Fiction: Group 3
Tale of the Pearl River Delta
South Island School, Kwon, Soo-Jin - 13, Fiction: Group 3
r. and Mrs. Helton were proud to say that they were living in a perfectly normal place called
Jiangmen, thank you very much. They were the last people you would expect to anything out
of the ordinary - the Helton’s lived a quiet, and simple life in the lush countryside in the
backcountry of the Pearl River Delta. They branded no diamonds, no butlers, no lavish expenses, but they
had everything they needed, and above all, they were happy.
Mr.Helton was a fisherman of the Pearl River Delta, who caught freshwater fish and shrimp. He was a big
and beefy man with hardly any neck, you could say this was evidence of his, ample lifestyle. Mrs. Helton
was thin and beautiful, she spent her time swimming in the crystal waters of the Delta, and the odd
afternoon craning over the garden fence to admire the neighbours vegetable patch. She was rather good at
this. The Heltons also had a small daughter called Annabelle and in their opinion there was no finer girl
anywhere.
Mr Helton relaxed in the pleasant warm evening, sat on his sofa as he did after work each day. He let out a
sigh. “Life was good...” Suddenly, he recalled something Johnny said at the village party last week.
Something about a Special Economic Zone? Everyone seemed to be talking about it. What is a Special
Economic Zone anyway? His thoughts were immediately cut short as a
‘wouaaaaaaaaaa’
pierced the air. Mrs.
Helton wrestled a screaming Annabelle into her high chair. Mr. Helton shook his head, and thought no
more of the this Special Economic Zone.
When Mr. and Mrs. Helton woke up on a dull, gray Tuesday, the story begins. There was nothing peculiar
at this stage about the sunlit sky outside to suggest that this day would mark a dramatic change to the
Helton’s lives, indeed to the lives of everyone in their sleepy village. The morning began as usual, Mr.
Helton whistled as he picked out his usual boots for fishing, and Mrs. Helton hummed away happily as she
wrestled a particularly difficult young Annabelle into her high chair. At half past seven, Mr. Helton picked
up his fishing rods, pecked Mrs. Helton, and Mrs. Helton Junior on the cheek, and made his way to his boat
ready for the day's haul.
It was only a dozen or so rows from shore, when Mr Helton noticed the first sign of something peculiar -
hovering above the harbour was a thick obscene smog! For a moment, he couldn’t quite comprehend what
he was seeing - he jerked his head around to peer closer. What he saw shocked him. Fish were dead,
floating upon a layer of an oily slick over the river water. He was startled to see such an unfamiliar sight and
shook his head to put the fish out of his mind. Mr Helton was a busy man, so he put the scene out of his
mind and proceeded to his favourite fishing spot, by the inside of the bend, thinking of nothing except the
large basket of fish he was hoping to catch that day, his hopes remained high.
But on this side of the river, the fish are driven out of his mind by something else… As he sat in his modest
dinghy, he could not help but notice that vast and oddly shaped buildings surrounding the river. From them
billowed a black smoke! – These were the factories that he had so blissfully ignored! It was like a forest fire,
he had never seen such a smoke, so pungent, so acrid.
The only thing he saw when until this day, was his wonderful river, lined with seemingly never ending
cherry blossom trees. The image he was seeing now was totally different to his memories. How had he not
noticed until today? These buildings could not have been built almost overnight? The river had turned a
charcoal black, and was surrounded by lines of these alien factories, stretching as far as his eye could see.
He was now acutely aware that something was very wrong when he realised that by days end, he had not
caught schools of young supple fish, what filled his baskets instead, were plastics bottles, dead fish and
decayed seaweed. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the basket again, but nothing changed. Mr. Helton
M
