Nothing Lasts Forever

• Kitty Munro, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2022

It seems that nothing lasts forever. The green rolling hills did not. The clean waters did not. Every day, I see more and more oil-filled boats passing by. Some people used to notice me but that didn't last either. My home gets murkier everyday. There is a growing silence among the birds. Although there are people who try to help me, there is never enough to make a difference. My first impression of people was that they looked very happy. In the present, everyone I see is too absorbed in their light-up rectangles to notice the birds wheezing or the few butterflies that still remain.

There were once other animals around here. I once heard a story about a creature with duck-like feet and a tail just like a beaver’s. Whether that's a myth or not, most of the animals started disappearing once humans arrived. Whenever I look up from my water, the trees morph into towering silver blocks with squares strewn across them, but that's probably just my eyesight.