A girl whose skin was a warm tan colour sat at the edge of a worn dock, running her fingers along the carvings in the wood while she stared out at the vast ocean. She tried to picture how beautiful it once was, tried to materialize the memory in her head but try as she might, it would forever remain a ghostly memory. Did anyone remember how it used to be? Before when their water was drinkable and liveable for the marine life, did anyone care to remember?
Now instead of staring out at what she believed was once beautiful, she stared out a skyline masked by a mist of pollution. Now she stared out at dark, black waters, plagued by millions upon millions of pieces of plastic. Now she watched as marine life continued to die everyday, whether it was from them being hunted due to the shortage of seafood, or the plastic inhabiting their homes, it didn't matter, more and more bodies continued to float to the surface, undeserving of their fate.
The plastic was a problem, it had been for a long time — as long as she could remember. Only now, once the world was on it's last hinges, now that the risk of humans going extinct was highly probable, did it matter. She stared downwards, unable to see her reflection through the murkiness. Maybe if people cared enough, the world would be different today. Maybe if somebody cared, just one person, things could have worked out in a different way.
"What are you doing out here?" A womanly voice asked, and the girl felt a weight on her shoulder that she assumed was the woman's hand. She didn't answer, causing a sigh to emit from the older woman's mouth. "Won't you come inside dear? Dinner's ready." The woman; her mother said, to which she simply nodded at and stood from where she'd been sitting previously.
She looked behind her one last time, at the waves overlapping each other; angry and unforgiving and searching for a new victim to drag underneath the surface. She watched as the water rippled and the belly of another sea creature appeared, tangled up in a disgusting amount of plastic. Another innocent life, taken due to their reckless actions, another life taken one after the other.
She wondered what the ocean would say if it could talk; would she cry? Would she cry out in agony and pain? Would she scream in anger and damn humans? Would she pray for those she has lost? Perhaps she would scowl and say enough is enough, perhaps she would retaliate and all the world's oceans would dry up, leaving humans to fend for themselves. Perhaps, if the ocean could speak, humans would realize their foolish decisions and ignorance are the cause of a now plastic world.
