Nature is Getting its Revenge

Only a fraction of the sound heard on a normal Monday can be heard today. Trains pass by even less frequently than before, whirring along the rusted tracks a while after the last, and bouncing forward and back between deserted stations. Ghost buses with no one aboard except the driver, speeding past plastic shelters with moss-covered timetables screwed to the walls. Still, there is the constant purr of car engines and the bumping of tyres across pothole-encrusted roads, however only at a slither of the normal volume.

But where the absence of sound has left gaps in the world, nature has been given free reign to sing out across the world. Major cities where nature is usually forgotten completely are now soothed with the calls of birds. The wind brushes through bushes shaking and stretching and rustling their leaves together constantly forming a kind of continuous applause like a million people clapping at once. On the coast the sea is heard more so than ever, thousands of waves crashing into each other creating a chaotic melody.

Nature is getting its revenge. Our actions are destroying the planet’s wildlife so it has enacted its perfect plan of payback by creating the most beautiful days. Nature somehow knows we can’t go outside so it is doing everything it can to make us eager to go out. Days like this would usually be spent at the beach or at the park with friends or inviting the rest of the family over for a barbecue but those are exactly the things we can’t do. When the lockdown is over nature will sense it and bring torrential rain to the skies as soon as we step outside. It will read our texts to our friends about meeting up and will cancel our events with the worst weather seen in ages. The sun shining down now will be gone when we are freed from our dwellings and return back to hiding behind the clouds for weeks at a time. But soon the world will be back to normal. Humans will go back to their normal lives, days will go back to having just average weather and the relentless noise will surround us once more.

Josh Chute