A Child’s Dream

He sits by a window, staring out at a shimmering pond under the hot blazing sun while holding a single photograph in his old wrinkled hand. Wrapped in silence, his deep heavy sigh is indicates he is lost in thought. Distracted, or maybe haunted, by his past. His eyes keep shifting from the pond outside to the photograph. Suddenly, he is interrupted by a familiar, sweet and loving voice.

“Grandpa!” The voice emits from behind him. He turns to see his prepubescent granddaughter Amelia running towards him. “What’cha doin’?” Her innocence prevents her from sensing his troubling expressions on his face.

Still, he manages to smile softly as he turns to her, “well, little one, I am looking out the window at this pond.”

“Really, why?” Amelia inquires almost automatically. She comes to a standing stop right next to her grandfather, looking out the window deep with curiosity.

The grandfather slowly puts his arm around her and raises his arm to guide her over the landscape that is still foreign to her. “You see that area right there?”

Amelia follows the direction he is pointing.

“Well, there used to be a dock there and I jump off it into the water. It was especially cool on days as hot as this,” he shared.

Amelia giggled while trying to imagine her grandfather jumping off the dock.

“I don’t mean me now,” laughed Grandpa, “I mean, when I was 9, like you. We would come to this cabin all the time, me and my family. Your great great grandparents. It was a tradition. Twice a year. Summer and winter.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of times,” Amelia commented. “So, why are you sitting here just looking at the pond?”

Grandpa grimaced at the question. He wasn’t sure how far he should go with his story. “Well, times have changed. And when times change so do things.”

“What do you mean?”

Grandpa sighed. “Well, let see. For starters, the dock is no longer there. So that means, you won’t be able to enjoy jumping off it like I once did. Also, you see the beach?” He pointed to the nearest beach from the cabin. Amelia nodded. “Well, that beach wasn’t here last time I came. The woods would go all the way up to the water. I used to sit under a tree and catch fish from the pond. It was wonderful.”

Amelia shifted uncomfortably. “Well, where did the beach come from?”

Grandpa sat straight up after hearing her question. “To be honest, I have my thoughts, but no one know for sure.”

“Really, what’s your thoughts then?”

“I think the water receded or something and now it doesn’t reach the trees like it used to. You have heard of climate change, right?”

Amelia nodded.

“It could be possible that with the climate changing the way it is, the water evaporated and now there is not as much water in the pond as there was before.” He shared.

“If there is not that much water, then what about the fish in the water?” Amelia was always a lover of animals. “Don’t fish need water to live? If the water is evaporating, then wouldn’t all the fish just end up dying?”

Grandpa smiled lovingly at Amelia. He could tell the news of the pond was starting to depress her, but still he continued to entertain her questions. “Yes, that would be so. If all the water evaporates, then the fish would be forced to die because there is no water left for them to live. That is one of the problems with climate change.”

The news struck Amelia in the heart, as she lowered her head. “Ok, but do you think all the water will evaporate? I mean, it’s still a pretty big pond. So, it should last a long time right?” She continued.

Grandpa lowered his gaze at his granddaughter. She was always very inquisitive, like most 9 year olds. “See, the problem with climate change is the temperature continues to get warmer and warmer. That is not good for the planet. The planet needs time to cool over and replenish all the water that evaporated from the hot sun. With climate change, more and more places begin to lose snow during the winter time and ponds, like this one, evaporate.”

“Snow? What is that?” Amelia interrupted. During her generation, there were very few places where snow fell. News of recent snowfalls were almost non-existent.

“Yeah, we don’t have that here, do we? When the temperature drops low enough outside, instead of rain, we would get snow. Snow is cold, like the ice shavings inside your freezer. If you collect enough of it, you could make a snowball and throw it at someone.”

“Did you ever play with snow?”Amelia smiled at the thought of throwing something at her siblings, who were occupied with their mother.

Grandpa laughed, “yes, all the time. In fact, we used to come to this cabin and make snowballs and snowmen outside.”

Amelia began jumping with joy at the thought of creating this snowman her grandfather mentioned. “Grandpa, can we make a snowman when the snow falls?”

Grandpa’s smile faded immediately. It was the question he didn’t want her to ask, yet he knew it was inevitable. “I’m so sorry, little one, but we can never make a snowman here ever again.”

Amelia’s joy evaporated from her body. She slumped down. After a few confusing seconds, she finally asked. “Why?”

“Well, remember what I was telling you about climate change?” Amelia nodded, still confused. “It seems that snow will no longer fall in this area. It just doesn’t get cold enough for it to fall. In fact, because it doesn’t get cold, the water in the pond will continue to evaporate to a point when there will be no more pond,” he stated, looking at her, waiting for her reaction to the dark news.

Amelia noticed the photograph her Grandpa was looking at. “Is that why you are looking at that photo? What is it?”

Grandpa, picking the photo back up, shared it with Amelia. “This, my dear, is what the pond looked like when it was frozen.”

The photo was a perfect picture of a white winter wonderland. Snow had warmly blanketed the trees, keeping it’s inside occupants safe from the outside wind chill under a cloudless blue sky. It seemed as if the trees, which looked healthier in the photo, were directly touching the ice from the completely frozen pond. There, on the icy surface, was a small group of people waving towards the camera. The group included four adults and two children, a young boy and a teenage girl.

Amelia was flabbergasted by the beauty the photograph capture. It was as if she had found the door to Narnia on a two dimension polaroid. The ghost of Christmas past there in the palm of her hands.

“So, you mean, we will never see something like this here ever again?”

“Yeah, I’m afraid so. See, before you were born, like when I was your age, it seems that we, humans on the planet, had reached a point where climate change was irreversible. Now, we have to live with those consequences. We have to pay the price for the generations before us who chose not to take care of the planet. We have to just keep trying to prevent ourselves, humans, from becoming extinct. Scientists continue to work long and hard to find solutions, but I’m sorry, I really don’t know if we are going to make it.”

Amelia hugged her Grandpa affectionately. As if embraced by the winds of confidence, she whispered softly into Grandpa’s ear, “I think we might make it.”

Grandpa, returning the hug, whispered back, “why do you think that?”

Amelia’s strong world-saving smile beaming radiantly from her face, sternly replied, “because when I grow up, I am going to become a scientist and help find a way to save our planet! That’s why!”

Grandpa smiled back. “You do just that, Amelia,” he said hopefully. “You do just that.”