Straw On A Mission
Created with Aashni Subramanian from Bengaluru
For as long as Sippy the straw could remember, he’d been waiting in the sun-warmed pouch of a beachside coconut vendor. Every day began the same; he’d crane his neck far enough out of the pouch to see beachgoers diving into the cool water or running around playing frisbee.
Jammed in a haphazard pile with 54 of his cousins, all different funky neon colours, Sippy dreamed of the glorious moment he’d be chosen. You know - the glamorous, coconut-piercing, juice-slurping, tourist-holding, photo-op kind of break.
Sippy thought - “Why me? Out of all my cousins, why would someone pick me? I’m nothing special. Just your average straw - 8 inches tall... okay fine, 10 when I really stretch. And don’t even get me started on the colour. Neon green. Same as at least 14 of my cousins. We look like a family of highlighters at a disco.”
But it was the next afternoon when Sippy’s world changed. The summer vacation rush had just hit, and the vendor reached in and plucked Sippy out. Sippy's heart-or whatever it was that straws had in place of one-leapt. “This is my big break!” he thought.
With a fwump, he was stabbed through the top of a chilled coconut, and less than a blink of the eye later, Sippy was inside the coconut. "So this is what the inside of a coconut looks like? Huh! It’s darker than I imagined, like a tiny tropical cave. No bats, though. Phew!”
Sippy felt the coconut water surge through him in icy waves, and for the first time ever, he felt alive. The tourist who held him sipped once or twice.
“So refreshing!” she said before smiling wide, only to turn and snap a photo of the ocean. But then, Sippy felt the coconut tilt. A blur. A spin. And... THUD!! Sippy landed face-first on the sand, still damp and sticky with coconut water.
“Oh NO!!”, Sippy cried.
He tried rolling around to shake the sand off of him, only to be covered in more sand. He looked like a beige spaghetti noodle. It was no use. He just lay there, half-buried and abandoned as the tourist disappeared into the crowd.
“What just happened? Wait… that was it?! My big break... over in two gulps flat? Seriously? Is it just me, or is this how all straw careers end?”, he wondered.
With a gazillion questions spinning through his bendy little head, Sippy finally mustered the strength to sit upright. What he saw made him gasp. There were discarded plastics just like him everywhere on the sand. Bottles, bags, and even a plastic Superman figurine, almost about to sink! “Where am I? From the vendor’s pouch, the world looked so beautiful. Blue skies, happy hands, a sunny future... But here? It’s just... leftovers. Were they all like me, thinking it was their big moment, only to end up abandoned? How long have they been here?”
Click. Clack. CLICK-CLACK.
Suddenly, a crab scuttled into view, snapping Sippy out of thought.
“’Ey there, mate. Name’s Clackston. Retired sandcastle inspector. Rough fall, huh?”
Sippy was too astonished to answer. He’d never seen a cop crab before! Officer Clackston wore a seashell like some sort of makeshift helmet with a chunk of seaweed as a belt. She used her pincers to dust some sand off Sippy and said, “New to the beach? Figures. I ain’t ever seen one plastic that wasn’t shocked after its first use. I hate to break it to you, bud, but they never think twice. You get one sip, then it’s adios!”
Sippy swallowed the lump in his throat and spoke, his voice soft and heavy with defeat. “But officer... I…I wanted to see the world! I thought this was my big break!”
“You did, for about 6 seconds, pal. But now? You’ll either get buried here like that soggy tissue or swept out to the sea. Psst... Just between you and me, don’t strike up a conversation with Mr. Soggy over there. All he says is I was supposed to be recycled! Meh! So boring.” Clackston explained.
Sippy looked over at the soggy tissue and felt sadder than before. “Out to sea?! I can’t swim, I’m hollow!! And I don’t even have a life jacket! Officer, what do I do?”
“Worry not. There’s a big break that comes around this time of day. Surfers always come to catch and ride waves. I bet it’s strong enough to take you with it.” Clackston answered.
Sippy found himself wondering: “One more break. Not the kind I had hoped for. Maybe it’ll be an adventure?”
Officer Clackston started to scuttle away into a hole in the sand while gripping a small shrimp in her pincers. “Well, I got to get home to the Mister with lunch. Good luck out there, son!”
Sippy felt alone -truly alone - for the second time in just an hour. But it wasn’t soon before he heard the water roar from beyond and felt the water rush over him. With that, the ocean took him. Sippy twisted and twirled, cartwheeling through the water like laundry in a washing machine. “Okay – oof – no one told me saltwater would be this…salty! I miss the sweet, refreshing coconut water on land. Take me back!”
More and more salty water passed through Sippy’s body, and granules of sand got stuck in his bendy neck. “This kind of harsh water is not good for my skin! Oh, I didn’t even bring my sunscreen!”
