by Jane Keehn
The sliding doors were open to let the cool sea breeze inside the hotel. The music was louder now.
“Across the sea...my destiny...two souls together worlds apart.”
The dark haired girl was trying her hardest to sing without laughing while a woman wearing dark purple stared at her from another microphone attempting to remember the words.
The music swelled and they groaned a final long note into the night air. Creeping closer together in time with the music the two women ended the song with an awkward embrace and a light quick kiss. Kendra felt her skin flush as the two women kissed again as they walked off the stage and the audience hooted and whistled their approval.
Kendra’s mothers knew of Emily as a child and they knew her curious nature and love for her grandmother’s legend would bring her close to their family one day. Emily and her companion with the purple dress and a streak of purple hair sat and gulped some beer. Their arms intertwined when they sat close to one another and they allowed their fingers to link and caress under the table.
Kendra once again felt her face grow hot and she smiled. She could see Emily’s finger running along the purple girl’s knee, stroking it gently and quietly and secretly. She smiled, remembering similar gestures of affection and passion that her mothers had for one another.
Her Mothers feared that Emily or someone like her would one day get too close to their cabin or their survival cave. They knew Emily would be curious about the legend surrounding her grandmother and the Mandalay wreck. They knew she would want to know more – more than she could ever imagine. And the closer Emily came, the further away Kendra knew she would have to go, but Kendra enjoyed something in the way Emily’s eyes sparkled at the girl sitting opposite her.
Something in the way her hand hovered too close to the other’s - the way her other hand ran softly over her dog’s head and ears. There was a gentleness in Emily’s strong hands.
Kendra couldn’t look away in time and Emily’s face turned towards her. Their sightlines collided into one another for an instant.
Kendra turned away, so Emily could only see the back scoop of her blue grey hair.
Emily smiled at her. She thought it was someone she knew from work. But no.
She didn’t know anyone who walked with crutches.
Kendra grabbed up the shawl and her trinkets. A lone beer bottle was propped in the hotel’s garden bed. She flung it with a light clunk into her tackle box along with her hand-made wares. Soon she was limping along the path towards the Fun Fair, through the market car park towards the beach. Bottles and glasses clinked, their sounds fading with every stride Kendra made towards the shore, drowned out by the whizzing of the rides, the wooden demolition of the knock ‘ems and the electric zap of the Dodge ‘Em cars.
She kept her head down focused on the ground beneath her walking sticks. People got out of her way. The stronger muscles in her arms kept her moving along at a rapid pace, keeping her weak legs and feet lightly scraping over the ground as the crutches balanced her body’s weight. Kendra shuffled down the driveway to the fence of the aquarium.
Carefully positioning her crutches to avoid the potholes cratering in to the worn and aged bitumen. Distant laughter and music from the Fair faded as she staggered further away and the banging and scraping sounds of skateboards riding and falling over the old pools in the Aquarium finally drowned other sounds.
The hard concrete walls of the old entrance crept up on her and with them, and unexpected threesome of skateboarders appeared from behind the broken turnstiles.
- Hey watch out, Spaz.
Kendra stopped in her tracks.
- This is our park!
Kendra clutched at the poles in her hands and remained silent.
- What’s the matter with you?
Kendra slowly backed away from the gang.
- Nothing....
One of the boys loomed in front of her.
- You better watch where you’re going….
Slamming his skateboard across the rusted turnstile shattering the sound of the wrought iron into the night air.
- You’re not going in there.
Kendra poked a crutch closer to the entrance.
- I’m just taking a short cut home.
He grabbed his skateboard and stood in Kendra’s path.
- No way, Girl! You stay here.
Kendra lifted one of her poles into the air in defiance.
The balance of her body’s weight fell onto her other arm and crutch, her tackle box dangling from her hand. She positioned the tip at the chest of the ringleader skater.
- I just want to get home.
As the skater started answering, she suddenly flung the tackle box into the air over the iron entrance into the empty wading pool.
The teenagers couldn’t help but watch where the box might land, jumping slightly at the crash of its landing.
While their gaze was diverted, Kendra quickly lowered the crutch, shifted her weight onto it and took a quick angle to her left, away from the skaters.
She used the crutches like limbs, speeding over the uneven surface of the gravel lane, clambering swiftly into the darkness of the beach’s edge.
Her legs dangled between the poles, swinging behind her as her body deftly navigated the scrub, away from the menace of the skater boys.
The way she would take longer to reach the shoreline on the opposite gateway to the aquarium but Kendra could retrieve her tackle box later, even if the skaters had found it and stolen the small amount of cash she had stored in it from her street market sales.
The crutches dug into the dirt and sand. Kendra’s vision faded in the dark away from the carpark lights but as her retina expanded extra light refracted from the moon’s reflection on the waves, illuminating the coastline in front of her.
The cliff track winding down to the derelict aquarium made itself clear to her new night vision and she raced towards it with a beating heart.
Emily - Chapter 6
The hum of a mosquito and an image of tangled purple hair woke Emily, still in the deck chair.
