Paper Is Nothing Without Creativity

• Stephanie Nestor, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2015

Sometimes it can be too much. Everything happening at once can cause one’s mind to race faster than the glancing lights of the illuminated streets. I’m so close to people, barely a centimetre separating us, but I don’t know them. They’re faceless and repetitive even though they’re actually individual people. So many people live on Earth with me but I only know a few and dismiss the rest. I’m never alone to breathe or think. Silence is very rare in this city and I treasure every second that is void of sound.

I push my way through the congregation of strangers and try to find the street where I live. Someone, out of nowhere, shoves me and I fall into an alley. The ground is sticky and cold. I quickly stand up and try to rejoin the crowd on the path but I can’t squeeze through the sea of bodies. I give up and turn around to walk down the alley.

While I am strolling I am stopped by something floating past my face.

It’s a blank piece of paper.

I launch my arms into the air and clasp the piece of paper between my fingers. It isn’t spectacular like gold instead it is dirty and crumpled. Ever since electronic devices became more essential and more advanced people ceased using paper. Everyone has probably forgotten how to write with a pen.

I am in awe that someone still used paper. Intrigued by this rare sighting I examine the paper even closer. I turn it over and find another blank space. I weigh it in my hands and I am stunned to experience the feeling of carrying air. Suddenly the paper disappears.

I throw my hands up in bewilderment and stare at the space where the paper should be. It appears on the ground a second later and I almost jump out of my shoes. I lean over and pinch the corner of the paper between my index finger and thumb. It remained paper and not air. Wait! The paper must have turned into air when I imagined the paper being weightless like air. But how did I do that? Does the paper have a magical quality?

I experiment with my new found abilities and make the paper morph into a firebird. It body’s glow reflects on my hands and face. It tilts its head and peers past my shoulder. I follow its gaze and notice the rushing people. I release the firebird and it flies past myself and the throng of strangers. They all stop moving suddenly. They turn their attention to the large luminescent bird flying over them. Everyone moves off the path and onto the road to follow the firebird. Nothing could ever distract a fast moving crowd, except this eye-catching delight that I had created from paper. I had managed to halt a bustling world with only a spectacular creation that gives them hope of the world not just being concrete and dust but gold and diamond.