"Teacher, what are the things hanging down on the corner of the building? They look like wires."
She sighed. Only three weeks into the new year. She needed to encourage curiosity, keep them engaged, but this...
"Yes, Sarai, they are wires, for electricity. We learned about electricity last year, how the solar farm..."
The hand went up again. "But, Teacher, they aren't connected." Sarai was very sharp.
Now she closed her eyes to gather the pieces of an answer. She needed hours to explain how electricity used to be produced and distributed, days for implications of the choices that had been made, and their impacts. These children would never be able to truly understand how ubiquitous it had been, how central to everyone's lives before the End. They knew electricity as the dim pathway lights at night, the film projector on Saturday evening and their remaining medical machinery, no comparison at all.
And yet, there were stories that might help. "Well, children, once upon a time..."
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