Another plastic bag.
How Agna mustered up the energy to be mad anymore, when she saw this sort of thing every day, she didn’t know. And it wasn’t just the plastic bags either. She had found countless water bottles, toys, food wrappers, and other objects before. It was all that she could do to try to keep the pollution of the ocean down.
Grabbing the bag, she balled it up and put it in a plastic bag that she had hanging off her arm. Making sure to hold the open end of the bag close so that the trash wouldn’t fall out, she dove under the calm water to grab a floating piece of plastic. A nearby school of brightly colored fish flickered around her, as if they had somewhere to go.
Her red, sea-glass like tail moving slowly back and forth, she glanced around in the search for unwanted objects in her home. However, in this area at least, it was untarnished by the humans. The coral did not have bits of fishing net hanging off of the side, or there weren’t any sandwich bags that could trap a curious fish. No animals were swimming by with trash hanging off, or tied onto parts of their bodies.
As she did a quick double check as she swam over the coral reef to head to the shore, a leatherback turtle starting swimming beside her. Agna couldn’t help but stroke the tops of the head, and watch the turtle smile a little. It was moments like this that renewed her determination to swim out of her sea cave every day to spend a few hours of her time to collect trash that the humans left in the ocean.
The sun had set by the time that she reached the shoreline. Before walking out of the water, Agna took a few moments to make sure no humans were still on the beach. The turtle had turned back around a while ago, apparently deciding that a trip to the beach wasn’t a fun idea. Agna figured the lack of food as they got farther away was a big part of that decision.
She got as close as possible to the start of human land - due to her tail, it was a bit hard- and lay down as she let her body change into a human form. Other people of her kind hardly ever, ever, changed into their human form, due to their hatred of humans, but she found it necessary. She couldn’t just gather trash in a bag, tie it up, and let it float in the ocean. It would defeat the whole purpose.
The chilly night air caused goosebumps on her bare skin as she dashed towards the trash can that was placed towards the back of the beach. She did her best to avoid stepping on shells and small crabs that were coming out of their homes. Humming a little tune to herself to keep her anxiety down (Agna was always nervous to be on human land), she finally got to the trash can and was about to put it in when a voice called out to her.
“Why are you naked?”
It was a small child, a male. His hair was long enough to touch his ear and reach the front of his eyes, and his left thumb was resting at the corner of his mouth. His bright blue orbs were wide with curiosity and fascination as he looked up at her. She didn’t have much experience around humans, so she could only make a uncertain guess that he was around 3 years old. Agna only knew what she did about the humans from those times when she had been brave enough to walk out on the beach in broad daylight, wearing clothing that she had found in the ocean. It was amazing how much you could learn about the odd species in a short amount of time.
Tossing the garbage into the can, Agna stood tall and her eyebrows creased together in confusion, how to respond to his question? Should she just walk away, and ignore the child? He was only a toddler of course. Who would pay attention to a child talking about a naked creature anyways? Especially since the humans haven’t found evidence of their existence.
However, even she knew that a child so young shouldn’t be alone out here.
“Why are you alone?” she decided to ask, instead of answering his question. His eyebrows creased together, too, like hers, in response to her question.
“I live down there,” he responded after a few moments, pointing at a small house that was down the beach. The house had been far enough away to not concern her, but now it was starting to as it grew gradually louder, perhaps there was a gathering of sorts going on? “It is too loud. Grown-ups get really loud when they are all together.”
She couldn’t help but smile a little at his response. The kid was adorable with his cute, shy air and the hair that kept falling into his eyes.
“You didn’t answer my question. Adults do that a lot... I think it is because they don’t like my questions.” He paused to shuffle his feet, causing even more sand to cover them. “Why don’t you wanna answer my question?”
Agna released a soft peal of laughter at his remark and knelt down to be at his eye level. “Because, I don’t have clothes.”
“Are you poor?”
“No.”
“But.. why don’t you have clothes?” She could tell as he was getting frustrated. In his world, things were too simple for him to understand why she didn’t have clothes unless she told him that she was a mermaid.
Instead of answering, she just stood up and started picking up the trash that was surrounding them. The boy, apparently easily distracted, removed his thumb from his mouth and started helping her. With both of them working together, the picking up went by faster than normal. When the immediate area around them was done, Agna realized she had forgotten about her anxiety.
“Thank you,” she told him kindly, a bright smile now taking place on her lips, instead of the hesitant one from before. Never before had she enjoyed a human’s presence. “Now I need to go back to my home.”
“Where do you live?” The child was bouncing up and down a bit and was holding onto her hand. “Can I see it?”
“You are seeing it,” Agna replied, a mischief twinkling in her cloudy red eyes. “Here, stay right here, and watch this. And,” She paused and looked around dramatically for imaginary spies. “Don’t tell anyone. It will be our little secret, right?” Her voice had lowered with each word so the child had to lean in to hear what she was saying. His bouncing increased as he nodded in response.
“Good.” And with that, Agna stood up again and ran to the ocean. She ignored his confused shouts, and when she got far enough into the ocean, turned around to face him. Raising a finger to her lips, the mermaid let her body turn itself back to its natural form, as she watched the amazement in his eyes light up the night.