The Turtle

Hey guys this story was written for a contest held by national geographic called planet or plastic to keep our planet clean.

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"Hey Eddie,  what's that oldie gotta do with the trash?", I asked Ed, a seven year old, cute turtle, pointing to an old and weak turtle in front of us.

"I don't know. But my mom said he has got a loose nut. Better stay away from him", he replied.

Out of my curiosity, I swam towards that old turtle and asked him " what are you doing with this trash?"

"I'm just trying to clean up this ocean".

"Cleaning up thus ocean? It'll take you several lives to clean it up".

"Maybe not all, but atleast I could clean some of it", he replied with a proud smile plastered to his face.

"I've never seen you doing anything else other than cleaning this waste. Why do you waste your time like this? What do you get from it? " I hissed.

He paused for a second and finally began to swim saying "follow me!".

I swam behind him unsure of where he is going. Atlast he stopped. In front of him lies a breathtaking scenery. The seabed is lined with beautiful corals. There are many colourful, pretty small fish playing hide and seek in between the corals. The water here is so pure and crystal clear. All my life, I have seen only dark, foul smelling, thick water in this ocean.  I really don't know that real waters were much amazing to see and to feel. It's really amazing!

"This is what I've done all these years. I've been cleaning this ocean since eleven years and the result is- "

"Incredible !!!", I completed his words giggling.

"Eleven years is not a small thing. How could you do this?" I asked him.

" I used to have a son named Thomas, my one and only son. One day he was playing hide and seek with his friends. He didn't find a place to hide. But at last he found some huge bins on the ocean bed. He tried to open one of the bin and hide in that. As he kicked open the bin, a black substance engulfed him into it and choked in his throat. He didn't knew that the bin was filled with deathly poison. It was a radioactive substance thrown into the ocean by the humans.  As he tried to get away from it, unfortunately he was trapped in a huge plastic bag lying nearby. Before I could reach him, he left me. I knew how terrible his death was. And from that day I've decided that any turtle or any fish shouldn't die like my son and I took up this job", he ended.

I really feel sorry for him for losing his son. But hats off for his determination. As I was immersed in his thoughts, he swam away. After swimming in search of him, I found him cleaning the trash again. As he tried to pile up the garbage, I put my arms around his, to show my support and mumbled looking deep into his eyes, "you're not alone from today".

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There are many creatures dying every minute in this world due to our ignorance. A turtle has done this much in eleven years, if we humans start an initiative to clean up the oceans, we could surely create clean and pure oceans again.