My friends and I have a game we like to play.
“There’s a fire on the mountain.
Run, run! Kukh’umlilo kwezontaba. Baleka, baleka!”
Then one day there was a real fire on the mountain.
It was a terrible fire that burned and burned.
Big, old buildings burned, books burned, trees and grasses burned. Helicopters tipped water onto the fire and brave firefighters blasted their hoses.
And people did run. They grabbed their books and bags and ran away from the smoke and the flames.
After three long days, the last flames were out.
The firefighters could finally rest.
The slopes of the mountain were black. When we walked on the mountain, all we could see were rocks and burnt bushes.
We were very sad.
Until one day … tiny bits of red
popped up through the black.
“Look, look. What is that?”
The little bits of
red grew
and grew
until they became beautiful fire lilies, tall and elegant with
drooping red
bells for flowers.
Then came the big, red flowers bursting through the green like volcanoes. They looked like thick red tubes with yellow-
topped spikes and big, red petals.
Dots of green grew up all over the
mountainside, turning the black
into green grasses and restios.
Then there were asparagus ferns unfolding in wet patches after the rain.
And the tall watsonia in orange and pink.
Soon the mountainside was covered with plants we hadn’t seen for years.
The mountain is full of new life!
Wayne Fick- Direct Axis
