The Blue Plastic Sprout

The phone felt like a hot brick in my hand. It was thirty-four degrees outside, and the air in Winnipeg felt like someone was holding a warm, wet towel over my face. I stood on the corner of Portage and Main, watching the cars go by. Everything looked grey and dusty. The sun was so bright it made my eyes sting. I squinted at the screen. The map showed a tiny, pulsing green dot just two blocks away. It was a Silver Sage. The game, GreenPixel, had only been out for two days, and everyone was losing their minds over it. My screen showed the sidewalk, but through the camera, a glowing blue vine was twisting around a rusty lamp post. It wasn't really there, but it looked more real than the cracked cement.

I wiped sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. My t-shirt was sticking to my back. I started walking. My sneakers made a sticky sound on the asphalt. The city felt giant today. The buildings were like tall, silent monsters watching me. I passed a woman holding a melting ice cream cone. The chocolate drip hit the ground and stayed there, a dark circle on the hot stone. She didn't notice. She was looking at her own phone, flicking her thumb across the glass. She was probably looking for the Sage too. It was a race, even if nobody was running. If I got there first, I’d get the seeds. If I got the seeds, I could grow my own digital garden in the middle of my bedroom floor.

I turned into the alleyway behind the old grocery store. It smelled like old cardboard and sour garbage. A big fly buzzed past my ear. I swatted at it, but it was too fast. The alley was narrow. The brick walls were rough and scratched. I looked down at the screen. The green dot was getting bigger. It was right behind a stack of wooden pallets. I moved slowly. My heart was thumping in my chest. It felt like a little drum. I didn't want to trip. The ground was uneven, full of potholes and loose gravel. I saw a piece of broken glass sparkling in the sun. It looked like a diamond, but I knew it was just trash.

I reached the pallets. They were heavy and smelled like dry wood. I held the phone up. There it was. The Silver Sage. On the screen, it was shimmering. It had leaves that looked like they were made of moonlight. It was beautiful. It was the only thing in the whole alley that wasn't dirty or broken. I reached out my thumb to tap the 'Collect' button. My hand was shaking just a little bit. I wanted this more than anything. My room at home was small and dark. My mom was always tired. The game made the world feel like it had secrets. It made the boring streets feel like a map to somewhere else.

Just as my thumb touched the glass, a shadow fell over me. I looked up. A boy was standing at the other end of the alley. He was older than me, maybe thirteen. He had a fancy phone with a big case and a battery pack taped to the back with silver duct tape. He was wearing a hat pulled down low. He didn't look happy. He looked like he was working. He was staring at his screen, then he looked at me. He saw my phone. He saw what I was doing. He started walking toward me. His boots made a loud thud-thud-thud on the ground. I felt a cold chill, even in the heat. This was the part they didn't tell you about in the ads. People got mean when things were rare.

"Move," he said. His voice was flat. He didn't sound like he was asking. He sounded like a teacher or a cop. I didn't move. I couldn't. My legs felt like they were made of lead. I looked back at my screen. The 'Collect' circle was spinning. It was loading. The internet in the alley was slow. The little circle went round and round. It was at forty percent. Fifty. The boy was getting closer. I could see the sweat on his upper lip. I could see the logo on his shirt. It was a picture of a skull with a leaf in its mouth. He was one of the high-score hunters. They spent all day outside, even when the heat warnings were on the news.

"I found it first," I said. My voice came out small. It sounded like a squeak. I hated that. I wanted to sound tough, like the characters in the movies. But I was just a kid with a cracked screen and a sweaty shirt. The boy stopped two feet away. He was much taller than me. He smelled like energy drinks and old socks. He held his phone up like a shield. I could see his screen. He had the same map, the same green dot. But his app looked different. It had more numbers and weird red lines. He was using a tracker. That was cheating, or at least it felt like it.

"It’s a public node," he said. "I need the XP. You’re just a level three. You won't even know what to do with a Sage. Just walk away, kid. There’s a Common Daisy over on Ellice. Go get that." He pointed back toward the street. He didn't look at me when he spoke. He kept his eyes on his screen, watching the same loading bar I was. We were both standing in a stinking alley, staring at things that weren't there, waiting for a bar to hit one hundred percent. It was the weirdest fight I had ever been in. We weren't hitting each other. We were just waiting.