The girl had gone home with friends but she felt the smooth edge of a black business card in her back pocket. Something tapped against the kitchen window downstairs that made Leo rip with a series of growly barks that forced Emily to sit up straight.
A faint light hung over the ocean but she couldn't make out what time it was. She heard a woman’s voice, quietly calling.
- Em, are you awake? Are you alright?
She saw the fading shadow of the woman’s body hovering near her front door. It was Melanie whispering through a gap in the kitchen louvre. Emily creaked out of her chair, knocking over the empty beer bottle with a hammering crash.
Leo grumbled loudly and sprung up from his basket near the back door.
- Shhh. Leo be quiet, go back to your bed. Melanie, is that you?
Emily clambered down the decking's ladder and into the back door, patting Leo on his nose, as he calmed and curled in for the night.
- Yes, it’s me. I tried you on the computer...
Emily fumbled with the latch and let Melanie and the night air in the door.
- Heckle and Jeckle.
Emily motioned to the fish bowl.
- What?
- I had dinner with my goldfish.
- I don’t mind; you can have dinner with whoever you like.
Melanie’s eyes narrowed.
She ran a hand over her sandy, fair hair and curled it behind her ear. She glided inside Emily’s home placing a bottle of red wine on a coffee table and relaxed on the lounge chair as though it was her second home.
- What time is it?
She demanded of Emily
Emily flicked a lamp on and grabbed at her diving watch from her desk.
- Nearly 11.30?
The lamp highlighted Melanie's hair.
- Melanie why did you come all the way over here?
- Emily, I told you, he’s away for a few days and I’m lonely.
- You can't stay the night.
Emily backed away from her visitor towards the door as Melanie stepped towards the lounge chair.
- Why don't you want me to stay?
Emily checked the front door and made sure it was locked.
- Because we shouldn’t and I don’t think I want to anymore.
- Emily, he’s away for another three days. No one knows I’m here.
- But I … do.
Emily smiled at Melanie.
She thought of the other times Max had been away and they had a whole week to be together, not just at work, but long nights of shutting out the loneliness.
Emily broke the silence.
- I really love you. But I don’t like ME very much at the moment.
She ran her hand over her face, straightening her frayed hair and looking to the ground to avoid appreciating Melanie’s curvy silhouette against the lamp light.
Melanie stepped toward Emily until she could smell the warm scent of her sweat and something else. A fragrance; an oily sweetness.
- Have you been with someone tonight? Some new girlfriend?
She gripped Emily’s arm as it moved up to cover her face.
- Who would I be with? I told you, I had dinner with my gold fish – and Leo.
Emily moved towards Melanie and fed her arm around the waist of Melanie’s summer skirt, reaching with her other hand at the bottle of red.
- You want a drink? Did you come here to have a drink with me?
Emily planted a warm soft kiss on Melanie’s neck, just below her ear. Something she'd wanted to do to her purple karaoke partner but never got the chance while her friends were around.
Melanie stood still and enjoyed the flow of warmth.
- I've missed the things you do to me.
She whispered into Emily’s ear.
Emily grinned.
- I better have the couch; you can have my bed.
- Whatever you say, Emily. You always know what’s best for me.
Melanie poured the glasses full of the red sticky sweet wine and took a swig. She handed one to Emily sitting on the couch and gulped the remaining wine from the glass.
Melanie draped her hand over Emily’s bare knee while Emily drained her glass. She positioned herself on Emily’s lap and pressed her hips into her cool body. Emily turned her head slightly away from Melanie’s face that moved closer with each breath.
- Melanie, please don’t do this.
But Melanie had placed her mouth over the top of the words and kissed Emily so hard that she lay back on the couch to get her balance.
Their mouths moved slowly over each. Over and over, their lips softly pressed together between breaths.
- We need to … stop … doing this.
Emily gulped as she pressed back against Melanie with her whole tired, cool damp body.
She swung around so that now Melanie’s back was pressed to the couch.
Emily’s knees grazed the sides of Melanie’s thighs, brushing against her skirt as she quickly removed her t-shirt, flinging it to the floor.
Melanie started undoing the buttons of Emily’s jeans, while fixing her gaze on Emily’s half nakedness. Emily crushed her bare breasts against the silky fabric covering part of Melanie’s chest and began kissing her neck, her lips her cheek. She moved against Melanie and found she couldn’t stop moving. She couldn’t stop the flow of her body now. Small waves of pleasure moved around inside her.
She could not, did not want to stop that flow.
- Melanie. Please…what if Max finds out... I couldn’t live with myself.
Emily’s eyelashes flickered against the side of Melanie’s cheek.
The smooth fabric of Melanie's skirt brushed over Emily’s jeans.
- Don’t worry about it. He already knows.
Melanie’s words had stopped the flow of their bodies; had broken the movement and Emily pushed Melanie gently from her lap.
- What do you mean, he already knows?
- Emily, I had to tell him... he’s okay about it...he loves you too.
Emily was lost for words.
She stood up and scooped her t-shirt up from the floor.
- What am I going to do when he comes back? How can I work with him again?
