Phytoremediation

I lack ambition from the side, monsters eaten me

Basil began to watch the news for a while. Unlike Sunny, Basil preferred being well-informed about the world. They just finished covering the deaths of some children in Palestine, thankfully without showing any pictures, before moving on to "News Guangdong," a segment in which news local to the province would be discussed.

"Local mining CEO claims to be running for mayor of Guangzhou. Today we have two experts on to debate."

"Thank you Mrs. Ming." the man on the left began to speak, below him was an info card edited in. It said his name was Calvin Li, and that he was a Environmental Scientist, and student of Zhou Enlai, impressively (a famous figure in China).

He began speaking about environmental impact of the various strategies of mining. This all went completely over Basil's head, he understood nothing. The man on the right spoke next, named Hunter Porter, apparently an executive of a steel processing plant.

"You see, the issue with your phrase on impact, is that what you're telling me is that the issue is it's killing plants. My question for you, is, why shouldn't we? Plants are nothing more than decorative. We've done our part in animal relocation as the law demands, and that's all we need to do! No real living beings are being hurt!" The man laughed a bit as he spoke.

Basil felt a rage boiling up. Who was this "person" to say that plants aren't living. That they aren't feeling pain from the poison that they admitted they pump into the ground. He let out an exasperated yell, which apparently worried Polly.

"What's wrong Basil, did something happen?" she asked from upstairs.

"It's nothing, Polly. Some idiot on the news." Basil replied, still slightly mad.

"You see, just because some tree-huggers might hate her, I still think that Mrs. Charron will be able to win this election."

Basil felt his blood run cold. Charron was his last name. His mother lived in Guangzhou, and ran a mining company. It couldn't be.

"Michelle Charron's questionable amount of pollution may not stop her from getting elected, but she apparently had a history of involvement in corruption in Australia. Mr. Porter, how can you defend someone like her?" Calvin Li questioned.

"Bah! Poppycock, it's called lobbying and it's legal in Australia. She was just participating in the Australian political system! She's got a gay son, I heard, so she's gonna be winning some votes with that development!" Hunter Porter laughed some more, before continuing, "If I had a mentally ill freak like that, I'd at least hope I'd get some votes out of it too! Otherwise, right off to conversion therapy! Bahahaha!" His laugh grated on Basil's ears.

Basil covered his face. Well, at least they hadn't used his name. Otherwise he could never leave the house again.

The phone rang, and was immediately picked up by Polly upstairs.

"Uh-huh, I see miss. Right away." Polly came downstairs, and handed the phone to Basil. "It's your mother."

"Hey mom, I-"

"Only call me that in public, Basil, I'm Michelle, remember?"

Looks like his mom was doing that too. Great.

"So, anyway Basil, how are you?"

Basil looked down, "Well, I've been-"

"That's great hon, so I'm going to be bringing you to Guangzhou, I think it'd be great for my campaign!" Michelle interrupted.

Basil felt angry, but tried to bargain. His parents wouldn't take no for an answer. "Um, ok but... how long do I have to stay there?"

"Around a week. Just be around me in public, and things will go fine!"