Terrarium

“Do we really need umbrellas?”

“We always walked with them back home,” Melissa replied.  Lana never seemed to appreciate the value of tradition.  In this strange place, it was all they had to tie them to what they’d left behind.

The two walked side-by-side along a stone path, as the sea of green around them grew and breathed.  Like the wildflowers of their garden in Osaka, they reached upward, their delicate leaves aspiring for the heavens, hungry for the light.  But here, the light was not yellow and warm but garish blue, streaming down from grow lamps that covered the inner surface of the dome.

Like them, the plants were aliens in this place of red sand and rusty storms.  Like them, they yearned to breathe free.  Perhaps one day, they would, but for now they were trapped, as Melissa and Lana were, beneath protective glass.  One day, all of Mars would be as green as the world they’d left behind, and the girls could breathe free as well.  Until then, this would do.

Written for the FFfAW Challenge – Week of July 3, 2018.  Word count: 174.  Read other stories based on this prompt at InLinkz.com.