The Meltdown

CJ looked up at the kid who was waving at him. “Look papa! He is looking at me,” said the little boy in the red shirt to his dad who was standing beside him waving at CJ. He has seen thousands of people like him in the past one week that he had spent his time there.

“Erika, are you ready?” asked a young woman in her early twenties wearing a black shirt, khaki shorts and a traveler’s hat.

“Yeah, I am. Michelle, what do you think about him? What do you think is running on his mind after spending twelve whole years in his native place, being abducted like that one fine day and put in a place like this with all these people looking and smiling at him?” said Erika without taking her eyes off CJ.

“Well, I don’t think he minds, look at him go at the fish he just caught,” said Michelle handing her the bag she had to carry all the way for their journey.

Erika smiled and waved a goodbye at CJ as she whispered, “hang in there, CJ.”

Looking down from the window of the signature red helicopters of Air Greenland, that conveniently muffled the words of Michelle who was talking constantly to Erika all through the journey, she could think about nothing but the beauty of what lied beneath her. It was 3,200 meters of thick solid ice that has been recycled a million times due to active glaciers and constant melting.

“I guess CJ used to live there,” Michelle pointed down at a group of Polar Bears digging through the ice below. Erika gave her a sly smile. “Maybe that’s his brother,” she said pointing at a fat sleeping Polar Bear.

The helicopter that was clad in red landed softly on the icy earth pushing some of the ice aside. Erika and Michelle carried their bags out as they stood at the center of a massive wasteland that is also the world’s second largest ice sheet after Antarctica. Erika took out her camera as she started walking slowly and carefully taking each step capturing some bright images with her prime lenses.

“Agatha, get my camera and the tripod as well please,” said Michelle as she started walking with Erika.

“Do you think this place will work?” asked Erika.

“Well, as long as you see a volcano anywhere, this place is no different than any other place in this country,” said Michelle as she planted her tripod on the ground in a way that it won’t fall.

“Are the lights okay?” asked Erika.

“They are perfect, Agatha give her the mic. I hope you know what you’re going to say because it’s cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey and I don’t think I can hold up for a day of shooting,” said Michelle and she motioned her hand in a rolling action to let her know that she has started capturing the video.

“Hello, my fellow humans from different civilizations around the world, I’m standing right at the center of the northern part of Greenland’s one of the fastest melting glaciers. I got to say, I’m really afraid when the floor would give up on me…” said Erika on the microphone and in front of the camera as she was interrupted by Michelle.

“Was that really necessary?” asked Michelle.

“I thought at least some comedy would make them listen,” said Erika.

“She’s right you know, you got to try something new. Already we know how big of a fan base we’ve got,” said Agatha sarcastically.

Michelle gave a shrug and said action as she started the camera again.

“It is real, and it is changing the world as we see right now. Join me as I’m dying to take a mid-noon dip in a river that shouldn’t have been here,” said Erika as she walked along taking the viewers with her to a short walk along the sides of a stream of water.

“Erika, maybe cut on that funny part a bit, please, it’s like you are screaming for help,” said Michelle.

“Okay, we’ll wrap this up. Let’s go to the jeep, I got to re-write the whole script now,” said Erika as she started walking towards the Jeep.

“Let the tripod be here, we’ll only take the cameras,” said Michelle as she and Agatha followed Erika.

Erika inhaled the vapor of the warm tea that she held close to her face, comforting herself amidst the sub-zero temperature outside. “Thanks for the tea, Enzo,” she said smiling at the man with the huge beard who was taking care of everything that they needed including the heavy lifting.

“A river that shouldn’t have been there?” asked Michelle.

“Yeah, you see the lake up there?” asked Erika, pointing to a huge lake that was placed slightly above them in a steep slope. “That lake was not there a few years ago, and now, that lake has created this stream of water which is cutting through the ice sheets like swiss cheese. There are a number of streams like these which has been spotted recently and they are believed to the be the reason for the significant increase in the sea level over the last few years,” said Erika.

“Oh my, I remember reading something like that somewhere. I never gave any thought to it,” said Michelle.

“Can’t blame you when people who must be giving it a thought are not,” said Erika taking a large sip of the warm tea. “People sitting in their houses and Netflix and chilling won’t understand the seriousness until they see it for themselves.”

“Then we should do something about it,” said Michelle, a little worried.

“I’ve been trying alright, but you see, people don’t want to know something that’s not interesting. They’d rather watch a polar bear waving at them in the zoo rather than hear about a dying polar bear somewhere near the north pole, don’t you think?” said Erika as she kept the tea aside.

“So, what happened to the last two movies that you made?” asked Michelle with some curiosity.

Erika reached the office quite early that day. It must’ve been the excitement, as her face was glowing unusually. She greeted and waved at everybody that she saw and most of them knew that something’s up with her. After taking a long breath as she read the name board, ‘Hank Jones, Production manager’, she slowly opened the door.

