Saving the World

“Go to bed, honey,” her tired mother said, clutching a glass of wine in one hand and an old harlequin novel in the other. Her blond hair was frizzy in the humid night, and she was sweating through her clothes. 

“But mum-”

“Listen to your mother,” said her father lazily. He was likewise pouring sweat in the heat, and didn’t even bother to look up from his TV program. John Rolston was a sad sight - overweight, red-faced, and losing the last bit of hair from the top of his head. His thick round spectacles dug into his pudgy face, and his expression was frozen in a permanent scowl. 

Cassie huffed and turned back to her mother. She knew her mom was smart, but she acted stupid for some reason. Ally Rolston had graduated from a top engineering program in the United States, but upon returning to London had met John, and had swiftly forgotten all ambition when she’d gotten pregnant with Cassie just a few months later. Now, fourteen years after the fact, John was a bloated old gasbag who worked as a regional manager for some hardware company, and Ally had lost the spark in her spirit which drove her across the pond for a degree.

“Mum, listen to me,” said Cassie, her brown eyes wide and imploring, “Don’t you see that we can make a billion pounds off this idea? We need to act quickly before someone steals it! The world’s burning, mum, and I can-”

“You can do nothing,” snapped Ally, “You’re fourteen and your grades are worse than a sausage roll from France. Go to bed.”

“Can you at least look-”

“No,” said her mother forcefully, “I can’t.”

“Listen to your mother,” repeated John, popping open another beer. 

Cassie looked at the two of them with disgust. Her mother was right - she hadn’t made good grades in school that year, so she was sentenced to make up some classes in summer school, and though she’d whined endlessly about it, sitting in those steaming, tropical classrooms had given her an idea. As she’d just put it, the world was burning, with global temperatures skyrocketing every year with no end in sight. But what if they could turn carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into their base components? What if it was not only possible to do this, but feasible and efficient? 

“Mum, I’ve figured it out, I really have!”

“Mum, I’ve figured it out,” mocked Ally, her sharp eyes turning finally to her daughter, who held a binder full of calculations, schematics, and scientific literature in her arms. “Go to bed, you ungrateful little brat, or your father will give you a walloping!”

Cassie felt tears come into her eyes. She left the binder on the table next to her mother’s armchair and brushed the thin blond hair away from her face. She’d always been small, skinny, and ugly - at least according to the other girls in her class. If she was smart, then at least she’d be able to fit in with the other “ugly” girls, but she didn’t care to do well in school; she could never find the energy to study properly for things. It was all so…  mundane. Watching these students struggle with basic pre-algebra was incredibly frustrating, especially when Cassie was already plumbing the depths of differential calculus in her spare time.

She turned when she got to the stairs. Her mother had once gone through the same schooling system as Cassie, but back then they allowed gifted students to move ahead, and so Ally had been able to graduate secondary school in three years, and college in the same amount of time. But Cassie was forced to slog through the same dull lessons day after day until her mind was as numb as her father’s face after a night of drinking. 

She got upstairs and picked up her cellphone. It was a battered old thing - a used one they got for cheap and threw to Cassie to stop her complaining. There were only a few numbers in it: mum, dad, Sally (her primary school friend), and Nigel, her only other friend. She clicked on the last contact and dialed the number. 

“Hey, Cassie,” said Nigel’s quiet voice on the other end. She heard the sounds of shooter games playing in the background. 

She smiled. “Hey Nigel.”

“What’s up?”

“Oh… just trying to get my parents to listen to me about that thing I told you about. I think they’re daft, honestly.”

“Well, it is 11:30 at night,” said Nigel, “Maybe they’re just knackered.”

Cassie scoffed. “Right. Not knackered enough to have ten beers by the telly til one in the morning or drink wine and read the same stupid novel again, but tired enough to ignore me.”

“Fair enough.”

There was a pause in which Cassie heard her father’s monstrous belch from downstairs. She wrinkled her nose and said, “What’re you up to tonight?”

Nigel sighed and said, “Just some games with the lads, y’know.”

“Am I interrupting?”

“Nah, their mums kicked them off about twenty minutes ago. It’s just me now.”

Grinning, Cassie said, “Okay. Well, what d’you think about my project? Remember, I swore you to secrecy.”

“Trust me Cassie,” said Nigel lightly, “I’m too stupid to know what the bloody hell your idea’s about. Saving the world, or something like that, right?”

“Something like that.”

“Well, then I think it’s brilliant.” Nigel’s tone was earnest. 

“You really think so?” Cassie couldn’t keep the eagerness out of her voice. 

