Week 9 Story: What Keeps the Ocean Salty

Bill was walking through the main city near the coastal town where he lived. Today was a bright and sunny day, and Bill was in a great mood. He was running some errands in the city and while he walked toward a coffee shop, he glanced at his reflection in the window. Vaguely through the glass, a gorgeous woman distracted him from his own reflection. She was beautiful in a dark way with sleek black hair, skin the shade of bronze, and bright green eyes which he was able to see as she looked at him while sipping her coffee. While he was contemplating her striking eyes, he looked down and saw that he had managed to step through a construction zone with drying cement while he was distracted. He saw his footprints deeply in the wet cement, and he quickly did his best to wipe off the cement from his shoes. In embarrassment, he looked back towards the woman. He saw that she was looking down, but there was a smirk on her lips.

He was actually on the way to get coffee anyway, so he went into this coffee shop and ordered his normal of a small black coffee. Bill liked to think that drinking the strictly bitter blend built up his willpower. The barista called out his name, and he grabbed his coffee. On his way out, the woman he saw in the window spoke to him.

"Hey, I thought you looked familiar, and I couldn't help but hear them call out your name which verified you are probably who I am thinking of. My name is Lana. You're Bill Sanders, right? Aren't you a giant in the construction field? I think I've seen you in a few interviews in magazines."

Bill being a modest man, responded meekly, "Uh, yes, ma'am, my name is Bill Sanders. I have been in a magazine or two though I try not to bring that up too often."

"Oh, great! It's actually such a great opportunity that I ran into you! You see, I just purchased a property lot on the coast with an abysmal house. The house is so old and dark, even the wood is turning near black from age. I would love if you could build me something bright and white! The lot would look so much better with light brought in to liven up the place! Here's my card, please contact me when you are available to start working."

This began their building adventure together. Bill hired hundreds of men to put together a mansion of Lana's liking. The construction caused lots of noise, and the workers often tried to save time by dumping their waste from construction into the ocean. This was quite an unethical practice, but they were only getting paid to get the work done, not to do it cleanly.

This dumping of waste in the ocean got the attention of one of the woman's neighbors who called Clean Ocean. Clean Ocean was a nonprofit to help stop construction sites from abusing their platform and prevent pollution. One of their representatives shortly came out, and her name was Janie. Janie spoke to Bill about his violation against the ocean, and she explained that if this behavior was still happening in a week's time, their operation would be shut down. Bill made some empty promises and did his best to convince her that the pollution would stop. Janie left skeptical but hoped for the best.

Bill spoke to his workers about how important the conservation of the ocean was in Janie's words, but he did not do much to enforce the rules. A week passed and Janie was back on site. She saw the conditions had gotten a little bit better, but the construction site was still in violation of the rules. The next day, she sent in reinforcements to shut down the continued building of the mansion. Bill Sanders got a hefty fine, and Lana was furious and wanted a refund. This news definitely hit a few magazines in the construction world as well. Janie was content as after a few months of cleaning reparations to make up for the construction site's wrongdoings, the ocean was clear again and salty as always.

Author's Note: In the story "Why the Ocean is Salty", there was a giant world builder, Ang-ngalo, who made the world for God. While he was going about his business one day, he saw a beautiful goddess on the other side of the ocean. She beckoned him to her and asked of him a request. On his way through the ocean, Ang-ngalo made caverns in the ocean floor through result of his footprints. The goddess was the goddess of darkness, and she was quite tired of her dark accommodations in the world. She asked the giant to build her a purely white mansion to help liven up the place. He went about building this mansion for her, but the only material that white was salt. So this is what he built the house with for the goddess. Ang-ngalo employed millions of workers to carry the salt and help him build the house. The salt had be transported across the ocean which disturbed Ocean's peaceful sleep. To make all the noise stop, the Ocean sent waves to destroy the building of this house, and all the salt sank into the ocean. This explained why the ocean is salty today.

I made changes to put this story in a modern setting with Bill being a construction worker and the goddess of darkness someone who wanted a house to be built. Instead of Bill's footprints causing caverns in the ocean floor like Ang-ngalo, I had Bill step through wet cement in a similar way to show how distracted he was. In place of the Ocean goddess, I made Janie, the Clean Ocean representative, be someone that would disrupt the building progress. Instead of Janie just being annoyed by all the noise, I brought in pollution as a valid reason to shut down the building process. In this telling of the story, instead of explaining how the ocean came to be salty, I told why the ocean is still salty instead of defiled by a ton of pollution.

Bibliography

Why the Ocean is Salty, Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler (1921)

Image Information: Ocean, Pexels