Mia and the Tornado
Written by Ariana Selan Delvalle
Somewhere in the future lives a little girl called Mia. She gazes out of the window, lonely, at the approaching tornado, which trails darkness behind it. She knows that it will swallow her into that darkness.
Just then, a little bird appears and speaks to her:
“This tornado is everything bad that humankind has ever done to nature, and only nature itself can stop it. That will be you.”
“But how can I, a small girl, stop such a huge tornado?” Mia asks.
The bird replies:
“You must step into the tornado and destroy its heart.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” she wonders.
“You will discover that yourself,” answers the bird, before it flies away.
Mia wants to call after it, but it either does not hear her—or does not wish to. She takes her red cloak and goes outside. As she draws closer to the tornado, the wind pushes her back and her hair whips in the air. Step by step she comes nearer. Standing right before it, she dashes inside so as not to be swept away.
Inside the storm she sees its heart—made of waste. She realises that the tornado stinks like the exhaust fumes of factories and cars. Mia thinks hard about how to destroy the heart, but she cannot remember what can stop such rubbish.
Illustrated by Gregor Šuštar
When she is about to give up, she hears the bird’s voice:
“Mia, do not search for power in your hands, but in your heart. That heart of waste was created by people—and only humankind’s love for nature can dissolve it.”
Mia thinks, and then she knows. She runs back home, fetches her crippled flower—the almost last one left in the world—and lays it on the heart. The heart breaks apart and the tornado scatters.
From the rubbish, Mia makes bags, satchels, shoes and more, selling them all. She helps the world and becomes rich.