Tales of the eKids: E-man Loves Emmy
© 2004 by Andrew Wiggin
Disclaimer: Swear to God, I never heard of "The Day after Tomorrow" until last week. I planned this plot line about six months ago. My loyal readers know that I would never stoop to steal a plot from a "B" movie. I steal my plots from much classier sources; in this case: "A Brain for All Seasons – Human Evolution and Abrupt Climate Change" by William H. Calvin.
Part 11
Helen Randolph was officially the publicist for New Man, Inc. In reality she was the liaison between the Adkins family, the family's various enterprises, and the media. She interfaced with advertising agencies, issued press releases, and generally sheltered the Progenitor from having to deal with anyone he wished to avoid. Her husband Jake was the chief counsel for New Man, Inc. and New Man U.
Helen suddenly found herself trying to stimulate interest in an impromptu and hastily arranged press conference. She had been shocked when she first heard the news. Emma had asked her to rush over to the University.
She had walked through the quad, noting all of the beautiful young people attending the school. She knew she could use this idyllic setting to publicize the University, but the University didn't want to be publicized. Almost anyone who was qualified to attend already knew about New Man U. For the rest, the University preferred to maintain a low profile.
Of course, among academic circles, New Man U. was already at the top of the heap. That was what Emma had counted on when planning a news conference.
Helen knocked once on Emma's office door and then walked in. Emma was sitting at her desk with her feet propped up and her eyes closed. She had obviously been daydreaming. As soon as she heard the door close her eyes flew open, her feet dropped to the ground, and Emma sat straight up. Helen noticed that Emma's cheeks were aflame.
"I hope I didn't interrupt anything good, Emma." She was pretty sure she had.
"Well, uh, Elle is driving to Florida with our new boyfriend. I was just, uh, thinking of them, is all."
Helen smiled. "I'm sure you were. I haven't heard about any boyfriend. When did this happen?"
"Only in the last couple of days. He's very sweet and he's handsome and he's smart and he's strong, and he has... Well, you don't need to know what he has."
Helen laughed at the bubbly teenager. "Okay, I'll keep my nose out of it. But feel free to tell me about the good parts if you'd like. In the meantime, what's this about a press conference?"
Emma assumed her all-business persona as if she were flicking a switch. "Edie and Eddie have been doing weather research. They think the world is headed for ecological disaster, sooner rather than later. And by sooner I mean almost immediately. We are afraid that if we let the US Government handle this, they will bury it, spin it, and reduce or eliminate the sense of urgency. We need to make a preemptive strike because this is too important to allow politicians to decide how to handle it."
"What kind of disaster?" The words barely made it out of Helen's mouth. Helen knew the Adkins clan well enough to know that they didn't play games and they didn't lie.
"Helen, we're going to have an ice age. And it's going to start almost immediately. My sisters give us between ten and twenty years before glacial ice starts to expand significantly in the Northern latitudes. But long before then things are going to get bad. The median temperature in Europe will drop about ten degrees almost overnight. That may not sound like much, but believe me, it is."
Helen was shocked. "Is this real, Emma? Are you sure?"
Emma just nodded. "Sorry, Helen, but we are as sure as can be. Our instruments are the best in the world. Our weather satellites are the most sophisticated. Our computers are the biggest, our programs are the smartest. And when they are through with the data, Edie and Eddie do the final analysis. I'm telling you, Helen, this is cast in bronze."
"When do you want to have the press conference?"
"Helen we've got to do it as soon as possible. Edie and Eddie are polishing up a paper I helped them write for
Nature
magazine. That'll give the scientific basis for this whole thing, but it will barely be picked up by the mainstream media. We want to do an end run around the government and around the science journals and go directly to the people of the world. If they believe us, maybe we'll be able to salvage something."
"Emma, you are scaring me. What do you mean, 'salvage something'?"
"We don't think this is stoppable. The systems are too big, the inertia is too great, the task is too large. We face an inevitable ice age. People and especially governments are going to have to act immediately to mitigate the effects of the new ice age. We have a couple of ideas, but we haven't really been working on this project for very long. The whole world has to dedicate its resources to saving what they can."
Helen felt a chill run down her spine. She knew that the world would never be the same. "Well, I guess we better let people know about this, shouldn't we. How about CNN?"
Emma looked surprised. "What, for the press conference? Do you think we could do it there?"
"Why not? You and your father caused a sensation when you were on the Larry King show, when was it, fourteen years ago? Let me get to work. How about tomorrow afternoon? We want to be done in time for the evening news to cover the story."
Part 12
Edie and Eddie were pleased and scared. They were pleased that their opinion carried so much weight in the family. Still they had a residual fear that just maybe they were wrong. It wasn't a serious concern. Their calculations and conclusions had been checked and re-checked by the smartest people in the world. And then after the other students had their shot at them, the professors at New Man U. had also tried to find holes in their logic. No holes were found.
They were alone in their bedroom behind their offices at New Man University. Their bedroom adjoined Elle's. Elle's bedroom adjoined Emma's. The bonding of the four required that the girls have easy access to each other day and night.
Emma was the talkative one. Elle was almost as bad. Edie and Eddie preferred to be with their sisters alone. When alone the sisters kept their mouths shut. Edie and Eddie found verbalization distracting and annoying.
When they conversed together mentally, it was more a monologue than a dialogue. Somewhere inside there was a boundary that differentiated one twin from the other. But neither of them cared to look for it. The older they got, the more they felt as if there were not two entities, but one.
"Emmy's going to be on TV tomorrow. Daddy will be with her, but Emmy will do the talking. She always does.