Short story

I mentioned before I had entered a poem and a short story in West Brom libraries Autumn writing competition well this is mt shorty story entry I hope you enjoy.

Upper level south side USB2567T266/1966

I was nothing special in the big scheme of things. On the micro level though I did what was expected of me. I did my duty and I was pretty important in providing the services that I did. I suppose like many of us, our lives, duty and destiny are planned out before we are born, hatched or planted. I am by comparison with my cousins a handsome specimen with broad shoulders and strong features. We learn from our parents or guardians, try to improve things then bye bye it’s all over. Life is very short and getting shorter by the day. My name is not important or that you know the names of my peers living as they do in close proximity to me and working at the same tasks that I perform day in day out. You don’t need to know where I live, in fact, I suspect many of you would not recognize me or my colleagues if you walked past us and you certainly would not understand the important role we play in world affairs. These last two seasons we have been turning carbon dioxide into oxygen by a process know as photosynthesis. Sounds complicated doesn’t it? but to us it’s every day run of the mill stuff nothing special. Never had to learn how to do this task it was born with the talent, in my genes so to speak. Collecting rain water, filtering it, along with large inputs of air, a chemical marker from our supervisors and out comes oxygen. It all started back in late spring when I fully matured along with my peers in our branch. I suppose it’s a bit like a call centre where we all have our quota to achieve. We’re out in all weathers this is not a job for the faint hearted. As the summer days grew warmer and longer so the work intensified. Thunderstorms can play havoc with our quotas because the heavy rain and nitrogen present in the air upsets the chemical process for awhile. This fortunately is only a temporary thing and the work soon continues. We all have problems with birds, squirrels and assorted bugs and beetles who for all sorts of different reasons want to hold up our production process in different ways. A colleague was almost totally affected by a bug which disrupted his ability to work for many days. I myself have remained bug free for most of the summer. For a while now I have been finding it more difficult to operate effectively and I have noticed changes in my colour and flexibility. This change is affecting all my colleagues in our branch. Rumour has it that we are being closed down. The weather is getting colder and the days shorter so there is not such a demand for what we do anyway. I noticed some of our colleagues have already left us and the wind a few days ago played havoc with some branches.
As my colour changes have intensified the effectiveness of my work as diminished and I feel really tired. Some of my colleagues just disappeared into an abyss below yesterday and today I feel so tired I can hardly hang on. The changes are now profound and I’m loosing contact with my twig ah ah I’m floating gently down into the abyss ……………………………………….

Leaf No USB2567T266/1966 ceased to function on October 20th 2008 along with fifteen hundred similar leaves from his deciduous horse chestnut tree. The codes in his identification are U= upper section S=South side B=branch number T= twig number and finally the number associated with this twig.
I hope that is perfectly clear. This is a work of fiction although the chemical stuff is taken from my school boy memory and after 60plus years my be a little inaccurate but the principle is correct.