The Pink Mask

STORY BY SLAVA NOOR – WWW.THEPINKMASK.NET

COULD THE MASK BE WRONG?

The day of the battle finally arrived. Ula was terribly frightened. At breakfast she dropped her marmalade toast, her hands were shaking so much that she couldn’t even take a sip of tea. “Are you feeling unwell?”, Ula’s mother asked very worried. Ula shook her head in silence. More than anything she wanted to tell her everything, but she knew her mother probably would not believe her. She would put her to bed and not let her out of the house, and Ula would let everyone down who believed in her.

Ula didn’t go to school but instead headed to the seashore.

She stood at the edge of the water as a tiny darkhaired girl in a pink bathing suit with a pink mask in hand. She had a belt with pockets around her waist. Inside there was a magic shell and a net – thin but very strong; a flashlight – small but bright; and a small first-aid kit.

TigRRR held the second shell. He rubbed against Ula’s leg and looked at the sea surface. A sharp fin cut through the waves. It was Brunhilde. Ula exhaled with relief, she was happy to know she would have company underwater. The sand at the girl’s feet moved and tiny crabs appeared carrying a seashell of unearthly beauty. “No, it’s not magic but the most beautiful one we could find. We hope it brings you luck”. Ula hid the seashell in a pocket on her belt. She then took a deep breath and entered the water.

She hadn’t swum further than a few metres when she heard a familiar voice. “Wohoo!!! The smartest, the bravest and the kindest girl on earth is going to fight the Trash Monster!”

“Rita, do not shout so loudly” pleaded Ula. “What if the Trash Monster hears you?”

“Let him hear and be afraid”, continued Rita. “Come, I know where his nasty castle is located. Once you defeat the Trash Monster, all will be well, just like in the good old days!”

The magic shell jiggled in Ula’s belt pocket. As soon as Ula pulled it out, she heard TigRRR’s voice, “There’s a giant wave coming towards the shore!” and at the same moment Brunhilde shouted “Look out, to the right!”

CAPTURING THE TRASH ARMY

Ula turned her head and was shocked by the view of the incalculable army of the Trash Monster was coming at her like a tsunami. Thousands of plastic and glass bottles, broken and whole; millions of Pepsi cans, myriads of plastic bags and medical masks were moving towards her. That’s what the huge wave was made of. The trash army was about to crush her and Rita! What should she do?

“The net! Hurry!” shouted TigRRR.

Had Ula been training so hard for seven days for nothing? She blew into the shell, sending a counterwave toward the trash army. She jumped in the current while taking the net out from her pocket. Brünnhilde glided past her exclaiming, “Make the spell I taught you!”

“Twist, twist, you can’t resist!” Ula shouted, and threw the net toward the trash army. The current picked up the net, spread it out, and all those cans, bottles, bags, wrappings, scraps, plastic bags and old medical masks fell right into the net.

“Twist, twist, you can’t resist!” Brünnhilde shouted, and the net snapped, turning into a giant sack, that could not be escaped. The sack was the size of a dozen Brunhildes or two blue whales. At once, the ocean became very clean. The little fish came out of nowhere and started dancing.

“We did it! Glory to the human girl!” someone shouted from above her.

Ula almost dropped the magic shell. It turned out to be Rita, who had come out of her hiding spot under the stones, and now frantically clapped with her flippers. That’s it, if after Rita’s first screams the trash army appeared, now for sure the Trash Monster himself would show up. But the sea bottom remained quiet. Only the fish were frightened, and Brünnhilde flinched, muttered something about children left unattended, flicked her tail, and disappeared into the depth of the blue water.

“Rita, please don’t scream like that. You scared all the fish away. Do you still want to show me the castle of the Trash Monster?”

“Of course, human girl! Let’s swim there.”

Ula was about to follow the turtle, but then slowed down. The giant bag of garbage was still in the water. The garbage army was trying to break free. No, they couldn’t leave it unattended. Ula spoke into the shell, “Land, land, I am sea. Over!”

“Sea, I am land,” came TigRRR’s voice. “What happened? Who shouted? Even the seagulls got scared by the noise.”

“Rita shouted in joy. We’ve managed to capture the trash army. And now we need guards to keep an eye on it.”

“Got it. I’ll send someone over.”

Suddenly, dozens of little crabs appeared from the coral reefs and the sea grass. They surrounded the net with the trash army, and Ula and Rita were on their way to the Trash Castle.

