Tevun-Krus #73 - Best of '19

Good Intentions - @elveloy - Anti-Villain SF

Good Intentions

An Anti-Villain SF story by elveloy 

Jerry stood alongside the conveyor belt, his hands working without thinking. Glass bottles here, jars over there, plastic bottles tossed in the big tub ready for treatment by the miracle bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis. The one discovered several years ago by the Japanese, which could break down PET plastics, those hard ones. 

The newspaper and cardboard had already been extracted from the recycling bins and it was Jerry's job to sort the rest. At $10 an hour it was a crap job but it was better than nothing, as his Mum pointed out only too frequently. Jerry could hardly wait to finish school and get a proper job with a decent salary. In the meantime, he was earning money and helping the environment.

Jerry frowned as a bread bag filled with scrunched up soft plastics came along the conveyor belt. Hadn't people got the message? Soft plastics weren't recyclable, not at this plant, in any case. He plucked it off the belt and chucked it in the bin for landfill behind him. At least it was the only one for the day, so far.

At the end of his shift, Jerry stretched and rotated his shoulders. The glass bottle container was full and the forklift driver was already trundling up to take it away. Jerry checked the other containers with an experienced eye. Still plenty of room for the next sorter. He glanced behind him into the landfill bin, to see how full it was, and froze for a moment in surprise. It was empty. Completely. And he knew he'd tossed the bread bag inside it, just half an hour ago. He searched around on the ground in case by some rare chance he'd missed the bin, but there was no sign of the bag.

He looked in the bin again. Nothing, except for the paper-covered metal tie which had been twisted around the mouth of the bread bag. He chewed his bottom lip, a flush of sudden excitement heating his cheeks. What if...?

Without stopping to second guess himself, Jerry picked up the tie with his gloved fingers and popped it into a jam jar, complete with metal lid. Maybe now he had his own sample of Ideonella sakaiensis, or possibly something even better. He could hardly wait to take the tie into the lab at school and test it.

When he got home, he entertained himself for several hours searching for everything he could find on Ideonella sakaiensis.

Just as he was thinking he should really go to bed, Jerry's phone pinged. He hesitated for a second then thumbed it open. Soph's cat face stared back at him. What could she want at this hour?

"STOP mtg NOW usl plc c u sn."

A meeting? Eleven o'clock on a school night? Something must have happened. Something important. The Society for the Termination Of Plastics usually met on Friday night or the weekend.

Maybe he should take this opportunity to tell the others about the disappearing bread bag, though he hadn't had a chance to conduct any tests yet. At the moment, all he had was a tie in a jar. In the end, he left the jar at home. When he showed the others, he wanted to present them with an exciting discovery, not something that could prove to be a dud.

Jerry stuck his feet in his boots, grabbed his hoodie and slipped downstairs as quietly as he could.

But..."Where are you off to at this time of night?" His Mum's voice followed him down the passage from the kitchen, where she'd been having a nightcap with his step dad. Sprung!

"Out. No need to wait up," Jerry flung the words over his shoulder without stopping and rushed out of the house. He'd explain in the morning. Or not. After all, he was fifteen now, not ten.