“Hello, Noah. I’m your wife, Lin, and this is your daughter, Song. We’re saving the world again today by providing clean water and power to Europe and Africa.”
I look up from my empty breakfast plate and see a beautiful, dark-haired woman holding a small child by the hand. A wife and daughter? That’s nice.
“Come on,” Lin says. “It’s time to get to work.”
I get to my feet unsteadily. One of my legs is weaker than the other. Lin takes my arm and helps me as I walk across the hotel lobby. I think I could do it on my own if I needed to, but I like the feel of her against me. Song’s little feet hurry to keep up as we leave the hotel.
“Water and power. That sounds right. What’s the project today?” I ask Lin as she helps me walk the short distance between the hotel doors and the car. The shade of the building covers us, but the bright morning sun is already heating up the sand outside the parking lot.
“We’re still working our way across the Sahara,” she reminds me. I like that she does my remembering for me. It makes life so simple. “Desalinators and solar fields. I already laid out the guidelines for your eye while you and Song were playing this morning. Evan and Valerie already installed the pipes that go out to the ocean, so we just need to connect up to them as we go.”
“Thanks,” I say, smiling at her. “You’re so good to me.”
“Don’t you forget it.” She winks at me.
“Can I go with you and Daddy all day today?” Song asks.
“Just until after lunch,” Lin says. Then we’re going to meet with Andrea and Louise who are going to take you to play at Aunt Keeya and Aunt Lucie’s house until this weekend.”
“And Chad will be there?” Her eyes widen in delight.
“And Chad will be there,” Lin confirms.
I don’t know who any of those people are, but that’s all right. Lin will tell me what I need to know when I need to know it. Lin gets Song buckled in her car seat while I reach out with my larger self and do what I was made for. I see guidelines with my hundred eyes and build the first huge desalinator according to the blueprints that appear in front of me. I feel the cool, clear water begin to pump out onto the desert sand as I finalize the hundreds of solar panels required to power the installation.
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“Oh, is the first one done already?” Lin asks as she pulls the car out of the hotel parking lot and starts driving along the smooth new roadway.
“Yeah, I got it.”
“Hmm, faster than yesterday,” she notes, flickering the fingers of one hand across her lap. “We’ll need to have Louise look at your scans when we see her, but I think that’s still within normal variations.”
My human eye shows me sand as far off as it can see. My better eye shows me the next set of guidelines kilometers down the road. All power production on this build. Even my biological eye can see the storm of dust that kicks up off to our left as I transform square kilometers of desert sand into all the power production and storage that the world will ever need and connect them to the waiting power lines heading off in the distance to the north.
“Daddy, are you making a mess again?” Song laughs as she sees the dust blowing over to blot out the morning sun ahead of us.
“Yes, sweetie. A big mess. Don’t tell Mommy.”
Lin snorts to keep from laughing and puts her hand over onto my thigh. I force my right arm to move my hand to put it on hers. Moving that arm is harder than the other, but Lin always says I need to do it whenever I can. She puts on some music and we listen to a few songs as we drive and I build. My strong eye shows me what to create and where to put it. Another water plant is next. This one is very near the road, so we’ll pass right next to it. I lose myself in the work of building as it rises from the desert sand.
“Wow, that’s a big one,” a sweet voice from the back seat says, full of wonder. I turn the small, fleshy part of me to see who said it. A little girl with dark hair is sitting there, buckled into a carseat in the back, smiling at me.
“Hello, who are you?”
“Oh, Daddy. You’re so silly,” she laughs. I love that laugh.
The beautiful, curvaceous woman with long, dark hair sitting next to me gives me a stunning smile. Her eyes are perfect pools of darkness I just want to get lost in. How am I holding her hand? I should get to know her first. I really want to get to know her.
“Hello, Noah. I’m your wife, Lin, and this is your daughter, Song. We’re saving the world again today by providing clean water and power to Europe and Africa. Keep on building. You’re doing great. Lunch will be in about an hour. We’re going to meet up with Andrea and Louise. You like them.”
Oh. My wife. That’s why I’m holding her hand. I nod and smile. I like all of that. It feels so right. I keep on building what my strong eye tells me needs to be built. I feel the desert beneath me. I am spread out across it for kilometers and kilometers. I know every grain of sand. I think that there might be others that can feel and build this way, but I do this better than anyone. It’s what I’m made for.
I get back to work. This world isn’t going to save itself.