Moments - Zero
What if you could relive your life over and over again?
For Katherine--
They say the world will end in fire. I didn't believe it until the flame burnt mine, left me with nothing but ashes and mire.
Yours, Ethan, 21 December 2077
The year was 2080. It was the day of the winter solstice, which means it was the shortest day of the year for the Northern Hemisphere. That day, New York City only experienced 9 hours and 15 minutes of sunlight. Although, it was still better than what people in Helsinki, Finland were facing: only 5 hours and 49 minutes of light. Alas, it wasn't the worst of all, to say the least. There was this place called Barrow in Alaska where its people hadn't even had a sunrise at all since mid-November, which of course, also wasn't the worst of all.
The world might look pretty grim that day. However, not everyone felt depressed because of the winter solstice. Some were happy like they did. After all, from this moment on, the sun was on its way back and the days began to grow longer again. In fact, people were somehow OK with this and even rejoiced. There were more known rituals and celebrations associated with this event than for any other time of the year. Every year, people celebrate the winter solstice in various forms. Hundreds of years ago, Romans called this day Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. And today, revellers gathered in Stonehenge to watch the sunrise on the shortest day. In Seattle, you could even celebrate at the Feast of the Winter Solstice by registering to join the Fremont Arts Council.
But it would not stop some people to associate the solstice with something dark, something evil, or even cataclysmic events. The winter solstice of 2012 was a perfect example. That time of year, some actually believed that it could be the end of the world. Apparently, they were convinced because 21 December 2012 corresponded to the date 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar used by the ancient Mayans, marking the end of a 5126-year cycle. But none of that happened. In reality, lots of these people were died because of anything but doomsday. Some of them were even still alive today, enjoying another winter solstice, thanks to the advancement of anti-ageing technology. Now, they would certainly laugh their ass off if they remember how stupid they were for believing such an absurd prophecy.
Not everyone felt depressed because of the winter solstice. Some of them were happy like they did. Every year, people celebrate the winter solstice in various forms.
But Ethan White wasn't one of them. Feast and celebration weren't for someone like him, whose everything been taken away for good in the winter solstice. When others could only imagine and feared this juncture would bring about the end of the world, it was literally the end of the world for him.
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Ethan sat on an antique wooden chair in an enormous white room of a house in Yonkers, looking out at Mount Marcy from a mind-bogglingly giant window located about 10 feet in front of him. The window took up a whole side of the room, which approximately 35 feet long and in height, separated everything inside with sub-zero wind chills outside. In the last couple of days, blizzards had plagued the Eastern Seaboard – notably the recurring “bomb cyclone” storm. That evening, the storm blanketed the city with more than a foot of snow, which counterintuitively fed by climate change.
As temperatures plummeted as low as -59F, US Coast Guard struggled through frozen Hudson River, then trapped. Ethan was actually facing towards the incident because the house was built on the bank of the river but he seemed to be unaware of it. Solely because the window was equipped by the latest LED displays technology that enabled it to display anything with high quality which even quite often mistaken for real. The window fed Ethan with fake sceneries, so he barely knew what's happening outside. The storm was too heavy anyway.
In the next 5 minutes, he would be staring at the Tunnel View, the iconic vista of towering Bridalveil Fall and the granite cliffs of El Capitan and Half Dome in Yosemite National Park from the window. All of which had actually gone, replaced by something new and artificial into a completely different place. Humankind had proven time and again that it can reshape mountains or tear them down. Not only that, now humans could make them rise, or even made entirely new ones as well.
It had been 30 minutes since Ethan entered the room. He had seen everything--from the beautiful scenery of Tuvalu to the breathtaking landscape of The Alps. Which also had disappeared some 20 years ago. Many people had loved the place, but none of them could protect it from Global Warming. Luckily, they took a lot of pictures of those places so people could display it on their windows. At least, they could see it for one more time and reminisce.
“Sorry, I'm late." Woman's voice broke the silence as she waltzed into the room and sat on an identical antique chair across to Ethan.