Story Contest 2017 #1 - Outstanding Stories » Life of a Quiby

“Life of a Quiby” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2017 written by Rhea Lalwani, India.

Life of a Quiby

It was a dark and gloomy night for Lucy. She lived in a farm with her family. Lucy was upset with her siblings; she complained to her parents, “I feel so wretched because all of them are making spiteful little jokes on me”. Lucy’s parents tried to calm her down. They said, “You should control your anger and not use such words Lucy”.

Lucy jeered, rushed out of the kitchen and ran to their backyard. She sat on the bench and started crying. After sometime she wiped her tears and started admiring the night while walking in the garden. Finally, she decided to go back into the house. On her way back, she spotted something sparkly that looked like two shiny balls on the ground. She decided to be brave and go close to it. On going close, she realized that they were two sparkling round creatures. One was bluish green and other was brownish black. They both were speaking to each other in a muffled voice.

She went ahead and said “Hello there!” in a puzzled tone.

The brownish black creature responded excitedly “Hello Miss.” The other one didn’t respond at all.

Lucy asked “What are you? Who are you and what are you doing here in my garden so late at night?”

They chuckled and one of them said “You are funny! You really don’t know us. We are life tellers. We know everything about the past, present and future of this world, and you can see us only in the night”.

The brownish black creature said, “My name is Jenny and hers is Menny. May we know who and what you are?”

“Well!”, said Lucy “I am Lucy. I live here. Um, may I also ask why are you both different colours if you both are … um… I mean, if you both are the same.”

“Quibies, We are Quibies.”, said Menny. Jenny said “I am brown and black because people in this world have polluted me, and Menny is green and blue because people in the past kept her clean and happy. So she is blessed to live happily forever. If she was born recently, she would look exactly like me. I want to become like Menny and live happily or else I will go to the dark side”.

“Oh!”, said Lucy sadly “I hope we could change the ways of this world for you.”

Jenny cheered up after listening to this. Jenny said “Thanks Lucy” and asked Menny “Can we take Lucy to Quibista?”

Lucy immediately said, “No! I am glad to meet you, but we need to know each other very well before I come to your land – Quibista. It was nice meeting you. I hope to meet you again. Bye!” She was feeling better by now and then went to her room.

Quibies and Lucy would wait for dinner time to be over and was so happy in each other’s company. They played games, shared their thoughts and slowly started building trust in each other. Their friendship started growing with time. In a few months they had become best friends.

One day Lucy said, “ I feel like visiting Quibista but I am not sure my parents will let me”.

Menny said, “Oh! It’s simple. We will come in your dreams tonight and take you to Quibista. You do not walk to the place; the place comes to you in your sleep”. Lucy was really excited. She was eagerly waiting for bed time. That night, Lucy finally visited Quibista with her new best friends. She was surprised to find it so beautiful, clean and green. She made new friends. All Quibies had a partner and their names matched, like Sima – Zima, Jenny – Menny. They represented many different things, some for love - hate, happiness - sadness, some were for current affairs - history, and a lot more. She loved Quibitsta, she loved playing with all the Quibies. She started visiting Quibesta in her dreams very often.

Suddenly, one day Jenny fell sick. All the Quibies were by her side. Her condition was not improving. Jenny could not remember anything anymore. Her condition was becoming worse by the day. Even Lucy’s visits were not helping Jenny. Finally, she decided to meet the Quibies named Franky - Shranky. They were the doctors that took care of Quibies. They were called Drammies, they told Lucy “If you want to save your friend, then go back to Earth. Ask your friends, family and all humans to save Earth. The more you try to save, the better Jenny gets”. Lucy said with great confidence “Yes, I will do my best.”

Next day, Lucy shared her experience with her family. Her family was surprised but decided to support her. With the help of her family she shared her experience with everyone. She started spreading the message of ‘Saving Earth’ and the importance of ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’. She made banners for the streets, lamp posts, schools and bus stops with the message ‘The more you clean, the greener Earth becomes’. She initiated children’s articles and advertised them for saving Mother Earth.

Soon, everyone started following her advice and worked for a cleaner and greener place to live in. Jenny started getting better and Lucy kept visiting her. Lucy is still working hard hoping that Jenny will one day live her dream of being a happy blue and green Quiby all her life just like her partner Menny.