Green

The Day Green Went Away

On the day that green went away, Oliver was swinging in the netted hammock between the two largest oak trees in the yard, repeatedly tossing and catching his favorite ball. The orange ball with green spots that Uncle Seth had given him on his 7th birthday.

Oliver liked to toss the ball in the air and watch the orange blend with the green spots as the ball spun back to his hand under the weight of gravity. His dog, purple, sat, tongue hanging out, tilting his head up and down with the movement of the ball, watching it every time it came down, waiting to retrieve it, should the duty befall him.


This particular day was no particular day at all. One of those days Oliver’s mom called a “lazy day”, which meant that the day had done so much work yesterday, that it took a vacation today. No storms or wind or car accidents or babies being born, or laws being passed. Just a quiet, sunny, pleasant day.

That’s why Oliver couldn’t understand what the day must have been thinking when it took green away. One second there was green, and then it was gone. The trees and grass and even the spots on the orange ball turned different shades of grey like the photographs of grandpa when he had hair. Purple didn’t seem to notice the change, he just continued watching the ball and when Oliver, startled, dropped the ball, purple rose to his duty of fetching it and then running around the yard with it.

Oliver would normally shout for purple to give it back, but he, instead, overcame his fear of stepping on the new grey grass and ran to the kitchen where his mom was washing perfectly yellow dishes. She hadn’t noticed the change, and had no time for Oliver’s silly stories.

“Go outside and play,” she said, and Oliver obeyed.

But when she turned on the news after dinner that night, she went straight outside and bent down to pick a blade of grass. She was pleased that the day had left the color on her flowers. She could do without grass, but the color of her flowers made them the healthiest and most beautiful in the county, and she had a trophy to prove it. She could do without green, green didn’t win trophies.

The day, after spending so much effort on taking away green, decided not to give it back right away. People were still surprised to find it gone when they woke up the net morning, like a dream that should disappear seconds after brushing your teeth. But the day went on. Adults went to work, children to school, and everyone collectively came home for dinner and worried about whether green would ever come back.

People began selling tee shirts and mugs and bumper stickers announcing “Save the Green” or “blue plus yellow does not equal grey”. There were entire shows and newscasts dedicated to discussing the cause and results of the missing green, and where it had gone.

One man in a country Oliver never heard of found a single blade of green grass hidden under his porch, and some other man bought it for a lot of money and put it in a museum where people from all over the world went to see it. People who lived in the desert said that this wasn’t such a big problem, but that’s because they barely had any green to begin with.

Scientists conducted big studies and lots of research to try and solve the green problem, and a few even tried to breed fresh grass from the museum grass.
Some people said it was because the world was going to end, and others said it was because people forgot to turn the lights out when they left a room. Other people thought it was because of the decrease in penguin population, and a few more thought it was a sign from god. Many people knew that it had to be because of the war. But Oliver knew that it was just because the day had decided to play a trick on the world.

Oliver’s mom even tried to scrub the leaves and grass and the green carpet in her bedroom, and Oliver’s ball, and purple’s collar. She said it might be because they were dirty, but even scrubbing couldn’t fix it.

When the day finally went back to work, it brought the first rainstorm in months. It lasted several days, and people were so happy that the water ban was over and they could fill their swimming pools and wash their cars, that green became a thing of the past. Oliver was the only person paying attention when the rain went away and took the grey with it, leaving green in its place. He spent that day in the Hammock between two large trees, throwing his ball in the air and watching the orange and green blend together as the ball spun above his head.