In 2003, I had an assignment. That assignment was to work quietly in 3rd grade and write a story about flowers.

I got really really excited when I got that assignment because for one thing, I like writing stories, and I love flowers. I was one of the few boys in Seattle that adore flowers, and I still do today. I would pick flowers and give them to teachers, students, and to my parents. Combining flowers and writing was a good combo for me.

After I wrote the short story, I got good reviews from others around me and how adorable it was, and I felt really good when writing it for other kids that were close to my age. Now that I'm older, I could use that same story I did when I was in 3rd grade and share it to younger kids in this generation.

I took a good long read on my creation and figured out that there's a lot more than just a rainbow. It has imagination and charm on the characters. I see that it just takes 1 seed to make a whole bunch of flowers of different colors all over the field. There is no such thing as a rainbow springing up after a planted seed and then melting the rainbow to make more seeds, that's just silly. It's all a part of the young imagination. But related to that, it takes 1 to make something wonderful. I guess that's one of the reasons why I wrote the book Population: One.

In a faraway farm, there lived a little boy named Ted. Friends called him Teddy for his nickname. He lived in an old broken home with his mom, Susie, in the middle of nowhere. They couldn't see any flowers surrounding them—nothing but dry land and a roadway to the store.

Then one day, Teddy decided to walk around the mountains with his friends when he met an old man. “Hello, young boy!” said the man. “I am Old Man Harry. I want to do something good for you and your mom.” Then Harry brought forth a beautiful brightly colored seed that changed color over time. “What is it?” asked the boy. “It’s a Rainbow Seed. I want you to plant it,” replied the jolly old man. The boy Teddy had never planted a seed before, so Harry took him down from the mountains and showed him how to plant a seed. “You see, young fellow, you place the seed in the ground; you water it once in awhile, make sure the sun shines down on the seed, and let it grow over time.” So Old Man Harry gave Ted the rainbow seed and left with a warning, saying, “Remember, boy; this seed is gifted; you will be up for a big surprise,” and off he went into the distance.

Teddy rushed home to tell his mom about what had happened and she got excited about the seed. They both went outside right at the back side of the house and planted the colorful seed.

Then all of a sudden, the seed grew a huge rainbow and stretched far over the fields. It was a hot and sunny day, so the sun melted the rainbow slowly. With the rainbow melting, the droplets from the rainbow turned into little seeds and went straight to the ground. With that, the seeds quickly turned into rainbow flowers. They had different colors of flowers everywhere all over the fields.

Teddy and his mom, Susie, were so happy to see all that happening to their field, and they began to smell the scent of the flowers all over. People all over got to see the flowers, and everything was just amazing for the boy and his mom, all thanks to a little seed that needed to be planted.

The End