Nobody cares about the river, the only person who did was Kye. He sat on the edge of a bridge, swinging his short legs above the debris filled water that gurgled beneath him. It was just like every day. Not a single animal crossed the cracked road behind him while he sat there and nobody came to find him. Kye watched a broken tire chunk from an old car float down the green river.
He sighed and looked up at the sky where shiny boxes whizzed through the air, a mimic of the old cars that once drove on the road behind him. The vehicles up in the sky didn’t need rubber tires. They simply…floated through the air. They didn’t fly like birds did, they soared in a straight line, moving without any bumps.
Kye always wondered how those cars moved. The adults never wanted to explain it to him no matter how often he asked. They told him that they just did. That wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to know what made them fly, what kept them up in the air, what happens if one breaks, and how did they figure out how to take a car off the road and into the sky?
His uncle said Kye asked too many questions for a kid. Maybe he did. That was probably why the adults didn’t want to talk to Kye anymore. Once they answered one question he had another and his questions never stopped. So…the adults stopped answering his questions and Kye learned that people don’t like questions. They want you to simply know the answer yourself or not know and be happy with that.
Kye wasn’t happy without knowing the answers. He sighed and looked down at the gurgling green river again, watching trash of the old days floating down it. Where did all of that stuff come from? Why did the trash never stop coming? Where did it go once the river stopped? Did it lead to a nasty green lake? Or maybe one of the polluted oceans nobody was allowed to swim in anymore? Did the river ever stop?
If Kye asked someone they wouldn’t tell him. They’d tell him to go away. He’d have to know the answer on his own. Kye let his eyes follow the river as far as they could before he couldn’t see any further. His uncle wouldn’t be mad if he followed the river and he wouldn’t care if Kye was late for dinner.
A smile slithered onto Kye’s face. Today he was going to get answers to some of his questions. With a giddy laugh he threw his legs over the bridge, onto the road and started running. He jumped over large cracks in the black road, imagining it was going to swallow him up. Would it? Could there be a crack that big? Maybe.
Kye turned to the right, just after the bridge railings stopped, and he ran, following the river. His legs pushed through dead, scratchy grass that tried to cling to his socks as he ran. The river, now that he was closer, smelled terrible! Kye guessed that it was all of the trash that made it smell bad. He laughed as the land dipped and rose back up. It wasn’t like the city at all where everything was flat. His uncle told him that everything should be flat and that was the way it was meant to be. Kye thought his uncle was wrong.
Maybe everything was supposed to be curvy, bumpy, and not perfect! Maybe that was why the river was green and why the old days left behind so much trash and wonders. Because it wasn’t supposed to be perfect!
Kye looked at the river and watched a big log whoosh down the river. He ran faster, getting closer to the log. He raced it, jumping up and down hills, over small branches, and pushing through the grass that grabbed his clothes. Soon, Kye couldn’t keep up with the log. His legs got tired. He tried to chase the log over one last small hill-
Kye tripped, sending himself tumbling towards the river. He let out a shout, feeling his feet touch slippery pebbles that took his feet out from under him. Kye stretched his hand out, trying to grab onto a reed of the grippy grass, but his arms were too short and his hands were too small.
He splashed backwards into the river. He started crying as it pulled him away, dragging him down towards the end of the river. Kye shouted for his uncle to help, then he shouted for officers, then he shouted for help from anyone. Nobody responded. Nobody heard him. Nobody cares about the river.