Natura

In a white room devoid of movement, there sleeps a girl. Her skin is nearly the same color as the walls. She is on a bed with white sheets. She has many tubes attached to her. The only sound is the beeping of her heartbeat, recorded on a nearby machine with lines of green. Her eyelids flitter. They do not open.1

But beneath them lies a world drenched in flowers and flowing grass. Trees grow at the edges of a meadow. There is a stream. And there is a child, draped in pink silk, laughing. The stream flows, and the stream becomes still. The wind blows, it stops. There are clouds in the sky, there are not. And all fluctuations are to the cadence of her laughter.2

Her flushed face lights up as she hears a bluebird singing. 3

“Oh, you’re pretty,” The girl says. 4

The bird repeats the comment, “Oh, I am pretty.” The child takes barefooted steps through the pastel grass to the tree the bluebird is in. She outstretches her small arm, and says, “Come here.”5

The bluebird flies from his perch onto her arm. She looks down at him with wonder and joy in her face. The bluebird looks up and chirps, and she chirps back to him. They go back and forth like this, the child’s smile growing larger with each round, so large, that her smile outstretches into the grass, the sky, the sun, and all living things in this world smile with her.6

In the white room, a pale-lipped smile from the sleeping girl appears. She does not move. But she runs across endless fields with a bird in hand. She does not wake, but she sings to the wide sky. And the bluebird sings too, happy to be there. The sun gains a smiling face and sings back from his place in the sky. The stream splashes of its own accord, and water goes into the child’s mouth, but no moisture touches her lips.7

Happy pink clouds gather in the sky, and they drizzle lightly. The child lies down in the grass. She lies in a bed. She lies on dirt. She lies nearby many things. She lies alone. And she sleeps, though she is already sleeping. 8

When she wakes up, there is sweat on her forehead. She looks all directions and sees the yellow grass everywhere. Her mouth opens and she gasps. She looks to her side and sees a dead bird, vaguely colored blue. Her hands are bleeding, but she tries to crawl on them anyways. She gets almost nowhere.9

She screams. The beeping is faster than it ever has been before. The girl tugs at her sheets and screams. Her eyes try to regain focus in the hot day, but all she sees is the sun, blaring down at her, laughing as she had once laughed. The yellow grass directly around her turns red, and she knows why.10

The child looks at the sun, and tries to ask him why he has done this, but no sound comes out of her mouth. Yet there is sound, the sound of thunder. There is rain, and it washes all the blood away. The child drinks up all the water that falls into her mouth. All she can do know is try to forget the anguish she was in seconds before.11

Thunder! Lightning! The lights flash in front of the child’s eyes. She looks up with wonder and fear. The blessing of rain is offset by this enemy that is the storm. Lighting flashes. Thunder sounds. In front of her eyes, this horrible play in the sky. The clouds are grey, but she has only seen pink clouds. It is dark where she has only seen light. 12

Thunder! Thunder! The clouds are screaming at her. Lightning! A flash closer than any before, too bright for the eyes to see. But the flash does not go away after the corresponding thunder disappears. It stays. The rain stops falling. But the clouds dare not stray from this event.13

The child, using her arms as balance, sits up. She looks toward the forest, but sees no trees. All she sees is red. There are black silhouettes inside the red, but those cannot be the trees, for they have no leaves. The heat begins to assault the child, but she will not be taken down again. 14

Using all of her strength, she stands up, and begins running away. She closes her eyes and tries to run as far from the heat as she can. The smoky wind whips her face. She coughs. She tries to run further, but is stopped by a sound. A crackling sound. The child opens her eyes and looks around. The grass no longer exists. It has been replaced by a curtain of red.15

The child blinks her eyes, trying to see through the smoke. Since this is clearly in vain, she lifts her arm to her eyes and tries once again to see. She squints. This dirt covered child still sees nothing. The crackling is all around her, but she covers her ears for an entirely different reason. There is a beeping in the air, and she does not know what it is. The beeping grows louder, and the heat grows more and more unbearable. When the flames finally find their way to her dress, she is powerless to stop them from eating her.16


