The Year of the Flood

Adam One addresses the Gardeners and three new people he calls “Fellow Mortals.” These three people—Melissa, Darren, and Quill—joined the Gardeners after surviving the Waterless Flood. They avoided contamination through isolation: When the Flood hit, Melissa was in a hilltop yoga studio, Darren was in a hospital ward, and Quill was serving a sentence in solitary confinement.

Now the Gardeners are gathering in an old Happicuppa franchise, where they also gained access to a storeroom and can sustain themselves with powdered milk and refined sugar. Adam One reminds everyone that Happicuppa, as a producer of “sun-grown, pesticide-sprayed, rainforest-habitat-destroying coffee products” (444) greatly jeopardized the environment, which is why some former Gardeners decided to join the movement against Happicuppa.

Adam One encourages everyone to rejoice in this new “rearranged world” and to notice how much cleaner the air has become without the man-made pollution. Then he urges them to remember Saint Rachel, who dedicated her life to bird conservation, and who was brutally killed by the chemical corps for her environmental work.

Adam One finishes his speech on a hopeful note: He thinks that the rainforest must be regenerating after the Flood, and that nature will repair itself soon.