Luna: Episode 13

Time to leave

In the late afternoon daylight Luna opened their door and stood there for a moment. Absorbing the stunning brutal heat. The searing warmth flooded into their home. Cassius shouted, “Shut the hatch, Lu!”

Luna soaked in the heat. “Why? It’s only 123° out. Some days I can’t believe this is my home. Is there nowhere else on this forsaken planet where I don’t have to spend half my life running from the sun like a cockroach?”

From the kitchen her dad yelled, “Shut the hatch, Lu! Seal it, please. We’re losing stasis.”

Luna could only hear her thoughts as she became immersed in the hostile hothouse world just outside her door. She marveled as her hands quickly turned pink. She felt the burn.

“Shut the goddam hatch, Lu! Now.”

She felt a tug on her shoulder that yanked her off balance and back inside. Cass sealed the hatch components. “What were you thinking?”

“You don’t want to know.” MindPad news reports filled the awkward silence in the Mackenzie home. “Thousands of mature mesquites uprooted in Tucson by multiple micro-burst tornadoes. Triple digit Wet-bulb temps predicted for the weekend ahead. Stay indoors. This notice brought to you by Tucson Water, the most delicious water in the world. For rainwater aged in aquifers there is no better choice than Tucson Water. Ask for it by name.”

Luna spent the night at home drawing in her diary, a blank journal her aunt Maya had found while scavenging and had given to her years ago along with books about women of note from the last century. Bound blank journals made of real pulp paper were the rarest of ancient artifacts from another century.

Entry 09152124 Dear Diary

Another day like yesterday and all the days before it. The Buddhists say change is constant. Why does everything change constantly except for my life?

What is beyond those dead blue mountains outside my window. Snow? Leaves? Rivers?

She picked up her favorite No.2 HB colored pencils. In her paper diary she drew a detailed landscape across two pages of a river of glacial blue water flowing down from a range of blue forested mountains capped with white.

There is no room for me here. I have so many friends in MindWorld who live all over the world. I want to go to Iceland and meet Bjorn and visit Ireland to see Chelsea in person.

Cassius told me Antarctica called out to him in his dreams before he left. For all time here are his words: A great ice-cold desert at the bottom of the world is the front line in the war on global warming and I want to be there.

I understand his yearning then. Why does no one appreciate my heart’s desire?

Dad’s knocking at my door. I must leave you for another day my dearest diary.

“Luna? Can we talk?”

 “Uh huh.” She looked up from her diary. She gently closed her beautifully crafted book and set it aside. She appreciated what a rare thing it was in this modern day hot world.

Luna had become famous among her small circle of MindWorld friends for her likenesses of her teachers. Drawings that she rendered with ancient primitive tools called pencils given to her by Maya; strange artifacts which she used to lay down lines of graphite on the paper pages of her precious diary.

She could render an accurate likeness of anything with patience. Nearly photographic but with an elegant feminine calligraphic line. She enjoyed copying the flowing lettering on neon signs. Luna became a master of freehand calligraphy as well as portraiture. She possessed a rare, mesmerizing talent in a digital world where her digital machines were the creators and humans the mere prompt writers.

“What’s on your mind, dad?”

“I miss you. These nights you’re always in school, at work, or on your MindPad. Since your mother…”

He noticed as she looked at him, how beautiful her dark eyes were. She had grown to be a young adult woman. As beautiful as her mother. “You look like her. Raven hair. Beautiful O’Odham eyes.”

“You’ve grown into such a smart and wise…” He let his words trail off. Her intelligence did not surprise her father. She lived socially isolated within the city that had shunned her yet Luna was celebrated by her MindWorld friends and her teachers for her “renaissance” mind. 

Mac found his train of thought and cleared his throat. “We hardly say two words to each other these nights. You are so driven by her studies. Since your mother died, I’m afraid everything points to you seeking a path out of here.”

“I’m twenty, dad.”

“I know. I’m just processing.”

“I’m thinking of taking my year of national service now and serving as a firefighter. Grandpa told me he was thinking of traveling with me to the training camp. Somewhere in Montana. “

Mac had suspected. “I’d heard you were thinking of doing something like this. I’m the last to know in this family. For what it’s worth I think you’re out of your mind. The country up there is still unsettled. Migrants and travelers of any kind are no longer welcome. The Northlands are burdened with millions of refugees. There’s a backlash. I’d be less worried about you if you went to the Antarctic like Cassius. firefighting is very dangerous work. I thought you hated the heat.”

Rin’s aggression light glowed, and he assumed a defensive position between them.

