Henry's Decision

Henry’s Decision

Henry woke up early on Saturday, excited about the trip to the park, to see William, Margaret, Liz, Harry and others. He was thinking about them throughout the whole school week and even asked his dad if they could wake up at 6 am to go see them on a school day. That proposition was met with a confident “of course not”.

“C’mon dad, let’s go! Look, it is so sunny outside today!” - Henry was standing in the living room, struggling to contain his excitement. Dressed in his favourite brown trousers, a pale yellow shirt buttoned up to the top and a black striped vest, which was part of his school uniform, he looked like a tiny grown-up, ready for another day at the office.

“Aren’t you a little overdressed for the occasion, young man? It is just a park, you know!” - chuckled Christopher, admiring his son’s sense of style over the top of the Guardian opened on the financial section. “Just give me 5 minutes to finish my coffee and we will go. Why are you up so early anyway?”

“I went to bed a bit earlier yesterday - so today would come faster. You know how it works, right?” - Henry smiled and rushed to the hall to start the long process of tying the laces on his brown leather shoes, which looked extraordinarily similar to his father’s Oxfords.

It was only 10 in the morning but Central London was already choking in a gridlock of cars, cabs and buses, sounding like a madly out-of-tune orchestra trying to find a common key to play in and failing miserably.

This week at school Henry learned about air pollution and its effects on human health. The air suddenly started being much more smelly after that. Henry decided that from now on he will try to avoid Piccadilly street and instead go through Green Park on his way home. He will also start practising holding his breath for longer, just in case. And he might ask his dad to consider buying a less polluting car next time he wants a new one.

By the time Henry and Christopher made it to Hyde Park the late May sun was hard at work, warming up the pavements and helping Londoners put on their best smiles. Henry was excited to share his newly acquired environmental knowledge with his dad and ask his opinion on all the important issues. He always knew his dad was the smartest of them all.

“So if everyone knows that burning fossil fuels is so bad, then why do they keep doing it?” - Henry was puzzled.

“Well, it is complicated... The world relies on fossil fuel so much because it is just how we did things for more than 100 years now. It is a reliable way to get a car running and a house warmed up in winter. We are making decent progress with electric cars, wind and solar power stations so I hope the future air will be a bit easier to breathe” - explained Christopher as they walked past the Marble Arch side entrance and Speaker’s Corner.

“But if every wealthy person in the world decided to help make this progress faster - could we then have clean air much sooner? Why does it have to take so long?” - Henry was relentless.

Christopher considered explaining that many rich people would probably do everything in their power to keep digging for oil for as long as possible, but then he decided against it. Ruining a 10-year old’s Saturday by explaining the harsh truth about the world he will inherit wasn’t a very good plan.

Hyde Park was slowly filling up with all sorts of people with all sorts of weekend plans. Families were setting up their elaborate picnics, some even had baskets with proper glasses and plates. Henry always thought that the whole point of a picnic was to leave real plates at home and use the ones that you can throw out on your way back. He only learned the word “eco-friendly” this week so now these upper-middle-class Londoners with their porcelain plates suddenly seemed like environmental activists. Henry gave them an approving nod when passing by.

Every time he saw these picnic baskets his thoughts went right to his mum. She always made the best tuna salad sandwiches and used to love picnics in Hyde Park. She also used to love dad… But then she fell in love with someone else. Henry really wanted to see that other person, because he just couldn’t imagine someone better than dad, but he wasn’t allowed to meet him. Mum now lived in Glasgow and could only visit once a month or so. No more picnics in Hyde Park, no more tuna sandwiches - dad wasn’t allowed to make them.

There were a couple of teenagers rolling in the grass, trying to wrestle each other. Henry thought about the incident at school on Tuesday. He wasn’t going to tell dad about it. Why would he? Vincent and Anton were bullies and they always called everyone names and messed with everyone’s lunches. But the idea of one day wrestling them to the ground warmed Henry’s heart. He got a new nickname on Tuesday - “fish boy”. And all because of dad’s stupidest idea to go out to Borough Market before school to get some kind of fancy fish that he wanted to cook so badly. As if you couldn’t buy fish in a grocery store! Why did all fancy fish need to be this smelly?

That evening Henry was excited about showing his dad this new racing game he just got and maybe even do some racing together at Silverstone, but Christopher was busy cooking. It usually took a long time and a couple of glasses of wine to get the dinner ready, as if they were expecting some important guests every day. Henry didn’t understand why instead of spending time playing games his dad would prefer to spend hours in the kitchen, chopping shallots, making sauces and grilling sirloin steaks.

Henry ate because he had to, he didn’t really care much about some fancy-schmancy sauce or the tenderness of the beef, or the colour of the fish. He found his dad’s obsession with food escalating to new levels after mum left and now dinner time only came around 8 pm, when Henry’s stomach was already eating itself.

