The bottomless pit
A village in the mountains had a bottomless pit, where villagers chucked their waste, from banana skins to old TVs; someone once pushed in a rusty car. One day, Charlie, the youngest boy of the village tipped a wheelie bin full of dog poo into the pit. He had collected poo from owners, who were too lazy to dispose of it themselves. He lifted the lid of the bin and flies flew out; the stench was as bad as a rotten sheep’s corpse. He slowly tipped the bin and in one lump the poo fell into the pit and disappeared. Charlie was pleased with himself because he had made £50 from his days work.
‘Oi,’ came a voice from the pit.
He looked down the pit but couldn’t see anything and turned to walk away.
‘I’m talking to you,’ said the voice from the pit.
Charlie scratched his head and peered further into the pit, he edged closer, the soil crumbled away, and he fell in. It wasn’t bottomless and he landed on a giant cushion, he sunk into it then bounced back up; he was surrounded by angry villagers with torches.
‘Did you put the poo in our pit?’ An old man asked pointing his finger at Charlie.
‘This is supposed to be a bottomless pit, otherwise it would fill up.’ Charlie said.
A young man called Billy stepped forward, ‘The pit doesn’t fill because we recycle your waste.’
‘Recycle?’ Charlie slid off the cushion and walked over to Billy.
‘Don’t you know what recycling is?’ Questioned the old man.
Charlie shook his head.
The old man turned to Billy, ‘You are the most educated in these matters, we will let you deal with him.’
There was a nod of agreement from the villagers who without saying anything turned and walked away. They realised it was ignorance, not selfishness that led to the dumping of the waste.
Billy showed Charlie how they recycled their waste, from melting down metal, reusing items, and turning Charlie’s poo into fertiliser for the fields.
Billy led Charlie back to the pit. ‘Anything can be recycled if it is made the right way, to begin with.’
‘I’m sorry for the waste my village dumped on you. I would love to show them how to recycle, but I don’t know how to get back up there.’ He looks up at the pit.
‘I can get us up there, and if I come with you, I can help teach the villagers to recycle.’
Billy fetched a hot air balloon made of old rags and a laundry basket, and they floated back up to the other village.
It took time to convince the villagers to recycle, which was far more beneficial than to dump; in time they came to understand. They found food waste could be turned into compost for the fields, while, old cars could be stripped, and the parts used again.
Now, the only things they chuck down the pit is presents for the villagers.
I am challenging myself to write a 500-word post a day for 30 days. I will choose a random word from the dictionary and to make this challenge more complicated; I will use the same word to create posts on Twitter and Instagram. I will create a haiku for twitter and post a photo on Instagram. If the word I choose is too obscure to make a post, I will choose another word.