Fresh Inspiration

The children unclipped their filter masks as instructed. Some coughed and spluttered as they breathed in the warm, murky air of the assembly hall.

Teachers strode between the lines of seated children, administering short bursts of precious oxygen from the school’s depleted supply of portable canisters, whilst some of their colleagues taped around doorways and grimy windows. Large, static cylinders lined the sides of the hall.

Extraction fans, an extravagance not normally reserved for gatherings, whirred into action overhead.

The Headteacher stood on a podium; his voice crackled over ancient loudspeakers. “Today we celebrate Carbon Free Martyrs’ Day”, he paused for the obligatory, half-hearted applause from the teachers.

The children remained unmoved. Most seemed bored; a few shifted uncomfortably as they watched their teachers seal exit points.  For many, the now lauded, but failed attempt to shut down carbon belching industry fifty years ago was ancient history.

“This year,” the Headteacher continued, “instead of the usual speeches,” some of the pupils perked up at this, “the School Governors and the Teaching Faculty have funded an extraordinary gift for all of us. Each chose to cut back on their daily allocation of power over the last year, so that we can enjoy this.”

“These,” he gestured towards the upright cylinders, “have come to us by sailboat. I hope that you’ll cherish and remember this day for a very long time. Be inspired by it. We are all going to breathe fresh air for a minute or so.”

The extraction fans stopped and the cylinders hissed open.

Some children panicked and had to be calmed, others tried to outdo their neighbours by taking the deepest breaths possible.

Ten years later the memory of those precious sixty seconds lingered and former pupils would sometimes gather and reminisce about their experience.

Some likened it to the smell of freshly sterilised clothes a few seconds before polluted air seeped back into the fabric; for others it reminded them of the coolness of fresh water, when the desalination plants actually worked.

A few believed it had tasted of freedom and they were going to demand more.