Acid Rain by R.D Rhodes (ebook reader txt) 📕

I think to the redwood forest at Yosemite. And he convinced him to protect the land from development, and to create the first ever national park. And now there’s land protected all over the world. Because of what Thoreau started. And he was one of the first, if not the first, to talk about the right to peaceful, non-violent protest. America was fucking around in a war with Mexico, and he didn’t think it was right that he should have to pay taxes to go towards that war, so he refused to. He was put in jail for a night. Fined, I think. And he wrote about it, and how everyone should have the right to peaceful protest. After him there was Tolstoy, and there might not have been a Martin Luther King or Gandhi, and equal rights would have been very different. It’s all cause of him. He was so far ahead of his time. But yeah, that’s what he said, “The only work worth doing, is the work you would do for free.”

“And” Harry added, That government is best which governs least, and when we are ready, that is the government we shall have. That’s one of my favourite quotes from him. He was all for independence. Like you seem to be living. I’m impressed.”

“Sounds like quite a guy.” Alex said, deadpanned.

“So, you just volunteer all the time?” I asked.

“Mostly.” He nodded indifferently.

“Where?”

“Well, I kind of do aid work. I’ve been a few places. Costa Rica. Peru. Africa. Asia. I like working with kids, so I’ve done quite a bit of that. I do do paid work, but only for about two months of the year, then I fuck off abroad somewhere. The money lasts you, especially when accommodation is provided.” He turned to me. “What do you do? Uni?”

Uni! “Nuthin just now.” I said. “I’d like to get into aid work too, though.”

“Cool.” “And you?”

“I’m a KP.” Harry reported.

Alex laughed. “Another professional dishwasher. That’s mostly what I do, when I’m not abroad.”

“What does your family say, about your life?” I asked.

Alex shrugged, seeming annoyed by the question. “They don’t get it. Want me to settle down. Get a career. Get married.” He prodded the fire again then dropped the stick and his eyes narrowed on the flames, I thought for a second I saw tears in them. “But the world might not even last another twenty years, so I don’t see what the point is. I’d rather try to make a difference. The world can be changed. I see good people all the time making things work. That’s just what I want to do, and it makes me happy, so-..”

The wind howled just then, and a flurry of snow was blasted under the roof. But we were too deep inside for it to get in at us.

The smoke filtered up. The crackling fire and the canvas were the only sounds that joined the wild wind.

“How long are you planning to stay?” Harry asked.

“Not sure. I don’t wanna go home for Christmas. Maybe I’ll stay three more weeks. Leave after new year…

…And what about you guys? Spring is a long time away. Yous not got anything to get back to?”

We stayed around the fire talking, long after we had finished our second cups of coffee. And then, as the snow continued to swirl around outside us, Alex stood up and offered us a “nature walk.” We padded after him through the snowdrifts as he told us which tree was good for which kind of wood, and what medicines they provided, and what you could eat from them and what you couldn’t. He really knew his stuff.

After that we all went down to the loch and despite the weather, did a bit of fishing. Harry and me sharing our rod, Alex using his.  But none of us with any success.

Me and Harry went back to our own tent, then returned to Alex’s to have dinner together. His campsite was better, warmer, and more sheltered. You could move around more freely. After all those weeks cooped up hiding from the rain, it was such a joy to be able to walk around without getting soaked and cold.

My first impression, of Alex being loud and confident, was at least half wrong. As the day went on I realised he was actually quite quiet. But he was really nice. And we all got on really well. Late into the night he offered us one of the compartment rooms in his tent and we snapped up the opportunity to escape from our own stinking, claustrophobic space. Harry had one side of the room. I took the other. There was enough space for about seven in there and I sprawled right out.

In the darkness I listened to the flapping of the canvas. And to the howl of the wind as it picked up. And to the trees as they began to creak and groan in its grip. I felt so cosy inside, and I was so grateful for everything. It was so luxurious in there that it felt like a hotel room.

I fell into a deep sleep. When I woke it was to the same sounds of the blizzard.

Chapter 64

I left Harry snoring and zipped the compartment door back up behind me as I exited the tent. I sat down next to the fireplace and pulled my sleeping bag up to my cold neck. Faint trickles of smoke floated lazily up from the ashes.  All around me, beyond the darkness cast by the ceiling, the world was ablaze with white. The trees were buried a foot deeper than the night before. We were hidden like a cave amongst the thrusts of the blizzard.

I felt safe, and magical again. I could feel myself energised by the weather, and inspired.

I had been sitting there about twenty minutes when