Technology
Episode 54: In the Forest of Mechanical Trees by Steve Rasnic Tem
In a climate-ravaged future, Abe and Vera run a unique nature park filled with mechanical sculptures that serve a dual purpose: to educate visitors about extinct species and to actively remove carbon ...
Episode 54: In the Forest of Mechanical Trees by Steve Rasnic Tem
Technology •
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Interactive Transcript
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Welcome to Asimov's Spotlight.
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Here now, another story selected from the pages of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine.
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On the grounds of a derelict oil refinery, southeast of Phoenix, Abe and Vera operate
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a nature park that reflects a world ravaged by climate change, where tourists don't
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heat-resistant suits to walk among junk metal statues of dinosaurs, superheroes, and recently
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extinct animals such as polar bears and rhinos. While the couple take great care in educating
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visitors, their real work lies in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, using some
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of their park's unique structures. This is, in the forest of mechanical trees, red and
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written by Steve Raznick-Tem.
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Abe worked mornings making repairs to the park's mechanical trees and sculptures. After
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the Jurassic on Rewind, the perfect climate for dinosaurs, but the dinosaurs died out
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65 million years ago. When they put up a new sculpture, usually every few months, they
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worked at night under spotlights. Vera didn't like the energy expenditure, but for safety
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concerns they had no choice. She did all her design work inside in their underground
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house, coming out only to see the other pieces were being assembled correctly. Another
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heatstroke might kill her. They endeavored to keep the park running year-round, even during
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the heat of summer, 40 miles southeast of Phoenix on grounds originally devoted to an oil refinery.
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Tourists still came, even though it often meant wearing heat-resistant suits, but their
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numbers had dwindled considerably. Vera didn't know this, the books weren't her job and
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Abe did his best to keep them from her. He didn't want her to worry, and as long as they
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could stay open, what did it matter? They still had a few major donors, and the visitors
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who did come usually left a donation above the paid admission.
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Appropriately enough, people's favorites were usually the dinosaurs, the T-Rex, the Stegosaurus,
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the Triceratops, Brachiosaurus, whose long neck had been a nightmare to support, and the
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various rapturous stations around the compound like guard dogs. This morning Abe was working
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on the Stegosaurus, a large piece which used parts from a carnival bumper car for the head,
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strips cut from an oil barrel for the ribs, and some square middle hatch doors turned on edge,
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along the spine for the creature's trademark scoots. Wire mesh and a variety of gears suggested
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joints in hide. Vera loved gears of all sizes, and incorporated them wherever she could into her
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jump metal scoots. The Stegosaurus was less cartoony looking than most of her other work,
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although the scoots were painted a garish red with purple meaning. These timid to weather badly
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in the dust-lead and winds, necessitating frequent welds, and repainting. The T-Rex
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loomed hungerly nearby, the figure of a frightened man, and a safari helmet dangling from its
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razor-sharp teeth, the blades from the sorted hedge clippers. Because the theories about
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dinosaurs and feathers were always shifting, Vera had them repaint some of their dinosaurs
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multiple times. Their T-Rex going from scales to feathers, then back to scales again, when
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she read that the adults probably didn't need them. But the painted feathers remained on
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other theropods, the velociraptors, the staffs' dinosaurs, and the Danonicus, whose arm wings and
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tail sported a gorgeous display, eventually cut sheet metal plumage. Abe's personal favorite was
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Drunk Godzilla, who began life as the shell of a Volkswagen, which they cut apart and reconfigured
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according to Vera's detailed design, using two wheelbarrows for a head and jaws. Fiery extinguishers
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is part of the arms and feet, various shovel blades and metal panels from an old coal furnace
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welded together made the hide. His posture was sloppy, and his footing appeared questionable,
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his eyes were painted delightfully bloodshot. They received regular deliveries of
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metal from Phoenix and Tucson, as well as defunct bits scrapped from the ore refinery itself,
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recycling them into the most bizarre managerie imaginable. Right by the front gate,
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they had a giant lobster built from stovepipes of various sizes coated in fire engine red.
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Surrounding this monster were assorted super heroes constructed from buckets,
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random cylinders, and watering cans. Further inside the park,
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Turistan countered a crash flying saucer made from the shells of two large satellite dishes,
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its alien inhabitants spun out of co-drangers and industrial-sized fruit cans.