The waves kept sweeping Sippy away from where he was, and all he could see was a blue blur. Fish zoomed past like underwater rockets. Their big, glassy eyes were especially creepy to Sippy. But suddenly, the water grew still. A shadow loomed above. And then he saw the most horrifying image of his life -
TWO GIGANTIC EYES. A BEAK. A MOUTH. WIDE OPEN!!
“AHHHHHHH! No! No! I’m not food. I’M NOT FOOD!”, Sippy cried.
But the turtle didn’t slow down or stop. It was fast and coming right for him - eyes locked on Sippy like he was the lunch special.
“Oh No! Oh No! Is this it for me? I don’t even get a chance to live out my big dreams? What about my big break?” Sippy wondered.
The turtle nicked closer. Closer. CLOSER…
BOOP!!
The turtle gave him a soft nudge with her nose and made a disgusted face. Sippy wobbled around for a few seconds before coming to a stop. The turtle spoke in a rather harsh voice. “Bleh! Ewww, you’re not a jellyfish.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying!! I’m a straw. Plastic! Do I look like a jellyfish? I’m straight and I don’t even jiggle!” Sippy said, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Sorry. It’s the smell. All you floaty plastics smell like food to us. My name’s Tula by the way.”, the turtle replied.
“Oh...I…I didn’t know. I’m Sippy.”
“No worries, Sippy. I tried to eat flip-flop on my 5th birthday last year because I thought it would taste like birthday cake. To my disappointment, it tasted gross. And a little bit like feet,” The turtle made a face.
“5th birthday?! I thought you were a grown-up, you’re so big!” Sippy was in shock.
“Oh, I am 4 feet! But I’ll grow to be up to 7 feet when I’m all grown up. I’m a leatherback turtle. We're the biggest sea turtles in the world! You know what? We even swim 16,000 kilometres a year. Do you know how long that is? Almost halfway around the earth!” the turtle said, looking proud.
Sippy sobbed, “Whoa! That’s so cool! I wish I was a sea turtle like you so I could get the hang of this swimming thing, I keep bobbing around everywhere! I need to get back to land, I can’t take this much longer. Oh no! What if another sea turtle tried to eat me, and they only realise I’m plastic after -”
Tula intervened, “Don’t worry! If you want to get back to shore, I know just the creatures. You have to go to the coral reef and find the twins -Reef and Ripple. They’ll know how to help.”
Sippy said, “Really? How do I get to the coral reef? Do they have a phone?”
Tula looked at him, “Really? A phone?”
“…Right. No phone. Ocean. Silly me!” Sippy realised.
“All you have to do is follow the bubbles down, take a left when you see the sea cucumber, and if you see the big red starfish, you’ve gone too far," Tula explained.
Sippy said - “That sounds…terrifying.”
Tula reassured him, “Oh, it is! But better than being someone else’s meal! Good luck out there, Sippy! And hey, remember - you’re more than just a one-sip wonder!”
As Tula vanished into the distance, Sippy looked at the reef below - dark, mysterious, and definitely packed with all kinds of coral. How would he ever find Reef and Ripple? But he had no other option. He tilted his bendy neck toward the reef and braced himself. Next stop: the coral twins.
Sippy drifted down, deeper and deeper into the ocean. A bright orange fish with white stripes zoomed past him. “WAIT. Was that Nemo?! Did I just encounter a celebrity? Oh no, I don’t even have a phone to take a photo as proof. My cousins would never believe I saw Nemo.”
Sippy continued on his journey, adjusting his bendy neck like it was his very own superhero cape. Soon enough, he saw a fat, blobby sea cucumber snoozing next to a rock, snoring tiny bubble-Zs. “Excuse me, Mr. Sea Cucumber. Don’t mind me. Just passing through!” The sea cucumber didn’t move, except for a snort of a bubble out of its nose. Sippy giggled and floated on. The coral reef came into view, and it was magical. The seagrass swayed like it was dancing. The towers of coral looked like underwater castles. It was beautiful… but something was off. A lot of the coral was pale. Almost white. Not the bright orange and pink Sippy expected. It looked tired.
“Is this the right place?” Sippy wondered.
Suddenly, a voice came from behind. “Looking for someone?”
Sippy spun around and nearly bumped into two identical corals that sat on a rocky ledge. They looked like teeny plants with wavy, wiggly arms, but they had eyes - and very expressive eyebrows.
“We’re Reef and Ripple!” said one, waving an arm dramatically.
“She’s Ripple,” said the other.
“He’s Reef,” said the first.
“And we’re twins!” they said in unison.
“You’re so…coordinated,” Sippy said, blinking, “I’m Sippy. A straw. A plastic one, if you couldn’t tell. Not one of those cool metal or edible ones.”
“Yea…we sort of figured,” said Reef, eyeing him up and down, “You’re kind of…obvious.”
