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• Rudia Chung, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2019

The scene spread out like a radiant blanket before the passengers of the Air Hotel 3000 was the kind of scene that shocked, stunned, and delighted you all at the same time. The mountains and crisp cold nature were spread out: an open map welcoming prying eyes. The majestic mountains had an aura of royalty as they stood together, shoulders back and heads up high, welcoming Air Hotel 3000 graciously into their land. Enigmatic fog swirled around the peaks of the lofty mountains like perfume being sprayed around a vain woman’s body.

The atmosphere of the hovering hotel changed as soon as the guests crowded eagerly like irksome seagulls hunting for food on the Sun Deck to view their change of location. Everyone sighed, enchanted, as if on cue. A young girl had been wide-eyed upon seeing the scenery, and she had gasped. She had felt most relieved to see that the snow-capped mountains in this vicinity had not been tarnished by human’s obtrusive and selfish nature, and elite technology. An unexplainable warmth had spread through her scarlet beanie through her body to the tips of her toes. If nature could strive on, so could she.

It was peculiar to see no animals at all in this icy landscape. Looking beyond… her inquisitive eyes met with a flash of brown eyes among the landscape of white. A raggedy creature, starved and drawn. She squinted. She had never seen a polar bear before, but had been educated that they were ferocious creatures who had died out.

How on earth was she supposed to know that she, only her, had witnessed the last polar bear? The brown eyes met with the green, the long prehistoric species met with the human who had only lived seven years, the innocent met the innocent. She leaned forward, not even daring to blink, despite the icy wind, due to the speed of the suspended hotel, daring to chafe at her skin and eyes. A flash. Then it was gone.

That day she, young lady of the far future, realised that all was not lost. Humans of the distant future will know that they had ancestors, who were in the wrong. People who stood by idly twiddling their thumbs when the world around them was screaming in pain. When nature was gradually suffering from the firm grasp of human hands on their land. Their rights had been unjustly stripped the moment technology, climate change, and human’s greediness were born. Therefore, this girl of the future, and other considerate humans were doomed to unfortunately clean up our mess. The mess of the people of the twenty-first century. Or we could wake up and start to do it now. Now.