One

Summary

Morning comes to New York city. The world teeters on the brink of our final war, and the air is too hot, too thin. People struggle to breathe, despite their puffing oxygen concentrator units, while they make their way on the sidewalks lined with the outstretched hands of the homeless.

Another mammal is on the sidewalk, a thriving rat dragging a piece of pizza. A woman screams while a nearby man marvels at the creature. “How much food is being thrown away to support thirty million of these mammals while so many Homo sapiens go hungry?” He snaps a picture of the rat and asks, “Is that pepperoni?” This chaotic meeting leads to a friendship between the man, the woman, and her son.

Grace is a physicist, brilliant, beautiful, tasked with calculating entry paths of titan missile warheads---and filled with worry for her autistic son. Androgynous, eccentric Bob doesn’t care what Grace looks like. Grace feels like he looks into her when he asks his unusual questions: “Does your job make you feel hopeful?”

Jack, eleven, is uncoordinated, autistic, genius, and afraid he’ll never have friends. Bob sees Jack’s quirks as gifts, the potential to do anything, the future we could have if more people were like him. He takes the time to listen to Jack’s endless questions and answers them patiently.

These three unlikely friends, with the help of others, give the world a gift. If used it will save us. Jack shouts, “Everything can change.” Can they convince the world to accept the gift? Can we save ourselves?