. The weather man reported it being a record high for today, stating that “it is a whole ten degrees hotter this date, than last year on this date.” That can’t be good. I know I should be used to the heat, but it makes my skin crawl, and my body ache. It doesn’t help that we are learning about what the seasons used to look like in my environments class. Mrs. Harold has been teaching at my school for over 50 years. She always tells us stories about her youth, when it still got cold outside. Its remarkable, the things she tells us. It’s almost unbelievable. Today, we’re learning about the extinct season called “winter,” something I have only heard my grandparents talk about.
“The temperatures would drop below zero, and frozen water droplets would fall from the sky!” She cooed as she reminisced about the frozen wonderland.
The class broke out into a crazed laughter. Frozen water falling from the sky? She had to be insane. She frowned as she walked over to the screen, clicking her pen against it, causing it to turn on. The dim glow from the bored revealed pictures of what she had described. Almost instantaneously the laugher stopped. We sat in awe, scanning the pictures with disbelieving eyes. A pure white sheet of fluff was spread across a broad field, covering the mountain tops and trees in the distance. Mrs. Harold began to recall how the fluff, or snow as she called it, felt. Frigid winds would nip at your nose and turn your fingers red. She told us that children used to play in the snow; creating men and angels out of it. She old us of how you could catch snowflakes on your tongue and feel the iciness melt away. Sorrow crept over her face. She was sad to be teaching us about something that was once so natural, but the reality was that the whole world was melting, just like those little snowflakes.
After school, I began my dreaded walk back home. The blazing sun scorched my exposed skin, as my mouth begged for water. It was 120 degrees today, which, according to Mrs. Harold, didn’t used to be the norm for Alaska. As I strolled through my front door I headed immediately for my kitchen, aching quench my undying thirst. The lukewarm water filled my throat, sending instant relief to my body. After refilling my cup, I walked over to my couch to begin my routine of watching TV. After all, it was too hot to do anything else. Before I could even pick up the remote, my mother burst through the door.
“Turn on the news,” she screamed, “now!”
I fumbled for the remote, pressing the buttons as fast as I could. After flipping through channel after channel, I finally found the one. The anchor was sitting across from a man in a white lab coat.
“We discovered late this afternoon that Earth is hurdling towards the sun at an alarming rate. We are stumped as to why this is happening, but we suspect it had to do with the hole in our O-zone layer,” he stopped, and breathed heavily, “We don’t know how much time we have left. All we know is that it is going to get much hotter.”
Much hotter!? It was already 120 degrees out. Not to mention that we learned in science that human can only withstand 140 degrees! I began to go into a state of panic.
First the plants, now us.
My mother turned to me with tears in her eyes. She was an environmentalist, always trying to save the world. She always recycled, and started protests to stop big factories from sending more chemicals into the air. For years scientists had warned us about the harmful effects of global warming, telling us we had to make a change now, or suffer the consequences later. Even with proof, humans wouldn’t stop their damaging ways of life! About ten years ago it was reported that all “artic” animals had gone extinct. Polar bears, penguins, artic foxes, all gone forever. Even some fruits became rare because it was too hot for too long for them to grow. I turned to my weeping mother realizing my new reality; life as we knew it was coming to an end.
It has been ten days since watching the news report. My world is in total chaos. Food is hard to find because workers have been refusing to go to their jobs, supermarkets have been completely ransacked, and people have been routinely searching for homes to rob. I haven’t eaten for two days, but that doesn’t concern me as much as our water becoming scarce. I haven’t had a sip of water for a whole day, and I can feel myself becoming dehydrated. It’s a scorching 137 degrees today, the highest the temperature has ever reached. Mom has us boarded up in our house, trying to keep us cool, and the heat, among other things, out. With food gone and water running low, I know we will have to leave soon. Besides, it has to be as hot in here as it is out there. Even our porcelain tub is hot to the touch. As if reading my mind, my mother turned to me telling me today we would have to go out and look for food. We took down the boards on our door, cracking it open. It was as if a fire ball hit me in the face.
I guess it really was hotter outside.
The smell of smoke and burning flesh filled my nostrils, causing me to gag. After my eyes adjusted to the overwhelming brightness I could see my old neighborhood, now in apocalyptic ruins. Houses were torn down and abandoned, cars had literally melted in the middle of the street, and bodies of animals and humans were scattered as far as I could see. Their flesh bubbled and burned as they cooked in the sun. My mother grabbed my arm, pulling me out of my horrified trance. We both knew there wouldn’t be any food left in our neighborhood. We would have to walk, for miles maybe, to find a new sanctuary. Suddenly, a bursting noise came from behind us. My mother and I jumped, both terrified at what we saw; a stroke of wild flames was creeping over the hill, headed straight for our neighborhood. I shrieked, pulling my mother’s arm, forcing her to move. She stopped me though, and without any words she looked at me, sorrowfully, but strong. Suddenly, I realized what she was doing, suddenly, I understood.
Humanity is suffering. It has been for years. Yet, we only have ourselves to blame. We polluted our once beautiful earth, setting millions of chemicals into the air. We dug up our grounds for fuel and oil, releasing methane and other greenhouse gases. We treated our home like a dumpster, never caring what happened too it. But now, we will wallow in our consequences, we will accept the Earths mighty rage. This is just. As the destroyers, we deserve to burn in our ruins.
I wrapped my arms around my mother, as she pulled me in close. Together we watched as the flames engulfed everything we once loved. Searing pain swept over my body as the fires heat encased us. I closed my eyes and buried my head into my mother’s side, waiting to ignite along with the rest of the world.
