Taking hold of a glass of beer with both hands, I observed the bubbles of beer like stars in the sky. I had always felt indebted to the person who brewed it for the first time, although I didn't know who he was! Drinking beer made me fat, yet it was the only way to drown my sorrows for a while. My problem is I'm ceaselessly a bundle of nerves. I'm always obsessed with doing something new. The monotony of life frustrates me. Whenever I'm in the middle of something, the thought of the job I'm planning to do next springs to my mind. And, worst of all, never have I brought any tasks to an end. I would get through the task as long as it generated excitement, but when the end of the task was right under my nose, I would start doing something else.
I have always been after a job whose end is unclear for everyone. I even dropped out of college two years into studying sociology. I felt it was waste of time! I had a guilty conscience about the time spent studying. Since then, I have had three employers over the last year. I didn't find anything that could satisfy me. I was staring at the barman inadvertently. He was mixing a paste. With a grin on his face and a satisfactory look, one might have thought he had been waiting for that moment for years! I couldn't stand still and mix too much stuff even for a while!
My glass was half empty. I liked to keep dawdling with the glass. The further the glass being emptied out, the more slowly I sipped at the beer, as if I was a thirsty man who feared for his bottle of water coming to an end. Sometimes I felt like drinking several glasses of beer without anxiety, but it was bad for my health. Finally, I finished it up after a while. I didn't smoke, but I had a craving for a cigarette that night. I pulled a cigarette out of a packet Thomas had left on the counter and lit it with a lighter next to it, blowing a long puff at it. That large volume of smoke made me cough. My friends burst into laughter, and Madison said, "O brother, be careful not to be suffocated by smoke." I answered with a faint grin and raised my hand to tell them I was OK.
I usually joined my friends at the café for drinking and chatting, then everybody went home. We often talked about business and methods of generating further income. Sometimes we held a discussion about parties or the buddies bragged about their antics.
I'd broken up with my girlfriend a month or so before. From then on, I didn't enter into the discussions.
Sara was a good, cute girl. We were classmates at the university. She used to care about me, and she expected me to do likewise and cater for her, but I was always impatient, as she claimed, which would have been irritating her by the time she suggested that we should break up. Beloved as she was, I accepted her suggestion, as I couldn't become the one she wanted.
The buddies were planning to find a girlfriend who was as bad-tempered as me and they were roaring with laughter. I preferred not to talk too much. I pretended that I wasn't listening to them. Leaning back in my chair, I was fantasizing and enjoying the puff on my cigarette.
A small television screwed onto the ceiling with a strange stand was on. The café was so noisy we could barely hear the sound of the TV. Nobody took it seriously until Thomas pointed at its screen. The guys stopped talking and they turned their heads to watch the TV. They had turned the volume down, but the footage and subtitle indicated that a "firestorm" had swept through the tropical regions.
As far as I can remember, the tropics had become a place of exile for its scorching heat. Criminals and those who committed a terrible wrong would be sent to the so-called hell, being left out there to die of heat and starvation as a lesson for other would-be wrongdoers; save for the wrongdoers, the hell was devoid of life and all people and animals had migrated to heaven, or the polar regions of Venus. From then on, whenever a storm hit the tropics, the weather in the pole turned inhospitable a day later, and all inhabitants must forcedly stay at home.
Elijas said: "Oh God, we are doomed to get locked in from tomorrow." "I have a lot of things to do this week."
Silence descended over the crowd. It was obvious that everybody was down in the dumps. Not because of a forced holiday. Every occasion something like that happened an alarm would be provoked among us, because storm went hand in hand with the extermination of animals, plants, and even humans.
Gazing at the television with an open mouth, I felt my finger was burning. My cigarette burned to the butt and I failed to pay attention. Gritting my teeth, I extinguished my cigarette in the ashtray. I shouted, "I wish we could rein in this calamity."
Buddies started to talk again. We decided to gather at the house of a friend in order not to get bored. We arranged for everyone to bring foodstuff as much as they need so that we wouldn't have a shortage of food in case the situation took a long time to improve. After a few minutes, we began to exchange idea over the days to come. However, I kept thinking "What help can I offer?"
I always believed that if I repeated a sentence again and again in my mind, I would learn it by heart, and unconsciously the mind would be engaged with it, so, without too much effort, you would find a solution to that issue. Therefore, I tried to focus on the hot temperature of Venus to have my mind find a solution to it.
I bid farewell to my friends. I went home on foot. As soon as I entered the room, I got onto the bed. My mind was in a turmoil. Lying on the bed, I turned the tablet on and searched the reason why Venus was getting hot.
I learned that the main reasons were car emissions, factory pollution, and greenhouse phenomenon from the past until then. There was a theory about the increasing mass of the Sun which had led to a rise in the temperature of Venus.
