VI.¿Lo Harás? (Will You?)

Afternoon, September 21, 2065. Marco continues to batter the island. Kike is thinking of how long the storm will continue its grasp on Puerto Rico. If Mark’s last predictions are right, this storm will hold for about a day more. Kike begins checking the shelter again to make sure everything is holding against the onslaught of wind and rain. Aside from a bit of water beginning to seep in through some of the windows, everything is good enough to calm down Kike’s worries.

Isa is sitting down on the small couch, reading from one of Kike’s digital readers. She stares at the screen without reading, since her mind keeps going back to last night’s conversation. She knows she frustrated Kike enough to stop asking him questions last night. However, her curiosity keeps hitting her in the back of the head. Why would Kike leave a job as seemingly important as the one he had? Last time she heard, the technology was working. The carbon capture plants were working. Why did he say they failed? Then again, internet service had been cut to the university three years ago. Something might’ve changed that she isn’t aware of. Why else would Kike say it didn’t work? Did it suddenly malfunction? Is there no chance of salvaging a future with the tech? Isa’s curiosity is too strong to just ignore those questions, so she decides to start another conversation. This should go well.

“So, what do you usually do to pass the time when hurricanes hit?” Isa starts asking as Kike sits down in the chair next to the couch. “Noticed you’re missing a TV or something to watch stuff.”

“Don’t need it,” Kike says as he picks his book back up. “This is what I do, read. Sometimes, if by some miracle it's a small storm, I take naps.”

“What do you usually read?” asks Isa. Isa keeps asking herself, did Kike keep up with the latest research and information from his old career? Did he keep up with the work he had left? Did he keep up with the world?

“Mostly old stuff,” says Kike. “Sometimes I go back and read the stuff they made me read in high school to see how it holds up.”

“Does it make you reminisce about the past?” Isa asks. Here we go.

Kike looks at her, already realizing what Isa is trying to do. He feels it's better to just cut off the conversation.

“Nope,” Kike replies.

“Do you ever read anything relating to your past work?” Isa asks knowing it might strike another nerve in Kike’s head.

“I know what you’re doing,” says Kike. “And it’s not going to work.”

“Ok, seriously why won’t you answer a few simple questions?” Isa asks.

“Simple?” Kike replies. “There’s nothing simple about the questions you’re asking.” 

“What’s so complicated about saying whether or not the technology worked?” Isa asks. “Last I saw it seemed the carbon capture plants were up and running. Did you just say they didn’t work last night to shut me up?”

“The technology worked, all right!” shouts Kike. “It’s the people that didn’t work.”

“Wait, what?” asks Isa, wondering what he means by people not working. “What do you mean the people didn’t work?”

As Isa asks that, all Kike can think of is the carbon surrounding him. All the carbon floating in the air and oceans. His whole career, he worked to find the technology that would’ve sucked it up like a vacuum does dirt. However, the dirt just keeps accumulating no matter how long the vacuum runs. The technology was supposed to bring CO2 levels back down to the levels they were at when Kike was a kid. Back when summers were associated with vacations and not a sweltering heat accompanied by monstrous hurricanes. Back when people obsessed more over Game of Thrones than losing their favorite beach to sea-level rise.

“We kept telling people, over and over, we had to reduce emissions while we worked on the technology,” Kike begins explaining. “All they heard was that a solution was coming. They kept pumping the air. They used our technology as an excuse.”

Kike thinks about how, once they found a way to store carbon, the solution seemed to be within their grasp. But people kept pumping the air so much that the technology could only keep CO2 concentrations at their already high levels. They’re still pumping the air with the shit. They keep using wasteful cars and eating unsustainable foods. People sure love burgers, don’t they? Companies continue relying on coal, oil, and natural gas instead of cleaner forms of energy. The carbon capture project went started with the goal of going back to the carbon levels of 2010. Instead, the goal turned into keeping them at the levels of 2060. The levels where it would not change anything. People saw a machine that could take carbon out of the air and thought they never had to worry about this issue as if it hadn’t severely affected people’s lives up to that point. As if it hadn't affected Kike's life. As if Puerto Rico was still the same as it was when Kike was a teenager.

“So, people never gave a shit about controlling themselves?” Isa starts. “Were the plants not able to keep up? Is that why it didn’t work?”

