I was cleaning the boxes out of our attic when one of them fell sideways and spewed a fountain of age-darkened papers. I picked one up. It read:
“Today was the first day that actually felt like winter. The wind stung my cheeks while I was outside, all birds have already migrated, and the air has that winter scent to it. This is one of my favorite times of the year. I can’t wait for when we’ll get snow, if we get any at all. The news has been saying that this will be one of the hottest winters we’ve had in a while. I’m not looking forward to a hot winter. I’ve waited too long for it to get cold, it better not be warm. I’m going to go discourage the burning of fossil fuels. Prevent global warming and save the winter! More later.”
I wasn’t sure what any of it really meant. It was always warm. The letter must have been really old. Humans haven’t been subjected to season change in over 20 years. The Earth had become too hot for us a long time ago so we had to create our “home domes”, which were the domes we built over all the human settlements to make sure the climate remained cool enough for farming and human activities. I have never seen the sky in my life. I didn’t see what this person had to complain about.
Yet, It made me wonder what it was like then. What was winter like? All I ever learned in school was that winter was cold, and cold means discomfort so it was a good thing we have our home domes. If that were true, why was winter this person’s favorite season? How did it have a specific scent? And what was that about birds? I thought that all the birds had died along with most of the animals of earth. It was too hot for them too. Well, I guess they were alive then. Huh… I wish I could see a bird, or a dog. I’ve only seen pictures of dogs that live with really rich people who can afford them.

I wish people had stopped global warming. The only thing left of the old Earth is either dead in a museum or with the billionaires. You can’t even look outside a window anymore because glass would be a place of weakness on the home dome and if anything broke it, it would be very, very bad. We enjoy artificial sunlight and chemically enhanced food. If you get lonely you can buy a robotic replica of your favorite animal from when Earth was still livable.
I sighed and picked up the papers on the floor. I decided to take this box and put it into my room for me to read later. I finished up what was left to do in the attic and turned out the lights. I took the paper to class the next day. I found out that if we still had seasons it would be winter right now, and that someday the Earth may return to something like its former self but humans would have to change before it could happen.