I was thinking that, "as far as I remembered, all cars have run on electricity and all factories polluting the air have been shut down across Venus for years." "Apparently the air used to be so polluted, but its effect has just risen to surface."
I was wondering why human being failed to come up with a solution to hinder air pollution. "Human being has always sought to gain momentary interests and has failed to think about the problems made for the generations to come."
What a pity neither I nor anybody else could do anything about that. Governments had controlled air pollution for years, yet the rise in temperature on Venus was spiraling out of control. Perhaps we all should be resigned to fate.
What a dreadful fate we were facing. I imagined the last years when Venus would be unbearably hot. What a dreadful death! I drifted into sleep with this in mind.
I woke up at 6 when my mobile ringtone went off. I didn't feel well when I opened my eyes. The whole night I dreamed about getting mired in the middle of an inhospitable desert, seeking someone to help me, and I was not able to find anyone.
I put on my clothes, took a sour apple from the fridge, and walked towards my office as I nibbled at it. I was haunted by the dream of the night before.
I didn't feel like working, but we should get half-finished tasks done, because the whole town would be placed under curfew from the following day. Thomas sent me a message, calling on me to take whatever I need for a few days off and go to his place, where all friends were about to gather.
I replied, "OK." I continued working with the time hanging heavy on my hands. After work, I went shopping.
First signs of an impending storm appeared. A hot wind was blowing. I ran all the way home. I just put my clothes and toothbrush into my bag, rushing to the Thomas' house.
Elias, Emily, Thomas, and Sophie were already there, but Stephen and Madison were yet to come.
Thomas came forward and took the foodstuff from me. Before he went to the kitchen, he turned around his head and said, "Leave your stuff at the corner, Adam."
His house was 70 m2 by area. It was larger than any others' house. If we were to gather together, we went either to the Café or Thomas' house.
One hour elapsed. The sky was turning red. A siren signaled the start of the curfew. At the same time, the doorbell rang. There came Stephen and Madison. The poor guys' hair and clothes were untidy and full of sand. Sophie went to help them and she took their stuff.
Stephen said, "We were in such a hurry that we left the packet of food at home, so we have to return home again.
I was standing at the window gazing out of the window. Sophie said, "Adam!" "Could you pull the curtain?" "I hate this weather."
I did so, then I sat on a chair next to Sophie. I held her hands and said, "Don't worry, this storm is as fierce as the previous ones, blowing itself out soon, then all of us will go home." She confirmed with a bitter smile.
I turned to Elias, saying, "What's going on today?"
Elijas replied, "The store was very busy, but I wasn't kept waiting." He added, "When I was a child, people got perplexed before days-long curfews. Some of them bought in excess of their needs. Now they've got used to it. They follow logic while shopping."
I said, "Yes, it seems that the further people hit by crises, the more kindly they treat one another and the more self-devoted they become."
Madison said: "It is good that we were born in a time people show mercy towards one another. When I read in the history books that people used to fight each other and a lot of people would be killed, it sends shudders down my spine. How can the life of people be so worthless? What value lay in the war for which they would ready to die! Is there anything more valuable than life?"
I replied, "If there is an abundant of something, it will lose its value over time!"
Madison said, "Damn it. What does this mean?"
I replied, "Since the time one-child policy has been revoked, and just a small number of people can give birth to a child, under thousands of conditions, the population growth has fallen into decline and people worry about their life and are kind towards each other. I don't even see a street fighting let alone war."
I added, "In the distant past, couples used to have a dozen children. If some of them were killed in the war, nobody would care. There were a lot of people living out there. But, if someone dies these days, not only families mourn their loss, the governments sustain a dramatic loss too; since a large budget should be allocated in order for a person to be born and grow."
Madison said, "I have no idea!" He added, "But I feel sorrow if only one person dies, not only now that 10 million people live on Venus, but also if I lived in the past when 10 billion people lived on the planet."
Sophie put down a tray on which some cups of coffee were placed, asking, "Madison, what about your childbearing issue?"
Madison replied, "It's been three years since we applied for a license to bear a child, but it's been frightful! I'm worried about getting old and failing to receive a license. I'm very envious of people living in the past, who used to bear a child whenever they wanted, and it was none of any body's business. It has been fifteen years since the "one-child policy" has come into force, and all of us have been forcefully impotent. Now if a couple desire to bear a child, they must apply for a license. If they can get it after going through a relentless process, they are allowed to have one child! I know many people who have given up in the middle of this hard process."
Thomas said, "Dear Madison! Not all people are like you. Some people used to bear a child without thinking about the reason why they should have done so, and a few years after the childbirth, they would become regretful. Meanwhile, we should be grateful for this law; otherwise, the population of Venus would be 10 billion instead of 10 million. We wouldn't have any place to live and any food to eat and any air to breathe! They made their mind and prevented the population growth."
