SAVE IT FOR ME By Alexis Zenth aka Madeleine Kay

“I just blew a bubble with my gum!” cried nine year old Marie Turnlow, who at the moment was standing on the living room couch. “Mom. Come here and I’ll do another one,” she laughed.

Her mother came into the room, took one look at the couch which had muddy footprints and bubble gum all over it and screamed, “OUT! OUT, OUT, OUT!!!!.

“But,” cried Marie.

“No buts!!!” roared her mother. And with that, she grabbed her daughter’s hand and dragged her outside.

“And don’t come in again until dinner,” panted her mother.

“But what if it rains?” asked Marie, and as she said it, it started to pour.

“Then you’ll come inside,” said her mother. “And you’ll take off your shoes,” she added quickly.

“But I’m muddy all over,” said Marie.

“Then take a bath,” answered her mother.

“No,” said Marie simply. “We waste too much water.”

“Tell your friends at school. Don’t bother me about it,” her mother said.

“I did but they said to stop telling them what to do, and that they wouldn’t play with me anymore,” Marie said calmly.

“Oh honey. That’s terrible. But why didn’t you tell me before now? I could have helped you!” cried her mother.

“Because they weren’t very good friends in the first place,” said Marie.

“But anyway honey. What were you saying about wasting water?” asked her mother.

Marie said two simple but complicated words-“Global Warming.”

“Global what?” asked her mother.

“G-L-O-B_A-L- W-A-R-M-I-N-G,” said her daughter very slowly so that her mother could hear. “You know, smog, pollution, hurricanes, floods, fires, animal extinctions, endangered species increase, melting of the ice caps, etc, etc, etc.”

When she finished her mother was looking at her with her mouth open and tears in her eyes, at a total lost for words. “I-I didn’t know,” she said finally.

“That’s alright,” said Marie gently.

“I-I just,” gasped her mother but Marie wasn’t listening. She was staring out the window her brow furrowed in concentration.

There was a long silence, and then finally Marie said, “Save it for us. Save it for me. Help children to help Earth.”

There was a pause and then a choked up voice said, “I-I’ve decided w-what to do. First I will take you out of school, so you can make new friends and we can have more time to help our planet. Then we will try to do everything w-we can to protect our planet.”

When she finished, she looked up and Marie saw that she had tears streaming down her cheeks. Marie reached out and pulled her mom into a big hug, and said, “I love you Mom.’

The next day, Marie woke up on the living room carpet, beside her mother who was still sleeping. She got up and made breakfast, thinking about real friends, thinking about being home-schooled and about saving the planet. And that was only the beginning. The end.