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Park visitors could expect to be entertained by oil-drumned spacemen, shiny silver sharks
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with radiator smiles, taco trucks made from rusted metal roofing, and copper pipes,
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and miscellaneous plumbing joined the vicious-looking stick insects.
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One whole section was devoted to denizens of the oceans, whales and optopi and dolphins,
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and seahorses and mermaids with scales fashioned out of overlapping canlids.
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Many of the creatures bore graffiti with ponds, statistical information, and climate change facts.
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The blue and North Atlantic right whales were now extinct, so Vera had fashioned funeral
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reefs out of wire which mimicked seabed, the sea otter, and a couple of varieties of
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dolphin had also recently been verified as officially gone. Vera would be creating memorial
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exhibits for these as well, but so far, had in the heart. Other metal constructions
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memorialized animals got extinct during the past decade, such as polar bears, tigers, and rhinos.
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There were kiosks where visitors could watch videos concerning other endangered species
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and make donations to charities devoted to preserving them.
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But as fascinating and entertaining as Vera's creations might be, they were simply the window
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dressing, the lure meant to draw people into the park in support of its core mission,
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which was the passive removal of carbon from the air to help restore Earth's climate
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to what it had been prior to the anthropocene. The sculptures required time and effort,
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been able to make primary responsibility for maintaining the many artificial trees,
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populating this forest, designed to take CO2 from the atmosphere a thousand times more efficiently
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than any natural tree, absorbing up to 32 tons of carbon dioxide in a single year and sequestering
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it for other purposes, such as the manufacture of synthetic fuels. Although they called them trees,
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these mechanical devices were cylindrical towers, 10 meters tall, whose circular papery plastic leaves
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resembled a stack of records soaking up the carbon dioxide from the air before the
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sending to release the carbon into the housing below. Abe preferred not having them synchronized,
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he enjoyed the visual ballet of towers rising and falling randomly all over the complex.
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Most days he broadcast music over the loudspeakers as a compliment.
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Abe was leaning out of the cherry picker, finishing his weld on one of the stegosaurus scoots
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when he saw it very running outside, her enormous straw hat flopping around,
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and she tried to secure it against the rising wind. She stopped directly under him,
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preening up with her oversized glasses. Her boob northeast, she shouted, here in minutes.
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Abe turned his head in that direction. Her boob were what they called the severe dust storms,
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which came regularly to the pale Arizona wasteland, more intense and more frequent than ever thanks to
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the drying up of the Colorado River, leaving an expanded Chihuahua desert and un-cultivated
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barren good for only a few desert shrubs and grasses. He could see it miles away,
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a curtain of dust and grit thousands of feet high, scraping a path hundreds of miles wide,
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as it roared their way. The particles from these storms were fine enough to scour your lungs
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and pass into the bloodstream. Get back inside and lower the towers. At least they didn't have
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any tourist to worry about. Four volunteers were working inside the house. A fifth, their mechanic
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Ralph Martinez was somewhere nearby, but Abe wasn't sure where. Vera hit the horn.
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Vera raised her thumb as she ran to the entrance of the underground house, a non-descript door
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in the base of the giant lobster. She slapped a panel going in and the speaker is erupted
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with an unilaterally howl. Abe lowered the picker platform, climbed out, ran over to the door
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and waited. Nearby, the metal roof for the underground houses exposed, courtyard was rolling into place.
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The courtyard allowed light and air into the rooms arranged around its perimeter, much like the floor
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plan of an ancient Roman villa. He kept waiting for Ralph hoping he wouldn't have to go searching for him.
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All around him, the towering mechanical trees were dropping down into their housings,
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protecting their delicate leaves. The wall of dust looked much closer now,
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billowing, and recolored clouds, climbing steadily higher, as if the soil itself were on fire.
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Small bits of debris began striking him on the legs and chest. He could already taste
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a grittiness in his mouth. Ralph came huffing and puffing around the side of the T-rect,
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the monster's helmeted victim, now wildly animated by the rising wind, dancing crazily in its jaws.
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Abe could smell the approaching damp, at least they might get some moisture out of this.
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He ushered Ralph inside and secured the door. The emergency lighting came on and they descended
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the stairs, very greeted him at the bottom, sunglasses off, and her straw had dangling from her clutch
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fist. The warning came a half hour ago, she said breathlessly. But I was so focused, on my damn
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designs, I didn't notice. Her face was pale except for the heat rashes on her face and arms.
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She was prone to dermatitis and acne which trailed from her forehead into her thinning gray air.
