EcoQueen: The Superhero with the Power to Reverse Climate Change by Joanna Measer Kanow

Author:Joanna Measer Kanow [Measer Kanow, Joanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sea of Trees Publishing
Published: 2021-04-21T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Day Zero

Cape Town, South Africa

EcoQueen fell out of an older-generation PC computer on the desk in a room that was sparsely furnished and hot. A window was open, with no screen, and the white curtain blew inward. The walls were painted white and cracked in places, the floor was concrete, and there was a single bed. She picked herself off the bedroom floor.

Even though she was a superhero now, she still had not perfected a smooth exit when she came flying through another computer screen somewhere foreign to her. But since this was only her third mission, she didn’t waste any time feeling bad about it. She dusted herself off and got stable on her legs. She took the superhero stance with arms on hips and her chest puffed up. That helped her confidence.

EcoQueen glanced back at the monitor.

Río typed to her: “Water Crisis, Cape Town, Day Zero looms. The city will soon run out of water. You are on it.”

Feeling a dip in her confidence, EcoQueen exhaled loudly.

“Seriously? What am I supposed to do about that? I can’t invent water. I really don’t think I can fix this one, Río.” This was a different kind of emergency. There would be no quick fix. This was a long, drawn-out problem, and even though she and Río had talked through the situation, she worried that she couldn’t help Cape Town. She hoped that inspiration would strike.

A woman in a different part of the house called out, “Nelson, it’s your turn to take a bath!”

A boy’s voice from down the hallway responded, “That’s OK, Mom, I jumped in the ocean today. I rinsed off, I feel clean.”

“OK, then call your brother. I don’t think he’s bathed in over a week now. He can use this morning’s dishwater for his bath. I put it in the tub before I went to work.”

EcoQueen peeked out into the rest of the house. Down the hallway, she caught a quick glimpse of a middle-aged woman putting down a bag of groceries and a few big water bottles while simultaneously kicking off her uncomfortable high heels from work, transitioning to mommying just like that.

Never did Nelson’s mom, Amahle, think in her whole life growing up in Cape Town that she would be living like this, anxiously studying the containers of the finite amount of water that was available for her family. Their only water for the week sat on the breakfast room table in seven one-gallon plastic jugs. Scarcity had set in for real.

EcoQueen saw the boy, Nelson, who looked like he was in his early teens, getting a towel ready for his brother in the bathroom. He called out, “Tonio! Bath time!”

Tonio, who looked to be about five years old, marched from the kitchen toward the bathroom, where Nelson awaited. Tonio stepped out of his red soccer shorts and dirty tank top to let them drop lifeless in a pile next to the bathtub before he hustled into it. The bath seemed oversize compared to his small body.

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