The Bottle of Hope
Written by Brittney Cooke

          Megan cheerfully flung open the door to her family’s cottage. She had not been there for years! When her parents had told her that they were going to visit, Megan and her younger brother Zack had practically been jumping off the walls with excitement! They could barely handle the 30 minute ride! As Megan walked into the main entrance, she recognized the place immediately, and all her summer memories flooded into her like a giant tidal wave. It was a pretty, cozy little shack with old style beach stencilled curtains and comfy green and blue couches. It had a snug kitchen off to the side and three other rooms by the left side of the house. It wasn’t much, but Megan and her family loved it.

          Megan dropped her bags onto the floor of her room and untied a hair elastic to let her beautiful, shiny blond hair that glistened when the sun crept upon it go. Her deep, sincere twinkling blue eyes gazed down at her green T-shirt and dark bluejeans. Farther down she wore crisp white and black Nike running shoes and white socks. Kind and fun, Megan had a lot of friends. They admired how she was so outgoing and nice, which showed in her room. There were pictures of her and her friends outlining her handmade body mirror. Rows and rows of colourful stuffed animals covered her also handmade twin bed. Her walls were decorated in posters of her favourite bands, all hanging overtop of her light blue coloured wall.

          As soon as Megan had unpacked her bags, she rushed to the back door of her house and opened it, closing her eyes. She was greeted by a waft of warm refreshing air. Before using her eyes, Megan used her other senses. When breathed in, she tasted the salty sea air, and when she listened carefully, she heard the sounds of waves crashing heavily on the beach, like a monster trying to reach out and grab for something. Megan took it all in, savouring every last bit; then-she opened her eyes. Megan gasped with horror. What she thought had been there was not.

          In front of Megan was a vast, unforgiving sea of pollution. There were cans and bottles that floated absently in the water, overturned rotting wooden barrels and sharp metal rings that held pop cans. There were cardboard boxes soaked in sea water, dead fish floating lifelessly above the water. As Megan drew closer, she inhaled putrid gas fumes, and saw oil spills and oil bottles. Megan was horrified of what had become of her once sparkling, clear blue ocean she knew so long ago.

          At dinner time, Megan told her family about the water. They already knew. Megan had not imagined anything so disturbing and horrible could happen to the ocean she loved and had loved since she was little. It was like a piece of her heart and soul had been torn savagely out of place.

          Soon after dinner, Megan went to bed. She could not sleep; every time she tried, that nagging scene of the ocean submerged in trash tore at her like a ravaging lion, leaving her heart in pieces. Then a horrid thought reached her mind-what if the ocean stayed like that forever? Megan shuddered. Finally, after numerous tearing thoughts, Megan fell asleep to the sound of the oceans dirty water lapping along the shore.

          The next morning, Megan got up and had breakfast-a bowl of soggy Cherrios-and went outside for a walk. As Megan strolled along the beach lonely beach, she came across a bottle. It was half stuck in the sand, and it was covered in seaweed. Megan picked it up, interested, and slid it into her pocket.

          When Megan got home she went into her room to study the bottle more closely. It was one of the bottles that people always send back and forth in movies and books. It looked rather old, as if it had been buried for years, still small crusts of dry sand stuck to the bottom. It seemed pretty normal, until Megan spotted a small set of wavy letters and words along the side of the bottle. Squinting, Megan could barely see what the bottle said, but from what she made out, the bottle read, SAVE THE OCEAN…..SAVE ME. Megan had no idea what it meant. She shrugged and put the bottle on her dresser as her mom called her for lunch.

          After lunch, Megan went outside to explore again. As she walked along the beach, Megan saw a figure in the distance. When she drew closer, more description came into view. It was a girl, around the same age as Megan-10 years old-with straight, brown as chestnuts long hair and tanned skin. She had deep, mezmorizing green eyes and dark green cargo shorts. She also wore a dark red T-shirt and light yellow sandals. Her face showed a worried expression, as if something was bothering her. When she spotted Megan, she smiled and said, “Hi’’. Megan repeated the greeting.