I looked at my bar. Eighty percent. The boy’s face twisted. He must have been slower. Maybe his battery pack was making his phone too hot. I felt a tiny spark of hope. It was a stubborn little spark, like the way a weed grows through a crack in the sidewalk. I wasn't going to move. I lived here. This was my neighborhood. I knew where the best shade was. I knew which houses had the mean dogs. I knew that if I waited long enough, the wind would pick up and smell like the river. He was just a hunter. He didn't care about the Silver Sage. He just wanted the points.

"No," I said. I stood my ground. I put my back against the brick wall. The bricks were hot, but I didn't care. I gripped my phone with both hands. The loading bar hit ninety. Ninety-five. The boy stepped closer. He reached out his hand, not to hit me, but to block my camera. If he covered my lens, the AR would lose the Sage. It would disappear from my screen. I dodged to the left. I almost tripped over a discarded soda can. It crunched under my foot. I kept the phone pointed at the pallets. Ninety-nine percent. The screen flashed white. A little sound played—a chime that sounded like a bell. 'Success!' the screen said. 'Silver Sage Collected.'

I did it. I actually did it. I looked up at the boy. He stopped moving. He looked at his screen. His shoulders slumped. He let out a long breath that smelled like sour candy. He looked at me then, really looked at me. His eyes were tired. There were dark circles under them. He looked like he hadn't slept in a week. He wasn't a monster. He was just a kid who was obsessed with a game. He looked at the trash in the alley, then back at his phone. He looked like he wanted to cry, but he was too old for that. He just shook his head.

"Whatever," he muttered. "It’s just a bunch of pixels anyway." He turned around and walked back toward the street. He didn't look back. I watched him go until he disappeared around the corner. I was alone in the alley again. I looked down at my phone. The Silver Sage was in my inventory now. It was sitting in a little digital pot, its leaves glowing softly. It looked beautiful. But as I looked at it, I noticed something else. Down by my feet, right where the pallets met the ground, there was a tiny patch of real green. It wasn't glowing. It was dusty and small. It was a real plant, growing in the dirt between the bricks. I reached down and touched a leaf. It felt cool and soft. It was real. It was better than the pixels.

Alleyway Heat

The sun didn't care that I had won. It kept beating down on the city, turning the pavement into a giant frying pan. I walked out of the alley, my heart still racing. I felt like I had just escaped a dragon, even if the dragon was just a teenager with a power bank. I headed toward the bus stop. I needed to get some water. My throat felt like I had swallowed a handful of sand. I passed a row of houses with peeling paint. In the windows, I could see the blue glow of televisions. People were staying inside, hiding from the heat. I was the only one out here, me and the ghosts in the game.

I stopped under a big elm tree. Its leaves were thick and green, casting a deep shadow over the sidewalk. It was at least five degrees cooler under there. I leaned against the trunk. The bark was rough against my arm. I opened the game again. I wanted to see if there were any other nodes nearby. The map was covered in icons. The whole city of Winnipeg was glowing on my screen. It looked like a garden that had exploded. There were Fire Ferns in the bus depots and Water Lilies in the fountains. It was like a second world was laid over the first one, a world where everything was bright and perfect.

I saw a notification pop up. 'New Event: The Grand Bloom. Assiniboine Park. 2 PM.' That was today. That was in an hour. The Grand Bloom was the biggest event of the summer. Rumor had it that a Ghost Lily would appear. There was only one in the whole city. Whoever found it would get a permanent boost to their garden. My stomach did a little flip. The park was huge. There would be hundreds of people there. The competition would be fierce. I thought about the boy in the alley. There would be dozens of kids like him, kids with better phones and faster internet. I was just Leo, a kid with a budget phone and a cracked screen.

But I had the Silver Sage. That was a start. I looked at the map. To get to the park, I’d have to take the bus. I checked my pocket. I had a few coins, enough for a fare. I started walking toward the stop on Graham Avenue. The heat seemed to shimmer off the road, making the cars look like they were swimming. I passed a construction site where men were jackhammering the street. The noise was loud and rhythmic. It felt like it was shaking my brain. I covered my ears and hurried past. Everything felt too much—too loud, too hot, too bright.

When I reached the bus stop, there were three other people waiting. They were all looking at their phones. A girl about my age was tapping the screen furiously. She was wearing a bright yellow sundress and had a backpack shaped like a strawberry. She looked up and saw me. She squinted at my phone. I tried to tilt it away, but she had already seen the GreenPixel logo. She smiled, but it wasn't a friendly smile. It was a challenger’s smile. It was the kind of smile you see before a soccer game starts. It made me feel nervous.

