Nadine woke to the sound of birds singing.
It was still weird, to hear that instead of the constant hum of the city traffic. Even after fifty years of the banning of fossil fuels, she still expected to hear the thrum of engine noise.
Not that she’d change it for anything. This world was once a new world of clean energy and working with nature instead of against it. Now, it was a normal factor of life. Her grandchildren would learn about the world before, where cars pumped out carbon, ships leaked oil and builds did not have plants growing up the side of them.
Now, their world was different. The air tasted fresh, like the air from the mountains to the north, even if they were in the middle of a city. The birds sang in a quiet sky, roosting in the plants that covered every inch of every building.
Nadine pushed the curtains open, revealing the view across the river. A sea of green buildings, dotted with various colours of summer flowers, spread out before her. The surround around the edge of her balcony was punctuated with flowers hanging down from the plant wall. Small insects floated around the flowers, pollenating them.
It was another beautiful morning. These happened more in this new world, this green world.
Finally a sustainable world, Nadine thought.
This flash fiction was first posted in 2020
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Alex.J.Cobalt 