Tim Lost On The Way To The Recycling Plant/蒂姆在去回收廠的路上迷路了
by Steve Wang
Once, there was a plastic bottle Tim. He has a dream. He wanted to be recycled and serve as best as he could, then, be recycled again. After the fifth time he was recycled, he was happy to be little bottle filled with coke. One windy and stormy day, Tim was bought a little boy named Oliver. He had big ear lobes and chubby cheeks. Oliver immediately downed the bottle and threw it on the sidewalk.
Suddenly, it started raining and Tim was struck by a bolt of lightning. Tim screamed in pain as his cap melted off his head. Rain and thunder followed clossly after. Tim was very afraid now because he was not in the sfety of his recycling bin. He hoped with all his heart that he would be inside the warm and green bin. However nothing happended and he continued laying inside the thunderstorm.
Tim was alone as he watched the children and their parents walking by wearing raincoats and using umbrellas. No one bothered to give him a second glance. Even if they did see him through the heavy rain, no one would be bothered to help a little, used, coke bottle laying on the side of the side walk with it's platic cap zapped off by lightning. After some time of laying there and wallowing in depression, he realized that the water beside him stopped draining away and he sarted floating on water. Tim was jolted awake by the sudden rise of water and before he realized it he was floating with the water downwards toward somewhere unknown. Tim started panicking as he was washed away by the water. He kept thinking “how am I going to get recycled if I am washed to somewhere secluded with no humans there to get me to a recycling bin?” HE tried struggling and swimming against the current but to no avail. In the end, he was too tired to continue struggling and passed out in exhaution.
Tim suddenly woke up as his head hit a large rock. When he looked around, he realized that he was floating around in a river. He was constantly hit by stones and large rocks that were pertruding from the top of the waters and he could not do much becuase the flowing water was just too strong. All he could do was just float there. His situation dawned on him as he desperately tried to convince himself he was in a bad dream. He tried to pinch himself but he still could not wake from this nightmare. Tim screamed and shouted as he hoped to get someone or something to rescue him from this terrible nightmare but no one came and he was forced to acknowledge this was reality. After sometime, he floated into a bigger pool of water. Tim tried to be optimistic by thinking that this was a resavoir and he was going to be found and recycled. However, mintues went by and he just kept floating the only other things he saw were other pieces of trash that humans left floating on the water.
After hundreds of years, Tim knew that it was almost time for him to end. He floated in water as he thought about how he spent the last few hundred years trying to stop creatures from eating him because he knew it would cause them harm. He thought about how Oliver disccarded him on the streets all those years ago which kickstarted his adventure towards the ocean. At last, he saw the wave which was about to end him. His last thought was about his wish of being recycled again and how it would never be fufilled.
chinese title
好几千年前，有一個塑料瓶蒂姆。他有一個夢想。他想被回收並儘其所能地服務，然後再次被回收。当他第五次被回收後，他開心的變成了裝滿可樂的小瓶子。一個刮風下雨的日子，蒂姆買了一個名叫奧利弗的小男孩。奥利佛有个肥耳垂和胖呼呼的臉頰。奧利弗很快就喝完瓶子里的饮料然后把它扔在人行道上。
突然，開始下雨，蒂姆被一道閃電擊中。他的盖子從他的頭上融化時，蒂姆 痛苦地尖叫起來。雨和雷聲緊隨其後。蒂姆現在非常害怕，因為他不在他的回收箱裡。他全心全意地希望自己能在溫暖而綠色的垃圾桶裡。然而什麼也沒發生，他繼續躺在雷雨中。
蒂姆獨自一人，看著孩子們和他們的父母穿著雨衣打著雨傘走回家。沒有人願意多看他一眼。即使他們確實在大雨中看到了他，也沒有人會費心幫忙放在人行道邊上的一點用過的可樂瓶，他的塑料瓶蓋被閃電擊斷了。在那裡躺了一段時間，在沮喪中打滾後，他意識到身邊的水开始上升，他開始漂浮在水面上。突然上升的水讓蒂姆驚醒，在他意識到之前，他正隨水漂向某個未知的地方。蒂姆被水沖走，開始驚慌失措。他一直在想“如果我被沖到一個沒有人在的僻靜地方將我帶到回收箱，谁能如何被回收？”他嘗試逆流掙扎和游泳，但無濟於事。最終，他實在是太累了，無法繼續掙扎，筋疲力盡地昏了過去。
蒂姆突然醒來，因為他的頭撞到了一塊大石頭。他環顧四周，發現自己正漂浮在一條河裡。他不斷地被從水面上冒出來的石頭和大石頭擊中，他也無能為力，因為流水實在是太猛了。他所能做的就是漂浮在那裡。當他拼命地試圖說服自己他是在做惡夢時，他的處境却也让他明白。他想掐自己一下，但還是無法從這場噩夢中醒來。蒂姆尖叫著大喊大叫，他希望有人或什麼東西能把他從這個可怕的噩夢中解救出來，但沒有人來，他被迫承認這是現實。過了一會兒，他漂浮在一個更大的水池裡。蒂姆試圖保持樂觀，認為這是一個水庫，他會被發現和回收。然而，幾分鐘過去了，他一直在漂浮，他看到的唯一其他東西是人類漂浮在水面上的其他垃圾。
數百年後，蒂姆知道，他的时间差不多了。当他漂浮在水上，他想着过去几百年来它是如何试图阻止生物吃它，因为他知道这样会对他们造成伤害。他想起了多年前奧利弗是如何把他丟在街上的，這才開啟了他的海洋冒險之旅。終於，他看到了即將結束他的波浪。他最後的想法是關於他再次被回收的願望–他以及它永遠不會實現的願望。