Amazon Travel

Rio Negro Canyon, 2084

The Impossible World Series

The mother holds her daughter's hand, her eyes glued to the window. The forest is beautiful and an imposing rubber tree receives some rays from the sun. You can see the freshness, probably the largest tree the girl has ever seen in her life. The rubber tree is about 7 meters and goes up with the floors of the hotel. The guide appears in the hallway and waves to them both. He introduces himself,

“Hello, my name is João, I'm going to be your guide today for the Rio Negro tour, you can follow me to the garage. Today we have a really great weather for the tour.’ They follow the tour guide through the corridor.

They descend to the underground, through the elevator and enter in the hotel garage, where a jeep is parked close by. The guide seems very excited. They enter the car and just after the car starts, the garage door begins to open and they begin to move down the street toward the Rio Negro.

The girl starts coughing inside the car. The guide says,“I think the weather may be causing some lung stress, let me adjust here.” The car is self-guided and heads towards Rio Negro, they sit around a table in the car. The road bumps and guide warns, “The roads are very bad.”

The car is parked on the edge of the Rio Negro. The woman looks, resolute, out the window. Her eyes have a dry glow.

The guide gives instructions for putting on masks and skin protection,“Obligatory since 2058 by Brazilian legislation,” he remembers and warns. The guide pulls out protective blankets too.

They descend and cover themselves with the blankets and the guide begins to explain through a speaker coming out of his mask,“Here are the remains of one of the largest rivers on the planet. Unfortunately in the past, due to too much corruption and government problems, it has not been properly invested in the preservation of nature. In 2020 the first records of desertification began, but the humanity did not changed in time. - He starts walking toward Rio, down a giant stairway to the bottom of the river. The girl and the woman follow. After hundreds of steps and some pauses to draw breath, they reach the bottom. The guide continues,

“The Rio Negro was the largest tributary of the left bank of the Amazon River. Here we can see the remains of an alligator carcass, one of the great reptiles, extinct by the last wave of extinction, which ended with most of the great reptiles, fish and mammals.” He points to a carcass, isolated by the teams of neopaleontologists.

They walk along the dry river, almost a canyon within the banks. He explains that in the past, the river was filled with the melting ice of the Andes, but after global warming became more severe, the Andes could no longer form snow and then erosion began. Further on, they burned the trees for the cattle pasture and soy bean production.

He tells interesting facts, until he arrives at the meeting place of the waters, between the Rio Negro and Solimões. A great empty space.

The guide says,“Wait a second, I'll show you an image of the forest and the water.” He sends information from his database to the woman's and daughter's retinal implants. Their cochlear implants also vibrate with the sounds of the forest.

Everything gradually goes back to the time and turns green around them and little by little the Rio is filling of retinal neopixels. Leaping monkeys, leopards, alligators, birds, pink dolphins. Pseudosmells of the forest enter through their nostrils through the mask. In response, the two breathe deeply together. The image becomes more intense, as if they are navigating in the forest, the guide mentally choosing the paths to appear in the next images.

Suddenly the image dissolves and the guide says,“Sorry for interrupting the transmission, but a sandstorm is coming. We need to get back immediately.” He is already taking the first steps and holds the girl's hand. Quickly, they start to run. He fires up the self-guiding jeep to come towards them, but they are still far away and need to go up the stairs.

The three human points run through the Amazonian desert. The drops of their sweat fall dry in the middle of where it once was the Rio Negro.

On the train from Brussels to Leuven, Belgium - 11h 22/09/2018
English Review by Alice McGushin

Flying Hugs,

Mayara Floss

The impossible world

The impossible world

São Paulo, September 19, 2084

“ Are you sure about that?”, the man asks the woman, while holding their three-year-old son in his lap. 

“There's no turning back now. Maybe Jimi can come back, but only if Earth improves.” She caresses her son.

“I'm scared of the trip,” he says.

“You won’t even see it, we’ll be in the cryoimmersion,”she responds.

“True,” he says. But the whole idea does not please him, he imagines them entering the camera. This image keep petrifying him and it leaves a silent void in the conversation. 

“At least I booked the three of us together in the same camera,” he compliments himself, thinking of the extra cost for a family camera.

The woman sighs and says sharply,”Why do you always have to be so weak? There is nothing to do, the Earth is not a human place anymore.” ,“I know the Earth doesn’t work anymore, that's why we're boarding here. But I'm gonna miss it.” he says with his eyes downcast.

“You miss a place that no longer exists, look out the window, she says skeptically. He looks out the dry window, his eyes are dry, the cough is dry, the air is dry, life is dry.

“Earth has overheated and nature will have to make peace with what humanity has done. We are making the right decision and we have money to get a good condominium on Mars.” She holds his hand. 

“We live in an impossible world,” he says, repeating the Mars Travels Company advertisement that enters through his retina. He even begins to remember the arguments that it is good to leave Earth; to let it rebuild itself andone day humanity will return. A part of humanity stays, he thinks. In fact, those who do not have the money stay will continue to live in the impossible world. Only a few poor people who get scholarships from Mars Travels get to live on Mars. So the company avoid taxes and does a "good deed”.

He closes his eyes, but even so the image of the dry land disappears. He still remembers 2040 when he was younger and was able to see some of the nature in the parks, his mother said to him that it was not so beautiful anymore, but even so when it rained he smelled fresh from the wet earth. Now it just raises acid that burns the nose.

“Passengers on flight MT1984 please proceed to gate B24 for Boarding. Please have your international passport in hand. First will be the boarding plus and priority customers,” says the woman’s voice on the speaker.

English Review Alice McGushin

Flying hugs,

Mayara Floss