"You going to the park?" she asked. Her voice was high and sharp. It cut through the sound of the traffic. I nodded slowly. I didn't want to talk, but I didn't want to be rude. My mom always told me to be polite, even when I was tired. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. The sidewalk was so hot I could feel it through the soles of my shoes. I wondered if the bus would have air conditioning. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. In Winnipeg, you never knew what you were going to get.

"I’m going for the Lily," she said. She held up her phone. It was brand new, the kind that folded in half. Her screen was huge and crystal clear. I could see her garden. It was full of rare plants. She had Orchids and Bonsai trees and things I hadn't even seen yet. She was way ahead of me. "I have a level twenty-five scanner. I’ll see it before anyone else does. You might as well stay home. You’ll just get a sunburn."

I looked at my phone, then back at her. She was trying to psych me out. It was working a little bit. I felt small again. But then I remembered the real plant in the alley. It didn't have a level or a scanner. It just grew because it wanted to. It was stubborn. I could be stubborn too. I didn't need a folding phone to find a flower. I just needed to look. I didn't say anything to her. I just looked down the street, waiting for the orange flash of the bus. The girl huffed and went back to her game. She started talking to someone on her headset, bragging about her stats.

The bus finally arrived. It was old and loud, and when the doors opened, a cloud of hot exhaust hit me in the face. I climbed the steps and dropped my coins into the machine. The driver looked like he was melting. He had a small fan clipped to his dashboard, but it was just blowing hot air around. I walked to the back and found a seat by the window. The plastic was sticky. The bus was full of people, and almost all of them were on their phones. It was quiet, except for the roar of the engine and the occasional beep from someone’s game.

As the bus crawled through the city, I watched the world go by. We passed the big library and the skating rink that was now just a pile of gravel. Everything looked worn down. The signs were fading, the grass was yellow and dry, and there was trash caught in the chain-link fences. It was a hard city. It was a place that didn't give you anything for free. But in the game, the library was covered in digital ivy. The skating rink was a shimmering lake. The game made the city look the way I wanted it to look. It was a lie, but it was a nice lie. It made the summer feel like an adventure instead of just a long, hot wait for school to start again.

I checked my Silver Sage. It was still there, glowing in its pot. I felt a sense of pride. I had earned that. I had stood up to that boy and I had won. I looked out the window again. We were getting closer to the park. The trees were getting bigger and the buildings were getting smaller. I could see more people on the sidewalks now, all of them heading in the same direction. It was like a parade, but nobody was looking at each other. They were all looking at the invisible world. I wondered if Mr. Lingmann would be at the park. He was my neighbor, and he spent all day in his actual garden. He didn't like the game. He said it was 'junk for the brain.'

I liked Mr. Lingmann. He lived in the house next to ours. He had a big beard and wore overalls even when it was boiling outside. He grew tomatoes that were as big as softballs. He once told me that the most important thing a person could do was touch the dirt. I didn't understand what he meant then. I thought dirt was just something that got your clothes messy. But standing in that alley, seeing that little weed, I started to get it. The digital plants were perfect, but they didn't have a smell. They didn't feel like anything. They didn't grow unless you tapped a button. Mr. Lingmann’s tomatoes grew because he watered them and talked to them. They were part of the real world.

I saw the girl in the yellow dress get off at the next stop. She was running now, her strawberry backpack bouncing. She was in a hurry to get to the Lily. I didn't run. I stayed on the bus until the very last stop. I wanted to save my energy. The park was going to be chaos. I could feel it in the air. The atmosphere was tight, like a rubber band stretched too far. Everyone wanted the same thing. Everyone wanted to be the one who found the Ghost Lily. I tucked my phone into my pocket and took a deep breath. The bus doors hissed open. It was time.

Lingmann's Fence

The park was a sea of people. It was even bigger than I had imagined. Assiniboine Park is huge anyway, but today it felt like a whole kingdom. There were families with picnics, kids on bikes, and groups of teenagers huddled together like they were planning a bank heist. The air was thick with the sound of hundreds of different game pings. It sounded like a forest full of digital birds. I stepped onto the grass. It was crunchy and dry under my feet. The sun was right overhead now, a giant yellow eye watching everything we did. I felt like a bug under a magnifying glass.

I started walking toward the Pavilion. That’s where the map said the event would start. I passed a group of people standing around a large oak tree. They were all pointing their phones at the trunk. I looked through my camera. On the screen, a cluster of glowing mushrooms was growing out of the bark. They were bright purple and orange. People were laughing and taking pictures. It was a 'Community Node.' Everyone could collect from it. It wasn't like the Silver Sage in the alley. This was easy. I collected a few mushrooms, but it didn't feel the same. There was no thrill in it. It was like getting a gold star just for showing up.

