New World Problem | Teen Ink

New World Problem

December 3, 2021
By Colin-R SILVER, San Pedro, California
Colin-R SILVER, San Pedro, California
7 articles 0 photos 0 comments

While hiking through the woods on Earth, I heard a very loud sound piercing my ears. It drew closer to me, becoming louder and louder, like a screeching hawk shrieking in my ear. I started moving toward the origin of the sound to find the oddest looking machine. As I looked at it more, I started to assume that it must be some type of spaceship. It’s metal seemed so refined, it looked like something straight out of a dream, or a movie. It had dark, practically fully tinted windows, ones you couldn’t even see through. I continued to walk toward it as the sound grew  more and more painful, until I noticed an opening. A door in the ship, opened like a dungeon ready to be explored. 

I moved into the ship, and the door closed behind me. It appeared too dark to see, but I could tell I had arrived in some sort of resting area. I wobbled my way around as the ship began to shake. I somehow managed to find my way to a couch. The fluffy feeling of the couch felt like a cloud flowing through me. The ship shook violently for a while, before calming down and only vibrating a bit. I put my head back and listened to the rumbles of the ship. The constant humming felt relaxing in a way. My mind had begun to drift off into unconsciousness as the sound of the ship like a cradle, easing my mind. My body felt weightless, like a feather floating on the smooth surface of a pool. 

Just as my mind drifted off, a violent crank brought me back. A bright light shined through the door I had initially gone through, and the sounds and vibrations of the ship no longer dragged me into unconsciousness. I stepped out of the ship to find a brand new world, another planet nothing like the one I lived on just a few minutes ago. As my feet stepped onto the ground, my shoes sunk into a silky smooth pile of sand. I noticed that most of the ground on this planet seemed similar to a very fine sand, however its color looked much different than what I was accustomed to. I noticed that the sand appeared to be a light blue color, kind of like the sky on Earth. I also noticed a large lake in front of me, filled with the bluest water I had ever seen in my life. The air began hitting my skin and filling my lungs, it felt very cool, like the taste of a popsicle on a summer day. I looked up to see a sky filled with clouds, but something seemed different. The sky looked like a yellowish color, unlike the blue I used to see. It surprised me at first, but I began to get used to it. 

Then I took a look back to the ground, after hearing a rustling sound coming from a bush… yes, a bush. Despite the ground being composed of something similar to sand, there managed to be patches of grass and bushes all over the place, and even trees, similar to palm trees from Earth. The green looked so off against the blue sand, like a thief at a Royal Party. Another rustle could be heard from a bush, and I redirected my attention to it. 

That’s when I noticed it, an interesting creature, about the size of a labrador, seemed to be eyeing at me from the bush. At first I felt concerned, this thing looked nothing like I had ever seen before, but then I took a closer look at it. It began inching towards me, and I started to notice it seemed a lot like a meerkat. It’s fuzzy hair slicked back behind its head, despite appearing a strange color, I began to make the connections. It stood just like a meerkat would, ran like a meerkat would, but weirdly enough, walked on its back two legs. It’s red and white fur contrasted very strangely, but worked well with its rough grey skin below. As it’s long body continued to creep towards me, I became less worried about the creature. Once it had finally come up to me, I tried to talk with it. Throughout the culture shock I was experiencing I seemed to have forgotten I arrived on a different planet. I quickly learned that this creature knew nothing even close to English. The noises the creature made seemed very odd, everything it did sounded hushed down in a low tone. A lot of the noises it made sounded a lot like hisses, but it also occasionally mumbled something that I could only recognize as gibberish. 

 After a long while of trying to find a way to communicate, the creature figured out the best way to talk. He ran over to the brush nearby and grabbed a stick. He then came back over to me, and began drawing a picture in the sand. I quickly realized that his people were having an issue, and they needed me to fix it. My mind continued to wander, looking at the magnificent, and confusing world I had landed upon. But I also tried to figure out what I needed to do. The creature informed me that his people desperately needed water. It hadn’t rained for a long time on this planet. I then took a hold of the stick and drew in the silky sand. It felt like seeing a soft blanket just waiting to be used. We communicated back and forth, and I asked him a couple questions. My first thought was to see if they could drink the water from the lake, and unfortunately they could not. 

I began walking toward the water pondering how I could help, and the creature followed me, making a mumbling sound. When I reached the water, I dipped my hand in. It felt like I had just put my hand into a freezer, the water felt incredibly cold. That’s when it dawned on me, I could teach the creature how to purify the lake water. I moved away from the lake, my feet sinking into the silky sand, and drew another image. The creature seemed confused, so I figured I should show him with actions. I asked him to take me to his people, with another image, and he happily obliged, making an interesting squeal. We walked for a while, where I found his civilization. It looked very strange, they had advanced technologies, and things that looked similar to the spaceship that had brought me here, and yet they didn’t seem advanced in any other sense. 

Nonetheless, I grabbed some sticks, a metal pot, and made my way to the lake. I then boiled the lake water, getting rid of the bacteria and heating it up so they could drink it. I then offered it to the creature, he had a look of hazy confusion, but he took the pot and took a sip of the water. His face brilliantly lit up, and he ran towards his village. He talked to the other people for a while, and they all rejoiced, or at least that’s what I think they were doing, happily. 

I sat on the beach as the creature continued to talk to his  friends, and looked up at the sky. I took some time to really take the components of this planet in, I noticed that there was a slight smell of sweetness in the air. As I looked around I noticed that the trees actually bore fruit, that must’ve been where the smell originated from. After a while of my body sinking into the silky ground, I brought myself up and made my way over to the creature. When I arrived, I noticed he had drawn out some messages for me. 

He told me, “All of our  people are very thankful and that they want to give me something as thank you”.

Or at least I think that’s what it was. Before I knew it, the creature had come to me with a small box full of the fruit I had seen growing on the trees earlier. As I picked up the box, the smell wafted through the air, and I realized that I had been correct. The fruit had a very sweet and fragrant scent to it, and also looked a lot like a dragon fruit. I waved goodbye to the aliens without thinking, but it turns out that gesture is one thing that they understood. They waved back and made cheerful squealing noises. As I walked back to the ship I had come here from, my feet sinking into the soft sand, I inspected the fruit they had given me a little closer. Unlike a dragon fruit, the skin felt very rough, and had sharp spikes on the outside. It’s skin looked to be a bright orange color rather than the reddish-green I knew. 

I made my way back onto the ship, and just like last time, when I arrived on, the door closed behind me. Once again, the ship began to violently shake, and I stumbled my way onto the couch. After a while, the ship became calmer, a light humming coming from behind me, and a small rumbling from throughout the ship. I let the feelings and the sounds drift me away once more, almost like a lullaby song. Just as my mind began to drift away, I was interrupted by violent shaking, and a blasting rumble scarring my ears. The shaking stopped and the rumbling ended, I opened my eyes to see a bright light coming from the door. I stepped outside to find that I had finally made it back to planet Earth. Seeing the natural colors felt strange, but the blue sky, and the green trees felt nice to see again. I sat down, and watched the ship leave earth for the last time, the searing ringing noise entering my eardrums once more, but this time I wasn’t concerned or worried about it, I felt happy. The sound of the ship leaving seemed like reading the end of a good book. It gave me a good sense of satisfaction and I just sat back, relaxed, and took in the scenery of my home, planet Earth. 


The author's comments:

This was a piece that I wrote for my Creative Writing class. Like most of my work, I just let my mind flow and wrote down whatever came up. In the end I had this, so, why not publish it. 


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