Slowly Burning to Death

Walking with his dog, a young boy urged his canine to finish his business quickly to avoid the downpour that was about to drench the town. It was the middle of autumn and the seasonal rains were just starting to bombard the town with system after system of storms. Entering back into their small bungalow both boy and dog shook off the water clinging to their clothes and fur.

“Here Jack, use a towel, and give Brownie a wipe down as well.”

Graciously accepting the cloth, they dried themselves as best as possible before entering the kitchen to see what mother was cooking for dinner.

“You know dear, the grocery store only had imported apples and were nearly double the price! It’s strange that the local orchards aren’t producing any apples this year.”

Grabbing one of the expensive apples his mother was talking about, Jack shined it on his sleeve before taking a large bite out of it. Making a face, he lamented at how sour the fruit was, completely different from the sweet Ontario apples they were used to having.

Looking at her son, mother laughed and explained why they were sour; “The orchards far away harvest the apples before they are ripe to make sure they don’t become overripe by the time they reached the stores.”

Dad suddenly had an idea, “Hey Jack, how about going fishing with me for the weekend?”

“Can we dad? That’s awesome! Can we bring Brownie as well?”

Patting the dog’s head and watching his tail wag ferociously, dad approved of the idea and moved on to rubbing his belly, “He’s a good swimmer so it should be fine.”

“Mom, are you coming as well?”

Before she could answer, dad chuckled as he explained why a fishing trip wouldn’t be suitable for his mother. “Mom is like a gentle fragile flower, not meant to rough it out in the wilderness.”

Holding her hands on her hips and pursing her lips; mom refuted the notion that she was too genteel to go fishing. “Excuse me, I will let you know I’ve been on several hunting and fishing trips in my youth and can manage quite well on my own thank you.”

“So you’ll be coming mom?” Jack’s eyes widened with excitement, eager to spend the weekend together as a family.

“Yes, but on one condition. No one cooks except me.”

“Sure honey, but why?

“The kitchen is my domain, I don’t want either of you getting in my way.” Taking out a large bag, mom began packing pots and pots for the excursion, while Jack and dad set about selecting fishing rods to bring. Showing his son how to tie a knot on the lines, he cautioned him about the sharp barbs and warned him to always move calmly to avoid getting hooked.

“You see, there’s a reverse barb used to anchor tightly onto the fish when it bites, but it’s always really dangerous if you hook yourself, as it becomes really hard to remove the hook once it’s attached to your hand.”

Unable to contain his excitement, Jack lay on his bed thinking of all the awesome things they could do at the cabin, like lighting campfires, cooking fish and maybe even go swimming. Slowly but steadily, he began to doze off, having pleasant dreams of their family’s mini-vacation.

“A hundred bottles of beer on the wall, a hundred bottles of beer! You take one down, pass it around, ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall.”

As father and son sang lustfully as loud as they could, mother endured the torturous song till about halfway before she plugged her ears and tried to drown out the noise.

“Fourty-five bottles of be— dad, what are those things on the side of the road? See? Those black bundles?”

Slowing down the car, mom woke up wondering what they were talking about. Dad shook his head in sorrow as he realized what they were. “Those are dead animals, crows and ravens I think, along with some songbirds.”

“But why would they die off like that dear?” Mom also was shocked and confused as to what had caused so much death.

“I have no idea…come on, we’ve best keep moving.”

No longer feeling like jesting with song, they endured the rest of the trip in silence, paying their respects to the dead creatures, whose bodies littered the road in their hundreds.

“Here we are, see that beautiful lake? Nothing like spending a couple days in a cabin fishing!”

While dad helped mom carry everything to the building, Jack went to explore the edge of the water with Brownie, where he found a gruesome sight.

Wrinkling her nose, mom asked dad what that smell in the air was, and after mentioning it, dad also smelled it too. A cross between rotting flesh and stinky water, they suddenly heard their son calling out for them.

“Dad, mom! Come quick! Look the fish.”

Walking quickly to the pier, they were both astonished by the sight. Hundreds, if not thousands of trout, walleye, carp and other fish were floating on the surface, creating a stench that was overpowering and nausea causing, making them feel like vomiting.

Dejected at having their vacation spoiled by some supernatural die-off, they started packing away everything and decided to go home as there was nothing enjoyable about staying in the cabin anymore. As they drove along the rural road, Jack also pointed out something in the trees. “Mom, some of the trees have turned orange. Can you see them?”

Looking out the window, mom started spotting the dead trees as well, and one or two would pass by every few seconds.

“Dad, why is everything dying? I’m scared dad.” Hugging his dog, Jack wanted to protect Brownie from whatever was killing all the animals.

