Fiction: Group 3
Tales of the Pearl River Delta
Elsa High School, Davidson, Tami - 14, Fiction: Group 3
pril 5th, 1994, 5:32 AM,
I woke up this morning to news of a 10$ coin in Hong Kong, which really is quite irrelevant to
me, considering I live in Guangzhou, yet I felt the need to wake up this early to just hear about it.
The weather today is nice. It’s been better. However, I still go on my walk and still see the man. The weird
man sitting on the step of that building the kids around here seem to think is haunted. I don’t blame them
really. I suppose it would be much easier and faster to go the other way past the school but everything has
become so busy these days. So loud and so humid it’s almost suffocating. On a regular day he wouldn’t even
look up from his empty bottle of Tsingtao. But today was not a regular day. And somehow I knew it before
I even walked out the door.
April 5
th
, 1994, 7:00 AM,
I walked past the weird man sitting on the step and I sat down next to him. Looking back at it now I’m not
really sure why I did it in the first place. But once I had sat down I politely said hello, but the man didn’t
look up. I tried tapping him, standing in front of him, waving. Nothing. After a while I gave up trying and
just sat down. Looking out into the distance I noticed how little I knew about anything here really. But
what really stood out to me was the river. The river which I had seen every day the whole time I had lived
here but never had I ever decided to do some research of any sort. So, I asked the man about the river. He
looked up as soon as I said “Pearl River”. A smile materialized on his usually blank face. I saw him happy
for the first time that day. He chuckled to himself a little bit and then looked me deeply in the eyes and told
me of a legend. The legend was about a gigantic stone island located where the river flowed through
Guangzhou. Years ago the island gradually eroded over time by the crash of the water. As the island eroded
it became as smooth as silk and shaped like a pearl. He looked back down at his bottle, smiled, stood up and
walked away. As he walked away, I stood up to follow him and fell unconscious. That was the last day I
lived in oblivion.
May 5
th
, 1995, 6:34 PM,
It’s been almost a year now, since the day he told me about this island. He said it was just a legend. Funny
looking back on that moment now, thinking this island would be a place where all good things happen.
Some kind of paradise. Turns out it’s a place that's slowly dying and bringing me with it. Every day, the
island gets hit by these ruthless waves. Every day, the is slowly eaten up by the greedy waters which
surround it. My home is disappearing. Everyday being here, I see thousands of boats sailing past. Filled with
boxes and people. The water is getting dirtier and more polluted everyday with all these boats going past.
Dropping their waste and their garbage, like the sea is a dump. It hurts, seeing all of this happen slowly. But
the worst part is that there is absolutely nothing I can do to prevent it from happening.
September 11
th
, 2001
Seven years now. Seven years alone. Stranded. The pollution has only gotten worse. The boats bigger, and
the people in them nastier. More waste is being thrown off these boats every second. When I got here the
animals in the sea were healthy. They swam around with no care in the world. The water was clean and
there were less boats travelling from city to city. Now, this place is slowly becoming more and more
contaminated with trash ranging from cans to plastic bags. As the sea gets dirtier the waves get harsher and
the island gets smaller. If this continues, I’ll have nowhere to go. The island is the source of all my food and
shelter. It is what has kept me sane.
February 15
th
, 2005
I have finally devised a plan to get off this island. I have gathered enough resources to build the boat that
will get me out of here. The island has been getting worse lately, abused by the sea and trash which
surrounds it. Now, more than ever, I need to find a way back.
A