“’Course. I’m only hanging around with you ’cause I know you’re gonna start raking in the quid soon, and I wanna be there.”

They shared a laugh, but Cassie couldn’t help but reply, “That’s not the reason you hang out with me, is it?”

“Nah… It’s because you’re funny, and smart, and…” he trailed off, leaving the sounds of televised gunfire in his wake.

“And…” whispered Cassie, her heart thudding like a deep bell in her stomach. 

Nigel cleared his throat. “And nothing. You’re funny and you’re smart.”

Once her heart returned to normal speeds and pulled itself up from her stomach, she said, “Okay, well… that’s good to hear.”

“Speaking of hearing things,” said Nigel quickly, “You hear about Tanya? Apparently she got suspended for having a cig during recess!”

“No, really?” Cassie tuned out of the gossip portion of the conversation, which felt forced on both ends, though she doubted Nigel picked up on it. He was a simple boy, but she liked him. He never made fun of her, called her ugly, or insulted her grades. He even stood up for her a few times, though it had cost him dearly. 

Finally, he said, “So… what’re you gonna do now?”

“Hm?” Her glassy eyes refocused to the rainy street outside her window, where the yellowish glow of the lamps was turned into crystal static by the falling drops, and the reflections of the buildings were distorted in the puddles as they grew. 

“About your idea. What’s your move?”

Cassie sighed. “I don’t know, Nigel. I might just have to leg it.”

“Run away from home?” His voice grew panicked. 

“Of course not,” she replied hastily, “I meant leg it for my idea. I might have to do the work all by myself.”

“Well, what’s the saying - ‘If you want a job done right…’”

She frowned. “Yeah…”

After a few seconds, he added, “Where’s your quid gonna come from?”

Cassie shrugged, switching the phone to her left hand. “I don’t know. I talked with Mr. Watson, he doesn’t believe me, and I tried talking with Ms. Gardner, and she told me that until I get my exam grades up, she won’t consider any extra credit. So then I told her it wasn’t extra credit - I just needed her to set me up with some college professors. She laughed and said, ‘College professors? You think you’re sitting on a world-changing project with a 1.4 GPA? Trust me, darling; anything you think you’ve come up with has already been done. Now, run along - I’ve got class in two minutes.’”

“She said that?” asked Nigel.

“She’s just like my parents,” said Cassie, a scowl on her face, “None of them can be arsed to get up and listen to me. They think I’m just a stupid, ugly-”

“Don’t call yourself that,” interjected Nigel.

“You know what I mean,” said Cassie angrily. “My dad’s a drunk, my mom hasn’t thought about anything more technical than what’s in her stupid romance novels in ten years, and Ms. Gardner’s a prat.”

“No argument there - about Ms. Gardner that is. You should’ve seen what she did to my last biology homework. Massacred the bloody thing with a red pen.”

Cassie laughed, but stopped abruptly when she thought about the contents of her binder. There was a surefire way of combating the greatest foe man had ever faced, and yet at every turn she was being told to shut up and sit down. Where else could she go? She was a fourteen year old living in one of the most populated cities in the world. She could just start emailing professors, researchers, and industry experts, but then they’d steal her work! She had no legal power - no lawyers or copyright or trademarks. Just a binder full of some of the most revolutionary ideas of the century. 

“Hello? Cassie?” said Nigel loudly.

She snapped out of her reverie. “Hm? Oh sorry, Nigel. I’m here.”

“Well, I’ve got to get to bed. My mum’s hollering from her room. If I make her get up and come down to get me… You may never see me alive again.” 

The sounds of the game stopped, and Cassie heard Nigel get up and turn off the TV. 

“Well, thanks for picking up Nigel,” she said, “I really appreciate it.”

“Of course, of course… Well-”

“Nigel,” she interrupted, a spark going off in her mind, “D’you think… that your thoughts belong to you?”

“Hmm. I’ll let you know when I have any, Cassie.”

She gave him a quick giggle, but pressed on, “I’m serious. If you have a thought, do you think it belongs just to you, or do you feel comfortable letting others have it.”

“How can I let someone have a thought?” He asked, yawning loudly. 

She struggled to find the words, but finally said, “Look, if you… did some sort of maneuver in a video game-”

“A maneuver, huh?” He laughed. 

“Oh, shut up,” Cassie’s face went red, but she continued, “If you did some… trick, or whatever, would you be comfortable with others doing it?”

“You must think I’m pretty daft.”

“What d’you mean?” she asked quickly. 

“If you’re talking about what I think you’re talking about-”

“Can you just answer the bloody question?” asked Cassie, starting to feel annoyed. 

