Reap and Sow #PlanetOrPlastic Contest Entry

Entry

The wise men of small town of Timer believed that the ocean bled its sorrows on to the land and that, they said was why the deaths were happening.

"It's like a curse." The group of old men huddled together and watched a mother cry over the lifeless body of her young son, another fisherman. "That's the fourth one we've lost this week." They all shook their head and continued warming their hands against the bonfire. It was no secret that Timer was losing its sons at an alarming rate. They would go out to fish and stay in the treacherous waters for weeks. Upon their return home, a strange sickness would befall them. They lost their appetities, no amount of food nourished their bodies and they eventually became so weak that they were all bones. No one could explain this sudden illness.

"It's the ocean." Bane grumbled underneath his breath. "It's poisoning them all. They all go out there and come home to die."

The group of five nodded in agreement, giving the ocean another dark look as if to wish away its existence and blame it for all their losses.

***

"Doesn't he see Mama,the ocean isn't poisoning us, we're the ones poisoning it?"

Ten-year-old Illia sulked as she followed her mother down the beach. Her grandfather was one of the wise men who blamed the ocean but Illia wanted him to prove him wrong.

She bent down to pick up another plastic cap and added it the trash bag which was already filled to the top, the trash threatening to spill out and she'd only just started.

"He's stubborn Illia, especially after losing your Uncle." Her Mama explained patiently as she helped cleaned their stretch of land.

"But I can show him that it's not the water causing this mysterious illness. It's the plastic we put in the ocean that poisons the fish which in return poisons our fisherman."

Her mama, Ingrid listened patiently and sighed watching the hoards of women cleaning the beach with no end in sight. "I know Illy but he's right in a way isn't he? The ocean is punishing us. We pollute it with plastic and Mother Nature leads brings right back to our bodies."

"Microplastics." Illia muttered under her breath. "Then why don't we save the ocean Mama? If we save it now, it'll save for the rest our lifetime."

"We can try and do our part." Ingrid looked to the ocean. "The water, a living, thriving system Illia,it can only take so much. We can't fill it with our man made filth and not expect it to show up to the surface."

"We'll fix it Mama, we have to."

Ingrid thought of the tragedy that had struck them and then looked at the ocean and finally stared at the root cause of the problem, a blanket of plastic lying at her feet. How did man manage to create the something that was slowly destroying his own world?