"Huh, so it is really happening." I sighed as I looked up at the sky. "The sky is actually falling".
We knew that this day would come. Global warming has been an issue since the early 1990s, and well, we are way passed the point of return nearly 200 years later. We have heard jokes and tales of people mistaking falling objects for the sky falling, but it appears that our attempt at rebuilding the ozone has finally collapsed in on itself. I guess we knew it would happen, that the bubble would burst, but no one knew it would be this soon. I stand and watch on the muggy street corner of my childhood home as thin slices of some sort of engineered plastic fall from the sky. The sun shines through the holes in the bubble that appear small to the eye but must be half a mile wide. The rays are bright, almost as if they're being amplified. I squint as I look up to the sky. The UV stings, my skin feels like it could burn under the heat. In school, we read stories of how the past generations before the bubble lived. If they wanted to go outside then they had to be fully covered from head to toe with layers of SPF underneath. It is a scary thought. This could have been avoided, but now I stand gathered with a small group of strangers under the falling sky. No one says a word.
It feels weird. We know that this is not the end. The scientists work so hard to keep us protected, but this moment feels numb. There is nothing that we can do know. We do our best, plastic packaging is banned, combustion engines are a thing of the past. No matter what, the sky is still falling. There is nothing we can do except to sit. And wait.
Authors Note:
So, I was not really sure what to write for this story. I felt sort of inspired by the "what if?" of the sky actually falling. What would cause the sky to actually fall one day? I could not think of what would cause the actual sky to fall, so imagined a Stephen King style "bubble" around the countries that suffer from the harshest UV rays, but I think that one day that bubble would burst. No solution can last forever, right? This story, if extended, would take place in a near-future dystopia where things are entirely different from the world as we know it. I think I would have a lot of fun turning this into a short story that explores the fixes and complications that come with trying to save the sky from falling.
Image information: "What do you do when the sky is falling?" by Neil. Moralee is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The Foolish, Timid Rabbit By Ellen C. Babbitt
Hi Mikayla! I really enjoyed reading your story. It was not what I was expecting at all when I read that it was about The Foolish, Timid Rabbit. One question I had was what you meant by a Stephen King bubble? I have not read any of his works so I did not quite get this reference. Overall, the story was a fun read and I your take on The Foolish, Timid Rabbit was definitely unique.
ReplyDeleteHi Mikayla,
ReplyDeleteWow this is a really interesting story! I love that you took the phrase "The sky is falling" and ran with it to produce something completely new. Your story resonated with me because I've always found the idea of global warming really scary, so it isn't difficult for me to imagine something like this actually happening in the future.