“Honey, I’m sure it’s just some rare natural phenomenon. Like a flood or earthquake. Nature endures many hard times, but it always rebounds and regrows back to normal. Don’t worry, the woods will be full of birds and fish again given enough time.” Although dad sounded convincing in his knowledge, inside, he was just as worried as his son, but he had to keep it together for his family’s sake.

Arriving back home, the disappointed family began unpacking and got ready for another work week starting the day after tomorrow.

As mom drove Jack to school, she dropped him off at the steps and kissed him before watching him scurry off among the kids.

By chance, she glanced at the stone statue of a lion, but its face was all but gone, as if someone had sanded off its face. Wondering who would vandalize a school, mom shook her head in disbelief and headed off to work in one of the city’s only office buildings.

“Top of the morning to you Diane, how is Jack?”

“Oh he’s fine, he’s just a bit upset cause we had to cancel our fishing trip on the weekend. Some weird catastrophe was killing all the animals in the area.”

Lowering her voice down to a murmur, Diane’s co-worker gave her insight to what was happening. “Some say that our city is cursed, that we have disrupted nature too much and now have to suffer the consequences. I mean my vegetable garden all but died last month, what could have caused that? It’s a curse I tell you.”

Shivering at the thought of some curse condemning their city and its inhabitants to a grisly fate, Diane went back to work, but with the lingering notion floating in the back of her mind.

As dad picked up Jack from school, he called mom on the Bluetooth to see how she fared at work. “Yeah, I just picked up Jack, we should be home in a few minutes. Did you want me to defrost any meat?”

“Um, sure, take out a beef tenderloin for me to roast when I get home.”

Pulling into the driveway, dad and Jake put away their work and school materials and dad asked his son if he wanted to help with the garden. Reminding his father to take out the tenderloin, dad nodded his thanks and took the chunk of meat and immersed it in a bowl of hot water.

Digging outside to uproot the weeds, something struck dad as odd when he kept digging in the soil.

“Dad? What’s wrong?”

“Oh nothing, it’s just usually when I dig, the soil’s full of insects and bugs. But so far I haven’t even seen a single earthworm.”

“Did they all die off too? Like the birds and fish?”

“Bud, you might be right…” Rolling over a large stone, he poked at several dead pill bugs and a slug that had seen better days.

“Something is killing them off, very strange, very strange indeed. Okay help me pull out those weeds and we’ll put them in the composter.

Standing up after stooping for half an hour pulling weeds, dad craned his neck but couldn’t hear the usual chirping and songs from the birds that nested near their home. It was as if silence had engulfed the entire city, muting all the natural sounds of animals in the area.

Gently touching a cedar tree that had been growing in the corner of their backyard, he examined the tips of the branches, where the newly growing shoots were turning orange and brown.

When mom arrived home, she found the boys snacking on a bag of chips and she shook her head at the near empty bag in the centre of the table. “I just bought that bag yesterday! Don’t tell me you both ate it all already? My goodness!”

Without saying anything, dad pointed at their son, laying the blame on Jack comically.

“Well, you’ll never guess what someone told me today. She said our city is cursed and that’s why everything around us is dying; the animals, fish and even plants.”

Rubbing his chin, dad pondered for a moment on what was said, “Cursed you say? It may be…me and Jack were working on the garden and all the bugs were either dead or gone. In all my years I’ve never seen that happen.”

“Some of the staff at work were saying that this wasn’t an isolated incident. They say several cities nearby are also experiencing die-offs like we are. The question is why? It couldn’t be a curse, could it?”

Turning on the television as mom cooked the tenderloin, another shocking announcement was made in a message from the city.

All residents are advised to filter and boil their water before drinking it, or purchase bottled drinking water from the stores as we are currently dealing with a contaminated water supply issue.

Hearing the broadcast, mom lamented even more as now they had to deal with the task of finding clean water to drink. “First our animals and plants die, and now we don’t have clean water, what on earth is going on?”

“I’ll head on to the store to see if there’s any bottled water left.”

Nodding her head in agreement, mom went back to marinading the beef, and started chopping vegetables for the second dish. Dicing carrots, celery and zucchini, she sautéed them in a pan with garlic and oil. Putting the tenderloin into the oven to bake, she began setting out the dinner cutlery. Opening the oven several times to apply the marinade, Jack couldn’t help but smell the wonderful notes of deliciousness wafting through the kitchen.

Several minutes later, dad got back from the corner store lugging two cases of bottled water into the house. Huffing deeply, Jack wondered if dad was tired.

“Ha ha, your dad isn’t as fit as he used to be you know. A little exercise lifting those cases should be good for you honey.”

Looking at mother unamused at her criticism, dad put the water underneath the food in the pantry before sitting down with Jack at the table, waiting for dinner.

“You should have seen the line-up at the store, people were lined up at the checkout with as much water as they could carry. Definitely not nice to go shopping with all these panic impulse buyers.”