I kept moving. I saw the girl in the yellow dress again. She was arguing with a man in a vest. He looked like he worked for the city. He was trying to tell people to stay off the flower beds, but nobody was listening. They were too busy looking for the Lily. The real flowers in the park—the marigolds and the petunias—were being stepped on. It made my stomach hurt a little bit. The game was supposed to be about plants, but it was making people destroy the real ones. I saw a clump of blue flowers flattened into the dirt. They looked like they were trying to hide.

I wandered away from the main crowd. I didn't like the noise. It made it hard to think. I headed toward the duck pond. It was quieter there. The water was green and still, with a few ducks floating lazily on the surface. They didn't care about GreenPixel. They were just looking for breadcrumbs. I sat down on a wooden bench. It was hot, but there was a little breeze coming off the water. I looked at my phone. The Ghost Lily hadn't appeared yet. There was a countdown on the screen. Ten minutes left. The map showed a wide circle where it could pop up. The circle covered almost half the park.

"Looking for the ghost?" a voice asked. I jumped. I hadn't seen anyone near me. I turned around and saw Mr. Lingmann. He was sitting on the next bench over, wearing his big straw hat. He wasn't looking at a phone. He was looking at the ducks. He had a bag of peas in his hand. He tossed a few into the water, and the ducks scrambled for them. He looked peaceful, like he was in a different world than everyone else in the park.

"Hi, Mr. Lingmann," I said. I felt a little embarrassed. I didn't want him to think I was one of those kids who only looked at screens. I put my phone facedown on my lap. "Yeah. Everyone is looking for it. It’s supposed to be really rare."

Mr. Lingmann nodded. He didn't look angry, just a little sad. "Rare, huh? Like a honest day's work. Or a conversation without a gadget in the middle of it." He tossed another pea. "You know, Leo, they used to have a real lily garden here. Right over there, behind the hedge. They had lilies from all over the world. Some of them only bloomed for one night. That’s what I call a ghost."

I looked over at the hedge. It was tall and overgrown. I hadn't even noticed it was there. "What happened to them?" I asked. I forgot about the countdown for a second. Mr. Lingmann had a way of making you listen. His voice was like a slow river, steady and deep.

"Budget cuts," he said, like the words were bitter. "The city stopped paying for the specialty gardeners. The weeds took over. Then the blight hit. Most of them died off years ago. Now it’s just a patch of dirt and some old signs. But people would rather look at the glowing ones on their glass boxes anyway. Easier to keep alive, I suppose. You don't have to get your hands dirty."

I looked at my phone. The countdown was at five minutes. I could hear the crowd in the distance getting louder. They were moving toward the center of the park. They thought the Lily would be at the Pavilion because that’s where the big nodes usually were. But I looked at the map again. The circle was huge. It included the old lily garden. I looked at Mr. Lingmann. He was watching me. He didn't say anything, but there was a look in his eyes. It was a 'what are you going to do?' kind of look.

"The game says it could be anywhere," I said. I felt a weird tingle in my fingers. What if the game designers knew about the old garden? What if they put the Ghost Lily there as a hint? Or a joke? I stood up. My legs felt shaky. The heat was still heavy, but I didn't feel as tired anymore. I felt like I had a secret. I felt like I was part of a mystery. "I’m going to go look over there. By the hedge."

Mr. Lingmann smiled. It was a small smile, mostly hidden by his beard. "Good luck, Leo. Just remember to look down once in a while. The best things don't usually glow."

I started walking toward the hedge. It was a long way from the Pavilion. The grass here was taller and full of dandelions. I pushed through a gap in the bushes. On the other side, it was like a secret room. There were old stone paths that were cracked and covered in moss. There were iron benches that were rusted and lumpy. And there were the remains of the garden. It was mostly just tall grass and brown stalks. It looked dead. It looked like a graveyard for flowers.

I held up my phone. The screen flickered. The signal was weak here, blocked by the tall trees and the hedge. The map was spinning. 'Searching for GPS,' it said. I felt a surge of frustration. I had come all this way, and now the game was breaking. I shook the phone, as if that would help. "Come on," I whispered. "Please work."

