This Changes Everything

by Sally Ember, Ed.D.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  From Esperanza Enlaces' private journal entries,

  April 18 - May 20, 2013

  4/18/13

  The call comes last night! I stuttered some responses and here we are! Today’s headline, in all the local papers, is: “2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners and Nominated Finalists announced” because the lead story, with ME as the center, is about my award! ¡Es cierto! ¡Es un milagro! ¡Santa mierda! [It’s true! It’s a miracle! Holy shit!”] I have won an effing PULITZER PRIZE! At 31!

  Here is the main part of the article:

  “In an unprecedented move, this year’s Pulitzer Committee awarded a unique prize in its ‘Special Citation’ category by opening a new slot for nominations. They will begin accepting them in 2014 for ‘InterGalactic Reporting.’ The first winners were announced April 17: Esperanza Enlaces, 31, and The San Francisco Chronicle (CA, USA) for Ms. Enlaces’ breaking news stories, photography, videos and investigative work reporting the first and subsequent contacts between the delegates from the Many Worlds Collective (MWC) and Dr. Clara Ackerman Branon, Ph.D., the designated Earth contact with the MWC delegates, now known as the 'Chief Communicator,' of Kirov, CA.

  “Ms. Enlaces said this about the unusual award: ‘I am honored and surprised. Please know that if Clara doesn’t choose me to be her Chief Media Contact and without the cooperation of all of the Collective’s delegates, I would not be talking to you about this today. I am forever grateful to all of them for allowing me, giving me the privilege, to be present and to record these historical moments for all time. Muchas gracias to the Pulitzer Committee members for choosing to add this category so that future journalists may be so honored.’

  “Ms. Enlaces will be flown to New York City for the May 22 luncheon at Columbia University’s School of Journalism annual Pulitzer Prize ceremonies that honor winners in all categories.”

  Then, they list my previous accomplishments and some things from my rèsumè. So weird. They also get my headshot from the Chronicle’s files and post that with the article along with my first photograph of the MWC holos with Clara.

  It’s hard to believe that I only meet Clara about a year ago and that I meet the MWC members a few months ago…. Feels way longer than that.

  After I get the call last night, I call my mom to tell her. She tells me that, for the last two months, her phone has already been ringing, anyway, since people don’t know my number and Clara changes hers but my mom’s is listed. We’re the only Enlaces in this phone book. She doesn't tell me that before and I feel kind of bad. She jokes that she may have to unlist her number and how does that work for her business? But, it may not be a joke. ¡Mierda!

  This morning, after the articles come out, my friends and my co-workers all call, text, email, like loco [“crazy”]. I can’t even thank them or call them all back or anything. My FB [“Facebook”] page is a mess! I can’t even read all the posts, anymore.

  Do I mention I get $100K!!!! I have to split it with the Chronicle, but so what?

  Clara tells me, after the first articles and videos are posted, that, once more people know about me and not only her, my life changes, but I have no idea. Not really.

  It probably sounds ridiculous to say that nothing like this ever happens to me before, since it doesn’t happened to ANYONE before, but it’s true! How am I going to deal with this?

  What happens when the paparazza has her own paparazzi???? ¡Ayudame! [“Help me!”]

  5/2/13

  ¡Dios mio! My life is hit by a hurricane! For the last two weeks or so, nonstop, I am on the phone, online, writing new articles (Clara invites me to be in on about ten more contacts in the last three weeks), posting new videos, responding to comments, requests for interviews…. ¡UFF! ¡Es abrumador! [“Yikes! It’s overwhelming!”].

  Clara is giving exclusive rights to reporting all this only to me (that’s what it means, that I am her “Chief Media Contact”) by order of the MWC, but there is no “order” about who can talk to me!?!?! So, I get EVERYBODY ELSE. The MWC doesn’t seem to think about this so well….I need my own Espe!

  I tell my mom I can’t work for her, anymore, because it is imposibile. Calls for me are tying up all of their phone lines, strangers are dropping by hoping to catch sight of me or have an autograph, ever since I win the Prize. I have no time to work at anything else, now, anyway.

  Clara says I’m about to be earning more money, but I don’t see how, yet. What am I going to do about my bills??? I don’t get the Prize money for a few more weeks, and that is only going to be $50K for me, personally. I love this, I really do, but once that money is gone, how can I afford this? Maybe I could find a newspaper or online outlet that lets me do this and only this, and pays me?

