I've begun to know Mrs. Sanchez a lot more since I joined the dance class. Despite that, at each of our social studies class, she still surprises me.

Our previous teacher, now retired, was dry, boring, and monotonous. Mrs. Sanchez was funny, smart, quick-thinking, and able to not only take questions on the fly instead of just at the end of class but also to adapt her teaching based on them.

Today, she was talking about the fall of Constantinople, explaining that the city was once the most populous in the world but around the fall didn't even have enough residents to mount a proper defense.

With vivid details, she spoke about the final assault of the Janissaries, after the walls were fired at with over 5,000 shots from huge cannons created to assault the formidable walls of the city.

She spoke of the last stand of the defenders, of how the Turks still could slip into the city assaulting them from all sides. How the emperor Constantine removed his purple imperial regalia (which she explained to one student covering the fall of Constantinople), to lead the final defense.

We don't know how he died, from battle or from hanging himself as claimed by a Venetian (which means from Venice).

She paused the lesson, with a question.

"Can you raise your hand if you think that slavery is bad"

All of us did.

"Good. Slavery is horrible. I would have a long talk with anyone who didn't raise their hand at this moment. Can anyone tell me why, on that day, slavery was moderately good, to some extent?"

We all looked at each other.

No one could answer.

"Good. That's good, kids. I don't want any of you to think that slavery is good. And yet, sometimes, it is, which is why it survived until it became fully evil. OK, so what was the goal of Mehmed II with Constantinople?"

Since no one answered, I did. "To conquer it"

"Good. It's the capital of the Byzantine Empire, which, may I remind you, was the Roman Empire. We call it Byzantine because it was the Eastern Roman Empire, but make no mistake, Constantine was the Roman Emperor. Anyone ruling from Constantinople would get a major prestige bonus. So, Mehmed II had captured the future capital of his empire. But it was in serious decline. He didn't want the current Christian citizens running it; he wanted his Muslim citizens running it. So, in what way was slavery somewhat good on the day of the capture?"

No one answered, so I hesitantly raised my hand.

"Julie?"

"Maybe, instead of killing everyone in the city, he turned them into slaves?"

She pointed with both of her index fingers at me,

"Instead of killing everyone in the city, the population was kept safe so they could be used as slaves. Now, before you leave this class thinking I am condoning slavery, you have to understand something. Slavery then wasn't always the same as we picture it today. "

She paused to make sure we were listening. "In the fifteenth century, when Constantinople fell, being enslaved didn't always mean what it did for Africans brought to the Americas. It wasn't about race. It wasn't for life. You could sometimes buy your freedom, or earn it, or even rise to power. A few Janissaries, the very soldiers who attacked Constantinople, had been slaves. It was a system of control, cruel and unjust, yes, but still part of a world that hadn't yet invented the idea of freedom the way we understand it. I don't condone it. I just say that without that system in place, every citizen of the city would have been killed. Remember, the concept of citizenship didn't exist. If you lived in a city, you were either a citizen or a slave. "

Then she grew more serious. "What happened later, in the Atlantic slave trade, was entirely different. That was chattel slavery. People turned into property because of their skin color. No escape, no redemption, no individuality, and absolutely no rights at all. That's when slavery became not only brutal but also ideological. A whole lie built to justify dehumanization."

She folded her arms, as if finishing a performance. "So, when we mention slavery in Constantinople, or in Rome, or in Greece, remember that they enslaved others because of war. The modern world learned to enslave people because of who they were. And that, my dears, is when humanity truly lost its way."

I was in awe to her words. It's like we were watching a movie. You know, those with an inspiring teacher who had to fight to keep their job for fighting the status quo.

She talked about how Hagia Sophia, probably the most beautiful church in the world, was kept mostly as is and converted to a mosque.

"I don't want you guys to miss the importance of this. The concept of the 7 wonders was basically a tourism pitch. It was more like, if you want to travel, here are the 7 things to see. If such a list had been made around those years, Hagia Sophia would have been on it. Built in 537, it was the largest cathedral of all of Christendom until it was converted to a mosque. But its most striking feature is its self-supporting dome, 102 feet in diameter and 182 feet from the floor, giving the impression that it is floating over the interior space. It was revolutionary, and it inspired subsequent buildings."

She took a pause but resumed soon enough.

"Mehmed wanted the city to become his capital, so he only allowed 3 days of looting. Do you guys know why looting was allowed?"

It's actually Lyndon who raised his hand, to my surprise.

"To reward the soldiers"

"Exactly. Looting was seen as a way for the soldiers, who were often famished, to just become rich from the city they captured. By being limited to 3 days, even if many of the houses were uninhabitable, most of the city was spared. This is how the books were recovered. But here is the thing. Slavery, back then, wasn't perfect. People often weren't kept in chains, and many scholars fled the city to get back to Europe. The Venetians managed to flee the invasion of the city, and I suspect that they grabbed a few scholars. They were poets, musicians, astronomers, architects, scribes, philosophers, and writers, but even more important, humanists. They brought to Europe the Byzantine knowledge, which came straight from ancient Greece. This is what jump-started the humanist renaissance"

On fire today, Lyndon raised his hand.

