When will we learn?

3018

I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I cannot see my face clearly. The air inside the house was so polluted that I could hardly breathe without my oxygen mask on. It had been like that my whole life.

Ever since I could remember, I have never been anywhere without a mask. I couldn't go out unnecessarily, not if I didn't want to deplete my oxygen cylinder. Every week my father goes to the station to refill our oxygen supply cylinder and he comes back like he battled a thousand soldiers alone.

I remember once when I was little, I went out to play with the rich kid next door and I depleted my cylinder completely. My father nearly killed me since we were already low on oxygen. My mom had to agree he was right. She stays at home all the time.

I stepped out to the porch for a moment.

Plastic. It was everywhere. I couldn't see the road. It was covered with so many plastic bottles and other plastic items that I didn't feel like stepping out onto the road anytime soon. Our house was built nearly a century ago and it was right beside the sea. It was filled with plastic bottles. Plastic bags bobbed up and down on the water.

The water was murky and brown. I saw something thrash in it for some time. I walked over to it and saw a fish. I felt sorry for it yet I knew I couldn't save it. This happened all the time and the graph of the death rates seemed to rise every time. The fish finally stilled. A wave washed over it, pushing it towards the shore. I looked at it closely. That's when I noticed it. A white thing seemed to come out from its open mouth. I gingerly picked it up and turned it over. I lightly grasped the white thing in my hand and it seemed to turn transparent.

With a look of disgust, I gently pulled it out of the fish's mouth. The whole thing came out and I saw that it was a small piece of plastic. I frowned in distaste. That's when my mother called me.

"Anna!"

I placed down the fish and threw away the plastic. I didn't know how to get rid of it. I started my way back to the house.

Over dinner, I thought about all the things that had happened and all the things that might happen due to excess plastic production. Gran used to tell me all about the stories my great great grandmother used to tell her before she died. She told me about the earth where it had trees and where the sky and ocean was blue. But now, now the sky was red and the only thing to see was plastic.

Oh, how my life would be different if only humans didn't invent plastic. I thought back to that fish. How many more should die because of man's mistake?