Melanie shuffled her skirt down from above her thighs as she stepped toward Emily.
- Well, I work with him every day and we’re alright. It’ll be fine. He’s fine with it.
Emily couldn’t move.
Her shirt clenched into her hand.
Melanie stalked closer to lean into Emily’s neck and start the soft, pressing kisses she knew would be the end of the talking.
- Lie down, Emily. I want to lie on top of you.
- I wish you weren’t with him.
Emily allowed herself to be led back to the lounge chair.
- I wish you weren’t so beautiful, Melanie.
Emily’s eyes closed as the licking and kissing and pressing took her breath and all words from her.
She lay back and threw the t-shirt back onto the tiles.
She allowed Melanie to do whatever she wanted.
It was what Emily wanted as well and she lost herself in Melanie’s rising hot, salty scent.
Kendra - Chapter 7
Waves broke against Kendra’s sandy arms, as she reached the surface. She gulped at the cool air, craving the solid earth of the Cove's shoreline. Her body twisted through the current's swell until the waves shot her to shore, her forehead scraping against the coarse grains of sand, her fingers gripping and pulling her body from the breaking waves.
She lay in the shallow water, facing the rising pink light over the hills, gaining strength from its warmth, preparing for the next twist of her naked body. Every cell in her body hesitated as the salt water drained and dried from Kendra's skin.
- One more time
She whispered to herself like a mantra, grabbing at the damp sand, pulling herself from the shallows, dragging her flailing lower body to the dry land.
Braced against the dune, her torso hid a black tattooed vine that circled behind her back away from the fading light. A sliver of sunlight revealed scared and inked tribal markings etched below her breasts, creeping around the back of her neck until they disappeared, caressing the front of her hips where the thrusting, painful cramps continued.
Her lower marine body started to lose its grey, slickness as drying air seeped into her skin. Kendra pressed her head against the sand to control the pain. As the water drained and evaporated from her lower half, small red scars puckered on her skin spitting out moisture as the wound pinched together. The shark-coloured fluke that propelled Kendra through water, split length ways into two fleshy stumps. Her flesh bubbled pink until the flipper shapes folded around the separating cartilage and salivated into toes, ankles, knees and thighs.
Kendra’s colourless hair drained into the cooling sand as she gritted her teeth to stop the cracking, shifting endoskeleton from pounding pain through her skull.
Her pulse accelerated.
Her pupils widened behind her eye lids as chemicals and hormones pumped through her body, following their ancient genetic rituals.
- Hurry!
She gasped against the pain.
Once the final drop of moisture drained from her body into the sand, her earth-dwelling form emerged from her transmutation. She now had to cross broken shells and aged sea weed, scratching her chest over the low creeping ground cover to make her way back home.
Kendra’s new feet curled into the sand, levering her to a shaft of limestone. She gripped the slab with one hand while reaching behind a ledge with the other.
An ancient tidal hole hid Kendra’s tools of survival from other’s view. As she leaned against the stone wall for support, she fed a grey woollen coat and a pair of thick black trousers over her cold body.
She reached into the hole again and pulled out two metal crutches. Kendra thrust her fist through the plastic arm brace and grabbed at the smaller rod f
or support. Above the quiet clunk of the metal poles, her ears searched for unwanted sounds in the surrounding bush and her animal eyes focused on any shapes that didn’t belong. If there was evidence that someone had found her hiding place, she would quietly walk back the way she came, submerge into the ocean and live for another day. The door to her hut had not moved. The broken branch she had laid against the window was still propped at the same angle she had left it; she heard no rustling and smelled no intruders.
- One more day.
She murmured to herself as she stumbled inside the door, threw the crutches behind it and bolted the lock.
A wooden chair creaked under her weight as she positioned herself at the table, exhausted by her physical transformation. Alongside her tackle box sat a black and white checked board that held a handful of battered wooden red and black discs. Kendra positioned one of the black markers onto a white square before brushing the sea-stained, cardboard game aside.
She flicked her fingers through her coat pockets and transferred some small metal items - rusted fishing hooks, lead sinkers, coins - into the tackle box then clasped the lid shut.
Kendra gripped the table’s edge to lift herself from the chair. A pendant of gold chain and whale tooth tapped onto the table top as she moved. She shuffled to another corner of the three room shack where the sunlight had not reached and sat on a slightly unravelling, raffia bed which squeaked softly under her body weight.
She curled her legs into the back of the chair and tucked her chin against her chest, reaching behind to pull a grey woollen blanket over herself. The exhaustion of her transmutation pumped through her blood forcing Kendra to roll onto her side to take the weight off her legs, her knees curling up to her chest.
When her breathing slowed to a heavy rhythm, her body began twitching, her feet pedalled imaginary steps while her arms shook in spasms against the bed.
Her eyes rolled back in her head and she dreamed she was fully human, never having to go into the sea ever again.
She dreamed that the black water hadn’t drowned her mothers and that they were here with her in Bullanockup – nicknamed by the locals as Green Wood.
Kendra woke suddenly.
- Acacia!
Her nocturnal pupils dilated to let in more light.