Ashlyn
I can’t sleep, I never will be able to, not with the fires blazing through the west and the hurricanes whirling through the east and shriveling up the middle. Every time I close my eyes, vivid images of my house, my family and my town being swept away by class five hurricanes, and me not able to do anything to save them. I manage to clear my head from the images, but an even more vivid horrible image but this time it’s a real memory of some of my family being swept away.
But I will save them, I can. I can save the whole of Florida, we need to be prepared, but I can’t exactly save The USA without a helping hand, but I’ll do my best.
Hurricane season is coming, I looked up how bad the hurricanes are going to be this year and it said this is probably going to be the worst hurricane season we’ve ever had.
I’m Ashlyn Moore and my worst fear is of hurricanes. Hey, you look at Florida’s hurricanes and then live on one of Florida’s beaches, and yes, something tragic did help with my fear.
I was four, we were about to visit my great-grandmother when a hurricane came, me and my family were fine, even my tiny Morkie and Yorkies were okay. But my great-grandma, that hurricane swept her away.
Catherine
Normally I never remember my dreams, but the one I had last night, I may never forget. I walked down the road from my school. I turned the corner to get to my house and saw ginormous orange, red, neon yellow, and blue flames bursting up on my house and yard. I took out my phone and called the fire department but they couldn’t find my dogs, my parents, or my siblings. They were gone from the world.
I thankfully woke up with a cold sweat, my heart racing, eyes streaming tears and my dogs cuddled up against me. Climate change. I’ve tried to talk about it just to be ignored by my family-turned down, laughed at or just plain ignored.
My name is Catherine Delmar and I live at 4362 Albany avenue San Diego.
I’ve always wanted bright auburn hair or a fiery red color, I instead was stuck with an actually quite beautiful brown with golden tips every summer, so every time I wrote a book, the main character would have fiery red or orange hair.
Now, that color haunts me.
Ashlyn
It’s bad enough that I have climate change to be afraid of, but I can’t do anything about it or even visit people to tell them about it for that matter, because we’re all locked up inside. Well, I mean, I guess I can warn Florida, because pretty much NO ONE stays in their homes.
Well, a few people do, my family does, and some other people do, but you really just say, in Florida-as a whole- NOBODY stays inside.
My mom makes me stay inside though, so it’s a bit hard to talk and share about our climate.
Catherine
I talked to my mum about the climate today, but she acted like it was no big deal, so that got me wondering, was it a big deal? If it wasn’t then what was Greta Thunberg fighting for? Why was she so panicked and why were there protesters and YouTubers fighting for the earth? Why were there millions of people in the world who thought climate change mattered but billions who didn’t?
Which filled my mind with worries. Was my house safe from the fires? I know that the fires are huge. people can smell the smoke in England which means I can smell it, but on horrible measures.
I have a vacation house in Tahoe, (and yes there is a lot of smoke too) but one of my neighbors, a family I believe there are five of them in the family, are there all the time because their other house burnt down. Or anyway, they had to evacuate their other home.
The kids are years younger than me.
Ashlyn
“Wait, what? Why? HOW?” I have a few thoughts in my head that I may have accidentally said. But don’t blame me, How would you react if you went to sleep in your nice comfy bedroom, then woke up in an RV (recreational vehicle or something like that(it’s a camper van)) I realize that the most logical (okay, ONE of the most logical) situations are that I’ve been Kidnapped! So, I opened the window by my bed, took a deep breath, And screamed at the top of my lungs.
“Oh my goodness, I’m so so, so sorry!” A voice that sounds a lot like my mom says to the people she was talking to outside. The door to the RV bursts open, then slams closed. I close the window. “Ashlyn Hope Moore! What were you thinking shrieking like that!?” She snapped.
“Oops…” I bite my lip “I thought that I’d been kidnapped so…” I pause, letting her fill in the rest.
“Ashliiiiiin” she grumbles.
I remember that we’re headed to California and I’ll be in this RV with her for days. I desperately try to get on her good side and change the subject “how much longer?”
“Oh, only about 55 more hours.” She snickers “don’t worry, you’ve endured 5 hours already.
60 Hours Later… (or maybe 65 million years)
I blinked WOW I thought. Where am I? Somewhere in California?
