Fiction: Group 3
stopped dead… He could not believe that all the fish were gone. He knew that they were swimming
healthily in the freshwater only yesterday. The entire lifecycle of his river had changed before his eyes!
After a disappointing haul was brought back home, and an uninspiring sunset, Mr. Helton was finding it
harder to breathe, it felt like he was trying to inhale through a plastic bag. He could smell the toxic smoke
with each breathe. He was surrounded by air but none of it was doing him any good. As Mr. Helton fought
to get the air in his body, his throat tightened closing off his airway. He felt like there was a ten pound
weight on his chest and nothing he could do could move it. “How long can they keep it up for? How long
can I keep it up for?”
At that time, Mrs. Helton was swimming in the river as usual. Suddenly, she heard a huge “BANG” just
next to the river. After the blast, there was a flash of the whitest light she had ever seen. The light seared
into her eyes like a hot camera flash, but after the heat and light had gone, she was left in the most complete
blackness she had ever known. She could feel the sand still shifting between her toes, she could still hear the
river trickling on its journey to the sea, she could still smell the saltiness of the coastal air. But she could not
see anything at all. Despite the blind confusion and searing pain in her head, her thoughts shifted towards
the river. What was going on?
Annabelle was only three when she lost her dad, the humble fisherman. She was barely old enough to
remember him. The family could no longer afford food and shelter. With her mother now blind from an
explosion at a nearby factory, Annabelle was the only hope left to keep the household going - she was just a
child. To make ends meet, Mrs. Helton found herself in a plastic factory, putting toy parts together. It was
hard but they were left with no choice.
It was always the same for Mrs Helton, a crushing pain on just one side of her head that came and went in a
pattern. She couldn’t sit, couldn’t lie down or relax. Her eyes would water as did her nose. Annabelle hated
watching her mother so unwell. It was the same as the vague memories she had of her father. He would
stagger through the high-street, a hand constantly clamped to what was left of his greying hair, crying and
wiping snot on his sleeve… Now it was mothers turn for the dreaded headaches to begin…
‘The manicured lawn does the job of excellently concealing the less eye pleasing mud. Thin streaky clouds
of a creamy beige are reflected in the pale water of the lake. A sky of an azure blue hangs overhead...’
Mrs.
Helton was recalling how the Pearl River Delta used to look. “Stop!’ cried Annabelle. “The only thing I
can see is grey and brown smoke. I can't even see over the river!’ Annabelle shouted angrily.
The two girls realised that this was here to say. Annabelle had to go. She left to a beautiful shores of New
Zealand without her mom because the only work she could find was as a labourer in the plastic factories,
breathing in the toxic fumes which killed her dad. She worried endlessly about her mom, but she knew that
in order to save her, she needed to leave this forsaken place.
On the plane to New Zealand, Annabelle recanted her mother's last words, “Don’t worry about me, honey.
I’ll be fine, I’ll write you every week. I wont be going anywhere without a goodbye”. She started her first
letter there with renewed with confidence that she would see her mum again, and get her out of this place.
One day on the train home, Queenstown, Annabelle was filled with excitement as it was Wednesday, the
day that mothers letters arrive. “
This one must be a long one, as she hadn’t received one last week
!” She
could not wait to tell mother about her new promotion! As she walked to her letterbox, a dying feeling
began to sink in, as she saw an empty postbox. Two more weeks passed, still, nothing.
The story finds Annabelle trudging along a sooty path to a busy hospital in Jiangmen. “Susy Helton, please”,
“Room 412 dear, in the chronic lung disease wing”, replied the duty nurse. Annabelle had gone to find her
mom, as her letters did not arrive for months. As she found her old home sadly empty, the villagers
informed Annabelle that her mother was sick, and in hospital from the toxins at her workplace.
Mum had
been keeping this from me!
Annabelle sees her mother in a bed, alongside many others like her. She felt her
heart drop.
