Four Children

*The Earth Child*1

"I don't control the Earth...she wills her own protection of me."2

"Mom...what's that?" a young boy asked, pointing to a stack of tress that had been cut down. His small hand clutched his chest as though he was gasping for air. His mother frowned as she drove and listened, noticing her son's continued heart troubles.3

"Those are trees that people had to cut down because they were in the way of progress," she replied promptly. The young boy put both his hands down and felt his eyes well up.4

"Do we...really have to?"5

"...yes."6

The boy sighed. Every time he saw an unnaturally destroyed tree, it hurt his heart. Even in the car, he could hear chainsaws ripping at the trees he could not see behind the pile. That only worsened the pain.7

"Don't look, son...please. Your heart can't take it..," his mother pleaded, placing her free hand gently on his head of short brown hair. Her heart was sinking, but the boy merely smiled a fake smile.8

"Mom...my heart never could take it."9

"Son, I...here's your school. Y-you'll be late," she practically sobbed. Her son grabbed his backpack from the floor of his seat and hopped out of the now opened car door, saying nothing.10

The child returned home later in the afternoon. Despite how he felt, he was glad to be home. As the young boy did every afternoon after his lessons, he went into his backyard. Though it was against what his parents asked him to do, he always went into the forest that was attached to the yard...it felt like a second home to him.11

Twigs and a few leaves crunched quietly under the boy's gray and white sneakers, while small insects, barely visible, clung to his small legs and brown shorts. The limbs and branches of various plants, wooded or green, brushed lightly against his blue and yellow striped shirt. And the young boy loved it all. Especially the tree he eventually came to.12

"I'm back, friend," he whispered softly. No response. The boy smiled.13

"Some of your children tagged along," said the child, pointing to the bugs that were on him. Still no response, but still he smiled. The boy sat on his rear, back against the tree. The hard, brown bark felt like a comfortable pillow to him. It was absent of fungus and held its leaves well. The tree was the perfect place to be.14

"It was a hard day, friend...my teacher gave us a lot of math work today."15

Wind blew through the boy's short hair as he told the tree about his day. A few bugs, some small, others rather large, took refuge under his clothes or behind him.16

"Ha ha! Your children are fun...they're tickling me!" the young boy laughed. However, soon his laughter turned to tears. The bugs crawled out of his clothing and went about their business.17

"I'm so sorry...I wish I could stop the tree-killers," the young boy sobbed. He clutched his chest.18

"I'm so in tune with you...every time land is destroyed or trees are cut down...my heart dies a little bit more. My doctor doesn't know how I'll survive on this much heart tissue..."19

No response was heard. Instead, a small bird flew up beside him.20

"Tweet..."21

The young boy looked at it and straightened his index finger at it. The small bird wrapped its talon around it and adjusted its head, looking at the boy curiously.22

"Thank you, friend...you'll be alright."23

A squirrel came out of the tree the boy leaned on and crawled on his head. It chattered a bit. The child laughed.24

"You're so great, friend...but, I'm getting tired...I need a nap," he spoke. The bird and squirrel, as if on cue, departed from the boy, back to the sky for the bird and back into the tree. All kinds of insects and arachnids removed themselves from the soil as it rose from the ground and blanketed the boy, who had closed his eyes.25

"It feels just like a blanket...thank you."26

---27

*The Air and Water Children*28

"The Air hates most of humanity...why do you think so many gases are toxic to us or why wind spreads so much disaster?"29

"The Water is every bit as solid as ground; she doesn't like you as much."30

The city was experiencing a cloudy day with a bright glare. It hurt everyone's eyes, except for two teenagers who stood in a dark alley. They went there everyday of their lives since they had begun their unhealthy habits. The boy, dressed in baggy gray shorts and blue shirt, smoked a cigarette, while the girl dressed completely in black and chewed tobacco.31

"Oh, man...," the teenage boy coughed, "I need to stop this."32

"So do I...," the girl said, spitting out her tobacco. Neither of them understood why they tormented themselves like they did. It felt like a cancer was eating away at them (which it probably was). The boy puffed out another cloud of smoke.33

"It's too dark here...wanna go to the river near the edge of the city? Fresh air, you know?"34

His feminine friend looked at him strangely.35

"Fresh air? In this dump of a city?" Right."36

"Maybe we can talk to 'them' down there," the boy replied. The girl's face widened with a smile (not a pretty one, though.). She spit out her remaining tobacco and grabbed her friend by his thick wrist, barely giving him the time to put out his cigarette.37

