{"id":401769,"date":"2025-09-06T04:46:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T04:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/401769\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T04:46:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T04:46:13","slug":"different-flames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/401769\/","title":{"rendered":"Different flames"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cFire day! Fire day!\u201d Roger chanted, the other kids joining in. Elo shrank in her seat. She\u2019d already dreaded today\u2019s assignment, and Roger had to make everything worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop that!\u201d their teacher, Mrs Hernandez, snapped as she entered the room.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s finally the end of the unit on 2036!\u201d Roger bounced in excitement. His father was captain of the orbital, and Roger declared on a regular basis that he\u2019d be captain some day, too. His family had held command since the orbital\u2019s launch. \u201cAnd it is \u2018Fire Day\u2019. It says so on the overlay. We know what happens. Golden Oak burns down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The class had spent months studying what happened on Earth almost a century ago by closely examining one California town through videos, pictures, diaries and news stories. Elo could recite the names and life stories of dozens of residents by heart. She knew and loved their pets, too. Even though she logically understood everyone in town was long-dead, she felt like she was losing dear friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we know the town burns down,\u201d Mrs Hernandez said with the patience Elo admired, \u201cbut that\u2019s not something to celebrate. You\u2019ve studied climate change through its effects on this one place so that you can understand what individuals endured \u2014 what your own families endured, wherever they lived back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs Hernandez was trying so hard to get through to the class, but weeks ago, the others had quietly declared the study to be \u201cstupid and boring\u201d. That history was boring. That Earth was boring and filthy, a place for people too poor to escape to orbitals. A few days ago Roger had commented, \u201cWe might as well be studying the contents of a trash can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Read more science fiction from Nature Futures<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Elo knew Earth had problems, big ones. Sometimes the typhoons, wildfires and war damage were even visible from their classroom window. Her parents said, way too often, that they were fortunate to live where they did. Elo loved her home orbital. She\u2019d never known anything else.<\/p>\n

But Earth was where humanity originated. That mattered. It had to. Just as Golden Oak mattered.<\/p>\n

A soft tone signalled the lesson\u2019s start. Images and voices from 100 years ago filtered through Elo\u2019s neural implant and filled her vision.<\/p>\n

The fire was started by lightning in the canyon outside the town. Footage depicted the smoke and chaos, the speed of the wind and flames. Hunched over, 80-year-old Annadee Williams escaped her trailer with her cat clutched against her chest with both arms. Siblings Maria, Raymond and Aaron had just got home from school when they had to flee their canyon home on bicycles that soon rolled on rims, after the burning grass caused the rubber tyres to melt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re OK,\u201d Maria told her mother when they were reunited later in an evacuation centre. They\u2019d lost everything, but they still had each other. Their smiles were wobbly but sincere.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, begin with the first question.\u201d Mrs Hernandez\u2019s voice, though soft, felt like an intrusive scream. \u201cWhy was Golden Oak abandoned after the fire?\u201d<\/p>\n

That answer was stated plainly in the conclusion: if people had rebuilt, they wouldn\u2019t have been able to get home insurance, meaning that if the town burned again or some other bad thing happened, people would lose everything without any compensation. Elo transcribed her answer with concentrated thought, tears in her eyes, and went on to the next one, and the next. Other kids began to leave, finished. She kept going.<\/p>\n

As she mentally submitted her exam, she became aware that she was the last one seated. Mrs Hernandez stood over her. \u201cAre you OK, Elo?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot really. No,\u201d she said softly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s OK to not be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elo shook her head, unable to articulate her feelings. \u201cGolden Oak died. People died! I get so mad at the others, how they don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t force people to care.\u201d Her smile was sad. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s even more important that you do, as lonely as it can be at times. Compassion is power, especially if you back that with action.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cFire day! Fire day!\u201d Roger chanted, the other kids joining in. Elo shrank in her seat. She\u2019d already…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4021,2766,3965,3966,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-401769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-culture","10":"tag-humanities-and-social-sciences","11":"tag-multidisciplinary","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115155539811782542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}