Secret of the Swamp: Something has gone wrong

continued from last week

Rose had been so lost in her thoughts, she had not heard her mother begin to speak. But she had a good idea what was about to happen.

No crabs for the market, meant no money for the things the Koom family needed to buy. In her sister’s case, as in hers, it meant no money for books and no uniforms for school.

And that was that, thought Rose.

Perhaps it would be just for this school term. She could wear her old uniform, but her sister was going to a new school, a secondary school. She needed a whole lot of things as well as a new uniform, like new books and money for travelling to and from school, and new shoes!

Zena must start school in September! The same thought was in all their minds.

“I can collect honey. Honey from mangrove bees fetches the best prices” said Vishnu, her older brother, and Rose’s attention drifted to her small hoard of coins in the clay jar she used as a piggy bank.

“We can grow more pumpkins and ochroes to sell in the market, and we can sell on Sundays as well,” said her mother.

Yes! there would be a way for Zena, Wasn’t there still another two months until September?

Her father began to smile.

As Rose planted tiny ochro seedlings in the rich dark soil, she was thinking hard. This was just the beginning. Things would get a lot harder before they got better, if they ever got better.

It was all right to say they would start collecting oysters as well as crabs. But whatever was causing the the crabs to become scarce, would cause the oysters to become scarce as well. Oysters lived attached to the aerial roots of the mangroves. Just like the crabs, oysters also depended on the water in the wetlands for food.

Maybe something was wrong with the river water. If the water is contaminated, then pretty soon all the trees and birds will be affected as well. Maybe they already are, Rose thought, horrified. Rose knew that the scarlet ibis ate a special kind of crab found in the wetland. Eating these crabs caused the ibis feathers to become a bright scarlet as they grew from young black birds into glorious red, adult birds.

What a disaster if something was wrong with the water!

But what else could it be?

As she got into her narrow little bed that night, her last thought was that something was wrong with the river water.

“Pa” said Rose to her father next morning,” I think the crabs and fish are disappearing because something is wrong with the river water!”

“You are a smart girl, my little Rose,” said her father.

“Yes. Upriver, farmers use fertilisers and insecticides on their crops and the rain washes some of those chemicals into the river” said her father.

“Once upon a time, the crabs were larger and more plentiful. The crabs even came up to the steps of the house.We didn’t have to work so hard. Your brothers had time to play cricket and on Sundays there was always time to do something special,” he said with a sad shake of head. “ I think, though, this time, something worse is happening.”

The next day, the whole family piled into the pirogue, with Mr Koom at the oars. They were going deeper into the swamp, for crabs and oysters. In spite of the worry, they were all looking forward to the outing. Vishnu steered the pirogue off the main river into a narrow channel, dense with mangrove roots. The sides of the pirogue grated against the roots and sometimes they had to bend low to avoid the roots that hung overhead. They tied up to a strong root. Her brothers jumped out and disappeared into the forest. Soon her father too had gone.

Rose, her mother and sister would stay close to the boat and find what they could.

When evening came, and the boys and her father had returned to the boat, they counted their catch. One bag of blue crabs and half a bag of red, hairy crabs.

Rose, Zena and their mother had caught a little bucket of river fish and three strings of cascadura. Not what they had hoped for, but the money from their small catch would make a difference.

Zena looked a little sad but Rose smiled at her.

“I’m going to have a talk with Sammy the Wildlife Warden,” said Mr Koom.

“We need to know how to make this situation better. There are many families who make their living from gathering crabs and the money we make is important to sales of the grocery shops and to clothes and booksellers. Perhaps we should call a big village meeting with the Warden”, he said, as he looked at his family.

“I have a plan,” said Rose to Zena, next morning, while the rest of the family was at the market.

Continued next week…

The Secret of the Swamp was written by Morton Books publisher Julie Morton, and illustrated by artist Tyler Villaruel @Tyss.artt on IG and @tyss.art on TikTok.