by: Cherry Wong
The town had one playground only. And it was small. It had three yellow slides stretching in all different directions, gleaming amber under the sun. A sturdy wooden swing that had endured the winds and rain for decades, forever swinging in the breeze. A multicolored jungle gym with a dome-like configuration. Yet what April loved the most about the playground was the trees.
The playground was surrounded by maple trees. Most of the time they were green. The stunning essence of elegance would kick in when summer arrived and the maple leaves turned shades of purplish-green. But it was autumn when the splendor of nature descended upon them all, and the playground would be in a blaze of color. Clusters of red and orange hovered in the air, overwhelming the world with a glossy touch of fantasy. April would clamber up the monkey bars with other children of her age eagerly, and they would all stretch their tiny arms skywards with determination, whooping and cheering on one another to catch the next maple leaf before it fell.
Now all they thought about was stars.
April began attending primary school when she was 6. Her school sat upon the only hill in town. The school had a five-story structure, making it one of the tallest town buildings. Its outer surface was seamlessly laid with red bricks, and there was not a single window in sight. It did have a functional rooftop for star-catching and dust-mixing, though.
The Star System was simple. The academic elites had it all. In each school, the top 30% in the grade would get the silver stardust. The top 20% got dust glinting gold. And the white stardust would go to the top 10 students in the grade. Perfectly straightforward. Get the grades, get the dust. Everyone wanted the dust, and everyone studied hard. Human nature would never be satisfied until all the dust went down their throats.
April’s grades were average. Definitely not the best, but not bad for someone who spent half of her time playing around. She didn’t care about the dust. Why did they all want the dust? There was nothing fun about it! All that glitter and shimmer was no more than eye candy. It couldn’t be played with, it couldn’t be chattered to, it could do virtually nothing – and yet everyone seemed to be addicted to it – April just couldn’t comprehend the whole trend.
Why did they all want the dust?
Every day after school she continued to go back to the playground, back to the maple trees, back to where the true fantasies lay. She would climb up the monkey bar as usual and let herself dangle from it as she watched the maple leaves fall and waited for her friends to come. She could feel the children dashing about the playground, trampling the woodchip ground as they ran… Someone squealing as the swings swooshed in the wind, higher and higher and higher… Another monkey swinging towards her from the edge of the bars…
But those were the younger kids in kindergarten.
Where were her friends?
One day she stayed behind after school and found them wielding massive books at the library. ‘Why did you all stop coming to the playground?’
They were busy, they scoffed. And so should she be.
Why? She asked.
They looked at her incredulously. They looked silly, April said to herself. A bunch of toddlers acting mature. Then they gave her the same old answer again. To get the stardust, of course!
The dust again. April couldn’t hold out any longer.
‘Will you all please stop talking about the dust!’ She shrieked. The infuriation that had been boiling up inside her for months lashed right out. All the low whispers in the library evaporated. Everyone stared at her, some in disbelief, some in outrage, some in revulsion.
‘Oh what’s good about all that dust! All you do with it is sprinkle yourself in that fuzzy colored glow and parade around the corridors! What’s so good about it!’ Just then a senior sauntered into the library through the front doors. He was the Head Prefect, and naturally passed all his papers with flying colors. Scrapped a handful of scholarships in his five years of schooling. Top ten every year. They called him the Elite out of the Elites.
April personally thought he would be better off called a bastard. She could feel the pomposity reeking from his golden smirk. White smirk, to be accurate. He was a walking snowman. His face looked like a powdered donut. His whole body was sparkling and glistening with white dust. The dimness of the library could not diminish the luminosity of this treasured diamond of the school. As he walked down his imaginary red carpet in slow motion, the girls turned to each other and sighed in awe.
He was coming closer, knight in uniform, pen in hand, ready to rid his people of harm.
April would not suffer the condemnation and humiliation.
She ran.
The Head Prefect caught her by the elbow as she passed him. April tried to wrestle free, but she was no match for someone twice her size. She tried to back away but slipped on the stardust scattered around his feet. She fell to the ground and the students applauded. Principal’s office, he said coldly as he peered down at her through his glass spectacles in conceit.
The Head Prefect had dragged her out of the library that day. And she had tried to suppress the tears welling up in her eyes, but she cried anyway.
No one knew what happened to April during her two-day stay at the principal’s office, but when she was released they all knew she was changed forever.
-
April trod lightly across the field of woodchips as the sky lost its hues of orange. She took the moment to stare at her elongated shadow on the ground, darkening along with everything else. There was nothing else to stare at. Tilting her head up she scanned the vacant clearing before her. Not entirely vacant. A dying maple tree did stand on the sidelines of the pavement, its withering branches reaching out, a few struggling gnarled claws. But nothing more than that.
She turned away and began her trek towards the hills. The night was near. And so were the stars.
It didn’t take her long to reach the school rooftop. The teachers were already stationed there, along with the other students who would be receiving their dust. The bitter wind whipped across their faces ruthlessly and their faces and lips were pale-grey from the cold, but they continued to chat and chitter, exhilarated.
April’s class teacher approached her. She almost thought April was going to be late, she said.
April chortled. ‘How can the Head Girl be late?’ She had white dust to bring home.
‘May I have your attention please, teachers and students!’ Someone blared above the noise. ‘The Annual Stardust Ceremony will begin soon! Star-catchers and dust-mixers, please prepare yourselves!’
It was the principal. April could recognize his voice anywhere.
A series of images went through her head, but faded as quickly as they came. There was no point in lingering about what happened four years ago. What mattered was the present. Now, she was the Elite.
The last hues of light went out of the background of the sky and rearranged themselves as tiny flickering dots in the galaxy. ‘Star-catchers, you may begin!’ The principal bellowed.
A group of students on the right stepped forward in synchronization and unfolded their casting nets as the dust began to descend from the sky. At first, the dust only came down in trickles. Then the patio lights set up earlier on were switched on. Stars reacted to light, and the dust rain came – the dust seemed to come from nowhere, but it was truly pouring down from the stars – a phenomenal gift of the galaxy. The rooftop was coated in light as the dust caught singed with heat.
‘Ok that’s enough!’ The principal made the order.
The star-catchers were just about to withdraw the nets when someone squealed.
A shooting star was plummeting towards the earth.
It would be all yours, April’s class teacher said to her.
April trembled and folded back her arms, trying to conceal the bursting feeling of ecstasy in her heart. She knew it would be hers! All the stardust she could get from a shooting star! She could go on shining for days and weeks and months with an endless glow – she was going to be the new phenomenon – there, there, the star was ablaze – it disappeared.
Nothing happened for a moment.
All of a sudden the world went into a state of blindness and everyone fell to the ground, groaning as everything went white.
No!
When they opened their eyes, there was nothing in the nets – nothing more than piles of black dust that could not look any plainer than dirt.