Chapter 23 — Spring

A serial novel in the form of correspondence among a family while the world as we know it collapses around us. I recommend you start at the Introduction:

https://medium.com/climate-for-change/climate-for-change-introduction-5331d5ab9313

But you can start anywhere you want.

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Chapter 23

Handwritten or printed on computer paper (delivered by Charlie):

Dear Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, and Mel,

It has been a month since I last wrote. My days feel like they are all the same. Every day since the ground thawed, we have been digging in mud. The guards have us digging trenches. The rains fill them in and then they have us dig out the wet mud to get to the dry ground underneath to dig some more. The paths around the camp have become muddy messes. There is a layer of mud on the floor of the cabin. There is mud in the food. Our clothes are caked with mud. They hose us off with our clothes on sometimes. When we are not living in mud, we are shivering in the cold rain. I have seen cabin mates die from a fever in less than 24 hours, right after a shift digging mud in the rain.

Sometimes I think they are just trying to kill us. Why are we digging? Who do they think will come? Who are the trenches supposed to stop? The Canadians? Jeremy and I haven’t heard anything from Daisy in weeks. Charlie was transferred to another part of the camp and we only see her occasionally at the dining hall. The new guards have…