Remembering Green

by Lesley Beake

• ISBN13: 9781845079628
• ISBN10: 1845079620
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2010-08-19
• Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA

Summary

It is the year 2250. The ice has melted and sea levels have risen. Cape Town has disappeared and Table Mountain is now an island inhabited by the Tekkies, who cling to a lifestyle long gone in the rest of the world and keep their island for themselves. But their resources are running out. They look to the land that once was Africa - known as Out - where a few remining people have managed to survive the massive drought by turning their back on 23rd-century technology and following a simple lifestyle based on ancient knowledge. They are the River People.Rain, a princess of the River People, and Saa, the lion cub she cares for, are seized by the Tekkies. They want the knowledge of Rain's people. They want to know how to harvest the rain. She is to be part of a terrible ceremony to restore the balance of the world...

Excerpts

'Right. Next?'

Sharon moved her gum from one side of her mouth to the other. 'Two brown slices and a red vegetable,' she said.

'What?'

'Two brown slices and a red vegetable!' Sharon was irritated, I could tell. Sharon often was.

The woman serving looked annoyed.

'That'll be three carbon credits,' she said grumpily.

Sharon tossed her shiny yellow hair over her shoulder and winked at me.

'It was only two and a half CCs yesterday,' she said.

'It's warmer than yesterday,' the woman said nastily. 'Three species gone since Friday, they reckon. Brown slices cost more.'

Sharon considered. 'And the red veg?'

The woman smirked. 'Same thing, really,' she said. 'Everything's getting dearer - dear.' She laughed. 'It's all right for you rich kids. Some people haven't seen a red vegetable, never mind a brown slice, in years.'

Sharon fingered through her wallet and found the carbon credits. But her mouth had a sullen twist to it that didn't augur well for the rest of the afternoon...



***



Sharon is the only person here who is friendly to me - sort of - when it suits her. I have been here for just four moons, although it seems like years, but the others still look away when they see me, won't catch my eye, won't smile at me. Sharon does… sometimes… even though she is a Tekkie and Tekkies have another kind of life. One that has a lot to do with beeping machinery and small flashing screens and signals telling them when to recharge their ion extractors or plug in their enhancers.

The rest of us just get on with it, here on The Island, putting up with the blinding light that reflects endlessly off the pink sea and the warm wind that blows - and blows and blows - from the south-east most months of the year.

Once, Sharon let me go with her into one of the chill-chambers - just for a minute - so I could feel what it was like. It was strange in there and I wasn't sure if I really liked it. Tekkies lay around on smooth plastic couches and the light was dim and soft. Air that was so cold it was white came chilling out of the vents in the walls, swirling in front of the lights and dampening the sleeping Tekkies who lay there with their eyes closed and smiles on their faces.

I was only there for a short time, and yet the hairs on my arms prickled, and I shivered. It was too dark - too cool - not real. And although the blast of heat and bright hit me like a stone when we stepped outside again, I welcomed the warmth.

For a moment… just for a moment… I remembered another kind of cool. The cool of river water and cold stones, the cool of black shade on hot afternoons, the cool of a palm leaf fanning gently; the cool of a hand on my forehead and the cool of my mother's voice…