Mom then had a question, “Dear, if the line up was that long, how come you only took fifteen minutes to get the water?”

“Oh, funny story, I simply offered a hundred bucks to a customer that just finished at the checkout, and he was happy to sell his water for the money, ha ha.”

Counting the number of bottles procured, mom estimated that it would only last them a week or so, keeping in mind Brownie would need water as well. Going over to check the roast, she gave the thumbs up and took out the meat, which by now was nicely browned, with some of the marinade sticking on the meat. As dad cut into the tenderloin, it was a nice and pink medium-rare, with juices showing it was still nice and moist inside. Giving Jack a slice first, dad then proceeded to serve his wife and himself, and pretty soon, all three were busy enjoying the delicious meal till there was nothing left except some leftover veggies.

Helping clear off the table and wash the dishes, dad gave a bottle of water for Jack to brush his teeth with and to wash his face in. Taking two bottles of water and packing them in his bag, he got ready for work the next day at the construction site just outside of town.

Meanwhile, mother worked on packing sandwich lunches for everyone, and she stored them in the fridge to be taken tomorrow.

With mom driving Jack to school, dad headed straight for the site and once there, he immediately listened in to the opinions of the other construction workers about the water issue.

“What do you guys think about this whole water curse thing? I think it’s a bunch of hogwash honestly. There’s bound to be a logical reason for it.”

“Yeah, well there’s nothing logical about my guard dog getting sick. I’m stuck with a two-hundred-dollar vet bill just to save him.”

“Not to mention most of the forests around here seem to be dying off. Even the evergreen forests are turning orange.”

“Well then, if it is a curse, how do you suppose we fix it?”

Lowering his tone, the worker put forward what he had learned, “Some say that if you help the environment in some way, like picking up trash, you’ll reverse the curse. This curse may have come because of the polluting of our environment.”

As the work-shift started, all the workers split off and went to their assigned duties, leaving dad to digest the new information he had learned.

Arriving back home, dad entered the house to find Jack lying on the couch with mom tending to his needs. “What’s wrong dear? Jack, are you alright?”

“He’s been feeling nauseous with abdominal pain and diarrhea for the past few hours, and we’re not sure why. Should we go to the doctors?”

Seeing his son scrunched up in pain, it left dad with no choice. “We’ll drive him to the hospital, waiting for a doctor’s appointment may be too late. Here we go bud, up we go.” Carrying Jack on his shoulder, dad let mom open the door before they all got in the car and sped off to the local hospital.

Upon arrival at the ER, things were a chaotic mess, with a long line just to enter the hospital. To-be patients were sitting in a full room, and everyone seemed to be having the same symptoms and condition.

Doctors and nurses rushed about, trying to help as many sick patients as they could but they were clearly overwhelmed by the surge of sick people.

Looking around the room, dad noticed that most of the sick were young kids, brought in by their parents.

Jack tugged at dad’s collar and weakly stated he needed to go to the washroom again. Putting him down, Jack painfully walked into the restroom and mom couldn’t help but look concerningly at dad, wondering if their dear son would be alright.”

Watching the television broadcasting the news, dad realized the sudden influx of hospitalizations was impacting the entire southern Ontario, which surprised him when he considered the scale of this situation.

Hundreds if not thousands of people have been admitted into hospitals across the southern part of the province, and health officials are still working to identify the reason for the increase in sick people, particularly sick children. Some sources point to heavy metals in the environment, but they have no idea how those heavy metals got into the people in the first place.

Taking a brief walk outside for some fresh air, Jack stuck out his tongue and tasted the rain that was coming down for a while now. “Bluahh! Mom, the rain tastes like vinegar.” Bringing Jack back inside, mom looked out at the ominous clouds promising to bring more precipitation and wondered, if it was the rain that caused all this trouble.

Several hundred kilometres away, an industrial area was spewing out sulfuric plumes of brown and grey smoke, without the mitigative equipment to filter out the air before releasing it to the skies. As the exhaust become more concentrated in the clouds, they are blown northward to southern Ontario, releasing their otherwise life-giving rain, had it not been tainted with pollutants. As drop upon drop fell over the limestone statues at Jack’s school, the lion all but melted away as the acid rain dissolved the statue. Overtime, no one may even recognize it was a lion at all, turning into a lump of eroded rock.

As the acid rain fell onto the lakes, rivers and water basins, wildlife inadvertently drank the toxins, causing mass die-offs of birds, fish and other small animals. Even the trees can’t handle the acidity and end up dying in droves, becoming a fire hazard in the summer season. The sensitivity of nature can be thrown off balance by careless polluting, but the hope is still there, that when given the chance, nature can bounce back, regrowing and reclaiming the land that has been tainted by poison.

The End