Jackson, Olivia Robinson's five year old son, was sat cross-legged on the living room carpet, a book in his lap. "Mummy?" he asked. 

      Olivia smiled at him from the sofa, "Yes, Jackson?" 

      "What's this word?"

      Following his finger, she read the sentence aloud, "Jasmine spotted a seahorse. He was a very happy seahorse." Smiling at her son, she asked, "Do you know what a seahorse is?" He shook his head, frowning sadly, the threat of tears in his eyes. "I didn't suppose you would. That's a seahorse," she said gently, pointing to the cartoon picture on the next page.

      "Are they like unicorns?" Jackson asked. 

      "Like unicorns?"

      "Yeah, like unicorns. Not real," Jackson clarified, "But everyone likes to pretend they are."

      Olivia almost broke into tears herself, "No, seahorses were very real, Darling." She climbed down from the sofa to sit next to her young boy and lift him onto her lap. "They're my favourite animal."

      "My favourite animal is a..." Jackson thought for a moment before giving a little "Roar!"

      "A lion?" Olivia asked and Jackson nodded, his grin making his 37-year-old mum chuckle a little as his tongue poked through the gap where his left front tooth should have been. "Let's read the rest together, shall we?" He nodded happily, letting his mum hold one side of the book. "What's happened so far then?"

      "Jasmine went into the sea and swam down. Now she met a.. seahorse," he said, practising the new word. 

      "The sea?" Jackson nodded. "I used to go swimming in the sea a lot," Olivia smiled. 

      "Really?" Olivia nodded. "Why don't you anymore?" he asked. 

      Olivia ignored the question, it hurt too much to answer, and Jackson seemed to forget and go back to the book anyway. Olivia started to read the story, "He was a very happy seahorse. 'What's your name?' Jasmine asked. 'I'm Spring,' the seahorse replied." Jackson looked up, wondering why she'd stopped. 

      "Mummy, why are you crying?"

      "I'm not." A blatant lie. "Jasmine liked Spring and wanted to be his friend. 'Can we be friends?' Jasmine asked. 'Of course!' Spring smiled back, happy to have a friend too! They swam together, diving a bit deeper. 'Look!' Jasmine grinned, 'Starfish!'"

      "Mummy, you're crying again," Jackson frowned. 

      "Nope," Olivia said, smiling again at her son. "I just miss the sea and the animals in it."

      "The sea is still here," Jackson said, confused. 

      "But it's not the same," Olivia explained, finally giving in, "I used to go diving, swimming beneath the surface with the fish and seahorses and I saw starfish too, and whales and dolphins."

      "What are they?"

      "Gorgeous animals, absolutely beautiful creatures, that humans killed with plastic," Olivia explained. "Too much plastic ending up in the ocean, suffocating the animals that lived there. There aren't many of them left."

      Jackson was really sad, "Can we go to see them?"

      "That's what I'm saving up all our money for, Jackson. They live a long way away. I want us to live there."