Oil Kills

• Clare Da Silva, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2010

I wake up, confused. Where the heck am I? What happened? I can’t remember.
There’s a terrible stinging all over me. It’s horrible. The pain. So much pain. It hurts real badly. And it is EVERYWHERE!
I try to sit. I feel all sluggish and sticky. What’s on me? I try to open my eyes, but when I do, they burn and it hurts! I try again. This time I know what to expect, but it still is very painful. My vision is blurry. Why? What’s happening?
I try something else. I listen. Nothing. Nothing at all.
Am I dead? Am I dying? Is this the after life?
No, it can’t be! I haven’t even had a chance to live! No, I’m too young. Merely a baby.
Life isn’t that unfair.
“Okay, what the FISH is going on!” I yell. Although it doesn’t sound like that. It sounds like I’m speaking whale. Maybe I have become a whale!
No, I still feel like me, just different.
I keep blinking, trying to see better. It is working gradually, but it will be a while before I can see normally again. I cough and splatter all over myself. A weird ‘thing’ comes out. It’s all black and gooey. It’s all over my body. I’m covered in it. Gross.
The smell is excruciatingly painful! It smells a thousand times worse then Daddy’s farts.
Daddy. Where is he? Is He okay?
I cry, like it’s my last chance to do so. Daddy, oh daddy, I’m so scared. Where are you?
I feel so tired, so weak. Maybe if I go to sleep daddy will find me. Yeah, daddy will know what to do.
I’m just a baby penguin, lost, all alone. All I want to do is go home.