The river the two teenagers knew so well was a dismal place. The water was infested with broken tree branches and bugs, as well as dead fish not yet gone downstream. It was putrid in appearance, with brown with hints of green (green due to algae or pollution was something they were not sure of) tainting the purity. Mud, riddled with worms and discarded cans and other trash, was all that remained of the riverbank. To the east, upstream of the river, was a factory, most likely the source of the horrible condition of the river and the bad air that accompanied the image.38

"God, it smells worse than my cigarette smoke here!" the teenage boy exclaimed. The girl said nothing as she approached the dirty stream of water and looked into it. She could see her reflection in the water. Long blonde hair, green eyes, black clothes...tobacco scent. She swore she could see it all in the water. Still, the girl smiled lightly.39

"I love it here."40

"Heh, yeah...it is pretty peaceful despite all the crap the city did to damage everything...," her masculine friend replied. A slight breeze blew, seeming to massage the boy's skin in a gentle, subtle way.41

"Our friends are here."42

"Do they ever leave?"43

"I guess not," the boy answered as the air around him picked up. Nothing was heard, but the teenager felt everything. His brown hair, uncombed and barely washed, went wild from the now forceful wind.44

"Ha, he's playing with my hair..."45

The girl was not paying attention to her friend. Instead, she happily threw her shoes aside and put her left foot on top of the water.46

"Still solid...," she said as she placed her other foot on it, walking gently on the surface of the polluted liquid. The girl stopped in the center of the river, letting the stream pass under her feet's skin. In front of her, the dirty water rose up, as if trying to communicate with her. The brown and green mass tensed its form, forcing the pollution that gave it its unusual color out, leaving a clear, beautiful 'hill' of water before the teenager in front of it.47

"Yes...I'm still chewing..."48

The mass of water rose up to a much larger size. The girl smiled and closed her eyes as she felt the wave crash down on her. For the first time in a while, the young teen let out a truly girlish laugh as clean water dripped off her soft skin and long blonde hair.49

"That felt so cool!" she giggled. The 'hill' of water rose up again, this time holding something in itself. The girl saw bits of tobacco and her chewing tobacco pack floating in the liquid mass. Slowly, she watched it crunch together and then disappear under the pressure the water forced in itself. The girl touched the mass of water and smiled sweetly, this time with a much better smile.50

"Thank you...you've cleansed me like you always do. But that's in your nature, I suppose, my friend."51

Water rose up behind her and wrapped around her, as if the river was hugging her. She closed her eyes and returned the embrace.52

"I really hope one day people can stop hurting you. It's like your being forced to chew, something I do by choice."53

While that went on, the wind around the boy continued to play with him. Objects were lifted off the ground and juggled by the wind. The boy grinned as he watched more objects come into the juggle. He kicked one of the tossed objects and watched as the others fell due to the air's surprise. The teenage boy laughed as he felt a strong gust push him playfully to the ground. However, as this happened, the boy's cigarette pack fell out of his pockets and on to the muddy ground. He looked at it with worry.54

"Oh, yeah...I smoked today..."55

The pack was slowly lifted up and crushed into tiny bits by the air.56

"You really hate smoke, huh?" the boy asked. Nothing was heard.57

"'My health, too'? Well, yeah, they aren't good for me. But the way that factory over there keeps pumping gas out of their smoke stacks, you're practically a smoker, too," the teenager replied. For a while, the air was calm, and so was the boy.58

"We really like it here, you know," he said. The wind picked up again and flew up his shirt, tickling him. There seemed to be no room to worry for any of them.59

---60

*The Fire Child*61

"You hate Fire so much, yet without it, you'd be nowhere at all. Perhaps he is the most misunderstood creature in existence."62

It was a bright and sunny Saturday afternoon. Adults not at their jobs worked diligently at their yards or the insides of their homes, while teens had outings with their friends and children played outside. Still, in every area, every culture, there was an oddball, and this little place was no exception. One boy sat alone in his room, content to playing video games, reading or writing. He was the average nerd people often heard about: pale, skinny, and not really the type to deal with others.63

"Do we have any soda left? I'm playing a game and I'm thirsty, Mom?" the boy asked as he poked his head in the refrigerator.64

"No, son, I don't think so. Your father went to the store, though, so he'll bring some back soon," she replied. With a sigh, the young boy closed the refrigerator and walked back to his room, which featured a game on the television screen.65