"Yes, Lyndon?"

Mrs. Sanchez really learned all of our names. Her trick was that when she didn't know your name and you spoke, you had to say it. It didn't take long for her to know everyone.

"I thought they got them from trading with the Muslim?"

"Ah, great point, Lyndon. Now, let's say that you visit an abandoned house and find volumes 4 and 5 of an encyclopedia with super advanced topics. Stuff of science fiction! Enough to completely revolutionize your town. And you realize that volume 3 is being sold in the next town, but you aren't allowed to buy it. So, you negotiate to either copy it or offer large sums to get to buy it. That's what happened. Let's have an example. One of the most famous cases is Giovanni Aurispa. In 1423, he traveled from Constantinople to Venice carrying two hundred and thirty-odd Greek manuscripts, such as Plato, Proclus, Diodorus, and Xenophon. He said he bought them, traded them, and convinced scholars with gold or favors to let him copy texts. Others say he smuggled them in pieces. But that's what he had: pieces. Later, seeing how wonderful this was, the Venetians went to look for them, for the whole documents."

Now, I was in love. Well, not really; it's a saying.

But what I was hearing isn't just history. Mrs. Sanchez was putting everything in context. She was linking elements. Why did the Venetians (I love that word) look for old Greek texts? Because previous traders smuggled some of them before the fall, and then refugees brought more. This is history. Something living, not just random names and dates.

I was still floating in awe in my last class, but I don't recall what it was. Perhaps science, as I had a day when I finished with social studies and science.

To my surprise, I found my dad outside of school.

"Hey Sugar, you have a date!"

"Huh?"

"Richard called us. James Finley is willing to talk to you, like, right now"

"Dad, I have no idea what you are talking about"

"James is the environmental engineer of the city. I can take you to him so you know more about your future career"

Suddenly, my eyes lit up.

I don't know if you recall, but because of the Ritalin, Richard had offered that meeting, and then it sort of died out as I went into the daze of the psychoactive pill.

"Amazing, I thought he forgot"

"He did, but Mom spoke to Ellie, and well, this is happening now."

I hugged him. Edith found us, and after talking, she decided to take the bus to Charlie's house. Which is the same as Marge's house, but for Edith, it's her boyfriend's house first and foremost.

We drove to the other side of the city.

"Now, I don't know the guy, so I can stay with you if you'd like?"

"Maybe not far? But I need to be able to stand on my own, you know?"

"I do, sugar"

We make it to a weird park, which is recessed into the ground. You have to walk downhill to get into it. It's ugly, and there are two cement tunnels of sorts on the sides, over which there is a fence and a bench to look down at the park. This is the weirdest thing I ever saw.

There were workers with reflective vests and a helmet. They were installing picnic tables, but they were bolting them down on the cement base they were on.

Next to them was an older man with a clipboard, a helmet, and a reflective vest.

My dad stayed behind, and I went to meet him.

"Excuse me, are you James Finley?" I asked.

"I am. You can't be here; we are working"

"Oh, sorry. I was sent by Richard. To learn about the environmental engineer job"

"Oh. I didn't realize he would send a girl"

"Is that a problem?" I ask, suddenly serious. Really? Sexism?

"Well, there is a ton of math involved.", he said, with a frown.

"I am number one in my class in math, not of the girls, of everyone", I said. Fine, I was lying, but I was probably top 3 without geometry.

He suddenly changed his demeanor. "Oh, that's fine then. Let's get away from the drills so you don't get hurt"

"Because I am a girl?"

"No, because the city insurance doesn't cover you if you get hurt"

"Oh"

We walk a few steps. "What's your name?"

"Julie"

"This is a new detention basin I designed and we got built. It's the second of four in the city"

"Wait, detention, I read about them. Is it to contain excess water during heavy rain to prevent flooding?"

He smiles. "It is. It works like a bathtub to temporarily store the excess water. Normally, the ground should be able to absorb some water, but now, we put streets and houses and driveways in, which basically absorb nothing. So, when there is excess water, the rainwater sewer needs to evacuate it. The pipes have a fixed size and slope, so they can only carry so much water before it starts backing up. So what happens when more water falls than the pipes can evacuate?"

"Flooding"

"Exactly. This slows the flow enough that the pipes downstream don't overflow. It's one piece of a chain of protections from a 100-year storm event, which are now a lot more frequent."

"100-year storm event?" I ask,

"Right, in environmental engineering, a lot of the work is about probabilities. A 5-year storm event means that each year, there is a 20% chance it will occur. Our current rainwater system is more than capable of handling them. 25-year storm events are rougher but rarer. Then, there is water in the street, and the system is struggling. We might have a few houses flooded. Not good, but not catastrophic. But a 100-year event? That's the kind of rain that only occurs 1% of the time. And no system can account for that"

"So you would store that excess water here"

"Exactly. This is a detention basin. Normally dry, but can be flooded to, well, avoid a flood elsewhere. A retention basin is when there is normally some water but can get a ton more. You should go to the pond at the end of 29th Street. It's popular for the ducks in it. Just don't give them bread. It makes them sick. But that was a natural one. We added an earthen berm and a controlled outlet to let it hold more water safely. It's a low pond, but in case of heavy rain, it can store a ton of water."

