KIDS CORNER
THE PINK MASK STORY BY
SLAVA NOOR
ILLUSTRATIONS BY
MADINA KAZANTAYEVA
THE MYSTERIOUS FIND water bottle and a sandwich out of her backpack. She shared the food with the crabs and the seagulls and wandered into the shallow water along the shore. Ula was sad, and she didn’t really know why. She was walking with her head down, and suddenly… it was as if a sunbeam had hit her right in her face. Ula quickly shut her eyes, and when she opened them, she saw an unusual object in the sand. It was strange… It seemed to be calling her and pulling her to it. Ula sat down and started digging through the sand. The new find seemed to be entangled with algae and covered with little clams, it must have been in the sea for a long time. The more Ula cleaned and scrubbed it, the more it looked like… it looked like… like a mask! It was pink and even seemed to glow a little. Ula had only swam with swimming goggles before. She wondered if the mask was very different from them. Once upon a time, there lived a little girl with the beautiful name of Ula. Actually, she was not so little. In August she turned eight. Ula really loved the sea. She fell in love with it as soon as she moved to this big, beautiful and hot city from her own home country. As soon as she went out onto the balcony of her new bedroom, she froze, mesmerised by the sea of shining water. When Ula first came to the beach with her Mum and Dad, she immediately began to swim as if she had done it all her life. Ula went to the sea almost every day after joining her new school. The beach was not far from their home but away from the noisy cafes, so there were 26
DIVERS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT | DECEMBER 2021
few people there and lots of colourful seashells. Ula swam, collected seashells and listened to the sounds of the waves. She felt relaxed and at home, and enjoyed the company of loud seagulls and shy crabs. She liked walking barefoot on the edge of the surf, leaving footprints in the sand that were immediately erased by the water. With friends of course, it would have been more fun, but Ula’s old friends were a thousand miles away and she still hadn’t made new ones. So she sat on the soft yellow sand, and swam in the turquoise water and dreamt of new friendships and real adventures. On one particular day, Ula came to the beach and took her
Ula put the mask on, walked in a bit deeper and put her face into the water. The world got more vibrant – colourful fish swirled at her feet and her ears were instantly filled with a myriad of voices. “O my goodness, it’s so hot, this unbearable heat again… “Yes, yes, I can’t stand it, I must move up north …” “When is this heat going to end, the water feels like boiling soup…” “I bet soup feels cooler…” Ula stood up abruptly, taking off her mask. Who was talking? There was no one beside her. Only the sea murmured. She put the mask back on and carefully lowered
