Doris - #PlasticsOrPlanet

Doris

 The loud hum of the engine was silenced. The research vessel slowed to a rocking stop. With a splash, the anchor was lowered. At the bow of the boat, staring at the beautiful orange morning sky, Doctor Tim Jeffries grimaced. "Damn view would be beautiful if it wasn't for all the plastic"

"Don't get discouraged, we're here to fix this," said Doctor Karen Sykes, Tim's research partner and life partner. For the last twenty years they dedicated their lives in research to find a method to clean ocean plastics.

Tim took out a cigarette and struggled to light it with his shaking hands. "Yes ...."

Karen groaned. She hated when he was like this, which was all to often lately. 

She turned toward her gathered students. "Alright, everyone knows their jobs. I want samples, every ten minutes for the next twelve hours."

The students separated in to teams scurried around the deck with practiced ease. They took turns gathering water from the ocean, analyzing it, and recording the results into a computer.

Tim came to Karen's side and put his hand on her shoulder and gently squeezed. "Sorry Karen –"

She brushed the hand away. "Get back to work."

"Gotcha. How are the results?"

Karen glanced at her tablet. She traced her finger through the dots displayed on the screen.

"Same as the last two weeks, an occasional outlier but the trend-line is flat."

"Alright, lets get our baby Doris into the sea."

Karen nodded in agreement.

He plodded over to the captain and spoke. The captain motioned to three rough men, their faces dark and wrinkled from years in the sun at sea. The men swaggered to the water cannons installed for this experiment.

Karen could not help but smile. The nearest man in control of the port side cannon had a nature that belied his gruff exterior. He smiled like that of a kid on Christmas day when he pulled the trigger of the cannon. The milky white liquid named Doris shot forth. His child like laugh echoed across the boat, louder than the roar of the cannon.

An hour after they finished applying Doris, Tim came over. His nicotine stained hand shook as he ran it through the remaining hairs on his balding head. "Anything yet?"

"Tim, you know better. It's too early to show", said Karen.

Six hours later, Karen's face turned a deathly white when she studied the tablet. Her hands began to tremble. The tablet slipped from her grasp and landed on the deck with a smash.

"What's wrong Karen" yelled Tim as he sprinted over.

Karen was silent, her eyes still stared at the spot where the tablet once was in her hands. It took her a full minute for to reply. "We did it Tim."

"What." Tears streamed form Tim's eyes. He fell to the knees and hugged Karen with shaking arms.

"We finally did it!" Karen broke out into tears and moaned as she returned the hug.