Global Warning by Steven B. Frank

Author:Steven B. Frank
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

15

How to Get to Norway Without Flying

Mr. Kalman wants to take us all to REI for winter clothes, but Catalina says, “Swap, don’t shop.” She tweets a change of season announcement for the next Swap Stop—this one at North Hollywood Park, since school is out: Summer is here, Winter is gone, Time to pass your warm clothes along.

As we arrive, the tables fill up, and we have our pick of parkas, hats, gloves, and boots. Cat calculates the savings to us—more than $3,500. And to all the families who swapped today—$12,500.

Alistair holds up a red and white Rossignol ski jacket. “Cool,” he says. “It’s French.”

Back at home, I stuff my brand-used puffy down jacket—okay, my brand-used pink puffy down jacket—into a duffel, roll the wool socks and not exactly long underwear I found, and tuck in the face mask and gloves.

There’s an expression my mom likes to use: Don’t put the cart before the horse, which means, basically, don’t get ahead of yourself. Plan before you act. Or, in this case, before you pack. The planning part comes when you ask your mom for permission to go.

You’re supposed to do that before you stuff a duffel.

“Sam, why are you packing winter clothes? It’s August. The height of summer.”

“In some parts of the world, yeah. But in others, like Argentina, it’s winter.”

“You’re going to Argentina?”

“Nope. Someplace way to the north. Norway.”

“No way.”

“Norway. With an r.”

“No. Way. With an n-o.”

I try to convince her. I tell her it’s part of our plan to get the amendment passed. We’ll occupy the Doomsday Vault and hold the seeds hostage. We won’t leave until the state legislatures sign.

Mom is dubious. She doesn’t see how a seed vault north of the Arctic Circle could matter to a bunch of states six thousand miles away.

“Those seeds are the most valuable things on Earth. They’re like a backup hard drive for all the files we’ll need to survive if the world’s crops fail.”

“Aren’t there soldiers guarding that place?”

“A few.”

“Armed?”

“Everybody in Svalbard is armed. Polar bears outnumber humans there.”

“Polar bears? Like I said, no way.”

Here’s where I manipulate my mom. She’s dead set against me going, but I know what she needs to hear in order to change her mind.

“You come too.”

She looks at me.

“It can get really cold in Svalbard. I might need you.”

I don’t really need my mom to come, but if it gets her to say yes . . .

“Honey, I can’t leave town. I’m too busy with work.”

Then she thinks.

“Mr. Kalman is going?”

“And Betty. So that’s two people over eighteen. Way over.”

“Maybe Sadie could go with you too.”

“She can’t, Mom. She’s leaving soon to do outreach with the homeless in Providence.”

Mom thinks.

“How will I know you’re okay?”

“Because you’ll hear about it. The whole world will.”

“And . . .”

“And I’ll text every day.”

She looks at me.

“I mean call. I’ll call every day. If there’s a signal.”

If you go on Google Maps and enter the starting point as the NoHo Senior Arts Colony and the destination as

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