PERSONAL LOG: OCTOBER 3, 2038 – 11:13 P.M.
The temperature on the thermometer outside reads 22 degrees, which is unusually cold compared to autumn temperatures going back several years. I’ve already had to throw two extra books onto the fire to keep warm. Earlier, when I took Gideon outside one last time before bed, my nosey 60-something neighbor saw me from his kitchen window and came out to talk.
“What do you think about this cold?” Because he’s afraid of dogs, especially German Shepherds as big as Gideon, my neighbor always stands at least six feet away from the fence I built to separate my yard from his. “Just more proof of global warming,” he said, answering his own question. “When I was a kid, autumn was chilly and filled with leaves of every color, and winter was cold and filled with snow. The world just doesn’t make sense anymore.”
I wanted to tell him that government specialists appointed by The President himself have proven that weather patterns are cyclical, and that global warming is not real. I wanted to tell him that the reason he remembers more snow falling in winter when he was a child is because of the weather cycle the world was in then. I wanted to explain to him that the world got warmer for a couple of decades because that was the natural weather cycle. The world was only getting colder again because we’re transitioning back to the kind of weather cycle there was when he was a child. I wanted to explain to my neighbor that the Weather Czar’s conclusions taken from The Presidential Weather Taskforce proves how wrong he is. But I know that if I had told my neighbor any of that, he would have just shaken his head and told me that global warming doesn’t mean what I think it means. Not for the first time, I thought about how sad it was that my neighbor was so poorly educated. But with the goal of maintaining good neighborly relations in mind, I rapped the top of the fence with my knuckles, bid him goodnight, called for Gideon, and went back inside to warm myself by the fire.
With the Energy Czar’s scheduled two-hour midnight blackout set to begin in about forty-five minutes, I’m glad I went down to the library and picked up another government-issued box of banned books. They’re mostly down to paperbacks now, but I lucked out and found one hardback copy of Forever by Judy Blume at the bottom of the box. While it may not burn forever, it will certainly help me through two hours without heat. Both The President and the Energy Czar said they understand how these mandatory rolling blackouts are a lot to ask of citizens, especially as winter gets closer, but that they are a necessary sacrifice to help the county further establish its independence from the rest of the world. And as a good citizen, I’m proud to help my country in any way I can.
I’m not 100% sure that I can say the same for my neighbor, though. For instance, when I got back from the library, I offered him a few extra books to help see him through the night. He told me he’d rather freeze to death. But just a few hours later, I saw him pulling a couple of boards off the garden shed in his backyard. I’d like to think that he’s just too proud to accept help from a anyone. I don’t think he’s a bad neighbor, really. I have to keep reminding myself that he’s the victim of the poor educational system that was forced on him at a time before the government valued things like national pride and good citizenship. I know he never received the right education to teach him the truth as we now know it. I think deep down he’s jealous of the proper education that I received. I think he knows that while I would help him if he ever asked for my assistance, I will always protect what’s mine with all the weapons the law affords me. I think he understands that if I ever thought he had crossed the line that separates being a good neighbor from being a bad neighbor, I’d make the call to the hotline that the Citizenship Czar set up to help keep the country stable.
Just to be neighborly, though, I’ll toss a couple copies of The Bluest Eye over the fence and onto his porch to make sure he has enough fuel to keep himself warm through the night before I head off to bed. And I’ll make sure to bank my own fire so Gideon stays nice and warm in his bed next to the stove. It shouldn’t take more than the hardback of Forever, one paperback of The Hate U Give, and one Anne Frank’s Diary to feed the fire and keep the embers from dying.