Kendra

by Jane Keehn

  - Leo, good boy, come here.

  The two rushed through a opening in the scrub that hid a thin walking trail of sand. The trail looked like the kind a small mammal would make trundling along the same route day after day.

  If Kendra lived simply and self-sufficiently, this cove could be her local fishing spot. The sandy path could be her walking trail.

  Emily stopped to look more closely at the trail; her shadow draped over the markings of a large scraping in between two imprints on either side.

  It reminded her of the markings a crocodile made as it rushed towards the water; she felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle.

  There was a reason no one ventured into the “Bullanockup” scrub.

  Local legends don’t start without reason.

  - Leo, come!

  Emily didn’t want to put her old pal into any danger, but at least he might alert her to anything unusual.

  Emily and Leo followed the thin trail past the spirals of the pandanus palms. The lines across the sand meant something had cut a way through the scrub.

  A growling vibration burned Emily’s stomach – a warning, a sign of fear.

  Leo led the way with his nose.

  Snuffling and sniffing – finding the sparsest undergrowth to move through.

  Branches grabbed at Emily’s face as she ducked under them just catching Leo disappearing behind a large ground fern.

  His paws skittered over the slight path and Emily gasped as she ran to keep up with Leo’s pace.

  She grabbed a branch, steadying her body as her feet dug into the soft earth.

  The oily smell of the branch's crushed leaves dampened her palm.

  Soon the whole air surrounding her smelled of the leaves.

  A flash of brown Labrador fur disappeared behind a tree.

  - Leo...stay! Leo. Wait for me!

  Emily’s skin tingled.

  Her toes rushed with blood – ready for flight if she had placed herself in danger.

  The shaded green and dark bush closed in on her as she saw Leo sniffing the grey sand.

  As she pushed aside another over-hanging branch, she saw Leo near a doorway that belonged to a dishevelled shack.

  Was this the legendary Hermit's hut from her childhood, or could this be where Kendra lived?

  She said she lived a simple life. This was incredibly simple and hidden from the town.

  Why?

  - Leo, wait.

  Emily grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him to her side.

  - Have you been here before? Where’s Kendra?

  Have you seen her here? That time I nearly drowned? Did you save me or did she?

  Emily wondered aloud.

  She patted Leo's head and released her hold, allowing him to wander sniffing to the hut’s corner.

  Emily let her eyes glance along the window ledge, the doorway, the curve of the ragged wooden beams. The darkness inside the shack gave no clue to whether anyone was inside.

  She felt like an intruder – an unwanted presence – an infiltrator of a dream, finding herself somewhere she shouldn’t be, not knowing how to get away.

  Her foot crunched in the twigs and damp leaves.

  - Kendra? Are you here?

  It occurred to her that if Kendra didn’t leave here, who did?

  She didn’t particularly feel like confronting some anti-social hermit, out here in the middle of the Green Wood bush.

  At least she had a hope of Leo protecting her.

  Her hand clenched and she tapped on the thick wooden door.

  - Kendra? It’s me, Emily. Leo found your house.

  No answer.

  She scraped her hand against the window alongside the door trying to see through to the room inside. Her ears honed deep inside the dark place but she heard nothing but Leo scratching and snuffling.

  She gripped the door handle and turned it. It wasn’t locked.

  The door moved forward with the slight weight of her body against it allowing her inside, if she dared.

  - Kendra. It’s me. Are you here?

  Leo dashed through the open space following his nose to where Kendra might be. Something moved behind the door as Emily stepped over the threshold – a small thud.

  She readied herself for confrontation but one of Kendra’s walking sticks lay flat on the floor.

  Emily’s hand pressed flat against her chest.

  She breathed out with relief.

  She was in the right place.

  Emily spoke her name again, but the silence told her that the shack with empty and Kendra wasn’t here.