Suddenly, the screen cleared. The countdown hit zero. A huge pulse of blue light rippled across the digital map. And there it was. A single, bright white icon. It was right in the middle of the old garden. It was the Ghost Lily. But it wasn't just an icon. The game had triggered an AR overlay that covered the whole area. Through the screen, the dead garden was coming back to life. Digital lilies were sprouting everywhere. They were white and translucent, like they were made of smoke. They were beautiful, but they were also spooky. They didn't move in the wind. They just stood there, flickering.

I walked toward the center of the garden. The Ghost Lily was floating in the air above a pile of rocks. It was huge, the size of a basketball. It had petals that looked like silk and a center that glowed with a soft, pulsing light. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen in the game. I reached out to tap it. My heart was in my throat. I was going to be the one. I was going to find the ghost.

But as I moved closer, I saw something else. Right beneath the digital lily, tucked into a crack in the rocks, was a real flower. It was small and white, with three delicate petals. It was a real lily. It was tiny and fragile, and it looked like it was struggling to breathe in the heat. It was the last one. The last real ghost of the garden. It was growing in the shade of the rocks, protected from the sun. It wasn't glowing. It was just there.

I stopped. My finger was inches away from the screen. If I tapped the Ghost Lily, I’d get the boost. I’d be a high-level player. I’d be like the girl in the yellow dress or the boy in the alley. But if I did that, I’d have to step on the rocks to get closer. I’d have to move the real lily out of the way. I looked at the screen, then at the real flower. The digital one was so bright it made the real one look dull and grey. It made the real one look like trash.

I heard voices behind the hedge. The crowd was coming. They had seen the icon on their maps. They were running, their feet thumping on the ground. They were going to burst through the hedge any second. They wouldn't see the real lily. They’d just see the digital one. They’d step on the rocks. They’d crush the last real ghost. I felt a panic rising in my chest. I had to do something. I had to protect it. But how do you protect something real from people who are looking for something fake?

The Real Root

I didn't think. I just acted. I dropped my phone. It hit the soft grass with a dull thud. I didn't care if the screen cracked again. I knelt down in front of the rocks, using my body to block the tiny white flower. I spread my arms out wide. I felt like a bird trying to protect its nest. The ground was hard and hot against my knees, but I didn't move. I could hear the people now. They were right on the other side of the hedge.

"It’s in here!" someone shouted. It was the girl in the yellow dress. "The icon is right in the middle of these bushes!"

A moment later, she burst through the gap, followed by three other kids. They all had their phones held out in front of them like divining rods. They didn't even look at me. They were looking at their screens. To them, I was just an obstacle, a blur in the background of their game. They were heading straight for the rocks. They were heading straight for the real lily.

"Stop!" I yelled. My voice was louder than I expected. It echoed off the stone walls of the old garden. The kids stopped. They looked up from their phones, blinking like they had just woken up from a dream. They looked confused. They saw a sweaty kid kneeling in the dirt, looking like he was about to start a fight.

"What’s your problem?" the girl in the yellow dress asked. She looked annoyed. Her phone was still pointed at the Ghost Lily, which was hovering right over my head on her screen. "Move out of the way. You’re blocking the node."

"There’s a real flower here," I said. I pointed down at the crack in the rocks. "Look. A real lily. If you come any closer, you’ll step on it. You’ll kill it."

The kids looked down. They didn't see it at first. To them, the ground was just dirt and weeds. But then the girl squinted. She leaned in a little bit. She saw the three white petals. She saw the way the flower was shivering in the slight breeze. She looked at it for a long time. Then she looked at her phone. The digital Ghost Lily was still there, flickering and perfect. But compared to the real one, it looked... fake. It looked like a cartoon.

"So?" one of the other boys said. He was wearing a jersey with a big '10' on the back. "It’s just a weed. The Ghost Lily is worth ten thousand XP. Do you know how long it takes to grind that much? Move, kid."

He stepped forward. I didn't move. I looked him right in the eye. "It’s not a weed. It’s the last one. Mr. Lingmann said this used to be a whole garden. This is all that’s left. If you step on it, it’s gone forever. You can get XP anywhere. You can’t get this back."

The boy hesitated. He looked at the girl in the yellow dress. She was the leader, the one with the high-level scanner. She was looking at the real lily, then at me. She didn't look annoyed anymore. She looked thoughtful. She reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked like she was seeing the garden for the first time.

"He’s right," she said softly. She lowered her phone. The digital world disappeared from her view. She looked at the rusted benches and the mossy paths. "Look at this place. It’s beautiful. I didn't even know it was here. We’ve been running all over the park and we didn't even notice the real trees."

