Until

• Abdul Raheem , Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2022

There was a time where we jumped for joy in the lush green meadows with not a care in the world, until we couldn't. We would prance, and dance and play all day long with the beautiful sunshine washing over us, until it stopped. Or the cooling summer rains, drenching the scorched lands and giving us hope for a day just as fabulous, until it didn't. We were living in paradise, until we weren't. The animals would roam free in the vast lands with a variety of different types of land, they would swim for hours in the crystal clear, dazzling water, until they died. Our parents had access to all the foods they wanted and all the resources they needed, until they couldn't. We never had shortages and never had anything such as the Mist, until it came. We screwed up. We've gone too far. Now, we can't fix it. Until we're dead, like everything else.

Until now, I never thought that I would resort to stealing just to save my little sister and my dying mum. I glanced back at the entrance of the small shallow cave which led to a whole underground village plagued by the Mist and wondered if this would ever go away. Would it ever be satisfied with how many ever lives it claimed. My father was already gone and my mother was teetering on the brink of death, the breath slowly petering out of her thin body. The breaths came as rasps now and she couldn't take a single easy breath, without crying at the thought of me as a 13 year old and my little sister as a one year old out in the village without a person to look after us.

I released a depressed sigh as I stumbled out with heavy feet and reluctance towards the little raspberry bush behind the massive arch of roses. I ignored the fact that it looked as if it was just a bunch of roses as I knew that the raspberries were a nice bright red like the fragrant roses around it. Soon I was through the tall arch and I saw the luscious, delightful, scarlet raspberries. They hung like cocoons from the green leaves making them lurch towards the ground. I reached into my leather satchel I had found while searching for valuables. I got out a little plastic bag and began to pick the berries with great vigor and stuffed a few in my mouth with great gusto. I was so indulged in picking the raspberries that I had no idea a person was watching me. Until I was found, I had no idea.

Until I was found, I didn’t know how dead I was.