Ripple leaned closer. “Tula sent you, didn’t she?”
“Yes! She said you two might be able to help me back to land. I sort of got whisked away into the sea after being tossed on the beach.”
“Ugh. Humans!” said Ripple.
“I thought I was going to be something special, but I just got thrown away without a second thought. They didn’t want me…” Reef and Ripple nodded sadly.
“Lots of plastics think that,” Ripple said.
“But most end up here with us at the bottom of the ocean,” said Reef, motioning to the plastics littered and pale coral behind him.
“Wait... No offence, but aren’t you supposed to be, um…more colourful?” Sippy wondered.
Reef sighed. “We were. We used to be bright red and purple - people said we looked like a box of crayons. Humans would even come this far down in the ocean to see us with silly-looking goggles on their face.”
“But they don’t anymore because we’re not as pretty or interesting.” Ripple continued.
“When the ocean gets too warm, we get sick. We lose our colour. It’s called coral bleaching,” Ripple explained.
“Like laundry??” Sippy asked.
“Not exactly,” said Reef. “The heat makes the good algae inside us leave, and without them, we lose our colour.”
“That sucks,” Sippy said quietly, “I didn’t know.”
Ripple gave him a small smile. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t ask to be tossed. But now that you’re here, maybe you can do something good.”
“That’s what I want!” Sippy said, bobbing in the water with excitement. “Plastic shouldn’t be floating around here.”
Reef looked impressed. “Wow! A straw with a mission.”
Ripple giggled. “Straws don’t usually care this much, they kind of just float away.”
“Well, I’m not your average straw,” Sippy remarked.
“So... you want to go back the the shore?” Reef asked.
“Yes! But for that to happen, I’ll need help. Maybe I can gather all the other plastic floating around and we can form a giant floating pile so that a human will notice us!” Sippy explained.
“Ooh,” said Ripple, eyes lighting up, “like a plastic Parade!”
Sippy said, “Yes! Exactly! If a human notices, maybe they’ll take us back to land where we belong. I’m telling you we’re not built for these waters, I feel like I’m about to break into pieces and lose my head or something because of how strong these waters are!”
“You’re funny!” Ripple giggled.
“You know that’s not the worst plan I’ve heard. I think it could work.” Reed remarked.
“Will you guys help me gather the plastics?” Sippy asked.
Ripple smiled. “We’ll do better than that. We’ll send word to the Junkyard Council."
“The Junkyard Council?” Sippy asked.
“They’re an old plastic gang - a plastic bag, a bottle cap and a food wrapper. They’ve been stuck in the ocean for years,” said Reef.
“Fizz, Twist, and Flo,” Ripple added, “They’ll want to hear your plan.”
“Then that’s my next stop!” Sippy decided.
“You'll have to travel a bit farther and it gets darker. And colder,” said Reef, more serious now.
“I’ve survived a crab, a huge wave and a hungry turtle in that last 24 hours,” Sippy said proudly, “I think I got this.”
“Okay, just be careful,” Reef said.
Sippy gave them a wobbly salute and floated away.
Sippy drifted down and the coral reef shimmered behind him - bright in patches, faded in others. He passed a school of fish swimming along and a lonesome shrimp singing to himself, using a rock as a mirror. Soon enough, the colours disappeared and were replaced by scarce shadows and strange sounds.
“This is definitely spooky… Every sound echoes here. Every shape looks like a sea monster.” Then, he heard a noise from below.
“HALT!”
“I surrender. I surrender. I can’t even hurt you, I’m a straw and I promise I’m not food, someone already made that mistake so whatever your nose is telling you it’s wrong!” Sippy yelled. A soft glow lit up the darkness, and three figures emerged from behind a curtain of seaweed. One flapped around dramatically, one spun in slow circles, and he last one made loud crinkling sounds every time he moved.
“State your purpose, stranger,” said the flappy one.
“Who... what... who are you?” Sippy asked, eyes wide.
The flappy figure floated forward. “I am Flo, the Bag of the Deep. Lady of the Drift.”
“She named herself that,” muttered the one spinning, “She’s just a grocery bag.”
Flo glared. “And you are?”
“I’m Twist,” the spinner said. “Bottle cap. Former soda top. Part-time DJ down here.”
“Oh, please, you just play the drums for me and Fizz on overturned shells when we’re bored,” Flo remarked.
Twist replied, “Excuse you, we had a jellyfish audience last week.”
Flo smirked, “They floated away halfway through and don’t even get me started on - ”
“Sorry about them. I’m Fizz,” said the last one with a loud crinkle, interrupting Flo. “Snack wrapper. Salted peanut butter bar, so I hope you’re not allergic to nuts because we’ve had those cases down here before, and trust me, it hasn’t ended well.”
Sippy blinked. “So, you’re... the Junkyard Council?”
“We don’t call ourselves that,” said Twist.