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They tried various ointments but nothing helped much. He pulled her into his arms. It doesn't matter.
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We're all safe and you got the out of the trees and you got the trees tucked away. It'll be days
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before we can reopen. He couldn't tell her they'd lose the little businesses of result.
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So he kissed her hair and murmured, can't be helped.
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Ralph joined the others in the kitchen. As 60 he was the youngest in the crew and the most
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ragged looking, a free spirit. Abe could hear the mall laughing in there at something he'd said.
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Everybody else was in their 70s and James, a tour guide, was 82. All of them long standing
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members of the Grandparents' Climate Brigade with a special debt to pay, there to undo the
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fume states of their own in previous generations. Abe wasn't ready to laugh just yet. He envera hadn't
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seen their grandchildren in years but they understood that the climate crisis was dimming their
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grandkids' future day by day. He could hear the storm howling outside, doubtless scratching the
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daylights out of the courtyard roof, drowning out the alarm that was still blaring. He reached over
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and switched it off while still holding on to Vera to clean up with take days, most likely weeks.
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The walls of this limbing room recovered with memorabilia from past climate-regate actions.
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A spread of photographs showed the younger versions of Abe and Vera on a boat off the African
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coast helping a more experienced crew, free as slurry of our undust into the ocean as part of an
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ocean iron fertilization project bypassed in the U.S. Congress and most foreign governments.
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By passing the U.S. Congress and most foreign governments.
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It was like the process nature successfully used many times to remove CO2 before the ice age.
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No international law regulated OIF but some governments tried to stop them anyway. A careful
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monitoring of the process showed increasingly promising results with few negatives.
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Another photographic display chronicled a project in the Philippines to restore productivity
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to seaweed farms. That was where Abe first met Ralph who worked on the necessary wave and
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silver-powered deep water pumps. Vera was too sick to come. That period was during the first of her
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heat related illnesses. Open ocean kelp farms now existed in previous oceanic deserts around the
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world sequestering carbon and nourishing fish, recycling nutrients that kelp harvested and used as
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biofuel. In those pictures Abe and Ralph look like brothers, now Abe looked more like his friend's
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father. Eventually Abe and Vera joined the others for soup. Ralph insisted on serving them.
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It's going to be a hell of a cleanup. Good thing you fixed all the leaf blower, Abe said.
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Ralph gave him a mock salute. It's the worst storm yet, don't you think? We're going to lose a lot
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of paint. The paint jobs have always been secondary as long as the sculptures hold up. Vera said
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Sips and they will. Good welds. She looked at Abe the best.
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James pointed at the map of Arizona on the wall beside the refrigerator. Phoenix must have been
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hit hard. Have you heard anything? We don't hear much about Phoenix anymore. Abe replied.
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All the concrete and mass-throught and Phoenix had turned it into an unlivable island of
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broiley heat. There are a few rich folks left in their compounds, the ones who can afford private
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air conditioning and have their own water supply, and those poor folks who can't go or won't leave
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the places they've lived all their lives. Most of the Arizona news programs are rebroadcasts
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out of New York. The rich ones will be gone too, Ralph said, once they can't find any Latinos to
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cook and clean for them. James looked at Sharon, their newest volunteer. Are you sorry you
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ever left California? She left up from her soup smiling broadly. The part of California's central
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valley I grew up in is now partly under water. They call it the new inland sea. And the wildfires
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come earlier every year and last longer. I don't know if it is a safe place. Do you? I have grandchildren too.
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I joined the GCB for them. To elevate humanity through our endeavors, Ralph said, and poured her more soup.
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This male of the Arizona desert the day after a hubbub his past is difficult to describe.
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Dust rain lightning and hail passed through in a relatively short time. The air held a memory of
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the first inhale was earthy and yet somewhat sweet from all the creus of bushes which had been
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disturbed. Ave found a scaring of yellow flowers trailing through the park where the bushes had been
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torn apart. The next morning the sky was the hazy shade of brown. All the walkways recovered in
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the soft layer of fine dust. Dirt cake discultures. They didn't have much water to spare.
