Caroline sat on her sofa, idly scrolling through the TV channels. More doom and gloom, more war, more poverty. It was either that or programmes about gardening, DIY or reality. Seriously, how many more reality shows could there be. ‘Mandy on a desert island with the boy she’d crushed on 5 years’ ago, but he didn’t recognise her due to her 250k complete body transformation - new hair, lips, liposuction. She’d even changed the colour of her eyes.’ Honestly, thought Caroline, how could people be so easily fooled. More to the point, why on earth was she watching it!
She hit the red button and chucked the remote onto the coffee table. Getting up, she wandered into the kitchen. Time for supper. She opened the fridge and began sorting through the delights that awaited her. Minted lamb steaks, chicken with a piri piri sauce, some fresh tagliatelle. She opted for the lamb and retrieved the packet from the shelf, grabbing a pack of baby new potatoes and another of purple sprouting. That should make a tasty supper, she thought.
Caroline turned on Spotify and the kitchen was filled with sound, currently playing Raye’s ‘Where is My Husband’. She danced around the kitchen as she prepared her food, pouring herself a glass of red. Small glass, no, bugger it, a big glass of red! Taking a large glug, she wiped away little wine smears at the corners of her mouth. Her meal cooked, she dished up and put her plate and glass of wine, having topped it up first, onto a tray before wandering back into the sitting room. Sod it, she’d eat in front of the TV tonight. There must be something on!
The news was wittering away in the background, something about micro plastics. She turned up the volume and began to pay attention. It’s a story about some guy in Hertfordshire, known affectionately as ‘Keeper of the bottles’, who has shown that soil samples taken in the 40s and 50s had traces of nuclear fallout from WWII. However, something even more disturbing were the traces of micro plastics found. The reporter was saying that we consume approximately 52,000 micro plastics a year and it goes everywhere in our body, everywhere, even into our brain.
Enough of that thought Caroline and switched over to something more fluffy! Ah, Sex in the City. That will do.
Having finished her supper, she left the tray on the coffee table and wandered over to the sideboard. Opening a drawer she retrieved a small box, some filter papers and a lighter. She expertly rolled herself a joint and lit it. Drawing in deeply, she let the sense of calm and relaxation wash over her. She took another couple of hits and a large gulp of wine! Leaving the joint to go out in the ashtray, she collected her things and went out to the kitchen.
The washing up done, Caroline trudged upstairs to bed and sank into her warm, inviting bed. She allowed her hands to wander and dipped her fingers into the wet warmth of her vagina. Her fingers worked quickly and she felt the stirrings of an orgasm. Giving in to the delicious waves that pulsed over her body, she let out a cry. Keeping her fingers against her clit, she gently started rubbing again, but the dope in her system and the warmth of her body nudged her into a deep, delicious sleep.
Caroline was falling and falling, past the most fantastic colours. An explosion of light emanated from beneath her feet and though she was incredibly high up, she wasn’t scared. Instead, a sense of wonderment washed through her. A landscape that even she couldn’t have possibly imagined opened up before her. Trees with leaves of gold that scintillated in the warm sunshine flooding the scene, the most exotic animals in every colour of the rainbow walking upon the earth and clinging to the trees.
She had no idea where she was but it was just stunningly beautiful. It was like a cross between Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ and Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’. There was so much beauty that Caroline just couldn’t take it all in. The colours were so intense that they were almost blinding. She felt that she would go mad if she stayed here too long. But how to get out.
As she was falling and wondering what to do, her feet gently touched the ground. A sensation of weightlessness surprised her. She laughed out loud. The sound came out as a thousand tinkling crystals blowing in a soft breeze and momentarily took her by surprise. She took stock of her surroundings. None of the creatures seemed bothered by her presence and she took a tentative stop forward on the lush green grass. ‘Wow,’ she thought. Caroline ran her fingers through the perfect flowers and golden leaves. Absolutely nothing was out of place. It was perfection. ‘Heaven?’ she uttered out loud. Ha, maybe it was.
How there could be stars in the sky and the sun at the same time or the creatures that wandered here be so beautiful, but so unaffected by her presence. She wanted to stay. Forever. Her breath was caught in her throat with the beauty. As she walked, there was the odd prickle in her feet. ‘What was that?’ she wondered and stopped to look at the underside of her foot. A tiny little green bead. ‘Well, that was weird.’ She looked more closely where she was walking and realised everything was made of plastic. It was no longer so beautiful, the softness had disappeared, replaced by something much more dangerous - sharp, spiky colourful needles.
