The last living tree

The boundless city. It reaches the horizon. I’m sitting on

a rooftop and enjoying the tremendous light of digital

billboards. If I turn my head I will see the same picture - the

city extends to the horizon.

Do I like it? Yes, I do. This is the world where I grew up.

I feel I’m mature enough in my fourteen, but my mom considers

otherwise. So, I like Mundipolis - my city - the city, which is

covering the entire planet. And at night the Earth is shining

like a second Sun; I think we are visible on the other side of

the Galaxy. It is wonderful, isn’t it?

My memories bring me back to the day when I saw the last

living tree on Earth. I’ll never forget that day. My mom was

given the invitation ticket for two people, so she took me with

her. The tree was inside of the Museum of History in New

Pasadena in the tech-transparent case; a lot of security guards

were around it, the defence system was better than one in the

Vatican Library. You should have a lot of money if you want to

see this exhibit, or... Honestly, I didn’t know at those times

should I rejoice or be sad, mom got the ticket because of my

father’s death. He fell into the crevice while exploring the new

area on Europa, one of Jupiter’s satellites. He was a prominent

scientist and the government attempted to pay for his life in

such an extravagant way (TvNet showed this every day for a

week). I won't see my father again, but I've glanced at the last

tree, poor replacement, actually.

What was I thinking? I just stared at the miracle, my mind

was empty as a black hollow sucked in all my consciousness and

replaced it by itself. I goggled at the tree but didn't feel

anything. It was so strange. The phenomenon was just in front of

me, so ancient, so lonely, being in the transparent cell. I

stepped as close as I could (security wouldn’t have allowed me

to make not even one more step) and I was staring at it:

Unbelievable - I was looking at the living tree! The real one

living tree! I didn’t believe in that. I saw every leaf, every

little branch and tiny cracks, they were spread all over the

tree - the trunk wasn’t smooth and the colour wasn't permanent

like our holographic trees; also, I noticed that something

strange was growing on the trunk as if the dust became harder

and bigger (my mom said it is called moss); its roots dove into

the ground, which was built especially for the tree, they were

strong, and as I understood, those roots gave the tree nutrients

for living. Such a gorgeous creature! The natural being. For me,

nature was a space beyond our planet, but now I understood that
at first nature was our planet itself. I gathered all my power

of imagination and tried to play a picture in my mind of ​how our

planet was covered by trees (mom said it was called forest when

trees were growing in large groups), how it would have been

incredible to see that forest! I wondered how ancient people had

been walking among trees and sitting, leaning to its trunks, and

tree crown with rich foliage was hiding them from the sun, how

they had climbed on the same very tree’s top and the wind swung

the top from side to side! I hardly wished to touch it.

Different they had been everywhere, small and thin, and tall,

and thick, monstrous shapes that even dozen people couldn’t hug,

or so tiny that you can hold it on a handbreadth, they had been

so many, and now only one; the last one. What had people done?

Selfish, egoistic fools! Why didn't they think a few steps

ahead? When it became too late, they grabbed their heads and

wailed how foolish they were, wondering how they could fix what

they messed up. This was so human! I did wish to see a forest!

(Mom said there were still planets in the Galaxy with forests, I

didn't believe her). The tree was printed on my mind, in my

memory, once and for all. Each leaf, crack, colour, root,

branch, shape, its beauty. I will never forget the last living

tree.
 Today we were informed the last living tree died. I am not

sure what exactly happened, was it some kind of failure on a

station, or eco-terrorists lost their minds. But the fact is the

fact - the last tree is dead.

I am looking at the night city. I feel that it is not the

last tree was gone away, the tiny piece of me died. The city

winks to me with lights - this is my reality. I am trying to

imagine the past - the nature, how it was exciting before, and

all those living creatures, which now I see only in museums,

their skeletons and holograms, no more animals: Here are just

people and stones. I am thinking about the future, what will it

be? Will seas disappear? I don’t want the future like that;

looking at the night beautiful city, I understand I don’t like

it at all - the world is changing in a way I hate. Scientists

said recently nature still can exist on other planets. Now I

have a solution when the mission New Horizons will start the

selection, I will be the first. I do want to see one more tree.

Not one, many of them, I do want to see forests, to hear the

sound of the wind. As with the tree’s death, I lost a part of

me, I want to bring it back, I need that part back. I can not

find her in the endless earth city - Mundipolis. I have to go to

the stars. I have to find...