Isa starts understanding the frustration behind Kike’s words. To work so hard on something just for it to not fix the issue it set out to fix. But still, why isn’t there more of an effort to get people to change? Isa keeps asking herself, do they not care about people like her? Does Kike even care about people like her? If Kike cares, he wouldn’t have given up so easily. He would’ve kept going. In her eyes, the people whom Kike mentioned aren’t the only ones at fault. It’s everybody’s fault.

“The plants kept CO2 levels the same,” Kike explains. “But the levels were already so high that it didn’t change anything. The world is still fucked. It was like someone who had gotten into a lot of debt finally came into some money and instead of paying off that debt, they waste their paycheck as soon as it hit.”

“Why didn’t you try to convince people to do better?” Isa asks. “Why not keep improving the technology? Why give up?”

“You don’t think we tried?!” Kike lets out. “You don’t think we thought of trying to convince people to do better? Bettering the tech? What else could I think about?”

“How about thinking about people like me,” Isa asks after thinking about Kike’s outburst for a bit. “How about thinking how we’re going to live?”

Kike looks up at her. He sees a youthful face filled with a different kind of frustration. Not a frustration bred out of failed action like his. A frustration bred out of inaction. She hadn’t done anything to deserve the life she now lives. Back in Kike’s days, kids her age were thinking about school, weekend plans with friends, and whatever the latest social media trend was. Isa would never experience any of these things, and only the rich in the states still experience something like that.

“I, I, I wished we thought more about it,” Kike begins as he faces the floor of his shelter. The storm outside continues battering the walls of the shelter, providing him with a lack of silence. The clouds are so thick that they block most sunlight from penetrating, making it seem like nighttime within the shelter. Kike continues, “We tried making people think that way, to think of how their actions would affect the future generations. Talked to politicians, businesses, the public. All of them. They always felt that we had more time. That it wasn’t urgent. That there were more important things to take care of. Even as world fell apart around them, they still didn’t care.”

Isa sits there listening to Kike open about his life before coming back to Puerto Rico. She wants to feel nothing but anger for people like him, people that gave up, but she can’t. She feels how the stress and frustration had gotten to Kike. She understands why he had to leave. It had clearly eaten at him.

Kike continues looking down at his floor, which was now a bit wet from the stormwater seeping in. When he left his career behind and came back home, he thought he would never have to hear about these things again. He left to get away from it. Suddenly, Isa was bringing it all back. He knows it is unfair for her to live in a world forever changed by the fuckups that came before her. He really felt he tried his best but, as Isa asked the questions, he realized that’s not true.

Suddenly, he feels a pair of hands on his. It was Isa. He sees her looking at him.

“You know, I was mad at first because I just thought you kept listing excuses so you wouldn’t have to feel sorry for yourself,” says Isa.

“Are you trying to make me feel better?” Kike quickly interrupts.

“Give me a minute,” Isa continues. “I can see that what you did took its toll. But, I can see you still care. Yesterday morning when you made sure to look for extra resources so we could both eat comfortably. You went all over town looking for supplies basically for me. You care Kike.”

“I mean, it was the rational thing to do,” says Kike.

“Then think, was it rational to leave and just forget about it?” Isa asks. “Was it rational to forget about people like me? Was it rational to abandon your goal?”

Kike continues staring at Isa not knowing what to say. He looks back at the ground. All of her questions feel like he had stepped outside to face the storm’s winds at their peak.

“No,” Kike finally says. “It wasn’t rational.”

“Then, what are you going to do?” asks Isa.

“I need to go back,” says Kike. “I need to keep trying.”

“And you’re not going to stop this time, right?” Isa asks.

“No. I won’t stop,” says Kike.

“And you’re going to convince people that we can still solve this somehow, right?” Isa asks.

“Yes,” Kike says. “Did I finally answer all your questions?” Kike laughs.

“I just have one more,” Isa says as Kike rolls his eyes. “How do we get to the States after this storm’s over?” Isa asks.

“We?” Kike asks.

“You think I was going to stay behind with Alejandro or Mariana and take care of your oysters?” Isa replies. “This is my best chance to ‘see the world’. Might as well take it, right?”

“You’re serious?” Kike keeps asking.

“Yep,” Isa reaffirms. “I read about it all these years. I want to go see it in person. Learn from it. Help the cause. Now, you with me?” Isa asks as she held out her fist.

Kike stares in disbelief of Isa’s idea. But he knows he owes her this chance. “All right, I’m with you Isabela,” Kike says as he gives Isa a fist bump.

“Te dije, llamame Isa,” Isa adds.

Time for a trip!