"Well, better get back to it," he whispered to himself, picking up his controller. However, not even five minutes into resuming the game, he heard a knock on his door.66

"Hey, I need you for something, bro. Can you come out here?" a familiar, feminine voice asked. The boy glanced at his door and then looked back at his television screen.67

"Sorry, I'm a bit busy, sis."68

"What? Busy with a stupid game, I bet," the voice replied. The gamer chuckled and shook his head of black hair.69

"That's certainly not the way to get me to help you, insulting something I hold in high value," he scoffed. He heard his sister let out a frustrated groan and walk away. Thinking nothing of it, the boy continued with his game.70

It was an hour or so later that the boy heard his father come in through the door71

"Gee, I'm thirsty...," he moaned. With that, the child got up and exited his room with the game on pause.72

"Dad, need help?" he asked, his throat dry.73

"Yeah, son...just take these bags and sit 'em on the counter," the large man replied. With a bit of a smile on his face, the son took the said bags and carried them to the kitchen, his father following closely.74

"Can I have a soda now, please?" he asked childishly when they got in the kitchen.75

"No."76

"Why not?"77

"They're bad for you."78

"I don't understand. It's my body, not yours," the boy replied. His father looked at him sternly.79

"Well, I'd like to see you be healthy. I've been thinking about getting you off those games...they're making you reclusive," he said. The boy appeared shocked.80

"Dad, at least I'm happy. I do alright in school. I'm alive. There's no reason to cut me off games," his son argued.81

"You've gone off on your sister enough."82

"Yeah, because she goes off when I politely decline."83

"Son...," the man said. The young boy looked down and shook his head.84

"We'll discuss this later, son."85

The child walked away without a word. His mother saw him pass by dejectedly and sighed. Everyone was getting fed up with the social problems he had.86

"Why does everyone think games do bad things to me...?" the boy asked himself as he returned to his room. A little solitude was all he needed.87

"Hey...what's your problem?" his sister asked from behind him. The boy stopped.88

"Just another thing with Dad."89

"Why are you always such a bitch about things?" his sister spoke rudely. The gamer's eyes turned to her.90

"Because people seem to think I'm a bad person because I choose to game all the time rather than help humanity or socialize," he replied rather angrily.91

"What about earlier when I asked you to help me?"92

"I politely declined because I was playing a game. That and you never seem to treat me like a human being. According to you once before, I 'can't do anything right.'"93

"What if it had been serious, smart ass?" she asked in her own tone of anger.94

"You could just say so," the boy replied. She glared at him like he was an idiot.95

"Gaming leaves you friendless and a loser. Try to get out of it, ass."96

The skinny boy shook his head and sighed, continuing on to the safety of his room.97

"Why can't they understand it?"98

The young boy ran that question through his head hundreds of times but could never get an answer. He had to talk to someone.99

"Maybe some TV will calm me down," he thought as he turned on his television to the news station. The child also turned off his lights and opened a dresser drawer next to his bed. He pulled out a matchbox from it and took one small match.100

"I really have to vent..."101

Slowly, the boy ran the match across the rough side of the box and produced a small flame on the match. The light it produced enhanced his pale face.102

"Good to see you," the boy said, staring into the small fire. It slowly burned the match, making an odd smell fill the room and a little warmth hit the gamer's face.103

"Yeah...it was a good day until my family got into it with their total lack of understanding."104

He gripped the end of the match and just stared into the flame, giving it his full attention.105

"Yeah...I guess I see where Dad is coming from, but at least we agree on my sister. I'm sorry to say she's not the only one," the boy muttered. He looked over at the television.106

"Today, a destructive fire broke out on a group of businesses today..." the reporter stated, but that was he got out before the boy turned off his television.107

"You, too, Fire."108

The flame ate away the match and climbed onto the boy's index finger. However, the boy did not appear to be in pain, nor did his skin seem to actually be burning!109

"Ha, I like that. You're warm, friend," he laughed softly, "It's sad that others can't see how much they need you. We're both kind of misunderstood, in a way..."110

The small fire spread over his entire index finger, relaxing him.111

"Someday they'll see. And if not, I'm not gonna forget you, my only real friend."112

The fire on his finger suddenly began to die slowly. The boy frowned.113

"Oh...you have to go. Well...thanks for listening. And don't worry...I know you're good. You never mean to hurt or kill."114

The fire's tip waved back and forth, seemingly saying good-bye as it went out on the boy's finger.115

~Fin116