Where Giants Will Stand
XR’s Solarpunk Storytelling Showcase
Cora and Rosa caught me in the garden. They rode their electric bikes under the arched passion fruit vines and into our driveway. I had just finished pruning the tomatoes, knees achy, I welcomed their timing.
“Hi grandpa!” Rosa yelled as she raced past the Olive guild and the perfumed Loquats.
“Happy birthday my sweet child!”
She laid her bike down, hopped a garden bed and smothered me.
“Your grandpop and I made you a present,” I whispered conspiratorially.
She pulled back from the hug expectantly, eyes wide, “is it for my collection?”
I nodded. Every year we made her a new species to expand the walls of her wonder. Last year was a sabertooth cat made of bio-printed ivory. “The Smilodon californicus had teeth 7 inches long and once prowled these very lands.” She had been incredulous. “Nuh-uh”. She spent the summer at the library, nose buried in North American Megafauna.
“Go run inside and get your present, grandpop is finishing wrapping it.”
“Okay! But grandpa guess what?”
Before I could venture a guess, my daughter reached the garden.
