Rain, roses, and expectations

Jhorna stood by the side of the road, holding a bunch of red roses in her hands. The sky was overcast by dark, ominous clouds and a strong wind began to blow. The thin dress she was wearing offered little protection against the rising wind. About eleven roses were left and she tightened her arms around them. She had to sell all of them today it was the only way she could get the money to feed her starving little sisters.

Lightning flashed across the sky signalling the imminent arrival of rain. She waited for the traffic signal to change from green to red. She was 14 at an age when she should have been in school, getting love from parents and relatives. Instead, she spent her days on the streets, selling flowers and candies just to make ends meet.

The traffic light turned red and a few cars came to a halt. She quickly flitted from car to car, tapping on the windows and pleading with the passengers to buy her flowers. Some people ignored her completely, while others gave her disinterested glances.

She knocked on the window of an expensive car. A well-dressed man suddenly turned angry eyes on her and began shouting obscenities at her. Bewildered and hurt, not knowing what she had done wrong, she quickly stepped away from the car.

The wind suddenly rose and the shawl she had wrapped around herself blew away. Dust blew all around her and got into her eyes. Huge drops of water began to fall. People around her began scrambling for shelter, but she knew she could not go home until she sold all the flowers. Her sisters were counting on her to bring them food.

She could feel the rainwater seeping through her dress, drenching her. But she had become numb to the cold by now. She moved from car to car, praying that someone would take pity on her and buy her flowers. At last, a middle-aged woman gave her 50Tk for the entire bunch.

With the precious 50 taka note in her hand, and a huge smile on her lips, she whistled softly as she ran home. By now, she was completely soaked, but remained oblivious to the torrential rain. She hurried to the nearest grocery store.

When she arrived home, she found her sisters sleeping. She sat down beside the stove and began to cook food for them. She felt happy that she could manage a decent meal for them today. Thoughts of tomorrow clouded her mind, but she pushed them away. The future looked bleak but she still had hope…

By Natasha Zaker

Gone forever

‘CRRRIIINNNGGGG,' rang my alarm clock right in front of my ear, as I was sleeping peacefully having beautiful dreams of me walking in the park, under the open sky with my parents. I opened my eyes and immediately turned the alarm off. I slowly got out of bed and looked through the window. The sky was mauve today. I stared at it for a while trying to recall the memories of earth's clear blue sky with white cotton clouds drifting among them. I remembered it only vaguely.

Just a year ago, the Xeronions had attacked earth. They were outsiders from the planet Xeroi that was millions of light years away from earth.

The memories of leaving earth and my father shouting at my mom and myself to get into the shuttle were still fresh. The Xeronions were a very powerful race of aliens who were not only advanced in weapons and science technology but were also ten times as intelligent as humans. Their only draw back was their greed for power! They attacked one planet after another in the solar system unless the beings of different planets surrendered to them without starting a war. But some of the planets like Neptune and Pluto had made up their minds. They would stand their grounds and defend themselves. As a consequence these planets were destroyed.

For more than 10 years all the beings of the different planets in the solar system had lived in peace and harmony until the Xeronions arrived. They were so powerful that it took them only a few hours to capture Jupiter- the biggest and most powerful planet in the solar system. When the other planets including earth got this news everyone was terrified. The inhabitants of Mars, Mercury and Venus were getting ready to fight back but on the contrary human beings, who were comparatively quite slow in the development of weapons and science, had realized the power of the Xeronions. The president's of all the countries had decided that they would escape from earth and start a new life on Begoza- a planet that changed its colour depending on the ray of the sun. Human beings had accidentally discovered this planet a few years ago and found out that the condition of the planet were perfect for human beings to live in.

None of the beings on the other planets knew about it because the humans had thought to keep it a secret among them. Humans were sure that the Xeronions would not be able to attack this planet because it had a very strong shield covering it and defending it from very strong harmful rays. Only one type of material was able to penetrate it. It was known as 'Krithiolium' and could only be found on earth.