“May I come in?” she asked.

There was a tall bald man relaxing on his executive chair resting his feet on the table, reading something that rather seemed funny than important. “Hi Erika, come in,” he said in an excited voice. “Glad to see you here finally. Is that what I think it is in your hands?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t know. What do you think it is?” asked Erika.

“A new submission?” asked the manager.

“You’re right then, it is,” said Erika as she sat on the chair opposite to him.

“I’m excited, so what is this about?” asked Hank in an enthusiastic tone.

“This is about the worsening air pollution in our city, which is now growing at an alarming rate, something that we…” said Erika as she was interrupted by Hank.

“Stop right there, do you mean to say, you spent the last 3 months working on a movie about pollution?” asked Hank in a sarcastic voice.

“Yes, I did. Hank, we should be concerned about this, and create awareness among the residents. This is going to be a huge issue if we leave it as such,” said Erika in a convincing tone.

“Yes, we should be. But do you think they would let us? You can make a million of these things, but they won’t sell. When we ran a similar series last year, our viewers rate went down 30%, and we had to run commercial free new shows for more than a month to get some of them back,” said Hank as he took a sip of water.

“But, Hank, we can’t think like that, it’s for a common good,” said Erika.

“I’d like to agree with you, but not this time. Get me something like that murder you covered last month. It was quite interesting,” said Hank. “And Erika, give that copy of your film, I’d like to keep it. Delete the rest.”

“So, it was never telecasted? God, that’s terrible,” said Michelle setting her tea aside.

“No, I still have a copy of it though. This is how it works out here,” said Erika.

“If it’s so, how are you doing this one? You think he’ll like Global warming better than pollution?” asked Michelle.

“No, I had to tell Hank that I’m covering a long-lost treasure buried in the glaciers of Greenland to get this project sanctioned,” said Erika.

“He’s going to react the same way this time and throw away your movie,” said Michelle.

“This time, he won’t,” said Erika.

“How are you so sure?” asked Michelle.

“Because I won’t give it to him,” said Erika.

Michelle looked confused. “But this is a company project, you have to give it to them. You can’t release this without their permission, that will be fraud and you will be accountable. You know that, right?”

Erika woke up sharply when the clock turned eight in the morning. This time, she wasn’t excited or nervous, but confident. She was looking forward for this day for a long time now. The first thing that she did was to call Michelle.

“Hey Michelle, is it ready?” asked Erika.

“Yes, I have the final copy of the movie, but I don’t understand why you would want me to schedule a private screening for it. What’s so private about it? Unless, you added something private to it during editing,” said Michelle, confused.

“Just bring it there, will you?” said Erika.

“No, Erika, if we screen this without informing Hank, won’t the company file a lawsuit against you?” asked Michelle, worried.

“Maybe they will,” said Erika.

Erika wore a black dress as she got ready for the night. She was going to screen the movie privately which she wanted the entire world to see. Quite not what she wanted, but what she would settle for.

“You’re looking stunning today miss, where to?” asked the taxi driver who just pulled up to pick her up.

“Thank you. Imperial House on 2^nd Street please,” said Erika. She looked at the bright lights on the side of the road almost blinding her. She couldn’t think of anything but CJ waving at her, as she whispered, ‘hang in there CJ.’ And it was time to get down as they reached the Imperial House theater.

“Well enjoying the Saturday night alone, are we?” said the taxi driver offering her a hopeless company.

“Well, it sure is going to be fun,” said Erika as she paid for the ride.

“Hi Michelle, over here,” she said waving at Michelle who was at the opposite side of the road.

“Erika, are you sure?” Michelle asked.

“Yes, I am. Come with me,” said Erika as they both started walking towards the private theater which they booked for the night.

Erika saw two Janitors who were cleaning the floor of the lobby that led to the entrance of the screen. She called one of them and whispered, “There is going to be a private screening of a $200 million movie, I don’t want this to get leaked so, I want you two to be gone now,” she said slipping a $20 bill in his hand.

The theater was in utter silence when they went in. There was no one to be seen, but the screen was lit up. Michelle didn’t expect this.

“Erika, where is the audience?” asked Michelle.

“There’s not going to be any. It’s just the two of us,” said Erika.

“But, I don’t understand this. Why would you want to screen this just for me? Did I suddenly become important?” asked Michelle, confused.

“Just watch the movie Michelle,” said Erika. She closed her eyes as she sat through the movie. She was thinking about sunbathing in a trimaran in the middle of the Atlantic, surrounded by water as far as the eyes can see and slowly drifting away.

She woke up in her bed the next morning to see 72 missed calls on her cell phone and a lot of text messages that she ignored. She opened the message from Michelle that had a link for a video that said, “The.Meltdown.2018.Cam.Leaked.mkv” and had a million views on it.