  The large thick wooden table smelled of fish and dead sea. Emily recognised the tackle box – closed but with some fishing line poking out in small uncontainable loops. She flicked the latches to see the tangled web of found objects inside...old cutlery, bent into curved shapes with shells tied to their ends. Sinkers, cleaned of briny sea sludge, threaded onto woven lattices of wire, draped with broken red coral.

  A weather beaten cardboard chequer board clung to the edge of the table with white and red discs scattered onto the floor.

  Emily suddenly wished she hadn't entered the house; she didn’t want to be found out. Now she wanted to leave before Kendra returned.

  A scraping mark on the stone floor lined with tiny flecks of something - paint chips? - led to a bedroom.

  Was this where Kendra almost howled in her sleep?

  A simple grey blanket draped over the old wire bed frame.

  There was no contemporary furniture in the room.

  Everything seemed to date from the previous century.

  - I shouldn't be here.

  Emily spun around in the hallway.

  Leo snuffled at the brick fireplace.

  There was no electricity – no appliances; no refrigerator; no oven; just a wrought iron pot hanging from a wire hook in the fireplace. A wicker basket of sweet potatoes stacked against the fire wood. The walking stick lying flat on the stone tiles.

  Emily bent down to replace it behind the door frame.

  - Leo, come on, let’s go home.

  A grey blanket lay abandoned, draped over the couch in the open room.

  A small row of books, stacked on a beam, balanced on a row of bricks. They looked like children’s tales and one was a guide of Mandalay Bay from the 1980s. A water-damaged "Time and Tides" guide lay open on top of the books.

  - She’s not here, Leo. Let’s go.

  Come on boy!

  Emily shut the door.

  What had she been hoping to find?

  She rushed to the kayak, hoping she wouldn’t run into Kendra, or anyone else, on the beach.

  The drizzle cooled the warm foolishness that burned on her face.

  Kendra - Chapter 23

  Kendra knew she would have to access the beach a different way.

  Instead of going the long way around through the scrub, hiding in the “Bullnockup” bush, she headed for the steep rocks overlooking the bay.

  The figurehead scraped through the sand without getting too damaged and soon Kendra was at the cliff, with its dead drop to the water.

  With the rain coming in again, at any moment, she needed the ocean to cover her as quickly as possible.

  Embracing the Mandalay Mermaid, wrapping herself around her wooden torso, pressing her body into the carved grooves, Kendra threw her walking stick to the ground, tilted towards the precipice and jumped.

  Falling together Kendra clutched hard at the wooden figure and they hit the waves as one, crashing beneath the ocean’s surface.

  The underwater cave tops edged close to their bodies.

  Kendra opened her eyes, watching the limestone wall of the safety cave disappearing from view.

  As the water soaked through her flesh her legs began to mirror the figurehead’s form.

  Kendra propelled the wooden mermaid under the bay, twisting together, gaining speed and momentum, forming a spiral of current.

  The Mandalay Mermaid was not as g
raceful in the water as seemed when she hung from the ship's hull.

  She dragged Kendra back through the current and refused to glide between the water’s pressure.

  Without the use of her strong swimming arms which were wrapped around the figurehead, Kendra had only the use of her powerful tail to propel her weighty companion towards their destination.

  Water bubbles rose from her nose and gathered behind the figurehead’s tail.

  The suction of their movements left a foamy current trailing behind them, with Kendra’s tail pushing, urging them along.

  Kendra followed her instinct, absorbing the currents that siphoned around the rock formations, to the opening of Meg’s cove.

  Sea weed the size of a small shrub caught between the wooden tail while Kendra twisted the body around to detangle it.

  Light faded from the surface. Coldness cleared her path.

  If the rain drops blew away and the air was dry enough, Kendra could push the Mandalay's figurehead up onto the shore, rest her wooden head on a rock pool then drag herself onto the sea grass.

  If no one was about, walking their dog along the foreshore, no one would witness the ripping and tearing of her mammal tail as it dried in the air, changing physiology and shape into a land-dwelling biped.