But a problem had aroused when this decision was taken. Some countries quarreled with the other countries saying that they would not leave earth and would fight against the Xeronions to protect earth from invasion. There was no time for another war to take place so a decision was taken. Twenty families and species of each animals from all over the world were chosen, who would be sent to Begoza if earth were destroyed. The rest were going to stay back and fight against the Xeronions who were steadily progressing towards earth, destroying planet after planet. Our family was one of the lucky ones to be chosen from the millions of families in Canada. But my dad did not want to leave earth. He wanted to fight against the Xeronions for the sake of the earth and for the future of his child. As my dad was not going some other lucky person was chosen. Dad had decided to stay back; thus, my mom fussed about us staying back too. But my dad was just too stubborn. He convinced mom to go.

The Xeronions were known to attack by surprise so no one knew when they would attack. But earth was ready for it. The chosen twenty families were all moved close to where the space shuttles were going to launch from. Dad moved to the new place close to the space centre along with us because I was not told that he was going to stay back. He knew that if I were told about him staying back I would not want to go and probably make a lot of trouble.

The dreaded attack of the Xeronions finally came on the 4th of May at around nine o'clock in the night. They were slowly steadily taking over planet after planet. By the time Saturn was conquered almost all the people of earth were getting ready, not only for the war, but also for the people leaving earth. The phone rang at our place half an hour before informing us of the arrival of the nemesis. Our family had already had their bags packed up. A military jeep came to take us to the space shuttles that were waiting to take the chosen families to Begoza. Dad came along with us but he was very quiet. He was not sure how to break the news to me. I saw most of the people who were not chosen getting ready for the battle. As I saw them I felt this very weird feeling for them; it was not sympathy but probably I felt proud of them.

As we entered through the gates of the 'Space Navigation and Technology' centre, I saw a huge crowd of people. Some of them were crying, screaming and also begging that they wanted to be taken to the new planet. The war had already started and most of the people were being handed ray guns and other assortments of weapons. As each of the families entered the shuttles, a military officer was checking each of them down on his list. When it was our turn to be checked in, to my surprise the officer did not call my dad's name out. I turned around to my dad and saw that there were tears in his eyes. As I looked at him I could tell what he meant from the expression on his face. Hot tears rolled down my face and I had this mixed feeling for him. I was sad that he was going to stay back but was also proud that he was going to fight in the battle of trying to save earth from the invasion of the evil Xeronions. I kissed him on the forehead and hugged him for the last time and went inside the shuttle. Shortly after a few minutes, my mom who was now sobbing joined me. As the shuttle slowly took off I saw that dad was being handed a gun. I kept staring out the window until I could see the whole of the earth. In the meantime, my mom went out of the cabin to get some food. When she came back with some food in she found me looking through the window, she stood beside me. She gave me hope that dad would soon join us at Begoza.

Then suddenly a huge explosion took place and within a few minutes I saw earth been blown apart to a zillion pieces. Mom had already started crying. I was in such a shock that I did not know how to react. I just closed my eyes and said to myself that dad was gone. He had tried to save earth and in the process he had to give up his life. By now my eyes were streaming with tears and at that moment all I could think about was of the cherished memories that I had on this beautiful amazing planet with my dad.

' Christine are you done yet? Come down now and have your breakfast fast or else you'll miss the hover bus.' I heard my mom say. I snapped out of it and got dressed up. I went downstairs and saw my mom. She was already dressed up and was setting down breakfast for me.

She smiled at me and said 'Good morning honey.' Even though my mom looked as if she was over my dad's death, deep down inside I knew that she still missed him and that the thoughts of him still brought tears to her eyes. I finished breakfast, kissed mom on her cheek and said 'Mom, no need to pick me up, after school. I've got Basketball practice today. I'll come home by myself. '

I opened the door and walked towards the hover-bus that had already arrived to pick up all the children from their homes. As I walked into it I said to myself in my head ' I know your happy up there dad. But always remember mom and I miss you a lot.'

By psycho_girl