Once there was a boy. He lived in a world where color was not seen. The human eye couldn't tell the difference between a red rose and a blue sky. Everything he saw and everyone else he saw were the same, flat grey. He would get up every morning, eat breakfast with his family, brush his teeth, and go to school. There he studied reading, writitng and arithmetic with other boys and girls his age. Day in, and day out, a never-ending routine.
One day, though, something was different. The entire school was awash with curiosity. Students buzzed like bees in a hive, low and constant. The boy barely noticed the low thrum in the background and proceeded to keep his head down and walk forward. He only looked up when it became deathly quiet around him. It was unnerving; there was always some sort of noise here. But right now, even the lights seemed to be holding their breath. Everyone seemed to be staring at him, through him almost. Turning on his heels, the boy had to shut his eyes against the sudden sharp stinging senation. He had to squint through almost closed eyes to see what was hurting his vision. It was a girl, but she was unlike any girl the boy had ever met before. She wasn't a shade of grey, she wasn't shaded in black or even whited out. He didn't have a word for her and it was clear that the rest of his classmates didn't know what to think of her either, they had their eyes averted from the pain of looking at her.
You see, she was a most lovely shade of blue. From head to toe she was the color blue. The inhabitants of this world had never seen color before. Their eyes were not used to the strain of filtering color from grey. One of a kind and an outcast in this world, she had barely arrived before people were shunning her, and telling their children not to touch her, lest they contract whatever disease had made her different. However, the boy ignored the warnings and talked to her. At first, he had to keep his eyes partially closed when he walked up to her but eventually his eyes adjusted to this new phenomena. The girl said it was called color and she was teaching him to notice other colors as well. They spent long afternoons together and in time he could tell that the sky was blue, the sun was a yellowish color and he could see different colors of flowers. The one color he could not grasp fully was something she called "green". She said it was the color of the grass, the stems on the flowers and the leaves in the trees.
By and by the school had adjusted to her blue presence and now just ignored her, which was perfectly fine to the girl. One day the boy noticed her color had faded and was dull instead of the vibrant blue he had come to love. When he asked her what was wrong she said that someone had called her ugly. Not just her color, but her face. This made the boy angry for he had realized that the girl had shown him that beauty can be found around him. She had freed him from the grey iron bars of his routine. He could see, and see truly for the first time in his life! The boy told her all of this and with each word her color returned to its natural vigor and brightness. He reached out and pulled her into his arms and her blue became even more blue than before. It was like watching the ocean roll and shimmer in a dizzying effect. When they broke the embrace and stepped apart, the girl gasped. The boy was a brilliant shade of green, an emerald green so bright and pure that he shone. He looked down at himself and stumbled back in surprise. His voiced passion for her color and the defence of beauty had uncovered the key to seeing green, and to seeing himself how she had seen him, when he was just grey.
Blue and Green were quickly noticed by the others, soon the people around them started asking about color and whether or not anyone could see them. For why should they remain locked inside iron when clearly there was more to life than their routines. As they discovered their passion in life, whether through music, dance, art or just words, more and more people showed their colors. The society which had once been dull and trapped in flat grey became vibrant and a place of passion.
For what is the world we live in without knowing that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
