The Heart Of It All

It seemed a good idea at the time- to determine how long we actually had -and when all the greatest scientists, politicians, lawyers and religions from all over the planet came to a unanimous decision to do something about the end of the world for the first time in any planets death, it did spark a primal hope that was easy to get behind.

So we hooked the planet up to monitors, wires, gauges and machines; reached down into the very core of our little water rock, and found that it wasn't that hot after all. It was more a light, a rapidly dimming light, and as for all planets, stars and life, the pressure of space and eternity became too heavy and dark for the mass of particles, elements and energy that kept it burning for 10 billion years. We discovered we were to implode within 20 days as it were. Our societies science was precise, and we were a people evolved to the many trials and tribulations of a dying planet. This news seemed merciful after our great efforts to care for our home.

We have studied cultures that assumed the death of their planet too early. Unfortunate solutions were enacted in the past. Though their sciences are now the foundations for our truths, we had to adapt. Confront ugly truths. Realize that some problems lacked solutions. Emotional intelligence allowed us to develop worldwide religions, and connections to life on our planet that surpassed any other known peoples. We felt, though hard, that this was right, and it was time. I am a scientist: biologist, and environmentalist. My life was spent in love and service for this world. I write on the eve of the end.

We have lived beneath the surface for 500 years. Technology allowed us to work, garden and be recreational on the surface until the last 100 of those years. The surface is very hot and completely dry. I saw "natural" water for the first time when I was 24. Tunnels to the waterfalls were highly guarded. There were only 6, and they were the water source for the whole planet. I happened to live in a city next to the largest. My father, and my father's father learned the ways of the waterfalls. On the morning of my twenty fourth birthday, my father woke me early. 508 feet tall, 93 feet wide, the Faides Waterfall was a combined effort of nature and humanity in its prime. Tonight her cavernous, crater filled beds are empty and dry, and have been for 3 years. It has all happened so fast.

The sun entered our atmosphere 4 weeks ago. Though it seemed literally impossible to keep the heat at bay for as long as we did, we did well for a short time. Our UV shields failed 3 hours ago. Our homes are deep within the mantle, but it will only be a matter of moments now before the walls begin to melt. I write on borrowed time, in case somehow, someone finds this box they can record our love for life and this planet as our history.

That morning of my birthday, I was woken up early for the moment my father told me I could "see god". Every keeper of the waterfall would enter its cave on the morning of their twenty fourth birthday entirely alone. Legend said if you could survive the deafening hum of the waterfall without earmuffs, god itself would speak to you the wisdom of the world. This would be the only time I would ever be allowed alone with the waterfall, and my one chance to speak to this god, in personage, for myself.

Standing at the iron doors, I felt prepared. Before a buzzer interrupted, I muttered a tiny prayer. I'd been waiting my whole life for this. The barricade clanged open and I saw a tiny bridge in front of a massive mist that plunged into a black hole. Ear muffs protected me with silence. It was hot and humid through my wet suit. Sunlight came through a glass hole in the roof, which doubled as a magnifying steamer, and power from water and steam from the fall were harnessed for energy and other endless things. A rainbow danced in the drops of water raining from the sun. The barricade closed behind me.

My hands worked on their own as they pulled the muffs from my ears. A deafening roar filled my mind and echoed out of my toes. The muffs fell to the ground and I resisted the urge to grab my face with my legs. I stared into the rainbow and felt the steam attempt to evaporate my soul. No sooner than the muffs had hit the ground, a deep strong hum began to grow louder and louder from within the black hole. The rainbows began to shake, and my feet drew me to the bridge.

From the rainbow fell a sparkle that my eye followed towards an imminent dive into the center of the world. Right before the sparkle touched the blackness, as I reached the center of the bridge, my mind caught up with my body. On the edge of the waterfall, and floating directly in front of my face, was a heart-shaped locket. The hum became a ring that burrowed in again through my ears, this time to find my heart, and all I could see was the sparkle of the locket.

Through the ring came a voice:

"You can only take what fits in it, and when you lose it it's over."

I fell to the ground, and the barricade behind me flew back open. I grasped the locket to my breast as my father came to my side. Holding my hands, he lifted me back to my feet. Silence once again comforted my mind as he placed the muffs back on my ears. We walked back through the barricade and the iron doors boomed again closed behind us.

I leave that locket with this letter. This box is made of the strongest of our planets elements. It is not big because elements strong enough were scarce. If you are reading this, know this is what we as an entire people decided to leave behind as our legacy. Every worker of the waterfalls, who chose to hear the hum, had a locket, and we have played a hearty role in the keeping of our climate. The hum always turned the same phrase, and there's only a handful of such lockets. Students of all sorts of science and life live similar legends, but it was unanimous amongst us all that one of these lockets, my locket, would best represent what this life could potentially be about.

Contents of Locket:

3 lavender seeds, a slice of a garlic clove, and a snippet of leather snap.

Good luck.