The sky started out filled with clouds. An old couple used to say that the stars and black sky had left and only the clouds remained. That we had angered the universe and it had forsaken us for destroying ourselves and our planet. But now I looked up and all I could see were what must have been stars. They used to say something else, the old couple that is, I’ve been told they were around since the beginning. They always talked as though the clouds were alive.
“One day when the neon clouds finish crying, they will run from the sky and the stars will smile upon us. The night sky will no longer be dark and only light will remain.”
Our entire lives all we knew was darkness, but now the sky was filled with soft lights twinkling in the sky. We should have known something was coming, it had rained for weeks. We feared the fire water would grow and swallow us up. But this time the rain was different. For the first time it did not burn, and the animals didn’t run for cover. We could walk around and enjoy the beauty of the neon sky during the rain. On the last night of the rains all my brothers, sisters and I danced and played like we never knew joy before that night. Our eyes and teeth glowed in the light of the neon sky. We decided to wear white so we’d shine brightly, like the Effervescent flowers and their petals which floated off at night and grew back during the day.
The old couple left this world on that night. We found their bodies in the morning under the great tree of the forest. Three branches had grown in such a way that there was a perfect view of the sky. They circled around an unseen object as they reached out to the sky. All along these three branches the regular leaves couldn’t grow. The only thing that grew on them were the Effervescent flowers. When they bloomed this night their petals floated down and encased the couple in a crystal casket that glowed in seven distinct colours, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
After that night the Effervescent flowers never bloomed again. It seemed they knew since the clouds left we no longer needed their light.
understandsomething 