Prompt: The year is 2035. After a week of high temperatures, the news reports that temperatures will be above 95o for at least another week with temperatures topping out at 100 degrees. The news is also
reporting that the air currents that brought wildfire smoke to the area, will continue as well reducing visibility and contributing to an air quality index above 200 for the next few days (very unhealthy, with the risk of health effects increased for everyone).
There’s one place in this world that I can see so clearly despite not being there for years. It stretched behind my Nana’s simplistic small green house, a patch of grass that seemed endless. The shed stood in the far-left corner, its red paint littered with peeling, the tin roof catching the sunlight like a beacon.
The garden was on the opposite side of the backyard stood against a white picket fence separating my world from my nana’s neighbors. The garden was alive and colorful- bright marigolds, lavender, and tomato plants reaching for the sky. The bees drifted from the flowers and the cool grass beneath my feet. There was an oak tree, its branches spreading wide like arms, sharing the old rough wooden swing me and my cousins used to push each other on. The air smelled sweet and the flowers filled the air.
It was a place that felt like it could be untouched by time. I can hear my Nana’s laughter and the hum of her favorite classical music, underneath the noise I can also hear the sound of her favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz, playing from the living room. Nana’s gone, and the house now belongs to strangers. Still at night, when I close my eyes I’m back there, playing in the grass, smiling with her, and for a moment, it feels like nothing has changed