  I’ll ask Clara if that’s what she means. ¡Maldito! [“damn”]. She must already know, anyway! I’m so estúpida! [“stupid”]

  5/20/13

  ¡Gracias a Dios! Clara IS coming with me to NYC. She wants to see her son, Zephyr, anyway, and this is her first time seeing him since right after the visits start in December. Also, I guess the new leaders in the former UN want her to speak to them, and the Transitioning-out USA President is going to come to NYC for that, and a whole bunch of other meetings (Transition leaders' meetings, like with the former NYC Mayor, NY state Governor, whomever all) and TV interviews happen then.

  Best parts, so far: We are BOTH going to be on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report!!! I ask if she is going to go on SNL [Saturday Night Live] and Clara said, weirdly, “I don’t stay up that late.” I tell her, maybe they don’t tape it at 11 PM. She eyes me strangely. Oh, duh: “LIVE.” I guess they do.

  I really want to go see that show. “Couldn’t you, like, take a nap or something?” I ask her. She already tells me she usually takes naps when she has to stay up “late,” which, for her, is past, like, 8 PM. No joke.

  She says, “I don’t think that SNL is the best venue for this kind of thing,” and it was, well, final. Clara gets that teacher/mother voice, and that’s it. I know it.

  But, then, she smiles and tells me, “Good idea, though. Keep asking about things, OK?” So, I feel better after that.

  Well, the other shows tape in the afternoons or early evenings, so she can do those. There are Fraggers protesting, but I really do not care. We have plenty of OSes; we are fine. I’m PSYCHED!

  I really don’t get, though, why Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert’s shows are OK “venues,” but SNL is not….

  Clara also refuses to go on The View, but says OK to Ellen [DeGeneres]. When I ask why not The View, she says: “Too many people. I don’t hear that well. Plus, those women are, well, too plastic. And, Ellen is, well, Ellen!” That really makes me laugh. And, she tells me, she has to go on The Tonight Show, which Jimmy Fallon recently starts hosting. "For my mother, and my father," she says. Her father is dead for decades. She sometimes makes no sense.

  As far as the former President and former leaders of the UN meetings go: in January, after the first stories came out, Clara steadfastly refuses to meet with certain heads of state (mainland China, North Korea, several African and middle Eastern countries, some in Central America), saying, “I do not meet with those heinous criminals. They all go into ReInvolvement or get Qed. I meet leaders who become delegates to our Council. When those countries have new leadership and new, humane policies…. And, anyway, after March, well, let’s say it’s a whole new ballgame.”

  Of course, at the time, I have no idea what she means. "Qed"? "ReInvolvement"? And, why does she always talk in the present tense?

  Then, in late February, the “heads exploding” and John Lennon-esque portions of the program begin. By mid-March, I get it. Totally. I joke with her: “Beware the Ides of March,” and she knew exactly what I meant, both the Julius Caesar reference and the reminder of one of our anniversaries…. How does she remember that, anyway? I have to ask her.

  So, this week, when Clara meets with the former NY, CT and MA (not the NJ) Governors, the former
NYC Mayor, the outgoing President of the USA and some of the former UN heads, they all know that this meeting with the CC is their last official act in those roles since the UN is being abolished. All nations and borders are soon to be gone, dissolved, unimportant in about seven months (they have until December 31, 2013, to figure that all out). After December 31, they’re all out of work, anyway. No more “heads of state” since no more “states.” There are local leaders, decision-makers and a lot of other new structures and people in place by January, 2014, when the Global Unity Leaders Council is formed, but I don't hear, yet, how they are chosen or who they are. Yo no lo entiendo [“I don’t get it”]: how is this all going to transform?

  There is a LOT no entiendo. My head sometimes feels as if it will explode, but Clara assures me it does not. ¡Puta merda! I’m glad she’s so calm about it all. It probably helps a chingo [“shitload”] that she seems to able to ‘see’ it all, already. Wish I could. She says I do, “soon.” When I ask “how soon?” she smiles.

  [For transcripts or videos of all speeches, interviews, and other news stories from the CC’s and EE’s New York City visit in May, 2013, see: mwcw.news.verse {go to May 1 - 31, 2013 Earth Dates.}]