The Story of “Away”

Once upon a time there was a world known as Away. It had vast skies, deep waters, and abundant lands.

The skies were known as Airtopia, and the people there were called the Doers. The winds always gusted, hustling and bustling the Doers from place to place. They never had time to think or plan or dream.

The waters were known as Oceanic Bliss and the people there lived among the schools of fish and the pods of whales. People floated slowly through life, always feeling like they were fighting the current.

Everything on solid ground was known as the Land of Blasé, and the people who lived there called themselves the Lollygaggers. The land was grey and boring, so everyone spent all of their time killing time.

On the outer edges of Away was In-Between. It was the border that separated everything in Away from everything not in Away. Its people were known as the In-Betweeners.

Sometimes, people would visit one another’s lands and learn about their differences and their similarities. They would sing songs together, sharing and learning new melodies and harmonies.

Then one day something changed.

A strange thing arrived in the World of Away. It came from a faraway place where it had been thrown away as garbage.

The In-Betweeners found the discarded, forgotten thing and marveled at it. It was unlike anything anyone had seen before.

“What is it?”

“Who should keep it?”

“Should we show the people of Airtopia, Oceanic Bliss, and the Land of Blasé?”

But while the In-Betweeners were wrestling with these questions, another forgotten thing arrived. Then another. And another. Each was stranger than the last.

The things continued to come, so the In-Betweeners decided to share the abundance. They gave the forgotten things as gifts to each of the other lands: they gave the tiny particles to Airtopia, where they could float with the Doers; they gave the plastics to Oceanic Bliss so they could bob on the currents; and they gave the colourful fabric gifts to the Land of Blasé.

For a time everything seemed wonderful. The particles slowed the winds, the plastics made everything underwater easier, and the colourful fabrics empowered the Lollygaggers to express themselves. Everyone loved the gifts.

But as more and more gifts flooded the World of Away, the gifts became a problem. The particles began to choke the air, the plastics filled the waters, and the fabrics piled up so high that they buried everything — even the sun! But the In-Betweeners kept getting more and more gifts, so they had to keep passing them on.

Nobody visited other places anymore. They had too many problems at home! Slowly, everyone in the World of Away lost touch with each other. Nobody sang together anymore. Songs started to be forgotten, until people only knew snippets of the tunes they used to love.

Things stayed like this for a long, long, long time. It felt like things had always been this way. Even worse, it felt like things would be this way forever.

Then some plucky young strangers visited the World of Away, travelling from place to place and meeting all the different people, learning about their struggles and taking time to sing with them. The songs brought back hope, reminding the people that things in Away hadn’t always been like this — and could be different again.

Everyone began to see themselves as connected. They spoke and listened to each other. They sang together for the first time in ages. At last the peoples of Away gathered to figure out how to deal with all the gifts that just kept on coming. It wasn’t easy work, but over time everyone in the World of Away began to feel like a better future might be possible after all.

The end.

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