…Beep. Beep. Beep. The girl hears nothing but this incessant beep. She wants it to stop, but she is too afraid to move. What if the fire gets her again? She keeps her eyelids tightly closed. Then she feels a distinct discomfort in her arm. And another one lower down! No, this is not fire, this is something far worse.17

She opens her eyes. Immediately they close again. She must be seeing things! There has never been this much white around her in her life! Hesitantly, she tries again, hoping she will instead be greeted by a more colorful scene. She is not. She lies there a while, thinking about this.18

She sits up faster than a peregrine can fly. She takes many quick breaths. Cautiously, she looks down at her arm. She is astonished to find numerous tubes sticking out of it. She quickly pulls them all out. The beeping stops. Happy with this silence, the girl looks down at her hands, to see if they are burnt. She does not know whether or not they are, but they’re big and white. Her hands have never been that large to her memory, nor have they ever been so pale.19

Passing it off as burns, she gets out of her bed. Looking around the room, she is confounded. Everything is square, and white. Even her dress is white. The one thing, she notes, that is not white is her hair, which is green. This is strange, because she remembers it being yellow. But, then again, she remembers being smaller.20

What else does she remember? Grass. The sun. Happiness. Fire. Pain. But, she realizes with a frown, she never had a name. Nor a family. In fact, she didn’t know what either of those thing were until she just thought of them. The girl takes some steps backwards, trying to get away from herself. She has no idea as to what is going on.21

She walks to the wooden rectangle on a square wall, sensing that it is the exit. It is not closed all the way – it opens as she walks into it. Not that she cares that it’s open anymore – her head hurts. She rubs it. 22

After the pain subsides, the girl walks out into the white hallway, and sees hundreds of white doors. She peers into the window on one of them and sees a sleeping girl, much like herself. She manages the door knob, and rushes into the room.23

“Wake up!” She shouts. There is no response from the other girl. She pokes the other girl. Nothing happens. Frustrated, she walks across the hall and tries the procedure with a sleeping boy. No more luck. Crying, she walks back into the hall. After wiping the tears out of her eyes, she screams.24

“Wake up, dreamers! Why do you still sleep? Why won’t you wake up and be with me?” Of course, the girl finds no response. 25

The tears in her eyes are now too much to ignore. She slowly sits down, and she cries. The tears flow off her cheek, onto her dress and onto the floor. 26

“I was one of you…” She weeps. “I was one of you…”27

The girl’s eyes flick up as she hears footsteps behind her. She tries to steady her uneven breath before she turns her head around and looks at who is behind her. But she does not see him. She only sees the gun he is holding, and the dart it shoots. She tries to get out of its path, but she is not that lucky. The dart hits her directly in the heart and she falls to the floor.28


Before she even opens her eyes, the girl feels someone beneath her, or at least his arms. She feels his chest, and feels his breathing. She feels the vibrations in his throat as he says, “How old is she?”29

“The reports say 17.” A voice in front of the girl says.30

“Wait… how old is the earth again?” The man she is being carried by asks.31

“17 years.”32

The girl is confused. She didn’t think the world was so old. She always felt like it was around six years old. 33

“And what is the girl’s name?”34

It is now that she finally bothers to open her eyes. She looks up at the two policemen who have rescued her. The one who is carrying her has a beard, she notes. And the other one has a thin face. They are walking in some dark place. Directly above the girl are small points of light.35

“Oh, she’s awake,” says the thin guy. “Who are you?” He asks, looking straight into her eyes.36

The girl, embarrassed to admit that she doesn’t know, says nothing. She instead brings her hands up to her face and hides herself. She tries to pretend that she is not in the situation she is in, but she cannot imagine any other situation for her to be in. She only just woke up.37

“Do you know your name?” Asks the man that is carrying her. The girl still does not answer – at least not using words. She instead squeaks and buries her head further into her hands.38

The man carrying her pats her head and says, “It’s okay if you don’t know. I don’t see why you would – you’ve been asleep all of your life.”39

The girl, finding some solace in this, reveals her head ever so slightly and meekly asks, “What happened to me in the hallway?”40