"But the Lily!" the boy in the jersey protested. "It’s right there! We’re the first ones here!"

"It’s not real, Brian," the girl said. She sounded tired now. The heat was finally getting to her. She looked at the real lily again. "That is. And it’s tiny. It’s like it’s trying so hard to stay alive. We shouldn't mess it up."

More people were coming through the hedge now. A group of adults, a couple of teenagers. They were all charging in, phones up. The girl in the yellow dress stood up. She stepped out in front of me. She held up her hands. "Hey! Stop! There’s a rare real-world plant here! Stay back!"

It was amazing. People actually stopped. They were curious. They wanted to see what was so special that someone would stop the game for it. One by one, they lowered their phones. They gathered around, staying a few feet back. They looked at the tiny white flower. They started talking, but not about stats or XP. They talked about gardens they used to have, or flowers their grandmothers grew. The air in the secret garden changed. It didn't feel tense anymore. It felt like a community. It felt like we were all sharing a secret that was better than a game.

Mr. Lingmann appeared at the edge of the crowd. He was smiling. He had a water bottle in his hand. He walked over and handed it to me. I took a long drink. It was cold and perfect. He looked at the crowd, then at the lily. "Well now," he said. "Looks like the ghosts decided to show themselves after all."

He knelt down next to me. He took a small plastic cup from his pocket and filled it with a little bit of water. He carefully poured it around the base of the real lily. The dirt soaked it up instantly. The flower seemed to perk up, its petals reaching out. It was a small thing, but it felt like a huge victory. We stood there for a long time, just watching the flower. Nobody was looking at their phones. The digital Ghost Lily was still there, floating in the air, but nobody was tapping it. It was like we had all agreed that the real thing was more important.

Eventually, the crowd started to drift away. The game event was ending. The icons on the map were fading. The girl in the yellow dress looked at me. She smiled again, but this time it was a real smile. "I’m Mia," she said. "Nice catch, Leo."

"Thanks," I said. "I’m Leo."

"See you around," she said. She turned and walked away, her strawberry backpack swinging. She didn't have her phone out. She was looking at the trees.

I picked up my phone from the grass. The screen was fine. I looked at the GreenPixel app. The Ghost Lily was gone. The event was over. I hadn't collected it. I was still a level three. I didn't have the boost or the rare seeds. But as I walked out of the park with Mr. Lingmann, I didn't feel like a loser. I felt light. I felt like I had found something better than pixels.

We walked back to the bus stop. The sun was starting to go down, turning the sky a deep, dusty orange. The city didn't look so grey anymore. It looked warm and full of life. I saw a dandelion growing in a crack in the sidewalk. I saw a bird splash in a puddle near a leaky fire hydrant. I saw the way the light hit the windows of the tall buildings. It was a hard city, but it was a real one.

When I got home, my mom was in the kitchen. She looked tired, but she smiled when she saw me. "How was the park, Leo? Find any of those digital plants?"

I looked at my phone, then I put it on the counter. I didn't want to look at it for a while. I went over and gave her a hug. She smelled like laundry soap and coffee. She was real. She was warm. She was the best thing in my world.

"I found something better," I said. I went to the window and looked out at Mr. Lingmann’s garden. He was out there, watering his tomatoes. He waved at me. I waved back. The summer was still hot, and the world was still giant and confusing, but I wasn't worried. I knew where to look now. I knew that even in the middle of all the concrete and the noise, there was always something small and stubborn trying to grow. And I was going to make sure it had enough water.

I sat down at the table and watched the shadows stretch across the floor. The game was still on my phone, but it felt different now. It was just a tool, like a flashlight or a hammer. It wasn't the world. The world was outside. It was messy and hot and full of bugs, but it was where the real ghosts lived. I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of the city. It sounded like a heart beating. It sounded like home.

I reached into my pocket and felt a small, smooth stone I had picked up in the garden. It was cool to the touch. I held it tight. I didn't need a screen to tell me it was there. I could feel it. I could feel the weight of it in my palm, a solid piece of the earth. I knew I wouldn't forget the tiny white lily. I knew I wouldn't forget the way the crowd went silent. It was a spark that wouldn't go out, no matter how hot the sun got.

I looked at the phone one last time. A notification popped up. 'New Node Nearby.' I ignored it. I didn't need to hunt for anything tonight. I had already found what I was looking for. I looked at my mom, who was humming a song while she washed the dishes. I looked at the sunset. I looked at my own hands, dirty and stained with the earth of the old garden. I was Leo, and I was exactly where I was supposed to be.