The Greenvale Orb

Almost a year had passed since the orb appeared in Greenvale, and no one seemed able to remember what life had been like before it. There was no record of its arrival in the town library, no discussion of it among Greenvale’s grandparents and no newspaper photograph of the crowd that had gathered that afternoon.

Lucy Chalmers, however, had been paying close attention to the orb since the day it arrived.

After school that afternoon, Lucy packed the book she was reading into her schoolbag and rode her bike along the path beside the South Bakersfield River. She was heading towards the towering pine trees along the riverbank, just around the corner from where she lived, when she noticed something strange: no one was walking in the direction she was riding. Everyone she passed was heading the other way, towards the town centre. Lucy stopped her bike on the path and watched the flow of people for a moment.

Once she was sure her theory was correct, Lucy pedalled towards the town centre, overtaking many of the people she had already passed. The crowd grew so thick that she had to stop riding and walk her bike across Baker’s Bridge. Beyond the bridge, people had gathered around something she could not see. Lucy leant her bike against a tree and used its frame to boost herself onto the lower branches. From there, she had a much better view, and the higher she climbed, the better it became. This was when Lucy first saw the orb.

At first, Lucy was impressed by its beauty. The orb was far larger than she was, rising above the heads of the people gathered around it. Light leaked from within, and the faces below took on the colours of moss growing across the river stones. Two metal bands marked by wear and tear crossed one another over the orb’s glass-like surface.

The changes that followed were so subtle that it took Lucy several days to be sure they were real. People were not exercising as much or working anywhere near as hard as they once had. Until then, the path around the river had been packed with people after work. Since the orb arrived, it had been almost empty. Shops were closing earlier, and people were staying home more often. This was strange because the people of Greenvale had been proud of the work they put into each day. If you had asked a resident what made Greenvale “Greenvale”, they would have said, “It’s the hard work we put into the ground that makes this place so green!” By then, Lucy was not sure what anyone would say.

In the months after the orb arrived, Lucy found ways to live alongside the changes. She continued going to school and adjusted to the new way things worked there. There was no longer any homework; you could arrive at school as late as you wanted, and excursions took place every week.

The orb had given Lucy a life many other people dreamed of. On the first anniversary of its arrival, however, Lucy returned to the tree where she had first seen it and made a point of counting the people gathered below. From what she considered a safe distance, the crowd looked as large as the one she remembered. She had planned to remain in the tree. Instead, she climbed down, walked up to the orb and placed one hand on its surface.

When Lucy touched the orb, warmth spread through her hand. She closed her eyes and kept her palm against its surface. For a moment, everything around her felt familiar again. Then she heard a whisper.

“Tell me about the life you dream of,” the voice said, “and I will make it so.”

Lucy did not know whether the orb had told her this or whether the answer had appeared inside her mind. She understood one thing: the people of Greenvale were living the lives they had asked the orb to give them, and their wishes had changed her life as well.

Lucy thought about everything she loved about her town, from the homemade ice-cream shop to the feeling of studying hard and then finding the answer to a mathematics question no one else in her class could solve. Then she thought about the exact words the orb had used.

“I want Greenvale to go back to the way it was before you arrived,” Lucy said.

Lucy opened her eyes, and the orb was gone.