The two men look at each other. After a moment of silence, the thin guy says, “A man shot you.” 41

The girl nods her head in recognition. She knows that already. “And…?” She asks, sensing that there is more to the story.42

“He shot you with a poison dart,” The man carrying her says, “In a few months, you’re going to die.”43

The girl faints without another word.44


When the girl wakes up, she is in a car. There is much celebration coming from the front seats. Without any hesitation, she leans forward and asks, “What’s the good news?”45

“We found out what your name is,” Says the big man who was carrying her, “We think.”46

The girl is taken aback. She did not expect this. She starts playing with her hands nervously as she asks, “So, who am I?”47

“Natura,” The thin guy says, “Daughter of Sophia and Yahweh.”48

The man who rescued Natura turns his head back so he can look at her. “Let’s get you home now, Natura.”49

The car stops in front of a big white house. Natura looks out of the window, realizing that she lives here. She turns her head when summoned by one of the policemen to get out of the car. Natura finds the door handle, and opens the car door. She has opened the door to her life.50


Things are going on busily inside the house. A short-haired housewife, Sophia, is rushing around, trying to take care of her many children. The phone is ringing.51

“Yahweh, honey, would you please answer the phone?”52

Grumbles from upstairs. Sophia smiles. Then, as she walks toward the kitchen, where her youngest child, Emoti, is crying, Her ten-year old boy, Techno, appears in front of her.53

“She’s coming.” He says in a low voice.54

The doorbell rings. Sophia walks toward the door and opens it. There stands her oldest child, Natura.55

“Hi… Mom.”56


Natura eats cake in the kitchen, as her 16-year-old brother Mynd questions her.57

“So… where were you this whole time?”58

“I was asleep,” Natura answers, “In a coma. I dreamt of light and pink clouds. Then there was a fire, a heat I’d never seen before…”59

Sophia, also sitting at the table, freezes.60

“It was light and happy, until a few months ago, when what meteorologists are calling the ‘Summer heat’ happened. And now, the days are beginning to get darker.”61

Natura looks confused, as does everyone else sitting at that welcome-home table, except for baby Emoti, who is laughing.62

Natura glares at Emoti, who then begins crying. Natura feels some tears roll down her cheek too. She knows that she can only stay with her family for a few more months.63

“What is it, Natura?” Yahweh asks in a voice that is just a little too loud and booming for the occasion.64

“I….I have something to tell you. I’m dying.”65

All conversation stops.66


The next morning, Natura is awakened by a scream. She runs downstairs. Sophia is in tears. 67

“Look at my tree!” Sophia sobs.68

Natura looks. The once-pristine green-leafed tree has a clear problem. One of its leaves has turned a shade of orange.69

“What is happening to the world…?” Sophia whispers, the words weighted with the fear of the unknown, into her hands.70

Sophia walks into the kitchen and pours herself some cereal, shaken. Only Techno, playing a video game in the corner of the room, notices that a few strands of Natura’s green hair are orange.71

Emoti screams as the leaf falls.72

There is also now orange hair in the cereal bowl.73


Natura coughs up green blood into a handkerchief.74


Mynd knocks onto Natura’s door.75

“Go away,” Says a horrified Natura.76

Mynd opens the door anyway. He sees the problem. Natura is sobbing in front of a mirror. Orange and red hair litters the floor.77

And on top of bald Natura’s head grow pine needles like a crown.78


White frozen tears run down Natura’s cheeks as snowflakes fall outside.79


The whole family looks on as Natura steps outside. Mynd and Yahweh cry for her not to go, because she will freeze.80

“Is my skin not already frozen?” Natura cries back. It is only then that everyone realizes her white skin has become sparkling ice.81


“I will die. I will die I will die I will die.”82


No one watches as Natura takes her last breath. She is alone, sitting amongst the pines. The snow continues to fall.83


Light breaks through the clouds as Sophia discovers Natura’s body at long last. 84

“I should have been there…” Sophia whispers.85

Natura draws a breath. Sophia cries Natura’s name. 86


Natura does not wake up. She dreams of light and pink clouds.87

Spring begins to bud, its flowers appearing on the trees.88