Fiction: Group 4
The day before everything started, we were coming back from school, with our backpacks on our backs
weighing us down. We were walking by the river on the muddy road, following the footsteps created in the
mud by all residents of the area, when something flashing on the surface of the river caught the corner of my
eye. I turned around to observe the object, but it was nowhere to be seen, and most likely a figment of my
imagination, so I turn my head to face forward. But I can still see him looking at the river with a look of
content.
When I came near to our house, I could see my father through the crack of the open window, taking coat
off of his exhausted body and removing his fluorescent yellow boots. He had a disappointment and troubled
look on his face that began to worry me. My mother came close and asked a question with a look of worry
on her face, I couldn’t tell what she said, but my dad just answered with a shake of a head and left it at that.
As I entered the house, both were silent all at once and greeted us both with wide smiles. I didn’t ask them
what was wrong because I didn’t want them to become upset once more. I didn’t ask because deep down I
felt there was no point in asking a question that wouldn’t be answered.
Everything was quiet during dinner, everybody busying themselves by consuming the food. Nothing new
was brought up to converse about, just the usual “How was the school?” and “What did you learn today?”.
But to me something felt different; we didn’t have nearly as much food as we usually did. Although our
family never was wealthy, but the house was always rich in the smell created by whatever my mother was
cooking. The dining table filled with bowls of rice and noodles and fish and dumplings. Today we only had
a couple of bowls of rice and noodles from the night before. I think everyone knew it or at least felt a
difference, but no one would dare speak his or her minds.
I focused on the light bulb in the hopes that it would make me fall asleep, but in reality I was just listening
to my parent’s conversation coming from their room.
“I got nothing, not even a single small fish. The river is intoxicating every being that lives in it. It was the
most disgusting thing I have ever seen, all the fish were replaced with waste coming from the new factory”
“What will we do when they build the other factory right on the river?”
“Well, then we might have to go, there is no way we can make a living here”
The next morning was all a blur, but I can remember every haunting second of the afternoon, of when I
was chasing him home, with our screams of joy reverberating through the woods, until it was just me who
was yelling, which made me slow to a jog as I realized my brother is nowhere to be seen. I swing my head
side to side searching for him; he was always better at me at hide and seek because of his petite figure. A
body lies on the top of the water floating lifelessly; at first I think it must be another dead fish. I take a step
closer and see his jacket floating on the edge of the water. A frightening thought comes to mind and panic
arose in my body paralyzing me. I just stare. My mind is shrieking at me, but it comes to no use as my mind
is just instructing actions to a statue. My body became one big piece of rock screaming inside to move, but
whatever I did I just couldn’t move my body. I knew I had to go after him and started running, but my legs
couldn’t move and neither could my arms, I opened my mouth to yell his name, but nothing came out.
After a while of just staring, my body now made of rock crumpled at last and I screamed. I don’t recall when
I stopped, but my whole body was shaking vigorously. I do remember seeing a fishing boat come asking me
what it was, but I kept screaming and pointing to the direction the body was washed to. They sailed to the
body and somehow got him out, but it was already too late.
The reports said he died because he couldn’t swim, but he was always an amazing swimmer. But if the truth
was told, it would say it was from the polluted water that dragged him down under to his death, he was seen
trying to inhale, but a plastic bag got caught in his mouth suffocating him. A few years ago, the same thing
happened to a young girl only a couple years younger than my brother, they said she drowned because she
couldn’t swim and it was entirely the fault of the parents, so we believed in it all and let them fill our minds
with these lies.
It has been a year since he died and the loss of a child has left my parents in a limbo between continuing and
going to join my brother. People came everyday in the beginning to try to soothe us and ease the pain, but
every time they came they realized it had no effect, so one by one they each left and never came back. The