He was silent for a moment, and then muttered, “No… I wouldn’t be mad. Games are about people having fun, right? If someone uses my trick to have fun, then no… I wouldn’t be mad. I think the online community forgets that bit a lot, but I still think it’s true.”

“Hm. Okay, thanks.” Cassie had no idea what he was talking about with the online community, but she did get his point. “I’ll let you get up to bed before your mother gets to you.”

He laughed, but sounded a little sad when he said, “Alright, Cassie. ’Night.”

“Good night.”

She heard the click on the other end of the phone and tossed herself down on her unmade twin bed, staring up at the dark ceiling of her room. To her, there was no ceiling - just a pitch black void stretching out endlessly into the night. If it weren’t for the sounds of a late summer drizzle pittering against her window, she might’ve even convinced herself her ceiling was a gateway to the dark London sky. Minus the light pollution, of course. 

Cassie sighed and stared at her phone, Sally’s contact staring back at her eagerly. She didn’t keep in great touch with her, but Cassie had been there when Sally’s mother was going through cancer treatment, so their bond was almost unbreakable. Without further hesitation, she dialed the number. 

“Hey, Cassie,” said Sally’s tired voice on the other end. 

“Hi Sally,” replied Cassie, “D’you… have a few minutes?”

“Only a few - my mum wants me to help put my brother to bed.”

She sat up straight and said, “Alright I guess I’ll get to the point, then. If you had something you knew would… save a lot of people, would you give it away for free?”

“Like a vaccine?”

“Yes,” Cassie nodded, “Like a vaccine.”

“I don’t know if I could give it away for free… I mean my mum still needs all those doctor’s visits. If I could help my dad pay for those-”

“Well, let’s say that it wasn’t an issue. The choice is either someone steals your vaccine idea and enriches themselves, or…” Cassie paused and took a deep breath. “Or it never gets out into the world.”

Sally thought about it for a few seconds, and then answered in a quiet voice, “Cassie, I don’t know if I ever told you this, but… when my mum had cancer, it was already stage three. There… really wasn’t much hope for her.”

“You told me,” whispered Cassie. 

“Yeah, well… Did I tell you what ended up saving her?”

“An experimental medicine, right?”

Sally took a breath and said, “MmHm. An experimental medicine which we later found out was only available because the idea had been stolen from the original creator by a massive company, who seized on it and started putting it into trials.”

“So…”

“So, Cassie, I’m not saying what that company did was right - in fact I think there’s a lawsuit now and I want the original creator to get the money he deserves, but the fact is that my mum would likely be dead if that company hadn’t stolen the idea.” Sally sighed and said, “Sometimes bad things can still have good endings.”

It was a surprisingly profound thought for a fourteen year old, and something clicked in Cassie’s brain. She said, “Alright… that… really helps. Thanks, Sally.”

“Was that for school or something? Is Mr. Bennett giving you a lot of homework?”

Cassie laughed. “No… I was just curious. Well, I’ll let you help your mother out. Say hi to her for me, will you please?”

“Of course. Good night, Cassie.”

“Good night.”

They hung up, and Cassie once again stared at her ceiling, a strong and calm resolve gradually pervading her limbs until it felt like she was floating on top of the sheets. Both Nigel and Sally’s words had touched on the same tone through their individual experiences. Cassie knew what she had to do. She swung her feet out of bed and opened her door, taking a few moments to adjust to the hallway light before padding downstairs. 

“Cassandra Jean Rolston!” barked Ally as Cassie got to the first floor. “I thought I told you to go to bed!”

“Yes, mum.” Without saying anything further, she went to the table next to her mother and picked up the binder containing her precious idea, noting that it hadn’t been moved at all since she’d left it there. 

“What on Earth are you doing?” grumbled her father, turning his portly head to her. 

Cassie didn’t answer. She tapped her binder and smiled at the two of them. A knowing, quiet smile which caused both of their jaws to drop. Soon Cassie was running along upstairs and closing the door to her bedroom again. She put the binder under her pillow as she had on many a night before and laid down in her bed, turning on her fan as she pulled the thin blanket up to her chin. Tomorrow she’d leak her idea out onto the internet and pray that someone with more money and power than her would latch onto it, which was almost a given according to her thorough economic analysis. She closed her eyes and smiled. This was bigger than her and her pride. It was bigger than her family and bigger than any sum of money she could have. Cassie began to drift off into a peaceful sleep, knowing that soon the world would be forever better because of her, and even if no one else knew it, she did. And that was enough.