“Hey mom! Moooom” I wait for her to
look my way
“Yes?”
“You said we’d be FINISHED with the drive in 55 hours 61 hours ago. Do you see the 6 hour problem?” I complain
“Well you can’t-”
“Plus, I googled how long this should take,
It said 45 hours not 60-who-knows-how-much-longer-hours!” I interrupt
She rolls her eyes “about five minutes, and how long do you expect it to take? It’s Florida to California! It’s east coast to west coast!” She exclaims
“Remind me why we couldn’t take an airplane?”
“Remind me why you’re so whiny?”
I sigh, looking out the window counting seconds 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28…
Catherine
I walk down the road to my house to see an RV????
A Girl with a mixture of red-orange-and-auburn hair-the kind I’ve always wanted, green eyes, and a huge amount of freckles from what I can see steps out of the RV. She’s wearing a ‘Made in Florida’ tee-shirt, jean shorts and has some actually really pretty blue ombré glasses from dark to transparent on. The license plate on the RV says Florida too, so she must be here from Florid-
“Hi!” A small voice says.
It snaps me out of my musings “Oh, hi.” I say with my natural confidence. I probably shouldn’t be talking with random girls (even if they’re around my age) from Florida. So I do the easiest thing, just keep walking and turn around the bend to my house, but it looks like she’s moving into one of the houses next to us. Sigh…
>>2:00 am. I can’t sleep. I look at the mirror across from my bed, my eyes are all red and puffy, I might have been crying, but I decide to take a walk through my backyard.
I stroll around the pool, when a puff of smoke appears in front of me. My hands curl into fists and my deep brown eyes flash,
“What do you want!?” I scream, I know, that’s kind of foolish of me to be screaming at a cloud of smoke, but to my surprise the smoke responded to me
“Hello Catherine-”
“How do you know my name?!” I shouted
“I know quite a lot,” The smoke continued “Just like I know you want to stop these fires-”
“Oh, yes, you know all the secrets of the world but you still want to destroy the world” I smile, my dimple appearing “Oh, this is wonderful, please do go on,” I said sarcastically
“I will, and I don’t expect anymore interruptions okay?”
“Or what?”
She (or maybe he?) Sparked a flame. I trembled though I tried not to show it.
Unfortunately, she/he saw my trembling and said in a satisfied voice “Well, like I was saying, Catherine I do not want to hurt or harm you or anyone on this planet-”
“Then why do you?” I blurted out
“It’s not me that does it,” the smoke said in a very soft voice.
“Well then, who is it?” I asked, my voice nowhere near sincere “The gods?”
I smirked.
“JUST LISTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Jeez”
The smoke glared at me (well I think it glared) “Okay, where was I… Oh! I forgot to introduce myself, I’m fumée, I’m an element of fire. But let me get back to what I was saying. Catherine, I can help you with your…” she paused “I guess, ‘fire problem’-”
“No, you can’t.” I said in a clear, steady voice “No one can.”
I spoke with no doubt, no sadness, no joy, just a steady normal robot-with-no-emotions-kind-of-voice. Monotone. Heartless. No Feelings. I could feel the cold despair and guilt and pressure and the need to just give up crawling over me, grabbing me, pulling me, and covering me. I was about to retreat into a nook in my mind, let my subconscious self run and hide from the cold, depressing darkness, when a voice helped me to the surface, out of the dark.
“Now, I have to go soon so listen carefully before feu et détruire grab me. There is one girl who can help you. She is closer than you think, her name is Ash-”
Poof!
She was gone in a puff of smoke and flames, I knew that-what did she call them? Feu et détruire. That sounded familiar, I racked my brain feu…détruire… Oh! French!
But what was it French for?
Oh no… I remember what it means, Feu means Fire, et means and, and détruire means destruct, and her name, fumée means smoke.
I wonder what the obsession with France is…
Was Fumée real or just my imagination?
I woke up in a cold sweat. I sighed with relief when I realized it was just a dream then gasped when I remembered every single bit of last night, from the names-fumée, feu, et détruire to every word fumée said.
Ashlyn
“Time to get uuuup” A voice sang through my sleep. “C’mon Ashlyn.” The voice said. Louder now. The blankets were ripped off of me.
“Uuuuugh” I groaned “Whyyyyyy?”
