Fiction: Group 4
The Last Prey
Island School, Karabassian, Melodie - 14, Fiction: Group 4
look up at the sky and watch the majestic Black Kite soar across the Pearl River in search for a prey.
Something it can take home for its chicks to feast on. It always appears at the crack of dawn, before
anyone is awake, before the machines begin their day. By the time the town has awoken, the bird has
already flown away and out of sight, making sure its presence is a mystery. Here one minute and the next
you are left isolated, the bird now just a happy memory in the minds of those whom were lucky enough to
watch it fly.
In the murky brown water, a fish floats on the surface of the river, yet another life taken from the deadly
river. For many, this river is people’s lifeblood; a place where they make an income, to feed their children,
to support their family. People have built their entire lives around the river, my family being one of them.
Many come and go, but we stay day and night, dealing with whatever comes our way.
The way the river water would change from one colour to the next, the churning sound of factory
machines radiating through the village, the sound of footsteps of the factory workers as they enter their
workspace in the early morning, he loved it all. He always had a vision for the future; someday our village
would join the surrounding of the area and become an urban place.
As well as the other subjects any student is forced to learn, we have our cultural lessons. This is the class in
which the teachers and their fellow colleagues don’t stop informing us that we are extremely fortunate to be
one of many residents in the Pearl River Delta. They just tell us facts after facts hoping one of them will
spring some interest in our minds. For example, if I just so happened to be in Guangzhou and had the need
to go to Hong Kong, it would only take 2 hours by train or the fact that the Pearl River Delta is home to
the largest shopping centre.
Once one of the chemistry teachers, Ms. Lin, came in and told us she would be replacing our old teacher
and was to be teaching us permanently. The way she talked about the delta with such passion fascinated me,
her eyes lit up when she talked about the upcoming sea bridge being built right across the Pearl River. She
mentioned that this particular bridge was going to break a record of being the largest sea bridge in the world
and we only have to wait a couple years till it is opened in 2016. But after a while, her eyes started to droop
a bit, her smile was gone and replaced with a frown and creases formed on her forehead, as she started
talking again her voice was much quieter, like a whisper and slightly shaky. I remember her saying these
exact words
“The Pearl River is surrounded with amazing things we are lucky to have, but unfortunately
the river itself is not as lucky.”
As with any child in that classroom, I was confused. There has never been
anything said claiming the river was ‘troubled’. At that moment the bell rang and the footsteps of the
children leaving school could already be heard, as the children stuffed their school bags with their books in a
hurry to leave, I did so very slowly until every single one was out apart from me. I walked slowly towards
the teacher’s desk as she was wiping away on the chalkboard.
“What do you mean by the river not being lucky?” I questioned as her back faced me. She turned around
and smiled and just told me,
“Some things have to be kept a secret, all for good things”. I nodded and headed to the door, but as I held
out my hand to reach the handle, she called my name and handed me a folded piece of paper and left it at
that.
As I was folding my school uniform before I went to bed, I heard a crinkling sound from the pocket of my
skirt. I reached in the pocket and took it out, sitting on my bed, I unraveled it to find that it was a
newspaper article; the headlines read ‘
Samples from the wastewaters of factories across the Pearl River Delta
prove that water contains high level of hazardous chemicals’.
The day after, Ms. Lin wasn’t teaching our
cultural class and neither the day after that or any other day, no one knew why.
I