THE TRASH CASTLE

The swim did not take too long. Ula and Rita passed vibrant coral reefs and a sea grass field where dugong cubs were playing. Rita did not stop chatting the whole way – talking about how nice it was to live in the old days when the sea was clean, when there was a lot of fish and yummy jellyfish to eat. Suddenly she became very silent, as if she had been switched off. The Trash Monster’s castle appeared in front of them.

It was much smaller than they had expected. Ula thought that the castle of such a scary and powerful monster would stretch from the bottom of the sea, all the way up into the sky. But this one... It looked more like a pile of random trash. As the girl and the turtle swam closer, Ula saw that the walls of the castle were made from rusty cans. They clung to each other as if whoever had built the castle had decided to create the ugliest structure in the world. And the dirty white wall surrounding the castle was indeed thousands of plastic forks and spoons intertwined with each other. At the top of the castle there was a large grey and blue flag. When Ula looked closely, she noticed that the banner was made of dozens of medical masks. Some had completely lost their colour, and others were still very new.

There wasn’t a single sea creature near the castle. Not even seaweed grew here. The castle stood in complete darkness and isolation.

“Well... you’re on your own now...” Rita whispered.

Before Rita had a chance to swim away, a little window opened in the castle wall and two ugly snakes appeared in front of Ula. When they opened their mouthes full of scary sharp teeth, Ula remembered that she had seen them before. They were the guardian moray eels. So that’s whose castle they were guarding!

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Rita,” Rita muttered, turning even greener.

“I’m the Flesh Tearer!”

“And I am the Baby Eater!”

Even their harsh voices were scary, almost as spiky and sharp as their teeth.

“Is that what your parents named you? Rita asked with a trembling voice. “I knew a squid once, his name was Black Ink. By the way, do you know why the whale shark is called, Brunhilde? Oh, that’s a whole different story...”

The moray eels tried to get a word in, but Rita did not pause at all. She kept going on and on, sharing all her favourite stories before switching to her favourite topic: how good it was to live before the trash monster appeared, when the seaweed was bigger and greener, and the water more blue, and how the Gen Z took such little care of their environment.

While Rita was distracting the guards with her neverending chatter, Ula dived into the open hole in the wall to get into the castle. There were no windows or doors. Only a narrow, dark crevice. How was she supposed to enter the castle?

I WANT TO SEE THE TRASH MONSTER!

Ula decided to consult with TigRRR when she suddenly heard a strange noise coming from inside the castle, and then someone asked with a muffled voice, “Who dares to disturb my peace? What do you want?”

The girl clenched her fists as hard as she could and answered loudly, “I am Ula, and I want to see the Trash Monster!”

“Are you seeking death? No living thing in the world can stand the sight of me or survive the power of my deadly gaze! You will die, but first you will go mad with terror.”

Ula was already horrified by the voice of the Trash Monster. She wished she were thousands of miles away now, in that beautiful city by the green mountains with apple gardens where she lived before, where she felt at home. The pink mask was wrong, she should have chosen a superwoman with her super powers, not an ordinary little girl! She backed away from the crevice.

The magic shell on her belt vibrated. With trembling hands, Ula took it out and put it to her ear.

“Sea, sea, I am land, over!” said TigRRRR.

“I’m here, Ula whispered faintly.”

“Are you in the castle? Do you see the Monster?”

“I am afraid...”

“Ula, listen,” TigRRR’s voice became warmer. “Fear has big eyes, and I trained you to see things as they really are. Use that skill, and the mask will help you. I believe in you, and so does the mask.”

“I...all right, I will try.”

Ula quietly swam up to the hole in the castle and took a look through it. It turned out that the walls of the castle were not very tight, and there was light going through numerous holes. In this light, a huge black shadow was moving on the opposite wall. It was exactly like in her dream, except there wasn’t enough lightning.

But...wait...it was only a shadow. Where was the Trash Monster? Ula adjusted her mask and took a closer look. There was a lot of trash in there. Cans, diapers (ewww), plastic cups and plates, a broken scooter, a torn rubber ball, plastic bottles...wait!

There was something in the ball. That something was moving and twisting bags, the tentacles on the wall were moving too. Ula closed her eyes, counted to three, opened them and glanced at the ball.

There was a small orange crab inside of it. The little crab took a big tin can and whispered into it, “Are you still here? Get ready to die!” It was the voice of the Trash Monster!

What did it mean? Does it turn out that the scary Trash Monster who is terrorising the ocean and its inhabitants is just a little crab?!?

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MADINA KAZANTAYEVA