“Because it’s 7:00,” she responded
“And?”
“Because you’re going to your friend’s house at 8:00.”
“What!???” I exclaimed “someone from FLORIDA came all the way over here and rented a house?” She shook her head “Well then they buy one?” I asked, confused.
“No” she said with a smile
I didn’t like the sound of this “well, then what happened?”
“The girl next door is your age…” she gave me a please-give-her-a-chance-and-be-well-behaved look.
“I already gave her a chance. She completely ignored me.” I argued.
My mom sighed.
20 minutes later I was knocking on the girls door.
“Oh! She’s here already!” A woman’s voice called. “Catherine! Come down here!”
The door opens a woman with black hair, tan skin, a black short sleeve t-shirt and dark blue jeans stands in the doorway. Two adorable puppies run outside and around me.
A fifteen year old girl comes out.
“Hi,” I start introducing myself. “My name is Ash-”
“Wait what’s your name?” She interrupts. She’s wearing jean shorts and a lavender cold shoulder shirt, she’s also holding a notebook and a pen. “Ash what?” She seems actually kind of excited to meet me, some energy perked up inside her from hearing the first half of my name.
“Um, Ashlyn, it’s nice to meet you.” I said, a bit unsure of her new enthusiasm.
“I’m Catherine, do you want to come to my room?” Before I can respond she zips me up to her room and shuts the door.
“So,what do you think about climate change?” She blurted.
“What about it?” I asked
“Like the fires, the droughts, the floods, the hurrican-”
“Don’t mention hurricanes pleeeaaaaaassssssssaeeee” I shrieked covering my head
“Okay, I guess then you do know about climate change.” She paused as if she was almost embarrassed to say what she was going to say next. “Have you… ever heard of communicating through dreams?”
“Well I’ve heard about it in a book, I never really thought it would be possible in real life though.”
“Well, just listen to my plan, or anyway the information I gathered,” She took a deep breath. “This is how it all began, it started with some smoke, A clue about the first half of a name, and a fear:”
Catherine
“And so, when you introduced yourself, my mind automatically came back to that moment, and the moment before when she said ‘she is closer than you think’ so, I assumed she was talking about you.” I looked at her in the eye. “So, any thoughts?”
She looks at me, her eyes wide open and I can see right through them, her eyes being windows to her soul. I see determination and fear in them but inside looking deeper, she has boldness flying through her, but she would have dig deep in her to find it.
She finally spoke. “Wow,” She paused in awe. “So, let me get this straight, you communicated with smoke during a dream and the smoke told you to talk to ME. Okay wow.” She was stunned. She flopped onto my beanbag chair, her eyes wide.
“I know.” I said “it’s like, a lot of pressure.”
“Well it’s not only that, Well it’s kinda that. But why me?” There obviously was a lot that she wasn’t saying, but I decided not to ask.
Ashlyn
Okay, wow. I’m sorry, I am going to be saying that a lot. Wow. How? I don’t think I’ve said a word since that day at her house. (Well actually, I think I’ve said ‘wow’ a bunch.) I think my mom’s seriously worried about me. She’s giving me a look and is asking ‘are you okay hon?’ All the time, and gets this upset look on her face when I just nod yes.
She seems happy that I don’t have a sad look on my face, just a stunned expression.
I knew this would happen someday, I knew it would catch up to me one day, this legacy. I thought I could run, I guess I could, but I can’t hide.
And when I run, I’m not fast enough to escape. It’ll catch me somehow, it always will.
Catherine
I woke up with this tingly energy in me. Not exactly scared or excited, but powerful. It was an amazing feeling, a feeling beyond words. I actually floated, flew, off my deck when I realized I was flying, I shrieked and flew to the ground. I shrieked and woke up. Wow. I’m having a lot of weird dreams lately and remembering all of them exactly, word for word.
Weirdly, I still had the powerful feeling inside of me. I shook my head knowing that I was just imagining it, when I heard a voice whisper in my head. Legacy. Legacy. Legacy. You have to face it. Your Legacy. You just can’t run from your legacy. I gasped looking around the room. Nothing. I sighed with relief. I changed and went downstairs, it was awfully bright for 6 in the morning, it looked more like the middle of the day. Weird.