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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
English Review by Alice McGushin
Flying Hugs,
Mayara Floss