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So their tools would primarily be air and brushes. Sweeping the side blocks was relatively easy
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and the leaf blower removed most of the dirt but the only way to clean the more detailed metal
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surfaces was through bristle brushes firmly applied. But being careful to remove
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is little paint as possible. It was all hands on except for vera. Even though she was an
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eager volunteer no one resented her for remaining inside. Scott another volunteer wondered if they
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should leave the sculptures as is dirt and all. They looked more natural this way throughout in
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the desert after all. It made some sense and it would certainly be a convenient solution but although
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Vera didn't say anything Abe saw the look on her face and vetoed the idea. He rarely used his
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authority as project lead but this was one of the rare times he was glad to he had it.
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As always the mechanical trees were a priority the more delicate workings were safely underground
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before the storm hit but the caps on the towers the concrete bases and the housings had to be
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cleaned thoroughly to make sure too much contamination didn't get into the system. The park included
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hundreds of these towers scattered throughout the grounds, singly ending groves. It required a
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week of long days heat permitting to clean them all. A large number of more realistic looking synthetic
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trees formed an attractive border around the compound. These were modeled after the umbrella-shaped
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dragons-blood tree with trunk sculpted from recycled resins. The upright branches studied with
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silver sails and an array of air filters which caught the CO2 and pumped it via water circuits
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down the trunk and to an underground hawk-aligned hydroxide solution. Excess silver power kept these
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trees lit up every evening to create and embody ambience for nighttime visitors. Nighttime tours
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were once a popular choice for those wishing to avoid the daytime heat but rising evening
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temperatures had made the option less desirable. Cleaning the dust from these structures would be a
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lengthy job so for the time being the light they provided would be reddish from the dirt
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caking the recessed lenses. Sharon said it made the park look like a settlement on Mars.
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One afternoon, months after the dust storm, Ralph came to Abe in the underground house.
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Looks like we have visitors. Tourists? It's been weeks. I always began to think we would never see
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not exactly tourists. Come up and introduce yourself. They were from Phoenix, the Hernandez family.
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Their aging station wagon broke down on their way east just outside the gates. Pure circumstance.
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They had no idea the park existed. They looked to be in bad shape. Both Ralph and Abe were wearing
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thermal suits and they still felt uncomfortable. They ushered the mom and dad in three little girls
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downstairs. Where Vera and Sharon made them a comfortable place to rest and checked them over
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injuries. After a couple of hours, they felt well enough to eat something.
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Everybody's leaving you can and is willing. Mr. Hernandez said, slowly sipping water.
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My parents wouldn't go even after Mama blistered her feet on the sidewall,
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burned right through her bedroom slippers. Obstinata, stubborn. But we couldn't wait. We have
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these little ones to think about. I'll take a look at your vehicle tonight, Ralph said. I've got parts,
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but it might take a few days, having to work after dark. But you'll be comfortable here. Safe.
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Stay as long as you need. A-panded the children some illustrated climate books for kids
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and brochures about the park. You failed awkward. It had been a while since he'd been around small
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children. The Hernandez's had family in Kentucky and were determined to get there. The repairs on
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the station wagon took four nights, including additional shielding, insulation, and upgraded
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equipment to manage the heat. The children became increasingly restless in the tight quarters
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with not much to entertain them. The park lost its television and the internet signals after
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the storm and they still hadn't been restored. They had a digital library, full of old movies,
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but not much suitable for young children. On the last day of their stay, James volunteered to
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show the family around the park. We have several sizes of thermal suits. We can ring them to fit
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the little ones. Bearing spent time plattering them with lotion for added protection. No more than 45
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minutes, Abe said. It's still too hot out there. On a day like today we wouldn't normally open.
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We're going to give you these suits to take with you on your trip, just in case you need them.
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Still uneasy about their safety, he decided to go along as well.
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Lined up on the staircase to seven in their shiny suits, look like space travelers boarding
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a rocket ship. Abe held the door open the last to leave. The short tour would focus on the dinosaurs
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because they all agreed everyone loves dinosaurs. Abe held the heatproof camera,
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taking shot after shot they could take with them on their travels. The little ones especially
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like playing beneath the t-rets waving their space-suited arms around as if terrified. They laid
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down in front of Dr. Pazila's feet as if they were dead. James broke the rules and allowed the little
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girls to hold hands with the small Martian figures. All of them, companionable, alien explorers
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worried over their badly damaged saucer. Okay, everybody smile Abe shouted. You are now the
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lucky inheritors of a brand new world. Of course, you couldn't tell if they were smiling inside
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their shiny metal suits. When he developed the film, the glaring reflections made them all look
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as if they were on fire.
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Thanks for listening to Asimov's Spotlight, a feature of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine.
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