What happens 100 years from now when, if climate change has brought us to a point where water has become one of our scarcest resources, and more precious than oil or gold? We've asked fiction writers to imagine the Great Lakes region a century or more on, and help us paint an audio portrait of that world.

In her story, "The Floating City of New Chicago," Tricia Bobeda takes us to a Chicago divided by class...and water. Wealthy people have fled the city for a secret island in Lake Michigan, while "wet-collar" workers are forced to stay behind to do the city's dirtiest jobs.

(Photo by Tricia Bobeda)