colours

iv. bright white

unedited, my apologies

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Smoke belched out of a moving 16-wheeler truck, the clumps of grey hanging in the air for several moments, polluting the street. Stray dogs scraped their paws on the cemented road as they barked and dodged past rapidly moving cars; some even dared to do their crap business in the side of the road.

The sewage reeked and mixed with the smell of pollution and lit cigarettes of groups of teenagers smoking. The rainbow-like spills of translucent oil stained the rugged grey road--the effect of the traffic jams that had occurred on several occasions.

But in the midst of all the chaos of the road bloomed a flower. It was white in purity, its petals held no tinge of age as it was bright in all its glory. Its leaves were the freshest of green, the veins lined in a darker verdant; it smelled of something sweet and pretty, putting such a shame towards the polluted street

Children of poverty would pay no mind over it, holding no care of some stupid piece of nature; with the exception of the elderly who passed the time and played with their words, telling stories about the miracle flower. They spoke of fate and destiny and the unfathomable, awing young kids. Which is why no one dared to touch it, in fear of misfortune and bad luck.

The matured adolescents always scoffed at these stories and beliefs, thinking that miracles are examples of being naïve.

We are poor, they would claim, We have no time for stories because that is all it will ever be--a story. We should become persevere in working hard rather than listen to things that give us reasons to become lazy in life.

One child of battered rags and makeshift homes watched the flower with such fascination from her cardboard window, arms tucked under her chin. She watched as cars whizzed past it, as dogs slept dumbly by thd flower like a guard dog, and as men and women who weren't from their street walked past it, not being able to appreciate its divergence against the street.

Every so often she helped her tired mama wash the dishes, sweep the floor, feed her little brother, but she will always return, musing about the lone mystical flower her papa used to tell her about. What if someone stepped on it? Would the world crumble into nothingness? Or would nothing happen at all. If not, will it live long forever and ever, immortality in its hands.

And the girl would always wonder until one day, she figured it out. Which is why even then, even when she stopped being a child of battered rags and stopped being a child altogether; she grew too big for makeshift beds and moved onto a much bigger place she called home, allowing her mama to rest peacefully for days to come--she still passed by her mystical flower. Watching and guarding, like those strays from her childhood as if they knew what would happen if the anything happened to the flower.

Then one day, someone took it. When the girl first realized the absence of the flower, her feet suddenly rooted itself deeply in the ground as if someone ran a blade through her back, leaving her metaphorically bleeding in her state of shock. She ran towards where it used to lie, kneeling on the pavement in front of the patch of soil.

Her eyes brimmed with tears that threatened to fall as cars whizzed past, dogs barked, and people went by. Except for one.

"Hello miss, but, but are you looking for this? I, I'm sorry. I was planning to put it in a proper pot and give it to you because I always see you watch it and I just thought--" A boy, maybe a year older, sheepishly rambled on and held out her precious flower that limply lay in his left hand, petals already dry.

She lifted her chin up to follow his voice, gasping from her position at the sight of the flower. She grabbed his hand quite rudely from him, causing the boy to grunt lightly.

She gingerly took the flower from his hand, stroking it as tears flowed from her face. The flower was dead. "You shouldn't have done that."

"Why?"

And then the world decided to end.

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humans are stupid, that's what I think, with the exception of some.

I hope you don't make mistakes that will cause the world's destruction in the near future!

till next time, addy