  She imagined herself walking over the sand, the soft grass, the cement path and Emily's doorstep. She imagined Emily opening the door, smiling and placing her lips on her cheek to welcome her into her home.

  She wished for Emily's dark, wolf eyes to gaze over her body, sending a primal pulse through Kendra's veins.

  Instead of Emily's lips Kendra felt the splash of a rain drop beating her cheek.

  There was nothing to do but propel the figurehead through the reef to Meg's Cove and hug her tight riding the surf into shore, just as Meg had done a century ago.

  As Kendra and the Mandalay Mermaid approached some moored boats, Kendra used all her strength to submerge them metres below the area where they might be seen.

  Kendra held onto the mermaid's arms, pulling her down in a slow dance, unsure if she'd been seen or not.

  Was this why her Mothers had kept the Mandalay figurehead for so long? The danger of moving her?

  She thought of why she was doing this.

  She knew Emily wanted her Grandmother's saviour for her own, but also for the completion of her museum work.

  Kendra thought about her Mothers. How seeing them again would fill a chasm in her heart.

  She hoped that someone wasn't holding them in a museum, collecting them as though they were living figureheads.

  Kendra scraped against the sand bar and propelled herself as far forward as she could, dragging the Mandalay Mermaid behind her.

  She pushed the wooden figure using all the strength in her arms then rolled the mermaid over her body, shoving her onto the shore, metres from Emily's home.

  The scaffolding lookout at the side of the house loomed like a skeleton, growing grey as the sun set.

  Kendra's eyesight adjusted to the dimming dusk, letting in star light and rain drops.

  The seat at the top of the scaffolding was empty.

  A car horn sounded a block away.

  Kendra released the hand of her wooden ancestor; the incoming tide would fix the Mandalay Mermaid into the cold sand of Meg's Cove.

  If someone witnessed the figurehead’s landing, she might be mistaken for a drowning person.

  With the sun going down and the rain drumming its steady beat, there was no one to catch a glimpse of Kendra hesitating in a rockpool.

  If Emily didn’t see the figurehead from her balcony, the mermaid was sure to be found by a neighbour and Emily would eventually be the recipient of her gift.

  Kendra splashed a sharp turn before the reef, aiming herself away from the shore, away from human sight, away from Emily's world.

  With the rain washing the salt water from her face, Kendra looked up to Emily’s balcony and wished for something.

  She wished to be fully human; she wished the ocean didn’t have a hook in her heart

  Kendra - Emily - Chapter 24

  As the Mandalay Mermaid lay heavy on the Meg's Cove foreshore, Kendra felt light and free.

  Her cupped hands scooped the water out of her way; pounding her tail from side to side, thrashing through the waves; navigating the currents and underwater passages she knew so well.

  The silhouette of the Mandalay Wreck loomed ahead so Kendra slowed her movements ; her fluke pulsed side to side, treading water, holding her torso at the water's surface.

  The figurehead made Kendra think of her Mothers - the way they had taught her everything about her body and how to use it in conjunction with the sea's power - and perhaps, their black water bodies rolled up, limp on the shoreline after the explosion.

  If she squeezed her eyes shut, Kendra could still see Acacia and Bobbi circling around her in the inlet leading into their safety cave.

  Their arms motioned through the water, showing her how to coordinate her fluke movement against the current while her arms scooped handfuls of ocean away from her path.

  Kendra let the memory bob away with the sea scum towards the wooden mermaid.

  Meg's saviour would now rest in her rightful place in the Mandalay Maritime Centre. Meg's granddaughter could now end her quest and, if they ever met again, Kendra could explain her own family's connection to the wreck of the Mandalay.

  Kendra's mother, Acacia, had family who had been there, she just wouldn't tell Emily how her ancestors had been in the water watching the wreck and had swum between the spinning and floating wreckage to save the land-dwellers who had been sailing on the Mandalay.

