Fiction: Group 2
The Pearl River Delta
Clearwater Bay School, Wishart, Sophie - 10, Fiction: Group 2
ater.
I am water.
I flow through the Pearl River Delta like blood rushing through your veins. It is a cycle, a never ending
cycle. It is simple really; we come in from the sea and make our way past the polluted cities with their
repulsive factories and cemented streets. At points in our journey we are able to see the trees on the hills
with emerald leaves and strong trunks and on the ground long grass and beautiful lilies grow. I want to stay
but I need to keep flowing. After all the towns and paddy fields the river widens. By that time I am filthy,
smothered with rubbish and litter. We stay here for a few moments waiting for the sun to rise again. There
it is climbing over the mountain, spraying her rays over the valley, warming the earth and its creatures. We
wait once again for it to reach noon where the sun shines its brightest. But before we can see the sun I feel
something pulling at me. At first it is a gentle tug but as it heaved me in further it became a haul and before
I know it I am sucked straight into a monstrosity of a pipe. The only way I can possibly describe this
whirlwind ride through the miscreation of horror is darkness. I can see nothing, not even a shimmer of
sunlight is able to enter the duct.
I know now that I would not go up to the sky as pure vapour. I finally come rushing out into a vat that
reeks of chlorine. Beneath me is some white cotton. As I was wonder what it is for, the humans close in on
me. I hear a whirring noise coming from beneath me and I start to spin round and round and round in a
circle. The container feels rigid and uneven around the edges. Surrounding the vat I can make out the
sounds of people rushing and murmuring. After what felt like eons the buzzing stops and I slow down. A
human hand reaches down into the container and grabs the cotton. As expected he closes the lid on me
again. There is another humming noise and at the bottom of the flask some drain holes open and I am
sucked down again. It is the same fearsome ride but this time I end in a concrete pool full of toxic, blue
water droplets. The taste is dreadful and its smell is nauseating. I can see that none of the water droplets have
been here a very long time; I wonder where I will end up next. Without warning a man approaches my
encasement. He is carrying a blue barrel and before I can even ponder what it is going to be used for he
dumps the cask into the pool of contaminated water, which I am currently part of. Luckily he does not
catch me as he scoops the water up, but the water is unsettled for a long time. I do not like being contained
in this stony pool filled with sad, ruined droplets.
I have to get out, now. I feel a tingling warmness on my body of water, I looked up and I see what I had
been begging for all along. The sun! I can feel myself rising and breaking into smaller molecules. I am
evaporating! I see other droplets in the same process and as I leave my body rising to the sun and I climb
further and further until I can almost touch the clouds. Then I do. The feeling is beautiful, delightful, so soft
and comforting. Some are big and soft while others are thin and wispy. I settle myself into a creamy, white
cloud. When I look down I see the Pearl River Delta changing from the charming paddy fields and
expanding to become cities. I can see the difference of the water in places, sometimes it is a lovely,
turquoise shade while at other times a disgusting, black color
Some of my friends come into my cloud to share with me. I noticed our cloud getting darker each time a
new droplet comes in, I only ponder that for a moment before I go back to looking down on the scene of
the Pearl again. I could see the pollution rising out of the factories and into the air, I couldn't stand how it
was soiling my new home high in the sky as much as it had in the river. Unfortunately there is nothing I can
do about it except stare sorrowfully at the rising mass. The cloud that I am currently in starts to slowly
move. I notice this but decide to look at it later as I drift around my cloud nodding to other droplets.
However soon I take my original position at the edge of the cloud. I now see that we are over the sea
leaving behind the buildings that climb out of the ground like monsters and the lovely paddy fields calmly
lying in the valley. Then, without warning, the cloud starts to shake and rumble. Suddenly the cloud breaks
apart and all of my friends and I come rushing out. Everything slows down, I can see the other clouds have
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