What Could Have Been by Journey Bowman

In 2022 there were over fifty-one trillion microscopic pieces of plastic in the ocean, weighing two-hundred sixty-nine thousand tons. By 2025 the number of plastics increased by nearly seventeen percent. The year is now 2041 and you can imagine how dire the situation has become. The entire planet has turned into a Chernobyl-like wasteland. The rivers are black and filled with plastic that layers the bottom and the smell is so pungent that it feels like your nose will erupt into flames, and your head begins to hurt after only a minute. Every area looks the same: broken buildings with dead, beige dirt in place of grass. No life resides on the remnants of planet earth, besides one area, known as The Dome. The Dome is a large glass half-sphere that houses roughly 3 thousand humans and enough animals to keep everyone fed, and today, Elijah has the responsibility of feeding the animals.

“Calm down girl. I promise I won't hurt you.” He says while patting a startled cow. “I just need to sneak past you to reach your food bucket.” motioning towards a red, wooden crate with a lock on it, Eli shimmies past the cow and reaches into his pocket for the key. “Dang it.” He lightly mutters under his breath. “Hey Grayson, can you toss me the key to the food box?” Eli says toward a 5’9 teenager wearing glasses, a graphic tee, and blue jeans.

“How’d you forget it again?” Grayson asks, jokingly.

“I got distracted by the cows. Now can you please toss them over?”

“Sure thing,” Grayson throws the keys over to Eli who is a 5’5 teen wearing overalls with a t-shirt on under them. Eli reaches down to enter the key into the lock and begins scooping food out for the cow

“Did you see those pictures that they were showing in class today? They looked fake.” Eli asks.

“Yeah. I think they are lying to us. Rainforests could never exist, and did you see that picture of the so-called grand canyon? No way that could exist.”

Eli nodded his head and began again, “I don't know. I think they existed at one point. And if they didn't, I don't know why the teachers would lie.” He said, looking distantly at the floor. “I just wish I could have explored them, or at least seen them,”

“Well, it seems that we never will. Now hurry up so we can get home. I'm tired.” Grayson said, impatient.

Eli started finishing up with the cows. Feeding them, giving them water, brushing their fur, and then began the walk home. Grayson said his goodbyes to Eli and they began to walk in opposite directions of each other until they got home. Grayson got home and ate the food his mom had prepared for him. Eli got home and immediately fell asleep because of the long day.

Suddenly, Eli heard the sloshing of waves and the wind racing between the trees. He opened his eyes and saw a gorgeous blue ocean with a deep blue sky above it. He saw a bright beaming light in the distance, a yellow sun, and a few seagulls flew above him, all making a beautiful symphony of chirps. He watched as the seagulls flew into a luscious green forest with humongous trees and vines hanging off of branches like noodles in the grasp of chopsticks. He walked into the forest and heard chirps and squeaks from a variety of different animals. All contributing to the life of this habitat. He saw a coconut on the ground that had a crack in it from falling so high. Eli took a sip of the coconut and immediately felt refreshed as the cold liquid slipped down his throat. A lion suddenly appeared and sat next to him. Its fur as soft as a brand new carpet. The lion suddenly began to walk in the opposite direction.

Eli turned around and instead of seeing the lion, he saw a gaping hole that contained a magnificent mix of beiges and browns and reds. The hole seemingly went for an infinite amount of time before reaching the bottom, which housed a river. Eli walked around the top for a while, relishing in the beauty of all of the formation of stone. One of them even looked like a duck! It was getting late though, and Eli was getting sleepy. He began to travel to the bottom of the canyon, using the natural pathways that have been carved by nature. Eli found a comfortable spot to stay, laid down, and began to rest his eyes.

He then was woken up by the familiar, ear-piercing sound of his alarm clock. Eli clicked it off and sat down on the edge of his bed, extremely disappointed, everything felt so real and he couldn't believe that it was just a dream.

The forest, the canyon, the lion. All gone! Eli fell back onto his bed and began to think… think of all the things he and his friends could have done. Think of all the things he could have done, could have experienced, could have lived out. He thought of all the things that he is missing out on.

He thought about what could have been.

Statistics for the facts used at the beginning: https://www.santacruzworks.org/news/plastic-pollution-statistics-facts