Stephen said, "Now lay it to rest. I'm starving. I want to eat dinner. Anybody joins me?"
They all agreed to do so, and we started to prepare dinner.
I took things easy. I had bought some easy-to-made sandwiches and fruit juices with different tastes to eat them for each meal. I believed cooking is a waste of time, although I was gluttonous.
Everyone ate dinner and got to do their works. When we worked, we felt that time passed faster than usual. We didn't feel like talking. The guys did not turn their eyes away from their tablets; otherwise, their eyes might meet and then they would get engaged in conversation.
I wished I had stayed at home because those who were around me seemed to give me negative energy. Especially Sophie. She was filled with anxiety. Neither could you come close to her, nor could you have her talking.
I got up earlier than the rest of my friends. I went directly to the window. The condition had been worse. The traffic light had been pulled out, and the area was defiled by rubbish. The street asphalt was covered by sand and the defining line between the pavement and street had been disappeared.
If someone got to see the scene for the first time, he taught all the people in the city had been died, but surely many people like me were standing at the window waiting for the storm to abate so that they could go out as usual.
I played a piece of light music, gradually turning the volume up to wake others up. Whoever awakened looked for the sound source. Spotting me out there, they smiled at me and closed their eyes. Thomas said, "What's going on, Adam?" "Have the storm blown over?"
I replied, "It will blow over soon. Don't you want to wake up?"
Emily said, "I wish we slept and awakened, then we found the storm had been over." She asked me to check the news and tell them when the limbo would come to an end.
I switched the tablet on, saying, "I will see it." The title reading "Breaking News" made me shout inadvertently. "What a nuisance", I said unintentionally.
Everyone jumped out of the sleeping bags, heading towards me to see what was going on.
It read, "At least 540 were killed and 960 were injured and counting! In the wake of the fierce winds sweeping the South Pole yesterday, two buildings have their air control systems damaged, so the scorching heat could make its way into their inner space, and all their facilities stopped working. Therefore, occupants are under a dire condition. Despite the efforts made by relief workers, bad weather has slowed down the operation."
We all were speechless. Sophie and Madison hugged one another and burst into tears. Thomas, down in the mouth, stood at the window in wordless contemplation.
Emily said, "I don't know how the hell these buildings are constructed. Why should they be destroyed by a storm, killing many poor guys? Who should be held responsible for the death of so many people? If this building had shared the same fate, we all would have been killed. By a happy chance, we survived, but it remains to be seen what fate lies in store for us!"
Sophie kept weeping buckets, and all figured out they'd better stop the discussion.
What a mire we have drawn into, said Eias sadly. In the distant past, people got to migrate to a place where the climate was better than their place of residence. We were born at a time when there is nowhere to escape to.
Thomas said calmly, "There is a place to escape to. Noah Aerospace Company has sent a huge spacecraft to Earth. They have taken a variety of animals and plants to conduct a test on them. But they didn't dare to send a human out there. Except for Professor Noah and some astronauts, nobody stayed there. I check their website every day, but there is not a sign of hope that someone could survive on Earth. When a large meteorite struck Earth, the Ice Age began on the planet many years ago; otherwise, Earth is the best planet for the human to live! All scientists consider Earth the brother of Venus. If the Earth temperature went up year after year like Venus, the Ice Age would come to an end. But what can we do? Seemingly its temperature falls year after year."
Madison said, "It means that there is no hope, is it?" Thomas replied, "There is some hope, because a large volume of carbon dioxide has recently discovered in a region of Earth. There is a theory stating that if carbon dioxide is somehow released, the temperature stops declining and begins to rise. But no method has been invented yet to do so. It is possible just in theory. It is so costly that they can't give it a try until they are certain that it works."
Suddenly something flashed across my mind. Although I'd heard a lot about Noah Company, it had never aroused my interest. I felt that my attitude had changed in a flash. I wanted to know anything about Earth and life on Earth. I felt that I was running out of time. I began to search different sites for information and I couldn't hear the voice of others.
I remembered that Madison gave me a sour apple. One time or so Emily tapped on my shoulder. "Are you OK Adam," she asked.
The darkness fell, and I hadn't left my chair even for a while.
Thomas came to me and said, "It has been announced that the storm will come to an end by night. From night till morning, government forces will clean the streets, and the curfew will be removed at 7.
Except for the time I should go to the restroom, I never turned my eyes from the tablet. I didn't realize when my friends fall asleep, and I couldn't remember when I nodded off.
I opened my eyes hard. It was 10 in the morning. I found myself on a sofa with a blanket on my body. Thomas had left a note reading, "I didn't manage to wake you up, we are going to work."