“Are you new around here?’’ asked the girl. Megan replied, “No, but I haven’t been here for years.” The girls started walking. Then a thought came to Megan-what if this girl knew about the bottle? And who was she anyway?

“What’s your name?” asked Megan.

“ Sandy , yours?”

“Megan.”

Now Megan asked, “Have you ever found anything er… interesting on the beach?” Sandy said, “No, you?”

“Well, I found a bottle, but…”

“A bottle?” asked Sandy , suddenly interested. “Could you bring it here in the morning?”

“Well sure, I guess...”

“Great! I have to go now, so bye!” And with that, the mysterious girl Sandy ran back to where she came from. Megan frowned, confused. Then she shrugged and headed home for dinner.

          The next morning, Megan headed outside with the bottle, as wanted. Waiting for her was Sandy . Megan greeted her then asked “So what are you going to do with it?”

“Just watch” was her reply. And with that, Sandy down to the garbage infested ocean and dragged the bottle across its surface, collecting dirty water as she went.  Megan watched, stunned, as Sandy lifted the bottle, now filled with murky water, and dug into her pocket. Sandy then pulled out a cork and stabbed it into the top of the bottle.

“There!” Sandy said proudly, beaming as she handed the bottle over to Megan. “Keep it in your room-it should be safe there. Bye now, I have to go.” And she cheerfully skipped off. Stunned yet again by this very peculiar girl, Megan pocketed the bottle and headed home.

          When Megan got back to her cottage, she snuck the bottle into her room-she did not want her family to know about anything-and placed the bottle on her dresser. Then she sat on her bed, thinking about all of the events that had occurred in the past two days. She stayed there until hunger came, and the urge to eat was overwhelming-so she went down to eat.

          As the days dragged on, Megan and Sandy met by the beach every day. Some days they sat and talked on the beach, others they walked up and down the beach, over and over. On the fourth day, Megan started to notice that the water was getting clearer, and once she could have sworn that she saw something swimming in there. Megan knew it was impossible, but the thought kept coming back to her like a boomerang-what if this bottle was magical, and it was clearing the water? On the sixth day, she found out.

          It was in her room, after dinner. Megan was starring absently at the water, daydreaming. Suddenly, the bottle’s water started swirling like an underwater tornado, clearing the water. Just as soon as the water had started, it stopped swirling, but in a different state-the water was completely clear, like the ocean used to be. Megan gasped as she saw mini dolphins and sharks. There was coral and reefs, red and blue and any other vibrant colour imaginable and flashing scales of colourful fish. It was as if the ocean had been shrunk down to size to fit into the bottle. It was a breathtaking sight. Megan was flooded with joy and surprise. She never could have imagined anything like this in her dizziest daydreams.

The days crawled on, each one filling Megan with more joy when she looked at the bottle. The only thing that brought her hopes down was when she thought about how the only true beauty of the ocean was in the bottle-the ocean outside was still disgusting. Megan wished terribly-even more than she wished for a dog-that the ocean outside was as the same as the ocean inside.

On the last day of Megan’s visit, Megan knew that she had to let the water from the bottle go. She shuddered at the thought, but she knew she had to do it. So after her last dinner at the cottage, Megan walked down the beach to where she found the enchanting bottle. As if she knew it was Megan’s last day, Sandy was at the spot. They nodded to each other, then, bending down, Megan carefully pulled off the cork of the bottle and tilted it down, letting the enchanting water slither smoothly and silently into the oceans horrid water. At first, nothing happened, then something magical happened, something Megan would not believe if she had not seen it. The water from the ocean spread, covering the ocean as far as they could see. All dirty water was replaced with wonderfully clear water. Dolphins leaped happily in the water, fish swam delightfully in circles. The ocean was free of pollution, and Sandy and Megan could have stood there forever watching the red and yellow sunset.

Just as Megan thought it was all over, the bottle vanished from her hand and dissolved into air, soon becoming wind. The wind flew over the ocean, lost forever.

When Megan and her family were all packed, Megan said goodbye to Sandy . They hugged, then Megan got in the car. She gave a silent farewell to her beloved ocean, happy of what a simple yet magical bottle could do to overcome pollution.