"I'll go see! That's super neat. So what's the work like to do this?"

"Super boring", he says, without laughing at all.

"Really?"

"First, I needed to study the rain pattern, the flooding history, and the drainage records. Computers now help a lot. Now I can run computer models that show how water moves through the city and test ideas without digging a single hole."

"That doesn't sound so bad"

"If you like computers"

"I do"

"Good. That will help you. So, I then need to produce a plan. There are underground tanks we can install and parks we can convert. It's all a question of cost, feasibility, and capacity. Often, I make multiple plans I will take to the city council"

"And they decide?"

"Well, that's the politics of the thing. I show how much damage we can prevent for each dollar spent. That's what convinces them, but if that fails, I need to convince them that doing any of them, as any solution, is often better than doing nothing at all. But these politicians, they don't want to spend money. Raising taxes is always unpopular"

"Even if it's to prevent flooding?"

"Julie, people don't think about that. They care about garbage collection, about sport activities, and about making sure their property value goes up. Not much else"

"That's sad to hear"

"Well, that's life. But even when the council says yes, the fight isn't done. Because you need to get people on board. Like, most of the people around here were angry about the construction noise, about the play park not being available for their kids for a few months, about how when it rains it will look ugly, about, well, anything."

"I bet. When I was a kid, I didn't like it when there was construction near my house, but I was happy when the sidewalk was repaired"

"Exactly. Once it's done, they don't think about it anymore. Like, we'll install new play equipment that the kids will like even more. But getting there meant convincing people. Do you know the expressions NIMBY and BANANA?"

"Banana?", I said, laughing.

"Yes, BANANA. I suppose you don't. NIMBY is the acronym not in my backyard. People don't want anything near them. So, Banana is Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone"

"Yikes. This is tougher than I thought. I didn't realize there was a public relations part to it"

"There is. Well, if you work for a city. Not all of us do. You might work for a mining company or perhaps for a green energy one. Our job is to manage things like flooding, wind protection, or even how to prevent spills in a chemical factory."

"Ok, this is precisely what I like. I realized I wanted to do this job when my family went camping. There was an artificial lake put in so people could swim, and I was impressed how a normal stream was engineered to create a lake, leveraging the natural environment for our use"

He smiled. "If you already get that, you will do well. Most of my school colleagues only wished to force the environment. But you need to work with it. It's funny, because I started similarly to you."

"With an artificial lake?"

"No, I am not from here. I moved when I got the job. I grew up in rural Vermont. Near my house was a beaver dam, but the beaver left or died. I am not 100% sure. It was slowly eroding, but the thing is, that dam? It stabilized the river. With a few other kids, we found branches, fallen trees, and so on and solidified the dam. It held, and the next summer, new beavers took over. I was so happy."

"That is so cool"

"It was. That year, however, I went on a personal project. I diverted the river upstream to feed into a pond, which used to be a lake before the beaver dam. It wasn't that difficult to do, as I only had to dig a small channel to get into a sort of small place. At first, it was a mess, but then, the water settled, and the last time I visited, it not only still flowed, almost 30 years later, but there was a new beaver dam on it. It's like that branch was always there. Turns out, nature took over and shaped it better than I did."

"Ok, that is impressive. I think I'll try something like that next summer"

"Just review everything downstream multiple times. Think about the water flow. You don't want to fully divert it, but water does what it thinks. And don't do it in this city, or I might have to crack down on it," he says, laughing.

"Yeah. I'll think about it"

"How old are you?"

I look at him. "I am 14, soon to be 15"

"Is your birthday soon?"

"In a few months, why?"

"Ok, when you turn 16, come to city hall and leave your resume. I could take you as an intern. I don't know if I could actually pay you, but it would look great on a college admission."

"Oh, I would love that! Especially if I can help our city from, well, turning to shit. Sorry, all the adults I talk to use that term"

He laughed. "There is nothing I can do to prevent us from becoming a suburb, Julie. But I can make us attractive enough that perhaps we could merge if we have financial problems"

"That's a worthy goal. Keeping the city attractive"

He smiled.

"I'll get back to you. I am happy to have met you"

"Even if I am just a girl?"

He sighed. "My issue is that the girls I knew in my studies were bad at math. They just wanted to make cities pretty. But this job isn't about making things pretty."

"I am not like that."

"Good. It's not an environmental design degree. It's an environmental engineering degree. A ton of math."

I thanked him and joined my dad.

Perhaps he wasn't that sexist, just, well, old-fashioned. He is old...

That beaver story, though? That was neat.

I know now that he made it sound simpler than it was, but at fourteen, it felt like he was showing me the secrets of the world.

Was I scared by the community outreach? Well, yeah. But I was 14. I am sure that in, say, 10 years, I would master that. Could I convince a city hall to do a project? Well, I suppose I will learn to. Did the math scare me? Not at all. Perhaps the geometry part, and I am guessing there is a ton of it. But with computers, my visuospatial dyspraxia didn't reveal itself too much.

This is a career I could see myself doing.

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