Strawberry Fields Forever - Story

Strawberry Fields

In the land of Strawberry Fields Forever, young Strawberry Mary resides in a comfy, country life-style with other Strawberry Fields citizens. Life in this city is quiet, friendly, and filled with an abundance of floral life. The residents of this town love planting and growing flowers. Each of the townspeople has a specialty item that they just love to grow. For example, Strawberry Gary loves to grow tulips. He has the most gorgeous tulips of all the Strawberries, and they come in the most interesting and eye-catching colors. Our main character, Mary, loves daisies. Day after day the citizens fill their time with laughter, chatting, and planting.
One afternoon, Mary starts to wonder what else there is outside of the Fields of Forever. All she can see around her are just fields and fields of flowers. Although the town ships their gorgeous flowers to neighboring cities, no one in the Fields of Forever has actually gone outside. A few tough looking sea people come and ship their flowers for them, and brings back other goodies in return. Mary decides that there must be something beyond these fields - where else could all these wonderful goodies come from?
After coming to that realization, Mary packs a few things and tells her friends that she wants to go on an adventure to see what is outside of their fields. Her family and friends worry about her saying that no one else has ventured outside and they fear for her safety. Mary says that she is going to keep a journal of everything that she encounters and that she will return one day to share what she has experienced. So, Strawberry Mary leaves her quiet life of the Fields Forever and heads down the long, windy road.
A few hours of walking, Mary comes upon a fork in the road. There are paths leading to all sorts of directions. Where will she go? An arrow points to Blueberry Boulevard, Citris City, Marshmellow Mountain, Pear Place, Grape Grove. Mary has heard a few things about the Citris people. There were rumors that they were all sour, mean, and overall grumpy people. Mary hesitates for a bit, but starts to wonder, how they could be so grumpy when they produce such comfy shoes? Almost everyone at the Fields of Forever owned a pair, and they all claimed that at the end of the day they all looked forward to coming home and putting on their comfortable slippers! Even Mary owned a nice pair of walking boots from the Citris folk.
With that in mind, Mary decided that she wanted to find out if these citris people were as mean as the people back home said. She wanted to see for herself how such angry people made such wonderful shoes!
It was late afternoon when Mary realized that the air had a slight scent of lemons, limes, and grapefruit. She breathed it all in and gathered her strength as she walked towards the city.
Once inside the city, Mary saw that the citris people here were quite ... mellow. They were all lounging in trees or on the grass, singing or sewing materials for shoes! They played music and even smiled at Mary even though she was quite obviously not a citris!
As Mary walked deeper into the city, she was greeted by miss Tangerine Noreen. Noreen and Mary bonded very quickly as Noreen showed Mary her town and told her about her people. Mary could not believe her ears or eyes as she saw how welcoming and friendly this whole town was! Everyone in Citris City was just as curious about Mary as they she was about them. They all wanted to know how they could keep their freshly cut flowers longer, and how they could never get their flowers here to grow as lovely or as fragrant as from Fields of Forever. Mary was surprised to hear that most of the townsfolk here thought that residents in Fields Forever were the most frightful and timid people ever. Mary set them straight and even showed them how to plant a few of her favorite daisies.
After dinner, Noreen offered her tree home to Mary as a place to stay for the night. She noticed that Mary was busy writing and writing away in her journal. Mary then told Noreen about her desire for adventure and to see what the other neighboring cities were like. Noreen was also curious because like Mary, no one has ever gone out of the City and come back to talk about their findings. Mary decided to stay at Citris City for a few more days to learn about the people here. The Citris were very earthly people. They showed her how they made those famous, comfy shoes, how to play a guitar, and even how to prepare their most favorite dishes.
At the end of the week, Mary decided that it was time to move on, and told the Citris that she would never forget their kindness. As she said her good-byes and turned to leave, Noreen came running out with a suitcase in hand. Noreen has decided that she too would love to see what else is out there. Mary welcomed this new friend and fellow adventurer, and together the two of them walked out of Citris City and onto their next adventure.