This story is set in Singapore. There was a girl named Sarah who went to school every morning. She had to wake up very early—at 6:00 AM—and her school bus came at 6:30. Usually, her mummy would drop her at the bus stop outside their condo. But when Sarah reached Primary 5, she said, "I can go on my own now. I'm big enough." After all, she had been coming home by herself already.
So she started going alone. At 6:30 in the morning, it was still slightly dark. Sarah would be sleepy, rubbing her eyes as she waited for the bus.
This happened every day. Then one morning, the bus was taking a little longer than usual. As Sarah waited, she noticed something strange across the road—a shadowy figure that looked like an old lady. It was too dark to see clearly, but the figure seemed to be covered in plastic cans around her neck and body, with what looked like a hat made of straws on her head. She looked very weird.
Sarah kept staring, but suddenly the bus arrived. She climbed on and rode away. She tried to look back, but the figure had disappeared. The whole day, she couldn't stop thinking about what she had seen.
The next morning, Sarah went to the bus stop again—and there was the same lady! This time, Sarah saw her from a distance and kept watching. She was a little scared at first, but her curiosity was stronger. She crossed the road and walked closer.
The figure was shadowy, almost not quite real. As Sarah approached, she saw it was an old woman with a face like a fish—a long, beak-like nose. Her body was covered in plastic: cans, water bottles, bottle caps. One cap was stuck in her nose, and straws poked out of her ears.
"Who are you?" Sarah asked nervously. "Why do you have so much plastic on you?"
The old lady sighed. "Oh, my darling girl, I used to be a dolphin. I lived in the sea right next to your apartment. There were many of us dolphins, and the sea was beautiful. But then it became full of plastic. Human beings throw so much into the sea—straws, bottle caps, bottles, cans, all sorts of things. They're destroying the sea, and we have no place to go.
"One day, I ate too much plastic and I died. This is my soul. Usually when dolphins die, we stay in the sea. But there's no place left for us because it's full of plastic. All my friends are dying every day."
"Why don't you go into the deep sea?" Sarah asked.
"The deep sea is full of plastic too, and the water is too cold. We need to stay near the shore where the water is warm. Singapore used to be perfect for us—the water was calm, warm, and full of fish. Now there's only plastic."
"What can I do?" Sarah asked.
"Help me. Help all the dolphins. Singapore must clean the sea."
Sarah didn't know what to do at first. She told her teachers, but they didn't believe her story about seeing a dolphin's soul. Who would? But Sarah insisted, "I want to do something about all the plastic in the sea."
She gathered her friends and said, "What can we do about the plastic?" They researched how plastic could be cleaned from the ocean and started a campaign. They put up posters: "Do not use straws. Don't use plastic bottles. Bring your own water bottles." They even met with government ministers and taught them about ocean pollution.
Over time, Sarah was able to reduce plastic use in Singapore. Then she learned about a huge ship in Norway with a giant net at the back—five kilometers long—that could collect plastic from the sea. In three to four weeks, it could clean a large area.
Sarah reached out to them. "You must come here!" she said.
"It's very costly," they replied. "It will cost two million dollars to come all the way to Singapore, but we can do it if you can fundraise."
So Sarah went online. She posted pictures of dying dolphins and started collecting donations from people in Singapore. To her surprise, the donations came quickly. With that money, she brought the big ship from Norway to Singapore.
Slowly, slowly, the ship cleaned the entire Singapore sea. It took time, but it was covered in the newspapers. Everyone applauded and clapped for Sarah.
Then one day, as Sarah was going to school, she saw the old lady again. She crossed the road. This time, the lady had no straws in her nose or ears, no plastic on her body. She was clean.
"Thank you, Sarah, for cleaning the sea," the old lady said. "My soul has been freed. Now I can return to the sea. Thank you so much. Always protect the environment. Don't use plastic. Don't throw plastic away. Always recycle so you can save the sea and save the fish."
And with that, the old sea lady disappeared, finally at peace.
