Book - The Tipping Point

Chapter Seven

Alister awoke from his deep slumber, it was the best sleep he had had in months. He couldn’t help but recall the previous day. Rolling onto his side he gazed out of his window and was greeted by the grey skyscrapers that surrounded his apartment block. However, he was mesmerised by the baby pinks, oranges and yellows that were peaking from behind the buildings, he couldn’t help but think that today was going to be a good day. The bed frame creaked as he leveraged his body upwards. Beyond his bedroom door he could hear his mother opening and closing cupboards in the kitchen. Springing off the bed, a big smile overtook his face as he walked to the kitchen and towards his mother. “Morning Mum” Alister placed a big kiss upon her cheek and continued to the front door.

Confusion swept upon her face, “Is everything alright honey?” By this time Alister had already closed the door behind him.

From the front door, Alister begun to travel in the direction of the botanical garden with a slight skip in his step. Digging his hand into his jeans pocket his hand clasped around his family heirloom and tugged it out. Turning his fist around, he opened his palm to face the sky and was horrified at what he saw. Instead of the locket being silver in colour, it was rusted. Furiously scrubbing it against his leg, the rust wouldn’t go away. Alister’s heart begun to race and his throat closed up in hysteria. Shoving the trinket down into his pocket he took off running towards the gardens. Slowing to a slight jog, he turned the last corner and saw the destruction past the fence surrounding the botanical garden. Turning to a passing robot that read WADE 12.3, he screamed in frustration “WHERE IS VERA? FIND HER FOR ME!!!” Running into the garden he stomps over mountains of rubbish that had replaced the grass until he came across the original patch of grass. Running over to it he sat down and begun to cry in anguish. “WHY? WHY? WHY?” In the distance Vera could hear her new-found friend sobbing, with great worry for the boy she ran to him. Falling to her knees she locked her arms around his body and rocked him. Only then did she notice all the rubbish that had come back. “Shhhh, everything will be okay” hoping to soften the cries.

Ripping Vera’s arms from around him, he got up abruptly and rubbed aggressively at his eyes “Nothing is okay about this, the whole reason I lost my job was because I couldn’t do it correctly.”

Vera stood up and placed her hands on his shoulders “Of course you did your job correctly, it was the mean council men’s fault that you lost it.”

Trying to catch his breath he looked into her eyes “No I didn’t, this just proves it.” Alister kicked a small pile of rubbish next to his feet, “there’s no use in continuing this project, it’s all useless.”

Vera could see the dejection on the young boy’s face, with a feeling of determination she had to encourage him. “One thing I learnt from my training days was that you just don’t give up. It took me months to learn how to hurdle properly, even now I’m still learning. When I wanted to give up, I knew I couldn’t because I wanted to be the greatest I could be and giving up wasn’t an option. So, you shouldn’t give up. From being with you I’ve learnt that we are the same, we fight for what we believe in.” With Vera’s motivational speech and Alister’s change of heart they begun to redo their previous day’s work. For hours they filled bags upon bags of rubbish until dusk fell and the green grass could be seen. Alister looked over at Vera who was kneeling on the filthy ground, he couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t working. He thought that perhaps she was spent after a hard day of physical labour but after closer inspection she was staring distantly at the athletic stadium. Walking up to her side, he kneeled down and looked at her and was struck by the sadness in her eyes. “You really love that place, don’t you?”

Vera turned her back to the stadium to begin working again. Under the rustling of the rubbish, Alister could hear Vera mumble “Yeah I do. It’s my home.”