“What Pegman saw” is a weekly challenge based on Google Streetview. You can read the rules here. You can find today’s location on this page, from where you can also get the Inlinkz code. This week’s location is Songxicun in China. According to Google maps there is a cement factory just down the road from the village.
Songxicun, China | Gao Shian, Google Maps
Cement factory Pujiang No. 2
I don’t normally notice the smell of burning plastic in the village, but I’ve been shopping elsewhere and the smell seems strong when I return.
I prepare some broth and take it to my mother, who is sitting in bed with a threadbare blanket around her shoulders. Her skin is like crepe, her cheeks sunken. Her eyes, circled with purple rings like bruises, are shut as though they are hurt by even the dim light that creeps under the curtain. She coughs, violently. The sputum that dribbles down her chin is dark with blood.
“Mother, I have brought chicken broth with noodles. Your favourite!”
I sit close to her and sip by sip, spoon by spoon, I feed her until she moans, “Stop! No more. You’ll choke me.”
They say the cement factory Pujiang No. 2 is burning waste, and that the fumes cause cancer. Could that really be true?
Autumn Leaves 
Dear Penny,
Stunning, descriptive and all too timely. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle
Thank you for reading and for your kind comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the story.
Shalom
Penny
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Great story. Yes, it can be true, and probably is.
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Dear Josh
Thank you for reading and for your kind comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the story. As the residents can smell burning plastic, I suspect, like you, that it’s true.
With very best wishes
Penny
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What an image your words show! I really enjoyed this 🙂
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Dear Christine
Thank you for reading, and for your kind comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the story.
With very best wishes
Penny
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How tragic for both the mother and her caregiver. Seems like all too often this sort of thing is true. The human suffering portrayed in this is wrenching.
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Dear Karen
Thank you for reading and commenting. As you say, the suffering is wrenching, but there is also human love, and that is important. The daughter is trying to ease the suffering by preparing her mother’s favourite food, and the mother is eating the food, despite pain and difficulty swallowing.
With very best wishes
Penny
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You are so right. Better way to look at it.
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The dangers of careless eco-consumption and thoughtless profiteering scream out from this. Shocking descriptive truth revealing the danger to innocent lives. 😖
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Dear John
Thank you for reading and commenting. I should add the disclaimer that nowadays in Europe, combustion processes like cement manufacture are extremely tightly regulated. This wouldn’t happen here. I don’t know about regulation in China – for all I know it may be good; but if it isn’t, this is the sort of thing that could happen.
With very best wishes
Penny
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A tender story from a tender-hearted writer. The disbelief and doubt yet certainty glowed in that last line.
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Dear Kelvin
Thank you for reading and for your gentle comment. I’m glad you felt the tenderness in the story.
With very best wishes
Penny
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Awesome read
Ghost Town
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So descriptive. She should see a doctor.
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