A Coming Spring

• Nikki Zhou, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2014

"Beep beep," Ashton's alarm clock screamed. Ashton woke up with a start. he jumped out of bed and looked out the window. Still the same, dull view. The grey cars whizzed past. it was a polluted city, not a touch of brightness. Ashton was green. Literally green. That's right, he was green, the colour of grass that had just begun growing. But there was no grass here and Ashton wanted to change that. He sat on his haunches and started planning.
Time had whizzed past like the cars that had past him this morning. This environment change meant the world to him. He went to the mall. "Hi," he said politely. "I would like to have a seed for a tree." The shop assistant nearly jumped out of her skin. "A seed?" she shrieked. "A seed? We want an orderly city, not a city covered with those untidy weeds!" Ashton tried to argue back, but she just pushed him out the door and slammed it in his face. He tried the next shop and the reaction was the same. "Get out!" the shopkeeper bellowed. The next one must have heard the racket because he got up and locked the door before Ashton even got there. He tried the next and the next and the next...until he was too tired of trying and slumped down near a cement wall and started sobbing. He sobbed for his family, he sobbed for himself, he sobbed for his planning and last of all, he sobbed for the city. Then he slept. The last tear dripped from his face. He dreamed of the city being green and while he slept the earth turned green. It gave birth to beautiful spring flowers every colour of the rainbow. But it had one consequence- Ashton, the hero needed to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Everyone from the town was crying, knowing that the spirit of Ashton was still within the city. You could see him in the flowers, you could see him in the trees, you could see him everywhere. "Mr Ashton was a copacetic man. Let him rest in peace." "Let him rest in peace!" the crowd echoed. But what the people couldn't see-what no one could see but his sister- the ghost of Aston smiling at them. She smiled back.