Henry’s biology teacher was called Ms Larkin - and unlike all the rest of the stuffy teachers, she was a real pleasure to listen to. And to look at. Half of Henry’s class had a crush on her, but Henry knew that she only really liked smart kids. So he tried very hard to get an A for every single biology test last year - and succeeded most of the time. On Tuesday, when Vincent and Anton were trying to spit into Henry’s juice she was the one who came to the cafeteria to save him. Her eyes were shooting little lightning bolts and the bullies dispersed quickly, tails between their legs. She even sat down with Henry at lunch to make sure he can eat his pea soup in peace. Henry wanted to ask her something, to start a meaningful conversation that might impress her, but his mind was absolutely blank. Ms Larkin saw his frustration and asked him about his thoughts on the latest class about climate change. Henry wanted that lunch break to last forever.

“You are a smart boy, Henry. Remember - knowledge is the greatest power. Bullies will always be bullies, but they won’t have time to study and in the end, you will be the one laughing” - said Ms Larkin and smiled. Henry’s heart melted.

Ms Larkin was a devout vegetarian, and she tried to explain what it means in class, but many pupils acted like total idiots and kept asking stuff like “but what about hot dogs?” and “no pepperoni on your pizza?”.

Henry spent the whole afternoon online that day, reading up on the devastating effects of cattle breeding on the environment, the awful conditions that animals are kept in, the hormones they are fed in order to get them to grow faster. He then watched a documentary on modern fishing and polished it all off with a thorough read of the Extinction Rebellion website. He couldn’t hold back tears. They were making little rivers on his cheeks, streaming down onto his laptop and forming puddles on his trousers. Henry was worried his dad would come in and see him cry. He was even more worried about telling his dad about his decision, but there was no way back now. After seeing how your steak is made and how it affects the planet, anyone would want to stop eating steak, right?

So that sunny Saturday morning Henry had a plan, and his Hyde Park friends were going to help him.

“Dad! Look! There they are! Hey Liz, hey Margaret, hey William! It is so good to see you again!”

Henry ran towards the field on the northwest side of Hyde Park, with his arms outstretched, trying to take flight. Christopher was happy to see his son this excited. “Wait a second! Did you name them after the Royal family members?” - he yelled, but Henry was way ahead.

A couple of months ago several members of the Westminster council managed to convince the big shots at Royal Parks that introducing several grazing animals here will boost the attendance of Hyde Park, which was dwindling for several years now. And here they were, in all their glory, consuming what was probably the finest green grass in all of London.

The ones Henry called Liz and Margaret were brown cows with pretty white patches on their sides. Then there was William, a big muscular black bull that really shined in the sun. Harry was smaller but had a fierce and determined look. There was also Kate and Meghan, black with white spots all over them.

Henry approached every single animal and put his hand on their big heads, just in between the ears. He waved his other hand to help with the flies that were planning their attacks. Cows didn’t seem to mind; in fact, it looked like they might have been enjoying all the attention.

“Dad?”

“What’s up, Henry?”

“There is something I want to say”

“Sure!”

“Well… I’ve been thinking about this since I’ve met these beautiful animals here. And I’ve done some research on the internet, and watched documentaries. And our biology teacher Ms Larkin explained a bit more about this. So here goes: I think I don’t want to eat meat or fish anymore. Ever. I want to be a vegetarian”

Liz made a long and deep “moo” as if showing her appreciation for the unexpected turn of events.

“I understand that humans ate meat for tens of thousands of years. But I think the world is changing so quickly and we need to change with it. Today, there are a lot of alternative options. Did you know they make hamburgers out of beans now? And there are fish sticks that taste exactly the same, but don’t have any fish in them?”

Henry’s hands were shaking. Christopher has never seen him so anxious before.

“Look at them! Aren’t they pretty? How can we make them into steaks? I don’t want to do that anymore!” - Henry’s eyes were wet with tears.

“Hey, hey, buddy, it’s okay. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I think it is very mature of you. You are absolutely right, we have to be responsible adults and take action before it is too late. Unfortunately, the force of habit for many people doesn’t allow for change to happen quickly. I was always taught that we need meat to stay healthy. Protein and all that. So it became the norm. And when I was a kid no one showed me what happened at the slaughterhouse, I was sheltered from all that by my parents”.

Henry hugged his dad and didn’t want to let go. He always knew his dad was the best.

That evening they ate homemade pizza with mushrooms and artichokes and watched a whole bunch of nature documentaries. Cosied up on the sofa in front of the TV, Henry fell asleep on Christopher’s shoulder. He dreamt of saving Ms Larkin from the bullies, introducing her to Liz and friends in Hyde Park and trying fishless fish sticks with his dad.

London, August 2021