The Four-Leaf Clover of Hope

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say,” mum had remarked every time she and Anna watched another space shuttle shoot towards unknown worlds. Anna had watched the space explorers’ every broadcast from inside the shuttles and dressed her Barbie dolls in space suits, dreaming that one day she could be like those brave men and women travelling to space.

How different her life had turned out to be. Anna sighed, struggling to pull on the skin-tight protective suit. She hated the days when it was her turn to leave the secure compound and venture outside to inspect the air, water and ground quality. She checked the suit inch by inch to ensure there were no gaps before putting her helmet on.

"Ready?" she asked her partner, Thomas, who gave her the thumbs up. They stepped into the air-lock and waited while the door behind them was fully closed and the green light showed that it was safe to open the outside door. Even the smallest amount of the toxic air leaking into the secure compound could destroy everything they had worked so hard to build.

The door opened, revealing a barren, grey landscape. Thomas stopped. This was his first inspection trip and though he had seen pictures of the outside world, he hadn't expected this.

"I didn't think it would be quite so, well, dead," he said to Anna through the radio mike attached to his helmet.

"You get used to it," Anna replied shortly.

She had been coming out on inspection trips for nearly twenty years and was no longer moved by the barrenness and the stark contrast to the greenery of the compound. For nearly twenty years she had been working for the environment agency, taking regular measurements to monitor any changes to the climate.

Climbing into the hot-air balloon, Anna glanced at the sky: it was blue with not even a single cloud.

"That's good," she explained to Thomas, "Because any chance of rain would mean that we could not have carried out our measurements today. Exposure to the poisonous rain could damage the balloon and cause us to crash land."

Noticing Thomas' ashen face, she stopped. The first time coming out was always a shock. It didn't matter that they gave you all the facts and showed you pictures during your training. It could never prepare you fully for the harsh reality.

"But don't worry, it's not going to rain today," she tapped Thomas on the arm reassuringly before releasing the weights to allow the balloon to start its ascent.

As much as Anna hated going outside, she understood the importance of her job as a scientist in the environmental agency. For a while, the levels of the poison in the atmosphere had been slowly falling and there was hope they could someday be able to leave the compound and cultivate the land outside. As Thomas steered the balloon further away from the compound, Anna imagined the landscape full of vegetation and animals.

Noting that they were now at the prescribed height, she pulled out the metre to check the air quality. She held it up, watching the flashing red light eventually turn green indicating that the measurement had been taken: 57.15% of poisonous gases. That was 0.02 less than last week.

Anna packed the metre away and at her signal Thomas navigated the balloon still further away from the compound. He directed their airship towards a river which had once been surrounded by a forest of giant oaks. Now even the last remains of the trees had turned to dust, but the river still flowed full of poisonous water.

Once they reached the river, Thomas landed the balloon softly on the dry, cracked ground. They secured the balloon, and she took out her kit. First, she took a small sample of soil, then she carefully filled a glass vial with water from the river. She held it towards the light and thought that maybe the water looked slightly clearer than the last sample they had collected. They would know for sure once they got the samples into the lab.

The samples safely packed in the small pouch Anna carried with her, they headed back to the balloon.

Anna froze midstep holding her arm out to stop Thomas stepping any further. There was something strange, something green. It was there, right next to the hot-air balloon. She couldn't tell what it was, but it stood out against all the grey of their surroundings. It almost seemed to glow. She stopped, causing Thomas to throw her a questioning look.

"Look," she said, pointing at the something green she had spotted.

"What is it? Do you think it could be..." he faltered, his eyes nailed on the spot Anna was pointing at.

Her breath caught in her throat and her heart palpated erratically, as she walked the remaining few metres to the hot-air balloon and towards the something green. In a world washed out of colour, it looked frighteningly vibrant.

Bending to take a closer look, she realised that she was looking at a plant, a real plant that had pushed itself out from the otherwise barren ground.

"You know what this means, don't you?" she said.

Her voice cracked and the moisture from her tears threatened to mist over the visor of her space helmet. She wished she could take it off for a moment to wipe away the rebellious tears. She knew how remarkable their discovery was, but now was not the time for emotions.

With a few deep breaths, she stalled the flow of tears and reduced the shaking of her hands a little. Science had to come first.

Thomas had bent down next to her. Anna could see the same excitement and hope she felt reflected on his face. She reached out for his hand and for a while they just kneeled there, staring at the tiny miracle.

"It's a four-leaf clover," she whispered. "I haven’t seen one of those since..."

She could not complete the sentence as tears welled up in her eyes again. Forcing her mind away from the day she had last seen a four-leaf clover, she examined the ground around the balloon to see if there were any more of them.

There weren't. Just one lone four-leaf clover. But it was enough. After all, it was the first sign of life spotted outside the compound.

"What should we do with it?" Thomas whispered back.

"I don’t really want to touch it, but the instructions are clear. Take anything out of the ordinary back to the lab. If anything ever fitted that category, this does.”

Gently, she ran her finger over the surface of the leaf. How she longed to take off her thick protective gloves and feel the soft leaves between her fingers. She wanted to smell it to see if it smelt the same as the clovers of her youth when mum had made long chains out of them as they wandered across the lush fields.

But of course she couldn’t. Her touch could contaminate the plant, or the plant could poison her.

She took out a small trowel and carefully dug around the plan. She needed to get it out with its roots intact. Her hands shook as she lifted the plant out of the ground and held it in her palm.

There, against the sun, the four leafed miracle was the most beautiful thing Anna had seen in all her adult life.

Climbing back into the hot-air balloon, she held the clover protectively in her palm before placing it into a protective container. Thomas pulled back the ropes that had been holding the balloon to the ground and slowly they rose up.

Anna looked at the delicate clover in the container. It was so small, and it looked so insignificant, but Anna knew otherwise.

In the darkening light, the four-leaf clover shone bright green as the hot-air balloon skimmed across the still barren land. It was a bright green symbol of life and hope for Earth again.