When It Was Blue

“We used to let the rain tickle our tongues,” said the mother, leaning on her pillow.

Her daughter sat beside her on the bed.

“But now, the pollution from the air has mixed with rainwater. It’s become too dangerous. You’ve told me so a million times. Why do you look so sad?”

“Because.” The mother breathed heavily. “The earth was my friend.” Another deep breath. “And I have betrayed her.”

“Betray her? Mother, don’t be silly. The world is not alive. What makes you think that you have betrayed the planet?”

“The ocean — ” The mother leaned forwards. “ — used to be blue. None of those bottles and bags and straws floated in the waters. It used to be blue, Analia. So blue — like the sky long ago, when it too, used to be blue.”

“It’s still blue, Mother.” Analia squeezed her mother’s hands. “But you should rest before your medicine. And heat the blankets. Hypothermia is dangerous. The doctor said so.”

“Bah, bah. Doctor. Hypothermia. No, no — ” the mother waved her hands around. “You don’t understand. The water, everywhere, it used to be blue. Like a forest of untouched trees or a field of untrampled grass — Ah! The ice, it used to be blue!”

“The ice,” Analia corrected, still holding her mother’s cold hand. “The ice is white. Just like your icy hands. Now, please rest for a while.”

“The ice! Hah! White? White it was! But it was blue!” The mother spread her arms. “The ice used to cover the top of my friend; the ice was her hair.” The mother paused. “But now she is dying. She is dying because of us. She is losing her beautiful hair — she used to be so blue!”

Analia sighed. “Why did you have to fall from the glaciers? Why? You didn’t even finish your research there. It was useless. You need to rest. Please listen — ”

“And the forests, they too! They used to be blue! Green was their canopy and their leaves and the ground, but, oh, they were blue.” The mother chuckled. “And there were animals. The most beautiful animals. They were so blue too! And I went on a rainforest — ”

“ — expedition and you could feel the smell of the forest melting into your skin.” Analia finished her sentence grinning. “You’ve told me ten times.”

The mother smiled, showing all her teeth. “And the bushes and the plants twisted all around me like a hug — ”

“ — that could hold onto you forever,” Analia finished again. “And the beautiful speckled tortilla-colored mushrooms that sprouted from the fresh dewy moss. And you felt like a queen when the jewel sunshine shards were sprayed from the sun. You said that you had found your friend that day.”

“I did.” The mother nodded and then collapsed onto her pillow. “I found my friend.” Her eyes grew distant like she was floating far from the bed she lay in off to a dream world that she so profoundly understood.

“Mother?”

It was silent.

“Mother?” Analia shook her mother’s shoulders.

“I’m here! Aye. What’s the matter? Why did you shake me out of that dream?”

Analia told her mother that she needed rest for the last time. Or, she would get the doctor.

“No! I do not need medicine!” The mother pointed a tremulous finger into the air. “I do not need anything.”

Analia bit her lip. “Have it your way then.” That sentence left some quiet hanging in the air for a while until the mother spoke,

“My dream. It said it all,” said the mother, her eyes still distant. “I was in a bottle of hope — ”

“Bottle of Hope?”

“And a dove came and grabbed the bottleneck by its talons and carried me away across the earth. We traveled for days and days.”

“You dreamt for only a few minutes — ”

“We crossed oceans and seas, every inch of the waters hidden under the thick layer of waste. We crossed the melting ice caps, the burning land fields… we flew right through the smoky stenchy air… we flew over the shrinking forests. And at last, we reached our destination.”

“Home?”

“No, the Land of the Fixing.”

“Right, this is just a dream.”

“And the bird dropped the bottle of hope into the waters around the land and we floated to the shores. The Land of the Fixing… we had arrived at last.”

“What did it look like?”

“It did not look like anything, in fact, it is a land with nothing. Or most call it, the Land of the Fixing.”

Analia made a face. “Mother, a land must look like something. You cannot see nothing.”

“Nothing can only be seen by the ones who seek nothing, Analia,” the mother answered. “And I saw nothing. I unscrewed the lid and when I crept out of that bottle, the nothing disappeared. Just like that.”

Analia laughed. “Nothing cannot disappear. It wasn’t there, to begin with.”

“Oh, but it happened. I saw with both my eyes. I stepped out onto a sandy beach and my feet carried me up the hill and to a crowd of people. Everyone was gathered around a stone tablet engravement of a single word. And my, when my fingers reached out to feel the carving, I was swept over with joy.”

The mother grabbed Analia by the arms. “You have hope. You all have hope. I saw it. I saw with my own eyes.”

“Mother, it was a dream.”

“No, Analia. It was real. The carving — the carving — you must tell your friends about it. You must tell them right away. The word was real. You can save my friend.”

“Mother!” Analia cried. “Stop this nonsense! Please, get some rest. You need your medicine. You’re lucky you survived that ice expedition. You have risked your life to stop climate change already. Now stop and rest… But — what is the word?”

“Hope, Analia. And it was there. In the future.”

“Hope?”

“I have been dwelling on the regret and the sins I have committed. My betrayal against my dearest friend has caused me everlasting pain until I saw this carving on the Land of the Fixing. You were there too!” The mother shouted. “You were in the crowd of people when I came. You were a leader. You helped save mamma’s best friend.”

Analia froze. “Me?”

“Yes, you.”

Analia hesitated to ask. “Was I beautiful?”

The mother sighed. “You’ll never stop being beautiful, Analia. It’s what hope does to you. It leaves a mark on you that can only be erased by hope itself.”

Analia sat taller in her spot. “What did I do — to become a leader?”

“It isn’t just you that will lead. The world will change. People will change. The people in the future did not high-five. They joined hands. You and the people will hold onto hope and work very hard for many many years. Only then, will you bring life back to the dying planet… ”

“How?”

The mother smiled. “You did too much to say all of them at once. I might lose my breath — ”

“Then don’t say it.” Analia looked frightened. “Keep your breath, Mother.”

“Now now, Analia. I am still strong. Let me tell you. You planted forests and forests of trees, the cars no longer spewed that black smoke from its rears, the ice returned after you lowered the temperature of the earth — ”

“How did we do that?”

“I cannot say. It was too great of a task.”

“What else did we do? What happened afterward?”

“As the earth’s fever lowered to her normal temperature, the seas quieted and lowered for she began to grow her icy hair once more, her green friends sprouted all over her face, the air around her was so light and clear!” The mother’s eyes glittered as she looked up to the sky. “I now am comforted with the insight that we shall see a smile reappear on your beautiful face one more time, dear friend!” She called out.

When the night grew, Analia tucked her frail mother in bed and turned off the light.

“When the world was once blue,” Analia said to herself. “When it was blue.”