Her Past, His Future

Her Past, His Future - Daria Mundy (Oakwood School, 12th Grade)

It’s 4 pm and the old woman steps outside her tiny mobile home. She inhales and feels a thick cloud of smog enter her lungs. Unfortunately, this is a feeling she knows all too well. The air hasn’t been clean since she was 22 and had the rest of her life ahead of her. 

She didn’t know it back then, but she was living in an age that would soon become a faint memory or a page in a history textbook. An age where one could frolic through vast leafy meadows and feel the life surrounding them. A time before all the lakes ran dry and the air grew thick. Back when she spent her days climbing enormous trees with winding branches and roots that had been sprawling into the soil beneath her feet for ages. Back then she felt the electric energy one often feels when surrounded by life. 

Now the only energy she felt was the toxic waves coming from the powerplants. Nowadays the streams run dry and the closest thing to a tree is the cellphone towers. She stares at the hillside. Baron, dry, and devoid of life. She closes her eyes and tries to remember when there are trees everywhere. Searching for the trees on this hillside feels like searching your mouth for a lost tooth. You know it isn’t there anymore but you can’t help but check for it. 

She takes another deep inhale and feels the smell of chemicals burn her nose. She flinches at the scent and small teardrops begin to slowly fall from her eye as if she’s in no hurry to get anywhere. This perfectly describes how she feels. She is in no hurry to get anywhere. All the neighbors call her the town crazy lady, but she doesn’t mind. She doesn’t understand their desire to hurry and compete. She fails to find meaning in their endless pursuit of corporate success. She simply feels sorry that they have to live in this desolate concrete hell hole. 

After about 10 minutes of sadly staring at the empty hillside, the old woman grabs a small white envelope marked for Tommy and begins her walk. She slowly walks through the city observing all of the townspeople in their matching uniforms. Each person sports a crisp grey button-down and a blazer. She silently wonders if they have given up their autonomy and become robots. They certainly look like robots. Each person dressed exactly the same striving day after day to climb the ladder of wealth. 

Does this wealth fill the void? Would she be happy too if she just submitted to the new age ideal of happiness? Nonsense, her grandson Tommy makes her happy, not the kind of happiness that you can buy with any amount of money. Tommy gives her hope for the future. He listens to her stories about the way the world used to be. Last week he told her that he had a dream about the trees she told him about. This filled her heart with a golden glimmer of hope.

She prays that his generation might bring back the world she once loved. Once she arrives at the house, she presses the envelope to her heart and lets out a smog-filled cough. This air quality is wreaking havoc on her lungs and she doesn’t know how long she can hold on for. She feels very fulfilled in her life, she is 103 years old, and she only has one last thing to do before she will feel ready to move on. She carefully opens the door to the house and walks in. 

She goes into a room with a sign marked “Tommy” and finds her grandson lying in his bead. “Grandma!!!!” the little boy shouts with enough excitement to fill the room. “Hello my dear” she replies. “I can’t stay long but I’ve come to tuck you in for sleep”. Once he falls asleep she leaves the envelope on his bedside table, kisses his forehead, and slips out the door. She walks home with a newfound feeling of happiness and contentment because that envelope holds the key to bringing back the old world. Her grandson now had the last seeds of an oak tree. Now she could rest easily knowing that not only her grandson's future, but the future of the world had hope. Hope is the most powerful thing a person can have. 

When she arrives home she lies down and calmly closes her eyes. She isn’t afraid of what’s to come. She knows that she's ready. As she drifts off into an eternal rest she pictures Tommy climbing up an enormous oak tree.