I will. I’m going to make you two proud.
Then the tape spins rewind and time is flat.
Play.
I push myself off the couch and walk slowly back into the kitchen. The garbage needs taking
out. It’s good that the bags are black plastic, opaque and reflective to careless eyes. I don’t have to
face the cast-aside dregs of my present life.
I take the bag to the front door and pause by the shoe rack. It has three levels, each for a
member of my family. Leather shoes on top accompanied by a set of walking boots, all well
polished and maintained despite no longer being used. A collection of flats and heels on the
second, each pair tucked carefully away in a padded shoebox. The third is empty. I threw my
shoes out long ago. All I need are the slippers I wear.
The door looms before me, and from behind it I can hear the snowstorm’s howled whispers to
give up. It would be so easy. I could leave the garbage for another day. But I have a delivery to
pick up today, food that I had ordered online. If I don’t get it I will have nothing to eat. I have to
go outside.
Garbage in one hand and door handle in another, I take a deep breath. I fling the door open.
It takes only a second to throw out the garbage and take in the delivery. I slam the door shut
and crumple to the floor.
Gradually, my breathing stabilises and I look down around myself. There are letters scattered
beside me from a time when I still checked the mail. I pick one pick at random and hold it to the light.
Gobi Central City University Newsletter: Celebrating the achievements of our brightest alumni…
Solitary tears well up and fall, blotting out the words to follow.
Professor, the latest readings have just arrived.
Put them into the database. How does the trend look?
Just the same. It’s as you hypothesized at the beginning of this investigation. The regional
climate is changing as the years go by.
The Gobi Desert is getting colder.
More than just cold. Before long, average temperatures won’t ever rise above 0. The data’s
changing too fast for any solid predictions to be made, but we can expect summer snowstorms
before long. It’s possible that, in a few years’ time, the entire desert could be frozen over.
His eyes are worried. They mirror mine. I had expected a lot from the latest readings, hoping
against all reason that they would be anomalous and prove the current trends wrong. I couldn’t
stand the thought of the world of my youth changing from how I remembered it.
What about the list of recommended actions we made for the government? We sent them to
South Gobi University for checking before. Have they replied yet?
They won’t do. Most of them are completely unviable, and the ones which can be done will
have little impact by themselves.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. What could a small team of scientists numbering not even a dozen do
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