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| The Girl Who Had Nothing |
| If you are reading this site
to judge my writing, please, feel free to skip over this page. This is a very old story which has been choppily edited and thrown together and back again over the years. I chose to include it on my website because I think it's an interesting concept and a good story. It also won a bronze mosaic. |
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I am Manstrica, an eleven-year-old girl with 2.5 billion dollars worth of
information in my head. Not to mention the stakes nearly six billion lives. My knees were weak as I stood in front of the chair board. The voice coming out of my mouth seemed not my own. “The city of Anthropolotain runs on photovoltaic energy, a source of solar power that is very faulty. When the energy is absorbed from the excited atoms; the atoms become stressed. This causes massive explosions, and scientists believe that there will soon be a nuclear one. The whole plant, though still bleeding power, has become one massive ticking nuclear bomb.” I looked around at the chair board. They already knew this and were getting bored. I was giving my solution in the front of many high executive people. “But,” I said, “I have found the solution.” The executives sat up in their chairs in half amusement, half disbelief. There was no way an eleven year old girl could think of something they hadn’t. I knew they would think that. They were wrong. I continued through my plan. There was no other choice but to remove the systems. However until then, there had been no viable solution on how to remove them. I had the solution, but it had its risks. I straightened my faded blue shirt and moved on. “You see, if we disconnect the machinery from the photovoltaic energy absorbers, or PEA, and simultaneously connected it with another resource then...” I was cut off by a man in the front row. “Then we would still have excited atoms...” “Right,” I said, “and if they are left that way too long, it would lead to a nuclear explosion. So here’s my solution: We make the disconnection and the reconnection. Since earlier explosions have damaged the automatic turn off for the Photovoltaic Atom Exciter, we send in a workbot to turn off the PAE.” I folded my hands and looked at the dumbstruck faces of the board. The answer was so obvious that they had overlooked it. “Well,” the head of the board said, pushing back his chair, “let’s get to work!” The committee members pushed back their levitating chairs and started bustling about. Many came up to me and shook my hand! I surged with pride and satisfaction. It was the proudest moment of my life! I looked back at my foster mother who was impatiently looking at her watch. I sighed and continued shaking peoples hands. At home, Flench sat drinking a beer and gazing at the hologram set, “Did we get paid yet?” He said after a long belch. My stomach lurched. The only way I had gotten Flench and Rudy, my foster parents, to take me to the board meeting was to say that there would be money involved. Truth be told, I didn’t know whether there would be or not. “No,” Rudy said taking me roughly by the arm, “the little brat lied so she could get her five minutes of fame.” “Did not!” I screamed; it was no use. Before I knew it, I was stuck in my broom closet with a grumbling stomach. “Forget it, kid,” I heard Flench say through the door, “those people will chew you up and spit you out as soon as you give them what they want.” I didn’t care what they said. They were both greedy slobs, and hopefully someone would take my child support, along with me, away from them. I just had to save the world to get it to happen. # Of course there was some definite bugs to work out in my solution. The committee and I worked together the rest of the week to come to the exact plan. Rudy and Fench couldn’t keep me; the board would have gotten suspicious. The disconnection was to be made at exactly 12:00.00 and the reconnection was to be made at exactly 12:00.01 to the reserve fossil fuels. The fossil fuels would only be used until the government could find another energy source to be used. After all the plans were made, a week later, people gathered outside the power plant to await the change of their future. I stood outside the power plant; under all the airmobiles, under all the nomadic tubing, surrounded by workmen and workbots. I looked back at the workbot who was to go and disconnect the PAE. Workmen hurried around it, making sure everything was in check. A knot began to form in my stomach. I glanced at the ancient timekeeper in the middle of Anthropolotain. It read 11:58. The mayor came up and stood beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “You are a very brilliant girl,” he said. I looked up at him and smiled. “Thank you.” I had to admit I felt a little selfish right then. I was doing this just to get away from Rudy and Flench, and I knew that wasn’t right. I looked around to see if either of my foster parents was there. It wasn’t a big surprise that they weren’t. One of the workmen stood up on an airmobile’s hull. “If everyone would please stand on the yellow line; we are about to begin.” I backed away to the yellow line projected onto the sidewalk. I looked back up to the clock 5... 4... 3... 2... 1. There was a loud rumble for a second and then nothing. Everyone seemed to glare at the worker on the airmobile. He pressed his finger into his ear, “Transition complete!” He bellowed. Everyone cheered and applauded, but I only let out half a breath, I knew that the hard part was yet to come. The workbot rolled off towards the building. He disappeared into the smoke. The minutes dragged by. It shouldn’t take this long! I thought to myself. Even the mayor right beside me looked worried. I gazed intently at the man on the airmobile who was pressing his finger into his ear again. He jumped off the airmobile and jogged to the mayor. “Sir!” He said urgently, “the bot is caught inside the debris! We need something more agile to weave in and out of the debris! My heart sunk. The mayor put his head into his hands. There has to be a way. I forced myself to think; only one idea rose. “I’ll go,” I said my heart pounding. “No,” the mayor said, “you will be killed by the radiation!” I looked frantically at the power plant, knowing that there wouldn’t be much time. “Look,” I said. “I can get to the PAE before the radiation takes full effect,” I took a jagged breath. “Besides, I have nothing to lose,” I took off at a run towards the building, dodging workmen who tried to grab me. One managed to skim my ankle, but I slipped by him. I leapt into the building. I could feel the immense radiation pressing on my skin. I took a breath and started through the metal, twisting and turning when necessary. As soon as I saw the PAE, my body began to drag, but still, I forced myself to go on. A metal beam caught my leg and I fell to the ground. The air left my lungs. I gasped. My arms were weak, but still I pushed myself up, and walked on. When I finally got to the PAE, my legs collapsed. I had reached Total Weakness. My body told me to give up; the radiation had taken over. My brain and my heart told me to just flip the switch; if I didn’t the whole world was doomed. My arms felt like lead. With my last burst of energy, I forced my arm up. My arm dragged over the switch, pushing it down. With my last breath I heard the cheering of people outside. |
| Epilogue |
| The old man sat down and the walls began to speak the news to him. |
| BEGIN DIALOGUE
“The Anthropolotain Daily January 24, 2056 The Girl Who had Nothing... Gave It All |
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As most know, yesterday at 12:03, the whole world was saved. Not by some
Superman, but by an eleven-year-old girl. Manstrica, an orphan girl who came up
with the amazing plan to stop the frequent explosions at the power plant, gave
her own life when technology failed. The brave girl climbed through the rubble
of the power plant to turn of the Photovoltaic Atom Exciter (PAE) when the
workbot failed to do it. Manstrica was orphaned at birth After her parents died in an explosion at the plant one winter. Then she was then admitted into the Pragmatica Orphanage where she grew up. When she was about ten she was taken into foster care by Rudy and Flench Andrews. These people rumored to have beaten and neglected her. In fact, today, at the scene of her death, Manstrica’s foster parents were not even present. This giving meaning to her last words quote: ‘I have nothing to lose’ end quote. Both of the foster parents will be facing charges this May for negligence and child abuse. Manstrica is to be admitted into The Great Minds Museum along with some of her favorite people: Albert Einstein, J. K. Rowling, Shakespeare, and Stephen Hawking. To hear a complete biography please tune into channel 3720 Tuesday night at 7:00.” |
| END DIALOGUE |
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| [A Paintbrush] [Prelude to a Jail Sentence] [Stem Cell Stickler] [The Only One Who Knows] |
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[Annie Codwell,] |