  The local Giluri tribe saw everything, from the limestone hideaways and the ocean's depths.

  They risked their own lives to ensure that most of the humans made it to shore.

  After that, they had to fend for themselves, in secret.

  Kendra glided through the seaweed forest, her eye sight converting to ultra violet to pick up any fish in her path.

  Her other senses worked closely together to avoid coming into contact with any sharks who were cruising the area for food.

  Discovery of Kendra's secret, or worse, would potentially be the end of her tribe and the end of any hope of seeing her Mothers again.

  She plunged further into the chilled water, aiming herself towards the Catacomb Caves. Avoiding the limestone boulders and honeycombed coral that could cut like a razor if she scraped too close, she zeroed in on the entrance to her Mothers' home.

  Surfacing in the shallows, Kendra gulped a breath and looked toward her beach. The outline of a dog focused into her view, right where she intended to leave the water.

  She immediately manoeuvred her tail downwards, took a quick breath and ducked her head below the waterline.

  A long, orange kayak cut the water just above her.

  The shadow of a figure sat in it, quickly scooping at the water with a paddle.

  There was a brown dog running alongside on the shore and then lunging himself at the vessel, paddling furiously to keep up.

  Eventually, his human slowed the pace and he was able to clamber onto the kayak's front and hitch a ride.

  His face turned toward Kendra, sniffing the air.

  His night vision saw something on the surface a few metres from the craft.

  He whimpered then let out a tentative warning bark.

  His owner turned gently to check the horizon, patting him softly on the head to calm his vocals.

  - Shhh, Leo, let's go home.

  Kendra lay on her back so that only her nose and eyes rose out of the water.

  It was Emily - paddling near Kendra's territory.

  Emily wiped the rain from her face and turned towards the Cove.

  Kendra watched Emily's outline shrinking towards the horizon.

  Even though she would risk being seen, Kendra needed to see more.

  She wanted to watch the way Emily's arms moved the paddles against the strength
of the water - her shoulders rolling with each pull and push.

  Kendra couldn't stop looking into Emily's face as her eyes blinked away the falling rain and her lips caught the salty spray of the wave's caps in the wind.

  Kendra lay flipping slowly with her fluke, paddling backwards, quietly with her arms, moving at a pace to keep up with Emily, to watch for a little while longer.

  The concentration on Emily's face looked like anger.

  Where had she been? What had she been doing near the safety cave?

  Kendra would never find out by risking being seen.

  She slowed her movements and let the kayak skim away.

  She watched the silhouette of Emily fade towards the Cove's shoreline.

  Kendra would wait out the drizzle in the safety cave; she took a deep breath before diving far into the belly of the limestone catacombs.

  She followed the underside curve of a limestone ledge, running her hands along the outer wall.

  At the deepest edge she dove again, switching direction suddenly, arching to her right and carefully fitting herself into a narrow opening tunnel.

  The well-worn limestone pipeline led into the furthermost chamber of the cave where Emily had been trapped in the high tide and then to a medium sized rock pool that surfaced to an underwater enclosure.

  This was the cave her ancestors had claimed as their own - the safety cave - unknown and unseen to humans.

  Limited space and access to oxygen meant that not even a free-diver would ever be able to locate it and survive.

  Kendra surfaced into the pool, reached for the hard, cool ledge and drew in a breath.

  She sat with her grey flukes dangling in the rock pool, prolonging the moments before her water-body reacted to the dry air.

  Soon, Kendra's marine skin would bubble, recede, trans and dry so she could live as a land-dweller once again.

  Emily - Chapter 25

  Monday, the rain still emptied the skies.

  Emily lay in bed, looking at the ceiling, waiting for her alarm clock to chime.

  Leo snuggled in next to her knees.

  She had wasted a whole weekend, waiting for Kendra to make contact.

  Her hand ruffled Leo’s fluffy neck.