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The wind screamed in my ears. Rain pelted the ground in a mesmeric rhythm and I, Sophie Patton, was on my way home. The five block walk to work each day was not usually the worst way to start your morning. In torrential rains, however, it was the worst way to begin your evening. I buried deeper into my woolen coat and scowled at my own stubborn resolve to not watch TV. If only I could have caught the weather report that morning, I might have prevented my soaking with an umbrella... or at least a water-proof jacket. Sucking in the city air, I nearly choked. What I wouldn't give to have clean air and bountiful gardens again, instead of this cramped town. The only place things really grew here was in plant shops like mine.

Watching people is one of my hobbies, but this evening, the normally chaotic collage of people had disappeared into their homes, their lives disrupted only momentarily by the rain. I walked a little faster, turning the first corner onto Seventh Street. A few homeless people had settled underneath an awning, dragging their cardboard boxes and few belongings with them. They looked up at me piercingly before returning to their own business. I shrugged off their glaring eyes and walked faster.

Main Street loomed ahead of me and I made a left onto it. Just a few more blocks and I would be home free. Two ambulances and several police cars had stopped traffic further down Main. Sirens wailed through the freezing night, horns blasted impatiently. The line snaked out behind the accident, growing with every passing minute. I smiled to myself bitterly. If I would have fixed my car I could have been one of the many stuck in there. Instead of being warm in a heated, polluting car, rain drenched the layers of my clothes until my skin shriveled into tiny bumps.

I left Main Street. The houses in front of me were becoming more dilapidated. Dull houses with weed-strewn lawns stood on either side of the run-down street, windows broken and boarded up again. I slowed and reached for my can of pepper spray. This part of the city was no long friendly. Shrinking down in my coat, I watched my surroundings. The rain lessened. It no longer pounded its way through my defenses, but misted my hands and face. A symphony of rain pattered against the concrete, its beat rising and falling with the strength of the wind. A gunshot and a scream off to my left startled me from my reverie, and I remembered where I was. I shuffled on.

Ahead, the desolate park came into view. Bleary and dull from lack of attention, it lay dying in the middle of the shabby part of town. A crowd of people stood hunkering around something near the park's entrance. Fearing the worst, I gripped my pepper spray tighter. No one looked up at my approach. They were entranced, their faces glowing softly from whatever they were looking at. They didn't appear to be thugs, so I placed the pepper spray back in my pocket and slipped closer to get a better look. The crowd was in such a tight circle, I had to squeeze in to get a glance. When I finally did, I gaped in awe. A tree of small stature had rooted itself in the center of the street. It pulsed and gathered to it all of the colors of the world. The multi-colored cloud descended around the tree and blended with its supple bark. The tree glowed from within. Its long, tender branches dipped towards the pavement, until the tips of each branch made contact with the unnatural surface.

It stroked the street with its gentle arms and the colors rippled away from the tree in all directions. Cars on nearby streets stopped, paused in time. A couple of men smoking cigarettes in front of a gas station froze; even the lit tips of the cigarettes discontinued glowing, smoke suspended above them. The only things that moved were the colors and the tree within which they hid. It surprised us all when, with an audible groan, the tree uprooted itself and ambled slowly toward the park. A multi-colored trail marked its path. It lifted its roots and made its way into the park. Where its roots touched the hard, dusty soil gleamed a brilliant chestnut, before returning to its drab appearance. When it reached the middle of the park, it launched golden brown roots deep into the ground. The earth shuddered and the tiny tree exploded upward, grew to enormous magnitude and blasted the colors into millions of shimmering droplets.

The droplets fell to the earth once more and spread across the entire park. It encased the park in glowing light, and turned the once dead and dying plants into a rebirth of their former selves. Trees that had rotted for years without assistance by park management flourished anew. Wilted lilies surrounding an old fountain bloomed with white-hot luminescence. Even the fountain, which hadn't been tended in over a decade, dazzled with sparkling clear water, splashing gaily in response to the tree's awakening. When everything was restored to full beauty in the park, the tree diminished in height, though it was still easily taller than the rest of the trees, stretched its branches in obvious delight, and quieted.

All of the people went and gathered about the tree, and I couldn't help myself. I followed them. Each person placed a hand on the tree's enormous trunk and I did the same. My breath caught in my throat. We couldn't have taken our hands away if we had wanted to. The spectrum of light pulsated softly where each hand was. It crawled up our arms and dived deep inside each of us. I became warm, soothed, in a way a child must feel suspended within the womb. I could almost hear the magic whisper to me. I closed my eyes and enveloped myself in its aura. The colors danced through my mind and enlivened my spirit. I went into oblivion with them and my soul soared through the night sky. Everything was perfect. Eternity could do no more. A blazing white fire burned right through me. I tried to cover my eyes but was entranced. It flashed brighter than anything I had seen in my whole life. I was gone.

I woke the next morning in the comfort of my bed and stretched. The dream of the previous night brought a smile to my face. I pulled the covers back and realized that I was still fully dressed. Shaking my head, I wondered what I had done after getting off work the previous night. When I looked at the clock I saw that I was already going to be late getting to the shop. I rushed through a shower and grabbed some cereal, before noticing that my favorite hibiscus outside my kitchen door was wilted and dying. Pausing, I opened the screen door and lifted the lifeless flower. When I was about to start complaining about the effects of a smog-filled city, a ripple stirred in my body. It created a wave of exhilaration unlike any other. Before I knew what was happening, a sliver of color slipped from my fingertips into the plant. It stirred and the hibiscus' dead bloom lifted and shook itself. The blackened tint that had appeared on its blossom and stem blew away into the wind, as if it were nothing more than dust. I sat down hard on my back step. The flower turned its head and bowed to me.