The Secret of The Swamp: What is that white stuff?
It was beginning to look like a wild goose chase! There had to be something. None of them would give up.
A small fish floated by, belly up, its eyes staring. Around the fish a streak of whitish scum circled slowly on the surface of the river and around the boat, in its makeshift shelter. It took Rose a moment to realise what she was seeing. She poked at Freddy’s arm and pointed to the dead fish.
Zena was quicker. She grabbed an oar and together with Rose pulled the boat out of the shelter and raced out on to the river following the scummy crooked trail upriver.
As they rounded a bend in the river, Rose’s keen eyes saw it. On the left, stretching from the top of the bank was a streaky triangular shape, white like chalk. A thin wet trickle ran down the middle into the river. The children stared. It did not look dangerous, but they knew they had found something. Freddy tied the boat to a root that stuck out from the bank of the river.
“Let’s go,” he said and as quick as a monkey he shinned up the bank
“Be careful” said Zena.
“Can you see anyone?”
Freddy looked around and back down at his sisters in the boat.
“Nope," he said and reached out a hand to help first, Zena, then Rose, out of the boat. They were glad to stretch their legs.
But what and where was the white stuff? They could see no sign of it. They looked around cautiously.
There were breadfruit trees, orange trees and other fruit trees growing closely with vines growing up and around the branches. The grass was tall.
"It looks like an abandoned orchard,” said Freddy.
Through the tangled bushes they could see a small shack.
Rose lay on her tummy and looked at the white pattern on the bank. Now she could see a small hole in the bank with white water trickling through.
“Don’t get too close to it Rose. Rose! Don’t even breathe. I’m sure its poisonous,” said Zena.
Rose stood up.
“It’s running underground, probably coming from near the shack,” she said.
The children walked carefully towards the shack, ready to make a run for it, should someone appear.
No one appeared, even when Freddy called, "Anybody home?”
A few birds twittered in the trees.
They went closer to the shack. The door was broken down, the roof caved in. Rusted galvanise sheets were on the ground.
“I’m not going in there,” said Rose
“Not me,” said Zena.
“Do you hear something dripping?” asked Freddy.
The girls listened, their heads tilted sideways, like two songbirds.
Yes, faint, but they soon recognised it. Drip. Drip. Drip.
"Something is dripping on the galvanise sheet, maybe there is a tap," said Zena.
They circled the shack. Yes there was a tap, and yes it was dripping, with water falling in tiny drops on the rusted roofing and off to the side.
“There are some bags here, under the roofing,’ called Rose from the other side of the shack.
“Bags of what?” asked Freddy.
“I don’t know," said Rose.
“The bags are dirty. I think they were white once. But there’s nothing written on them.”
Zena and Freddy went around to look. Zena had a funny feeling in her tummy even before she looked.
“Stay away from them. Rose! Freddy! Don’t touch them!” she said sternly. She was suddenly afraid, although she couldn’t say why.
The water was dripping slowly off the rusted roofing onto the bags.
“There must be about ten bags here,” said Rose.
“Some of them are empty”
"That’s because the water has dissolved the stuff that was in them” said Freddy. “I wonder what was in them?”
“I wonder how long that tap has been dripping,” said Rose.
"Over here” said Zena, who was still looking around. She pointed to a drain leading away from the shack. Sure enough, there was a thin stream of white water inching its way towards the river.
Excited now, the children followed the drain, sure they had solved the mystery of the pollution in the swamp.
“Here is where the drain ends,” said Freddy, “and the water goes underground from here," he said, pointing to a hole in the ground.
“Turn off the tap,” said Zena to Freddy, “ and let’s get out of here. We have to tell Pa.”
The children looked at each other. Tell Pa. Oh my!
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.
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"The Secret of The Swamp: What is that white stuff?"