Outstanding Story (Sub-junior) - Hope

“Hope” is one of the outstanding stories (sub-junior) of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2020 written by Kimaya Goel, Podar International School (CAIE), Powai, Mumbai, India.

Hope

Once upon a time, there was a girl named ‘Hope’, she was a very brave girl. One night Hope’s mother, Linda narrated the story of “The Three Little Pigs” while putting her to sleep. The little pig, who constructed the house with bricks made appearance in Hope’s dream that night and said “I made my house with bricks and saved myself from the wolf, now it’s your turn to save your house! Wake up fast and save mother earth from Global Warming monster known as ‘Glo War’. See how all other planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune are flourishing with life and laughing at Earth that was once blooming with life, which has now come to an end”. The pig also revealed a secret to Hope which made her roll in sleep over her bed as if she was searching something and fell from the bed with a thud on the floor and woke up startled. Before she could get up from the floor, her mother Linda came running, hugged her and enquired about the sound, and why she was looking so scared. Hope told her mother everything about the dream and said that she needs to leave home immediately for an important task to find the “Tree of Life” because only “Tree of life” knows the secret to save the earth from Glo War, which was real and haunting all of them.

Her mother understood everything and helped her prepare for the journey, she packed some food and gave her a magical umbrella and handed over the map that she hid from Hope for so many years but now the time had come to reveal this secret. On seeing the map, Hope’s eyes lit with surprise and excitement and she told her mother, “Oh mother, this is the same map the pig was talking about which I was searching in my dream that made me fall from the bed”. Her mother was well aware of the tough road ahead that would be full of winds, storms, hurricanes, tornadoes and blizzards but she trusted her daughter’s ability and courage. She knew Hope was the only option left now to save the earth. She bid her Good luck with tears rolling down her cheeks as she saw Hope leave the home.

Hope started her journey which was full of broken pathways, stones and boulders, wind and storms but nothing could stop her. The moment she got the sight of “Tree of Life” over the top of the mountain, she started climbing. Cold and chilly winds made her shake and shiver, frost started to cover all around her body, she began to freeze to solid and was frightened but she said to herself, “I will not give up, everyone has hope on me, I have to complete my mission.” and suddenly felt the handle of the umbrella that mother had given to her. She pulled out the umbrella just before she was about to freeze completely and instantly the umbrella formed a warm shield all around her body which melted away the frost and now she was feeling warm and even more energetic.

Hope walked until she finally reached near the “Tree of Life”. The ancient tree looked magnificent and untouched by its cold surrounding. It was lush green and alive. She approached the tree and said, “Oh, ancient one, heed my call! I have come here to ask help from you to defeat the Glo War”.

Tree asked, “Who awakened me from my deep slumber? Who are you child who has braved the storms and the cold to get here?”

Hope requested, “Can you help me?”

“Yes” said the Tree, “but I will need something in return”.

“What?” asked Hope.

“Your Map”, said the Tree.

Hope agreed.

The Tree said, “Would you not need it to get back home?”

Hope said, “I do, but saving earth is more important”.

The Tree said, “You are amazing my child, cold and winds are minor issues for the seekers, you are brave and I shall help you”.

Saying this the Tree closed her eyes, the leaves rustled, refreshing wind blew as the tree reached out to her children all across the world bringing them back to life, saplings became trees and dried trees sprang back to life. Temperature of the earth came back to normal and ‘Glo War’ monster lost his strength.

The Tree said, “You have nothing to fear anymore my child, you may now return back to your home safe. Promise me that you will spread the awareness amongst the people around the world to take good care of Nature! Plant more trees and not cut them down. Practice and implement the principle of 3 R’s – Reuse, Reduce and Recycle. Control the use of fossil fuels and start using the mighty power of Wind, Solar and Tidal energies, and then the ‘Glo War’ monster will never be seen again”.

“I promise!” said Hope and hugged ‘Tree of life’.

She headed back to her home and started a new journey with her mother to spread the beautiful message from the ‘Tree of Life’ to the entire world.

After this Earth also joined other planets and started laughing.