The Seagull and the Garbage Dump

The Seagull and the Garbage Dump

A Story for All Ages by Aaron McEmrys

Once upon a time there was a seagull named Max. Although Max was indeed a seagull, with beautiful white feathers, strong wings and a beak curved for catching fish, he had never so much as heard of the ocean.

Max lived where he always had, in a giant garbage dump on the edge of town. He learned to soar over the vast hills of rotting vegetables and old furniture and his curved beak had never tasted fish. Still, it wasn’t so bad – Max had plenty of friends – and besides, the garbage dump was the only world he had ever known.

He grew up like all the seagulls did in the dump: smart and resourceful. But in some ways he wasn’t like the other birds. He told great jokes and the kindness he was born with only deepened in the harsh world of garbage.

You see the dump was a dangerous place. Life was hard and short. The worst danger was from all the traps and poisoned food left out by the humans who ran the dump. Max saw many of his friends get sick, lose feet and even die from those traps, but instead of hardening him, it just made his heart grow even bigger and gentler. Max was the only bird who was loved by the rats and gulls alike.

But for all the good things in Max’s life (he especially loved Thursdays, when all the garbage trucks would come dump tons of fresh yummy garbage), he always felt like something was missing. He never felt quite at home in the dump, and yet he couldn’t imagine a world outside of it.

But one day, as Max was sunning himself on the great mound in the middle of the dump, a strange smell wafted by. It was like nothing he had ever smelled before; fresh, clean…and salty? Every single one of his feathers shivered in recognition, but of what he did not know.

Max threw himself into the air and glided back and forth, trying to stay in the scent, trying not to lose it, whatever it was. He followed that breeze-born scent as it grew stronger and more faint by turns and without knowing it he flew much farther than he had ever blown before. He flew and flew and flew, hardly noticing as the garbage dump slowly vanished behind him.

Now the wonderful scent was getting stronger by the minute and suddenly Max opened his eyes wide in wonder as a powerful fresh wind tickled his feathers like a soft wall. All he could see was the setting sun, soft white sand and miles and miles of waves. Birds he had never seen before danced above the waves and his heart beat hard with a feeling he had never felt before, but would later call, “Joy.”

Max the Seagull had found his way to the ocean.

Max made friends at the Oceanside just as he had at the dump, which was a good thing because he quickly discovered he had a lot to learn about being a seagull. He learned how to ride the winds, dive for fish and charm tourists into throwing him tasty bread-crumbs. In the dump he had the body of a seagull, but he couldn’t be the true seagull he was born to be until he found his way to the ocean.

But something was still missing in Max’s almost perfect life, and one evening as he sat on a post watching a pod of dolphins go swimming by he realized what it was: none of his friends back in the dump knew that all of this existed!

The very next morning Max flew back toward the garbage dump, guided by a much different smell than the one that had led him to the sea. He landed on top of the great stinking mound and was quickly surrounded by old friends.

“Where on earth have you been?!”

“Well, your not going to believe it, but I swear it’s all true…”

And so he told them.

The other gulls were very confused. Some of them didn’t believe him, some thought he was crazy and others were even angry, as if he was trying to trick them. They were afraid to even imagine that there might be another world, a better world beyond the borders they had always known.

Plus, Max was just…different now, and this made them uncomfortable too.

Later that night a very young gull got caught in a terrible trap. She was in a lot of pain and would probably not make it through ‘till morning. Max sat beside her and stroked her feathers with his gentle beak. To keep her mind off the pain he told her all about the ocean and about what seagull life can really be like. Her eyes slowly faded, and the crowd of gulls who had gathered to listen were strangely silent and thoughtful.

After that Max spent a lot of his time at the seashore, and hard times sometimes found him there just like they did at the dump. But he had changed for good. He was a seagull now, all the way through. He had found the ocean, and for the rest of his life he flew back and forth between the ocean and the dump, helping other birds find their way.