Awake. Why was she awake. It was still dark. She reached out to the bedside table, knocking over her glass of water. ‘Shit.’ Finding the light switch, her bedroom was bathed in soft light. Nothing seemed out of place but something had woken her. She got out of bed, picking up the glass and placing it back on the table, and went to the bathroom for a pee. Coming back she straightened her duvet. Something caught her attention and she inspected the bottom sheet closely. Tiny little coloured beads were scattered about. ‘What the fuck.’ She scraped them all together and looked at them in the palm of her hands. A little rainbow collection glinted up at her. Not sure what was happening or how they’d even got into her bed, she threw them in the bin. She’d think about it in the morning.
The radio alarm pulled her from her dreams. REM’s ‘It’s The End of the World As We Know It’ was playing, one of her favourite songs. She dipped a toe into the crisp morning air of her bedroom. Time to get up. Pulling on her dressing gown, she made her way downstairs and set about making tea in the kitchen. She remembered the little beads. That was really strange, she thought. Taking her tea back upstairs, she quickly undressed and dived into the shower. The heat from the shower head blasted her fully awake and she revelled in the sensation as she washed away last night’s strange dreams and paid special attention to her vagina.
Turning off the shower, she stretched out for her towel and wrapped it around her before stepping out onto the bathmat. She dried herself vigorously, rubbing away the dead skin. Walking naked into her bedroom, she picked out clothes for the day, easing herself into jeans and a turtle neck and returned to the bathroom to clean up the shower. She picked up the shower head and turned on the water to rinse around the tray, but spotted something colourful in the bottom. She turned off the water. Bending down closer, she realised there were more tiny little colourful beads. Scooping them up, she took them to the window and in the light could see they were tiny little beads of plastic. No bigger than a pinhead. All different colours.
She was now slightly freaked by this and wondered if her joint had had something more powerful than her usual mix in it. Maybe she was having some kind of hallucinogenic experience. No, that was just crazy.
Caroline went downstairs and turned on the radio. The news was on and they were saying that someone had died the day before from micro plastic poisoning. Apparently their body had been full of plastic and it had come out through their skin, they eyes, their nose. Everywhere. She hastily switched off the radio.
‘Don’t be so ridiculous, that can’t possibly happen to anyone,’ she said out loud, trying to convince herself and anyone else who might be near. Her skin crawled with the thought of it. What a horrible way to die.
She was pulled from her panic by her phone ringing. She picked it up. The word ‘Mother’ flashed up on her screen. ‘Great,’ she thought. Another third degree from her mum.
‘Hello mum, how are you?’
‘Oh darling, I’m fine but I’ve just found out that one of my great friends, Julia Simpson, has died. I honestly can’t believe it. She was only 72. So young and she was very fit you know.’
‘Oh, sorry to hear that. What did she die of?’ Caroline asked, trying to sound as interested as possible, while booting up her laptop.
‘Well, that’s the odd thing. No-one seems to know. I mean she was always active, didn’t smoke and really took care of herself and I saw her last week and she was fine and now she’s gone.’
Caroline could hear that her mother was totally surprised and shocked, but she was also rambling.
‘Do you want me to come over?’ she asked, praying that her mother would say no. A morning spent with mother would result in the usual lectures about how Caroline shouldn’t drink so much, when was she going to get a proper job and not one working at that ‘funny little charity shop’ and that she really need to find a man to look after her properly.
‘Oh, would you darling? I’d be very grateful for the company. It’s just such a shock.’
‘OK, give me 40 mins.’ Caroline cut the call off. ‘Damn.’
An hour later, Caroline pulled onto the drive outside her mother’s house. Neat as a pin, every rose deadheaded to within an inch of its life, not a single weed. As she got out of the car, her mother was already opening the front door.
‘Finally,’ she said, ‘you’re late.’
‘Sorry, mother. Traffic.’ Caroline bent down to give her mother a peck on the cheek and followed her inside the house, bracing herself for the usual barrage of questions and interrogation.
Having made coffee, Caroline and her mother sat down at the kitchen table. The Spring sunshine streamed in through the French doors and Caroline helped herself to sugar. ‘Really darling?’ her mother said. ‘Shouldn’t you be watching your weight?’ looking pointedly at her stomach. Caroline felt herself pulling her tummy in and sighed inwardly. ‘Here we go,’ she thought.
Caroline steered her mother away from any further disparaging little comments. ‘So, tell me what happened to Julia.’
‘Well, that’s the strange thing. None of us know. All her friends have been discussing it but haven’t discovered anything. The police are at Julia’s house and they’ve sealed her it off with that yellow tape. No-one allowed in at all. Arthur, who lives next door, said there’ve been comings and goings all night. He could barely sleep for those big arc lights shining on Julia’s house and of course lighting up everyone else around. Very annoying.’
‘I thought you said she died of natural causes. Why would the police be there?’
