The Next Planet

Lightning flashed through the glass as Tristan looked at his mother, desperate for more of her story.

The thunder never came.

“Tell me what it was like Mom,” he said with a joyful curiosity unfitting the late hour.

“I’ve told you the story so many times, Tristan, what else is there to say?”

Lightning filled the room once again in brief flashes of white light that illuminated his mother’s angelic face. From his perspective in bed, the lightning not only gave light to his mom but also, ever so briefly, illuminated the photos that hung on the opposite wall of the planet as it once was.

Tristan longed for more stories about that beautiful blue marble, the planet that his great grandfather once described as a green oasis with rolling blue oceans, fresh breezes, comfortable temperatures, and air that could be breathed while outside.

“Have I told you about the thunder?” Tristan’s mom asked her six-year-old son.

“The what?”

“Oh my… the thunder. A long time ago, when there was a storm like this, flashes of lightning were followed by a loud noise. Sometimes the noise was a loud booming crack that made your heart jump, like the sky was going to fall apart. Other times it was a low distant rumble that signified the storm was a safe distance away. Thunder…”

Tristan’s mother paused as her son stared at her.

“I only know from stories, of course, but oh how I wish I could have heard it. We don’t get thunder now because the atmosphere doesn’t have water in it like in the old days. Lightning now comes from the sulphuric acid in the atmosphere, not water. Plus we’re inside the dome so we wouldn’t hear anything from outside. But your grandfather used to tell stories of the most glorious storms from when his dad was your age.”

“Of course, it all changed so quickly once we crossed that tipping point and the planet started to die. You know the stories… we used the planet’s resources, we burned too much fuel, we didn’t do enough, fast enough, to prevent runaway warming. It wasn’t all caused by us, of course. But I like to think we could’ve prevented this from happening. Or delayed it. But it’s only going to get worse now. It’s going to get hotter and eventually even this dome will melt back into the dirt. No one will be able to live here ever again.”

She paused again and reached for a locket that sat on her son’s nightstand. Clasping the heart-shaped relic to her chest, she spoke in a deeper voice, remembering words her father had spoken to her when relaying stories from the past.

“Lightning would spread across the sky in webs of light and leaped from cloud to cloud in brilliant displays of God’s creation.”

She let the words hang, anticipating her son’s next question.

“God?” Tristan asked inquisitively and right on cue.

“Yeah, Baby, God. People used to believe a being called God created them. Back then, God was responsible for all things, from little rabbits to people, to lightning, and… thunder.”

"That’s crazy…” Tristan replied in fascination. “Didn’t they know about science?”

“They knew about science, maybe not enough to save the planet, but at least they knew enough to start getting people off this planet and on to the next one. Our turn is coming, and we’ll be able to live on a new planet that’s just now coming to life. Who knows, maybe that's where God is. Oh, and you'll hear thunder there.”

“But Tristan honey, and this is so important, so please listen. It’s up to you, and all the other young people, to make sure you treat the new planet with respect when you get there.”

“Venus was so beautiful and look what we did to it. I fear, once we get there, we’ll do the same to Earth.”