assorted writing

Sally was growing tired. She had tried to surface at least ten times already and had met with the same results. The thick row of plastic bags and other rubbish as well as the noise on the beach was hindering her from going ashore to lay her eggs. She knew that if she didn’t lay her eggs soon, she could die and along with her all her children will be dead.

The last few years had been horrible for Sally. She was getting older and moved slower than usual and when she at last found the shore to lay her eggs, she met various difficulties. Sally did not understand the humans' desire to look at leatherback turtles laying their eggs. Leatherbacks did not look at humans laying their eggs. Why did humans want to see them laying their eggs? It was not very comfortable having to lay eggs with about ninety humans crowding around with gaping mouths. She had heard them saying that they were not supposed to be so close to the turtles but they simply wanted to see how the eggs were laid.
      "How I wish for the old times!" Sally sighed.

Sally had been laying her eggs peacefully along the Mayaro beach for decades until the humans realized that the leatherbacks were also laying their eggs at Mayaro. This spelled disaster for them.
      The first time that Sally encountered the humans, she was flabbergasted. She had almost drowned before she had had the courage to surface. She was scared. She was accustomed to coming ashore, finding the right spot, digging her hole and laying her eggs. It was the natural thing to do and it made Sally feel so happy that she was continuing her race. In 2012 though, things changed. When Sally emerged from the water, she was greeted by shouts of "Oh, look! Another one!" and "Oh, my she is so beautiful!" The shouting had seemed so terrifying to Sally that she had immediately turned back and gone into the water. She had swam a little distance away when she realized that she did not have time to look for another nesting ground to lay her eggs. She had to surface here. If she didn’t, she could drown and if she drowned, her babies would never be born and her species, already dwindling, will eventually become extinct. Finally mustering enough courage, Sally came ashore and started looking for the ideal place to lay her eggs. It was very difficult to concentrate though with all these humans following her. At least they were not trying to catch her and she sensed that they only wanted to look at her but it was still unnerving. She heard snippets of their conversation as she walked along the shore.
      "I always wanted to see it but Matura is too far away!"
      "I am so happy that they decided to come here as well!"
      "I wonder how tame they are."

Sally wondered what they were talking about until she realized that they were actually talking about the leatherbacks. She had never known that they were famous. She had always thought that they were just ordinary sea creatures who came out at night to lay their eggs on the beach. Sally never thought that the whole world knew about them.
      "That one comes every year." She heard someone say. She turned to look at the speaker and wondered how he knew that she came every year. She had never seen him before.
      "I usually sit in my gallery and look down the beach on my binoculars but this year, I decided that since everyone is turtle watching on the beach, I should do so myself."
      "He should have stayed in his gallery, whatever that is!" Sally muttered to herself. She had finally managed to find a place she considered safe and started laying her eggs. She felt as though her eggs would not come out because she was so tense. All the humans had crowded around her and were gaping at her. Sally wanted to rush back into the sea but she knew that this would be dangerous and tried to concentrate on laying her eggs and ignoring the humans. When she was finished, she carefully covered her eggs and headed back to sea.
      It was months before Sally could put this ordeal out of her mind.

In 2013, Sally again made her way to Mayaro and was immediately reminded of her experience the previous year. She was careful this time and came ashore a little distance away from her usual spot. After all, these humans were aware of her whereabouts and she was not comfortable with them looking at her while she was laying her eggs. She was happy until one of her flappers became stuck unto a large creature that was soaring into the air. Try as she might, she could not get the flapper out. She saw a little human coming towards her and began panicking. As she turned to go back into the ocean, the little human said: "Don’t worry, I will not hurt you. It’s okay girl. I will take your flapper out of the bag." Sally was fearful but it was difficult to move with the creature especially as it seemed to be attached to another one. True to her word, the little human took the bag and Sally was free to go. She immediately dashed into the water once again and watched as a very large human tried to jump unto the back of another leatherback who was laying her eggs. "They must be crazy!" Sally decided. She circled the water until she thought that it was safe to once again come ashore. "I must remember not to come here next year," Sally told herself.

When it was time for nesting in 2014, Sally instinctively went to Mayaro. An inner voice asked her why she was doing this and she replied "because it is what I always do!" This time Sally was a little braver than the last two times she had encountered humans. She was much more comfortable with the humans around though she kept a wary eye for Ms leatherback rider. Sally realized though that she was getting weaker and weaker and the journey was becoming more and more difficult. This year she had met a lot of new creatures on her journey towards Mayaro. Some of these creatures resembled the one she had encountered last year and whenever she saw one of these creatures, she went a few miles off her destination to avoid the creature. Other creatures came in all different shapes and sizes and Sally couldn’t help wondering where these creatures came from and why they were in the sea. After laying her eggs, Sally was exhausted and decided to take a rest before her long journey back. She opted to lie at the water’s edge so that she could be in the sea at the slightest disturbance. Sally could not rest however as she kept remembering the turtle rider of the previous year. Soon, there was a horrendous noise and a lot of humans came onto the shore. They were near her eggs but Sally dare not move. She was in a quandary – if she moved, they would notice her and if she didn’t move, they might destroy her eggs. "Oh look, eggs!" She heard one of them say. "I wonder……" Sally did not wait to hear the end of the sentence. She slipped into the water and started swimming as fast as she could knowing in her heart that she will never see any of her children from this batch of eggs.

In 2015, the amount of new creatures had increased again and it was very difficult to swim around them. She had to navigate her way among them as best she could. Exhausted, she had finally arrived at her beach to see it swarming with humans. Sally was amazed at the amount of people that were on the beach. Mustering enough courage, Sally came ashore and started looking for a place to lay her eggs. She laid her eggs without incidents and returned to the edge of the water for her now annual rest. The edge of the water though was littered with the strange new creatures she had begun to notice last year. Sally felt threatened and decided to return to the water.

This year, the other turtles had decided that they would change the area where they would lay their eggs. It seemed the only logical thing to do. Sally however, was now too slow to swim together with the others and they were soon out of sight. Sally decided that she would go to Mayaro as she knew the way and it was nearer to her. Sally was puzzled though when she saw the amount of creatures lining the surface of the water. She had swam around for almost half an hour looking for an opening in the line of creatures. She could not find any. She had tried dodging the creatures but it was to no avail. Along with the creatures, the humans were on the beach doing some crazy ritual. There was the noise she had heard the year before and the humans were jumping up and down on the beach. Sally heard the other leatherbacks complaining loudly about what was happening. Judging from what she heard, the humans were having a party and they had destroyed a lot of eggs. They were doing something called dance and had smashed a number of eggs in the process. "There must be something that can be done about this stupid behavior," Sally thought to herself as she drifted in and out of consciousness. She had to get to the beach somehow or she would drown. Sally tried again to pass through the line of creatures whose name she had learned was rubbish. Sally had found this to be a peculiar name but was told that rubbish was harmless unless swallowed. Sally decided that she did not want to find out if this theory was true. If only she had the strength to pass through the rubbish and get to the nesting ground. She had to do this soon or else. Sally could feel herself getting heavier and heavier. She knew that she had to lay her eggs as soon as possible but she couldn’t get to shore. She considered laying them right in the water but knew that the water was not the ideal condition to hatch her eggs. Sally kept going deeper and deeper into the water and tried really hard to get past Mr Rubbish but it was no use. Sally knew that her end was upon her. "I lived a good life – I had some wonderful times but my children will never see this planet thanks to the humans." Sally breathed her final breath as Mr Rubbish closed in on her head.