‘I didn’t say any such thing. I just said she’d died and it was odd because she was so fit. But goodness knows why they’ve taped it off. I mean, honestly, this is such a small town and nothing ever happens. I can’t even remember the last time I saw a policeman.’
Caroline looked at her mum and could see she was worried by it. She didn’t want to, but, ‘Mum, would you like me to stay the night?’
‘No, no. I’ll be fine. It’s just rather odd that’s all and I’m sure you’ve got things you need to get on with. I’ll give you a call later if I hear anything.’ With that, Caroline’s mother stood up, as if ready to shoo her out.
‘Well, if you’re sure, I’ll head off. Thanks for the coffee and honestly, don’t worry, I’m sure they’re just making sure that it was a natural death. Nothing to worry about,’ Caroline reassured her mother.
Caroline waved from the car as she backed out of the driveway and a momentary pang of worry lingered, as she wondered if her mother would be ok. But she disappeared from view, shutting the front door on the world and Caroline headed back home.
Realising it was lunch time, she stopped off on the way back and grabbed a quick snack at Gregg’s - hot sausage roll, which was actually hot. Result, managing to get one that had obviously just come out of the oven and hadn’t been languishing in the cabinet for an hour. The hot chocolate she ordered with it scalded her tongue with the first sip. Jesus, that would have to wait a bit.
Arriving home, Caroline busied herself cleaning. Spotify was playing in the background, a distraction from the chores she hated. She never understood why people were so obsessed with cleaning. Her mother was a neat freak and would whisk away your mug before you’d even finished your last sip of coffee! It drove Caroline insane, but there was no point saying anything.
Weird songs on Spotify today. All very doom and gloom she thought and idly wondered what daily playlist her speaker had selected for her. ‘The End’ by the Doors, ‘Bad Moon Rising’ Creedence Clearwater Revival, ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ Blue Oyster Cult Band. Great tunes she thought, but a little dark for a sunny day.
Yet another day filled with things she didn’t enjoy and she included visiting her Mother in that, Caroline decided it was definitely five ’o’clock somewhere in the world (in fact it was only three in the afternoon), she poured herself a large glass of white from the fridge and sat at her table. A large gulp hit her now empty stomach and she idly wondered about food for later. Her phone rang.
‘Hello.’
‘Darling, are you ok?’ her mother asked.
‘I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be?’ Caroline was a little pissed off now. Twice in one day.
‘I’ve just seen the news and there’s been another strange death, on the outskirts of your village. I was just worried that’s all.’
‘Mother, I’m fine. You really don’t need to ring me every five seconds,’ she snapped and instantly regretted it. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you. Are you OK? Any more news on your friend?’
‘No, nothing yet. I’ll let you know when I hear something. I just wanted to check that…’
‘Honestly,’ said Caroline, cutting her Mother off, ‘everything is ok. I’ve got things I need to do. I’ll call you tomorrow. Bye Mother.’
Caroline took another large swig of wine and sat for a moment. What a weird day, she thought. As she stood up from her chair, a sudden cough exploded from her. She’d obviously inhaled some of her wine. Idiot. Caroline tried to clear her throat, but another cough tore swiftly from her throat. Putting her hand up to her mouth, she caught some of the wine in her palm. Looking at it in disgust, she noticed little specks of colour. What the fuck was that?
She sat back down, trying to breath steadily, but her body was suddenly racked with coughing. She couldn’t stop. Panic rose in her as her eyes streamed and her nose began to run with plastic. Oh Christ, she thought. In her panic, and through colourful tears, she managed to dial 999 but was unable to speak when the Operator asked her which service she required. The coughs came in waves, her heart pounded and by now the kitchen table was strewn with bits of colourful plastic. She could almost taste it, along with the panic. She was both mesmerised by the colours and horrified at the same time.
She heard a voice on the phone, ‘Hello, hello, are you ok?’ but she couldn’t speak, she just coughed instead. She clawed at her throat and her eyes felt like they would bulge out of their sockets any minute. She wanted to scream but nothing. Her nails clawing at her skin caused tiny colourful beads of plastic to erupt from her flesh. Plastic everywhere. All the time a voice from her phone, ‘Hello, can you hear me? We’re sending someone now. Police are on their way. If you can get somewhere safe, please try. I’ll stay on the line until they get there.’
Caroline couldn’t respond.
Caroline died shortly after, mobile phone clutched in her hand, her kitchen filled with a rainbow of colour.
She didn’t hear the sirens, didn’t hear the door being broken down or the two police officers come crashing into her kitchen, their faces in shock and the crackle of a police radio. ‘Yes, Sergeant, I think we have another one.’ She was already on her way to a plastic heaven, or was it hell.