“We kinda do,” muttered Fizz.
Flo puffed up dramatically. “We are the unwanted, the tossed, the forgotten. The single-use squad!”
“We’re the trash that never made it to the bin,” Fizz added.
“We float. We sink. We swirl around in circles. Forever,” Twist said, spinning slowly.
“I’m Sippy. I was tossed onto the beach after one sip. Just one! And now I’m here. But…I want to do something. I want to go back to land and help you guys do that, too.”
Flo rolled dramatically through the water. “No one returns; we’ve tried many times and failed all of those times.”
“But what if a human noticed us?” Sippy said, still not giving up hope. “What if we came together, all of us, and floated to the surface? Some human would have to take us back to shore! I’m not ready to give up. Not yet.”
“Hmm. It is dramatic… and I love drama!” Flo remarked.
“Wait... hold on. What if they toss us again? What if I end up back in the sea without my shiny corner? I like my shiny corner,” Fizz said.
Sippy wobbled in, though, “That’s possible. But what if they do see us? What if one person sees us and decides to change? And then another? And another? We must try.”
Twist sighed. “Okay. So let’s say we do it. How do we round up the others?”
Sippy perked up. “I have a plan. Tonight, we swim as much as we can to tell all the discarded plastics that we can find that we’re going to gather at this point tomorrow. Then tomorrow we rise.”
Fix held up a wrinkly edge. “This plan has a 90% chance of failing.”
Flo lifted her corners like a cape. “But it has a 100% chance of being fabulous! Cmon, who doesn’t love a parade?”
Twist grinned, “I’m in!”
“I’m in, too. But, if I get tangled with dental floss again, I’m out.” Fizz said.
Sippy smiled so wide that his bendy neck cracked. “Thank you! You won’t regret this. I promise! It’s going to get us home.”
Flo spun dramatically. “Then we shall prepare. Assemble the floaty ones! Call the containers! Summon the spoons!”
Sippy turned to go and find more plastics and spread the word of their parade. He felt something in him swell - a rush of courage, hope and maybe just a tiny bit of coconut water still left in his stomach.
Plastics from all corners of the sea had gathered. There were cutlery and flip-flops, crinkly candy wrappers and bendy straws, zip locks and even a toothbrush - each floating beside each other. Sippy was at the centre of the action. He bobbed up and down, anxious yet ready. Twist, the bottle cap was spinning like a disco ball. Fizz, the food wrapper, had folded herself into a flag. Flo, the plastic bag, flapped in the water like a queen on a parade float.
“Let’s hope we’re noticeable,” Sippy said nervously, “Ready, everyone?”
The plastics all cheered! Even a rubber duck squawked enthusiastically. Then, from the reef, came the coral twins. Ripple waved excitedly. “We told the dolphins! We told the squid! We even told the gossiping pufferfish. They’re floating by to watch!”
Reef gave Sippy a proud little wink. “You look amazing!”
And finally, Tula the turtle appeared, her flippers pushing gracefully through the water. “Wow! That’s… a lot of junk. Well, Sippy, it’s now or never.”
Sippy looked up at the surface. The sun glimmered high above like a spotlight. “Okay! Let’s float.”
With that, the entire plastic parade began to rise. Fizz’s corners flapped proudly in the current. Flo floated with dramatic swirls. Spoons, bottles, wrappers, and caps formed one bright, bouncing blob beneath the waves. Up, up, up they went.
Above the water, a boy in a canoe shaded his eyes. “Hey, what’s that?” The canoe paddled closer. He gasped. “Whoa! It’s like… a giant plastic monster!”
A bigger boat pulled alongside. A woman in a sun hat leaned over. “That’s a ton of trash! Somebody get a net!”
Back underwater, the plastics held position. “Stay together! No drifting, please.”
Then came the swoosh of the big net. Sippy felt himself rising fast, caught among wrappers and bags and bottle caps. It tickled a little.
“WE’RE GETTING PICKED UP! We’re saved!”
Flo didn't look too happy. “Don’t get too excited. I still refuse to be recycled into something ugly. Like a parking cone.”
They were hauled onto the boat and dumped gently into a bright blue bin. The label read: SORTABLE PLASTICS.
Sippy blinked. “Is… is this real? We did it!”
Tula waved a flipper. “Now go get recycled, hero!”
The coral twins gave a synchronised spin. “And don’t forget us when you’re famous!”
Sippy turned to his new friends in the bin. Flo flopped beside him with a smile. “Well, Straw boy, looks like we finally got our second chance. Do you think we’ll be turned into something cool? I heard they make benches out of plastic like us now. Maybe we’ll all be part of the same one!”
Sippy smiled, his heart, or whatever straws have, feeling light and fizzy. And as the boat floated toward shore, Sippy looked up at the sky, down at the water, and thought:
Not bad for a one-sip wonder.
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