The Airport Disaster...

Chapter 1: The News

The agent informed my dad of the news of our flight from Shanghai to Toronto. Though I didn't understand the words of the discussion in Chinese, I could tell that he wasn't happy about it. When they finished their discussion, I asked my dad, "What was that about?" wondering what could have made him this upset. Usually, small things would pass, since he is good at controlling his anger, unlike the other three quarters of the family.
"Our flight," he began, "is going to be delayed by four hours, from a a typhoon in Hong Kong. That's where our airplane is coming from. So instead of going at 5:30 p.m., we leave at 9:30."I was just about to protest, but he clearly wasn't finished." Then, after we take our long flight on the airplane, and arrive in Toronto at 11:00 p.m. which will not take two hours because of the time difference of 12 hours, we would have missed our connecting flight to Newark by two hours. And the next flight to Newark, is at 6:30 a.m. so, they promised us a hotel to sleep at until our next flight comes, which by the way, is not booked yet. And if it were, then it would be a very small, bumpy, and noisy airplane."
But for those of you who do know me, you all know that I don't take small things that could anger me the slightest bit very well. So imagine that, except in a huger situation like this one. I didn't see myself, but i think that i blew up; exploded, hiding in the bathroom to scream as softly, but as high pitched as I could. 

After i calmed down, I asked, "Why didn't you book the 6:30 a.m. flight?" I knew he probably asked, since he follows the rule 'when life gives you lemons, take it, and ask, "what else have you got for me?"' so what made the lady not book it for him?

"She said," he replied, "that I would have to book it when we go to Toronto, and since we have to wait until then, we may not get a seat on the airplane." 

So, I had to wait a long time before I went onto the airplane. The only good part was that the airport had internet connection, and because of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, they renovated the airport so that there were flat screen televisions on top of some of the seats so people could watch the closing ceremony, and I got to email a few people, including my mom, who was probably already in the U.S. while I was stuck here in the airport, waiting for my flight, and the rest of my doom.

100 Degrees: An environmentalist story

“And it used to snow every winter, Emma, every winter. Back then.”
“I don't believe you. I've never seen this 'snow' you keep talking about,” she said, weaving the quotation marks into her voice. “My teachers haven't even seen it. And some of them are your age.”
Mom chuckled. “I can imagine.” She sighed, and ruffled my hair. “The only reason I've ever seen snow is because when I was your age, my parents took me to a mountain top. That was the only place that snow still existed, back then.” She looked into space, as if she could see the scene, but far away. “But when Gramom was just about your age, it snowed every single winter. It was much colder then.”
I pouted, and slumped over on the couch. It seemed so exciting to have little flakes of ice swirling around you, all white and soft, and then that big blanket of millions of those flakes on the ground...just like in those old, old movies, where Christmas and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa were covered with that icy white blanket. I think there was one -- what was it called? -- Home Alone, that was it! Christmas with snow. Even a cold Christmas was impossible to imagine. A Christmas that wasn't just like springtime...
I wished I could see this “snow”. But mom said that there was none left at all anymore, not even on the mountain tops. She said that it disappeared completely about ten years after they went to the mountains.
“But how? If it was as wonderful and glorious and...especially...as irreplaceable as everyone said it was, then wouldn't anyone try to keep the world cool?”
She sighed again. “I think they did. But the people with the power, like the presidents and people in the government, well, most of them...just didn't care enough.”
Stupid. I thought. Stupid, stupid, stupid . Who would be stupid enough to think that we wouldn't care? That we wouldn't make a fuss about, well, I don't know, one of the world's greatest phenomena disappearing into thin air?
“Huh,” I said. It was all I could say. Nothing seemed to make sense about that snow. Mom put so much detail into her description of snow that I could start to believe it, but I still didn't like the idea that the people who were ruling our world -- our presidents, prime ministers, and, well, everyone else that really had a say in anything -- didn't care about something as huge as the disappearing of snow. Didn't they have enjoyment, too? Didn't they also love the snow? Or were they really just all business?
The next day at school, I came in, and having been elected as class president the day before, wrote on the board 9/8/2208. Why couldn't I just write '08? I thought. It's not like anyone thinks it's 2008.
* * *
WHO KNOWS? This could be the actual, real-life, honest-to-goodness scenario of a girl some 200 years from now. Do we want it to be? You decide. Your decision can make a difference if you try.