Luna stood close to Mac and held his hand. “It’s my choice. I've spent my entire life here, looking at the world through glass. Living in darkness. Sleeping during daylight. Looking at the world through my bedroom window. I’ve been staring out the big circular window on the hatch to our home at the mountains since I was a kid wondering what’s beyond them. If I’m not inside a shell of some kind I’m driving to another shell in my Jetson looking out through tempered treated glass at the world outside, the world here that can kill us.”

Mac sputtered, “Your family likes it here. There’s a place for you here. We have happy meaningful lives here. And-”

“What?”

He pleaded. “Luna! We’re safer here than most places on this fucked up planet.”

“What is it you always say? No one can escape the heat. Listen. No matter where I go. I'll be careful, I'll be safe, and I'll come back home in one piece. I promise, dad.”

She squeezed his hand. ”Some days I ache to go outside so bad I don't care if I burn to death. Don't you ever just want to live where you can go for a walk in the sunlight? Don't you ever just want to lay out in the sun? Don't you ever dream of splashing around in a water in a creek bed? Instead, we live out our lives like specimens in jars, rodents in interconnected habitats that insulate us from the real world. That’s fucked up.”

 “So you’re looking to resettle?”

“That’s not it. I don’t know.”

“You’re just like your mother. Stubborn. Fierce like a damned tornado. Firefighting up north is dangerous work. Don’t you remember Mars’ stories about folks from down south not being welcome there?”

“Come on, dad, you know those are exceptions. I’ll have Rin with me. “

“And grandpa?”

Carlos was just walking down the hall. “I heard that. And you won’t have to take care of me. I’ll just be tagging along for one reason.”

Luna laughed. “Because you love me?”

“Hell, no. To see the great woolly mammoth herds on the northern Plains.” Her ally in this effort slapped Mac on the back. “Let her go, Mac.”

Mac persisted in painting an apocalyptic north. “I hope you’ve been following the news. There’s been heavy seismic activity in the cascades. Remember the tsunamis that decimated Portland, Seattle and Vancouver? If the northern coast is hit again with quakes and volcanic activity the refugees will head to where you two geniuses are going.”

Rin barked a digital bark.

“Three geniuses.”

“Dad, no place is safe. This place right here isn’t safe. Your paradise will just get hotter before it gets cooler. Besides, you’re being a sexist. You never gave Cassius this kind of heat when he went to the bottom of the world.”

Mac sighed again and looked over his shoulder back at the luminous memorial hologram of her mother, Calypso. It was cycling through Calypso’s life and there she was, a young woman, setting out “to repair the world”.  Mac looked at Carlos who was standing next to his daughter with his arm around her. “You two win. I’m proud of you, Luna. I love you so. I’ll always be here for you.”

Carlos grinned. “If you’re not in Paris at some—”

“Knock it off. Get some rest. You have a trek to plan.”

Online forms were filled out, days passed, orders were received, and bags were packed. Along with her essentials Luna packed her crystal vial filled with her share of her mother’s ashes, a saguaro seedling wrapped in “vintage refugee cloth”, her favorite fan, her pencils and her diary.

With the sunset Carlos appeared in the hallway with his gear. “Are you two ready to go?” Rin wagged his tail as Luna said, “Been ready!”

The three walked out under the stars to load up the Jetson while the family slept. Luna looked up, smiled at the north star and then spent a moment memorizing the stars, Tucson’s stars. She wondered if she would ever see them again.

Maya and Sol were the first to arrive to say their goodbyes. “Have a wonderful time, take care of your grandfather and be safe. In a year I want to see you back here in one piece, with 1000 stories. You are the most amazing 20-year-old woman I know. My sister, Calypso would be so very proud of you “

Luna thanked Cassius for helping her plot their trip. Cassius recommended stowing the Jetson’s drone props and going with the “dune buggy” motif to save battery energy. “If you need me, little sister…”

Carlos hugged everyone, said an ancient prayer to himself, plopped into the backseat, buckled his seat belt and patted Rin in the front seat as if it was a real dog. “Who programmed it to pant when it’s patted?”

Rin spoke. “Cassius. He’s a genius. In addition, he programmed me to speak.”

Carlos pulled his hand back in shock and then laughed at Cassius’ programming skills. “Stars and Moons! The damned thing talks now! Come on kid, get in. Let’s get this show on the road. World to see. Fires to fight. Planet to save.”

“I know. I know. And woolly mammoths to see.”

Luna professed her love for everyone there.  Mars. Cassius. Maya. Sol and her dad. “I will miss you all. I’ll text often.” And as they rolled off into the darkness, windows down, hands waving, Maya turned to Cass and said, “They’ll be fine. With Rin guarding them and grandpa along for the ride what can go wrong?”