The Producer
Hello, the name is Red. I live in the city of Green Hills with my siblings and cousins. My favorite part of the day is when the sun is 45 degrees in the sky. That is when I get the most shade and it gives me a chance to drink plenty of water before it evaporates into the air. My brothers Speck and Dimple are conjoined twins. As deformed as they may be, I still think they are quite sweet. I have way too many cousins to talk about but I will mention one of my favorites (although I shouldn't technically have any favorites), her name is Dotty. She is very good at hanging off branches and seems to be filled with wisdom. When we were born, our parents left us. We do not know why though, even Dotty has no idea. So, there you have it, my life on the Hill with my siblings and cousins.
"Hey, hey, Red!" I mumbled in my sleep. "Red! Wake up! The sun is about to rise." I opened one eye. It was still dark so I closed my eyes once more. "RED!" "What!? What do you want?" I opened my eyes and turned to my left. Speck looked right back at me. I asked him, "I'm up. What do you want?" Speck said, "Dotty said weird things happen during the great solar eclipse, right?" "Mhm.." "Red! Please stay awake." "Fine.. Go on." "Well, I just had a realization. Dotty said there will be another great solar eclipse very soon. She said she does not know how she knows but she can sense another one coming. Don't you think we should do something about it? Shouldn't we prepare for it?" I yawned and asked, "And how do we do that? We know nothing about these eclipses except that things get very dark and parts of our family disappears."
Speck said, "I know how we can prepare." I squinted at him, "Really? How? And don't say cover ourselves with mud! You know what happened to Flem, Twist, and Puddy. They still disappeared and a lot of their property got destroyed in the process!" Speck shook his head. "No! Of course not. My plan is even better." He grinned, "We cut ourselves and let the wounds fester. Then we'll look too gross to be taken!" I stared at him. "You sir... ARE A GENIUS!" Speck proudly smiled and said, "I got the stuff right here. Shall we begin?" I nodded and said, "Yes! But you should probably wake up Dimple before you do anything. He might not appreciate your action without an explanation first." "Aw. I wanted to scare him for once.. but fine, I'll wake him up."
After Dimple was caught up on the plan on how to stay safe during the upcoming solar eclipse, I asked Speck exactly how he was going to cut each of us. Speck pointed at a large rock nearby. We grew up hanging out on that rock. It wasn't until now that Speck has noticed a few cracks and sharp edges on it. He explained, "All we have to do is roll around on it then we should get enough scratches to look unpleasant but we will still be able to live." Dotty overheard us making plans and she shouted, "What are you guys doing? Just do what I will do. Hide! My plan is much more simpler and we won't get hurt!" Dimple said, "I have a feeling that simply hiding won't work this time."
I looked at Speck and at Dotty. I quietly said, "I'm sorry, Dotty, we must try Speck's idea." The three of us rolled across the rock and put large cuts into our skin. Red juice spilt out through each scrape. I panted and grimaced through the pain, "There. We should be safe. Now we just have to wait for the solar eclipse."
As the days went on, our wounds surely did fester. Dotty wouldn't come out of hiding and she no longer said a single word to us.
Then, the day of the great solar eclipse was upon us once more. This time I was able to see what was going on. I was definitely a lot more aware. A huge object did indeed block out the sun. Then I heard my fellow siblings and cousins scream. I saw a large object comes towards me. I yelled out in agony as it plucked me from my lifelong home. I was set on top of a large pile of my brothers, sisters, and cousins in some kind of container with a semi-clear force field around it. I cried with pain. The top of my head hurt so much. I was afraid to ask my fellow family members what kind of condition I seemed to be in right now. They, too, seemed to be hurting quite badly as well. None of us have experienced this kind of thing before.
The barrier moved and we were lifted from the ground. I suspect this must be an unidentified flying object of sorts. Eventually we were moved into a big place with a much cooler air. It wasn't quite as fresh as Green Hill's air but at least we could still breathe. I groaned and shouted, "Speck! Dimple! Dotty! Where are you?" For a moment all I could hear was a bunch of crying, moaning, and whining from the pile of family members underneath me but after another minute or so I finally heard Dimple respond, "I'm here! Still alive." I sighed with relief, "How about Speck?" There was a loud muffle. "I think Speck says he is present. And that cousin Sweetie's shoulder is covering his mouth right about now." I nodded then asked, "Any word on Dotty?" Speck said, "No. I haven't heard from her. Maybe she survived another great solar eclipse." I looked to the sky. It was a very strange sky. No longer blue. It was actually very white and it had multiple lesser immovable suns.
Suddenly, the same large object from before grabbed me and several of my relatives. It put us under a large waterfall. The liquid washed off the dirt and cleaned out my cuts. I cried as I was tossed into another container with green stripes as a force field that criss-crossed each other. The container was then transported to a new place with a whole bunch of other citizens from Green Hill. Except they weren't family members. Everyone looked different from me. We all cried out for help but nobody seemed to hear us. Eventually my relatives and I were removed from this horrible place and a large object gradually removed each of my family members from our force field container until I was the very last one. I weeped and begged for mercy. I did not want to be left alone. I wanted to leave too.
The large object swooped over me and picked me up. I tossed into total darkness and screamed until I was no more.
Huh, who knew a strawberry's demise could sound so horrible? Muahahaha. Stay tuned for tomorrow's story! It is called Tick Tock.
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