The County of Wellington Library has announced the winners and runners-up of the second annual Olive and Fred Robins Junior Short Story Contest. It is open to Wellington County students attending Grades 4 to 6, who are invited to submit original short stories between 500 and 750 words.
“We would like to thank everyone who submitted stories to this year’s contest for their enthusiasm and creativity. We enjoyed reading every one,” library officials state.
Malcolm Medeiros is one of two 2019 top prize winners.
Nature’s revenge
By Malcolm Medeiros
Nature.
One of the most amazing things on Earth.
You could say that it can sometimes have a mind of its own.
Over the years, we’ve done a lot of bad stuff to Nature.
Over 15.3 billion trees are cut down every year.
Either to make room or to make paper.
Long story short, human kind is not good to Nature.
What you all might wonder is …What if Nature had its revenge?
In 2034 there are only a few animals that are not extinct. There are only a few remaining trees and fewer plants. Moe Lerbe, a scientist who loves gardening, is concocting a serum that will make plants grow faster and last longer. He’s also finding a way to make plants living things.
To make them living, breathing beings. He thinks it could be an addition to life.
As he sat in his lab, he was so focussed on his concoction that he didn’t notice his pet monkey sneaking up behind him. Larry, the overly-intelligent monkey was much like a human. He walked like a human. He was as smart as one. He even spoke English. He was like the new and improved Koko (the intelligent ape that learned to use sign language, back in the day).
Moe had found Larry while on a trip to the Amazon jungle (or what was left of it). Moe was with his Science comrades to try and locate the endangered jaguar. Instead he had found a baby monkey hiding in the smoking remains of a Kapok tree. Larry’s family had been killed by poachers. He had bullet wounds, including a gash on his cheek.
Moe had taken him in. Larry learned from Moe. In a month he had learned to walk.
Moe was so surprised that he decided to teach him as much as he could.
And he did.
Moe had tried teaching Larry the old fashion way but it didn’t work. He had to turn to technology.
He did an x-ray on Larry’s brain. He discovered that there was a bullet still lodged in Larry’s head. It had been there since the day Moe had taken him in.
Moe pieced together a human brain with different parts (Don’t ask). And then replaced Larry’s brain with the human brain (Don’t ask). After that, Larry was just like a human.
“Moe,” Larry said so abruptly that Moe was jolted out of his chair and slammed into his desk.
The desk shook violently causing the test tubes to tip over and the serum to pour out and mix with the other liquids. One test tube containing a blue liquid poured into a test tube with a yellow liquid. When the blue liquid mixed with the yellow liquid it turned green. It started to foam and glow.
“Don’t do that to me Larry!” Moe exclaimed, “You could have…’’
Moe froze when his eyes landed on the mess on his desk. Larry looked on in horror.
“What’s that?” Larry asked, pointing at the foaming green mixture.
As if on cue, the test tube tipped and the mixture poured into the Venus fly trap next to the test tubes.
“Noooooo!” Moe yelled, running over to his desk.
He let out a very loud sigh then looked back at Larry.
“Sorry,’’ Larry squealed.
Moe opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a high-pitched squeal. He turned to see the Venus fly trap moving. Its mouth opened and an eerie sound was heard.
“What the….’’ Moe said as he leaned down to observe it.
Larry did the same. Moe scratched the Venus fly trap’s chin. The plant seemed to giggle.
Larry and Moe looked at each other in awe.
“I think we’ve made an amazing discovery,” Moe grinned.
Five Months Later
Larry and Moe sat back on their couch. So much had happened. They had raised 1000 Venus fly traps that had been exposed to the serum they called “Larry’s Mistake” or LM for short. The plants had been sold across the world as household guards. Because they were rare, they were very expensive, which meant only the very wealthy could afford them. They became a status symbol.
Business was good until they discovered that when the plants reach maturity they got confused between the owners and intruders. Before long these rich people became homeless when they could no longer enter their houses due to a giant walking Venus Fly Trap.
For these certain people, Nature had had its revenge.
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Watch for other top entries in future issues of the Wellington Advertiser.
