Mystery of the sixteen trees

by Yuntao Zhou

In the year 3023, plants were seen as an equal to humans.

On a gloomy Friday, sixteen trees were killed. The town where they were killed is small and distant from the other villages, so they could not hire a detective. There is, however, one detective in town, Lucy, who is also the only farmer. Lucy is called in by the town administrator to investigate the case of the sixteen dead trees.

Lucy arrives at the crime scene. It’s on a field that she used for farming before. She stares into the field. It looked so different from before. The field is dry with not even one drop of water. The soil is unfertilized, chunky and hard. There are no trees. The sixteen trees that were killed were
the last trees here. Wild, cold wind blows from everywhere with no protection from the trees. The colorless sky is as blank as the field. Thick, grey clouds hovered over the field as if they wanted to keep the field to themselves, protect the field, and let no one in.

Lucy started observing the soil. She notices that there are chemicals in it. Well that’s usual, she always sprayed on many chemicals to keep the insects away and help the plants grow faster. She then tested the air. The air is dry and warm. They also contained many chemicals. That’s normal too, thinking of the amount of chemicals she sprayed. Everything seems normal.

Lucy turns and walks away. She is lost in thoughts of how she would explain to the citizens in town that nothing was found. A strong gust of wind blows on her. She winces and tries to walk away. However, it feels like cold claws are grabbing her. She is turned back and there is a mirror. There was something written on top. It read, “You’re the murderer, Lucy. You spread chemicals everywhere for faster food production. You didn’t listen to our pleas for you to stop. You told us that it’s for our own good, but it’s only for humans. Now, the soil and air is so dry that trees had no water to drink. The chemicals weakened them making their life span shorter. You have to stop Lucy, stop thinking about only humans. Think about plants too.”

Lucy was speechless. She never knew how much harm she caused for the plants. She was so thoughtless that she spread chemicals for the town’s people to have more food, so selfish that she never heard the plant’s pleas for her to stop. Lucy ran back to her farm only to find the same situation. There are plants that look “healthy”, but the soil is dry and the air smells like chemicals. From then on, Lucy uses bacterias, chemical solvents, and many more healthy ways to help her soil heal. Instead of spraying chemicals for the plants to grow faster and healthier, she enlarges her field. No plants died of unnatural causes after that.