Imagine 2200, Grist’s climate fiction initiative, celebrates stories that invite us to imagine the future we want — futures in which climate solutions flourish and we all thrive. Discover more stories. Or sign up for email updates to get new stories in your inbox.
June woke up in darkness again.
It was the third morning in a row he woke up from a dream of faces he hadn’t seen in a long time.
Some cousins, friendly neighbors, and teachers he learned to love and appreciate, everyone he knew from childhood that scattered after the rain seemed to never end that day some 20 years ago, years after their town of Welcome was deemed an “existing residential/future industrial” zone and generations of folks refused to leave until they had to.
And what were they supposed to do, June thought to himself, feeling heat rise in his belly as he pushed back the sheets, remembering the loss of two houses.
He knew the petrochemical ... Read more
