Ficin nimi: Today
Kirjoittaja: shadesoflife
Ikäraja: S
Tyylilaji/Genre: oneshot, slice of life
A/N: Tämä on alun perin kirjoitettu PlanetOrPlastic -haasteeseen, jossa haluttiin herätellä ihmisiä maailman merien muoviongelmaan. Ajatus oli julkaista suomenkielinen käännös, mutta pelkäsin että alkuperäinen fiilis hukkuisi siinä samalla, joten päädyin julkaisemaan englanninkielisen version. Toivottavasti siis kieli ei vähennä lukemisen iloa.
Today The kitchen is filled with the scent of food slowly cooking in the oven and the steady ticking of the clock on the wall. Aleah sits at the table reading her favorite book from her tablet with a content smile: her toxicology test that morning wasn’t too bad, the levels were only a little high. That’s quite a normal result for all the elders on the island, though. They say it’s because they’ve been eating too much fish, and fish is not as healthy as it used to be back when they were young.
And yet when her granddaughter Leona comes home from school, fish is what they eat for lunch; after all, it has always been the main diet around there. Even the old man from the neighboring house still goes fishing every day. He sets off before sunrise and returns with a small bucket full of the day’s catch, and a slightly larger bucket full of all kinds of garbage that got caught in his net. He is the one who provides Aleah and Leona with their daily fish, although the amounts have slowly been declining over the years.
Nevertheless, the fish is still fresh and tasty. Since it’s Friday, Leona’s classes are already over, and the beach is where she’ll head next. Recently a new friend has joined her and the other kids: Leona says his name is Maki, and that he has a funny dark spot around his right eye, which makes him look kind of cute. She is already excited to go play with him, so she leaves the house immediately when her plate is empty.
Aleah spends the day grocery shopping and chatting with the people she meets on the small streets of their sleepy village. When Leona comes home in the afternoon, she is sulking: Maki wasn’t there today. Until then he has been at the lagoon every day since they met him. So Aleah tries to cheer her up by telling stories while picking out plastic pieces of all shapes and colors from her granddaughter’s thick hair, just like her own mother would pick out pieces of seaweed and coral from hers when she was little.
In the evening, Leona sits on Aleah’s lap while they’re watching news from the TV. The reporter explains how the very last sea turtle in the area has been found dead near their village. The cause of death appears to have been a plastic bag mistaken for food. Aleah’s heart breaks a little: one more species to add to the list of creatures that will only continue to exist in the stories she sometimes tells Leona about times long gone. She wonders if Leona is old enough to remember this one on her own.
Then, a picture of the last sea turtle appears on the TV screen. It has a funny dark spot around its right eye.
