Space Forest

• Matthias Aras, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2023

A vast, steamy Pluto gas cloud wafted about while Kerbit the Space Slug sprinkled his garden with Galaxy Grease. Kerbit was a great gardener and his garden was a colourful paradise of white, blooming Moon Flowers and green, brilliant Mars Ferns. Kerbit’s garden was his life.

Every day Kerbit watered his garden, even though it never appeared to grow any bigger. One Monday, he woke up early to grease his garden. Despite his tiredness, Kerbit with his eyes half closed, sludged to his hole where he got his galaxy grease from when he dug in the wrong spot! Instead of galaxy grease, he brought out Neptune Poison! This he put all over his garden. Soon his garden started to ROT! One moment it was green and flourishing, the next it was brown and rotten.

When Kerbit found out, he didn’t know what to do and he stood still, motionless. Then all of a sudden he knew what to do! Kerbit dashed for his spacecraft and blasted off into space to find the nearest hydro-gas powerstation. WHOOSH!

An hour later he finally arrived. The shopkeeper behind the counter was smoking a black, slimy cigar as blobs of slime seeped out of the end onto the floor. Plop! The goo slowly trickled and spread over the broad, rectangular platform, forming a slippery coat.

When Kerbit leaped onto the platform he slipped, lost his balance and skimmed right off the edge!

Desperately, Kerbit grasped a safety rail that was attached to the slippery platform. His stomach churned as his grip rapidly loosened. Oh bother, Kerbit thought hopelessly, I’ll never spend a day in my garden ever again!

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a greasy hand with scales briskly hoisted Kerbit up onto the slimy platform. Then, right before his eyes, Kerbit saw the shopkeeper!

“Th-thank you!” Kerbit stuttered; his mind was foggy and he was too bewildered to say anything else.

“Don’t mention it!” the shopkeeper replied and more chill than ever, he led Kerbit inside.

Behind the counter, a large, steel crate stood with an electric sign reading: FREE. It was filled to the brim with rusty spray cans. Within the pile, Kerbit saw a label reading: POISON-KILLER. Without asking the shopkeeper, he darted for the heap and grabbed the spray can. Once he was in his rocket and had fastened his seatbelt, Kerbit blasted off into space without a farewell.

“Wait!” called the shopkeeper, but Kerbit had already gone.

When he arrived, Kerbit shook the can, suddenly realising it was EMPTY! Kerbit felt defeated. He slowly toiled his way to his garden, and to his astonishment, saw that it had changed altogether: Kerbit saw that the moon flowers had grown to an extensive height with a whole lot of other new species. Never in his life had he seen so many colours before. From then on, Kerbit always sprinkled his garden with neptune poison for it had made his small-scale garden come to be a most extensive Space Forest.