Orange You Glad?

This is a work of fiction. No real people, places or events were used. Copyright 2011 plot Roach.

Orange You Glad?

By Plot Roach

“There are no oranges.” read the sign in the grocery store window. It was one of many signs going up throughout town that day, as well across the state. Seemingly overnight, the entire crop grown in California and most of Florida disappeared. No trace of the fruit could be found, and the police had no suspects. Everyone from the owners of the fields, the shipping companies that handled the crops, to the migrant workers who tended the fruit were questioned. But there were no leads.

Those who had oranges, hoarded them until more could be found or grown. They became a commodity all their own, almost worth their weight in gold. With such a small supply left, those that were able to purchase the orbicular treat were limited to quantity of one per household. Orange juice rapidly disappeared off the grocery store shelves as did orange popsicles and any other orange based item left in production. Pregnant women craving the sweet fruit were left with no other alternative but to seek those items that they could find through black market dealers, paying a high price for their brightly colored treasure.

News spread across the globe of America’s issue with its lack of oranges. Though lemons, limes and other fruits of the citrus family seemed immune to the shortage, only oranges seemed to be in short supply.The fruit itself was declared an endangered species and all plants on domestic soil were kept under guard twenty-four hours a day. All attempts to import the fruit from foreign countries were in vain, as the oranges disappeared from cargo containers once they reached American ports. Any attempts at cloning orange plants and forcing them to produce their fruit faster lead to hybrid plants giving off a sickly reddish thing that tasted nothing like the fruit of the parent plant.

The news featured stories of the extremes some would go to obtain the fruit, including a man who held thirty people in a hospital hostage, demanding a payment of three ten-pound bags of oranges for their safe release. Home invasions became frequent, as burglars went in search not of jewelry or electronics to pawn, but raided refrigerators and pantries of anything orange related that they might contain.

Orange fabric, never really having had its time under the sun, with the exception of biohazard clothing and jumpers for correctional facilities, now became the rage in fashion. Everyone who was anyone would not be caught out and about without wearing at least one piece of clothing in the color. There was so much of it on the street, that cameras had to be specially augmented so that their color filters were not sent askew. And at least one new mental disease was attributed to the over saturation of the color orange seen on a daily basis.

New drugs were released to the general public, to combat both the depression and lack of vitamin c. But nothing seemed to lift the spirit of the nation as the trees under guard ceased to provide new fruit the following year. All hopes were lost to those who lived in the United States and scientists were at a loss to explain the phenomenon, much less find a cure for it. Meanwhile, tours of foreign countries promising a taste of the endangered fruit were at record levels. A series of movies, television series and books flooded the market in the absence of the brightly colored snack. Support groups were overrun by those unable to face life without an orange.

Then, as swiftly as it had begun, it was over. Trees began to produce their precious fruit once again. Orange based foods imported from foreign lands made it through customs with nothing more serious than a slight bruise. All items related to the shortage were quickly forgotten. Thrift stores and second hand outlets had massive sales on products featuring the bright color, no longer in the peoples' hearts. Everything went back to normal without any of it being explained. The Earth revolved in the heavens, and the news turned to the next big crisis, pretending that the Great Orange Shortage had never occurred.

That was when Italy began to run out of tomatoes.