Story A: Plastic Flowers
Once, there was a handful of plastic flowers.
They were so beautiful that their owner put them in expensive white porcelain and displayed them for all his guests. So beautiful were they that he watered them, and put them in light, although they required neither of those things.
Outside, birds chirped wistfully on the window ledge. “The owner will not let us in to dance around the flowers. What does it matter that they are false? How beautiful!”
The butterflies and the bees, too, often risked venturing into the house to flit around the flowers. “These flowers cannot provide us nectar, nor pollen, but so beautiful are they that we forget what they cannot do.”
It so happened that the young owner of the plastic flowers was called away on a trip.
As time passed, dust began to settle on the petals. What was once beautiful and bright became dull and grey. However, the plastic flowers waited, hopeful for his return.
(161 words)
Story B: Marty the Monkey
Marty the monkey had lived in the rainforest all his life with his family.
Marty loved to hang out on the tallest tree by the river, as it had large, comfortable branches and plenty of fruits.
One day, while Marty was on his favourite tree, he saw huge machines coming into the forest. They were loud and scary!
“Boom! Boom! Boom!” Marty watched in horror as the trees started to fall.
In the following months, houses were built on the deforested land. Humans started to come and stay in them. They were noisy and did not seem to care about the forest.
On a hot afternoon, Marty went to the river. There were some children playing there. He stared at the children curiously, but they screamed and ran away. Just a few minutes later, the children came back with some adult humans, who started hurling rocks at Marty to scare him away!
Terrified, Marty scrambled away.
Back at home, Marty told his parents about what happened. To his surprise, his mother yelled at him. “Stay away from them! They are scared of us, and fear makes them do bad things!” she hissed.
Marty did not understand.
“Why are they scared of us?” he asked. “They have big machines, and we don’t.”
“I don’t know, but please promise me you will not go near them again.”
Marty nodded and never returned to the river again.
(234 words)
