Plastic Sea (IT) — What's Left, Page 28
By Inkroost · Published
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Transcript
Roka scende dall’ultimo piolo di una scala nella penombra della stiva di recupero color verde petrolio. La luce del giorno filtra attraverso una grata nel soffitto e illumina una cassa arancione incrostata di cirripedi, su un telone blu bagnato, con alghe che le pendono addosso; nell’angolo è appesa una pinza arrugginita per il dragaggio. Roka: «Qualcosa che hanno tirato su…» Roka: «…deve pur valere qualcosa.»
Image description
Roka scende dalla scala nella penombra della stiva di recupero e fissa la cassa arancione incrostata di cirripedi, sotto un fascio di luce diurna.
About this chapter
In the dark at the bottom of the sea, something is counting. On Candyreef, a candy-coloured island of floating trash, Roka wakes to a water bag in the face from his street crew, lifts breakfast from the old woman who would have fed him anyway, and tells the kid who follows him that he doesn't owe anybody. Then the gulls lift all at once, and a Maw eats half the island. A day and a night alone at sea later, the Garden Ship fishes him out and orders him to walk its treadwheels for fish heads. Roka is nobody's slave, so he goes looking for something to steal instead, and breaks into a barnacled case dredged from the seabed. The silver dust inside climbs into his arm and says hello. It is polite. It is curious. It wants every human dead. And it has just started counting again.