"Joe, I'm happy to stay with you whenever I'm on land. You don't need to marry me for that." For the first time, she looked lost for words. "Why do you want to marry me so much?"
I took a deep breath and prayed I could keep my voice steady. "Because I love you. You're the most amazing woman I've ever met, human or otherwise, and I don't want anyone else. Even if I only saw you once a year, and the rest of the time you're off saving the ocean or whatever it is you do, I would still know that you're mine, and I'm yours. Marry me, Vanessa, please."
A small, pale blue streak flew out of Vanessa's open front door and attached itself to Vanessa's leg. "Are you going to mawwy the man, Mummy, and wear a pwitty white dwess? Just like Awiel?" a shrill little voice piped.
I looked down at the little girl clinging to Vanessa's leg. She wore one of Vanessa's light blue t-shirts, which was long enough to be a dress on her. Her hair was light blonde and hung past her shoulders. Her eyes were a shade darker than the shirt.
I dropped to my knees in front of the girl and looked more closely at her eyes. They were the same colour as mine. "How old is she?" I choked out.
"Marina is three years old," Vanessa said softly. "Marina, this is Joe. Joe, this is my daughter, Marina."
I stared at Marina as she turned her spooky blue eyes on me. "Our daughter?" I gasped.
Vanessa blew out a breath. "Our daughter. Marina, Joe is your Daddy."
Marina clapped her hands and her face lit up with Vanessa's beautiful smile. "I have a Daddy, just like Awiel?"
"Yes, you have a Daddy, sweetheart, just like Ariel. Now you should go inside and eat your breakfast," Vanessa told the little girl gently.
With a, "Yes, Mummy," Marina sprinted back into the house.
I have a daughter. Vanessa and I have a child. I was almost hyperventilating. Then the next thought hit and I blurted it out. "You lied to me, about not being able to get pregnant."
Vanessa closed her eyes. "No, I didn't lie to you. I just didn't tell you."
Something niggled in the back of my brain, but I ignored it. "Now you have to marry me. We can't live in sin if we're bringing up a child together."
Surprised, she laughed. "It really means that much to you?"
"Yes," I told her. "Vanessa, amazing woman who is the mother of my child, marry me."
"Why not?" She smiled. "But you'll have to make the arrangements. I'll make sure Marina and I wear pretty dresses."
My heart sang – probably as off-key as drunken karaoke, but a song all the same. It was too good to be true. I was going to marry the perfect woman, the mother of my child.
12. Laila
"Keep the pace up and we will be there sooner than you think," Mother instructed, though she seemed to struggle more with the long swim than I did. "We will leave the Indian Ocean within a week, skirt the south of Africa and head north-west, to find the ruined city where our people began. Their last delegation visited us when you were only a baby, but I still stand in awe of what they did to Alexandre. The Elder Council condemned it, of course, but I have always longed to meet our sisters who were there…"
Mother had plenty to say but her voice grew dull and I did not listen for long. Her excitement in visiting the Atlantic Ocean and our sisters there was evident. That was all I needed to know.
The background behind her glee I knew, too. She was going to see the city even her idol, Elder Sirena, had never visited. For once in her life, she could claim a slight superiority over the Elder she admired so much to the point of obsession. Sometimes I wondered if Mother had partnered with Elder Sirena's daughter, Maria, because the Elder herself would take no partner.
Maria was as different from her daughter Estella as she was from her mother Sirena. When I'd told my best friend Estella of the journey I must take and bid her farewell, she had hugged me tightly and made me promise to come home safely. She had not wanted to let go of me, insisting that I tell her all the stories about the city of our ancestors. I wished she could have accompanied me, but she was to remain home. She could not leave without her matriarch's permission and Elder Sirena was on land, engaged in some important mission among humans.
Our people had come from the city originally in search of a new ocean and new humans, to start a new society that broke with the traditions of the Atlantic – this I knew, too. There were stories Elder Sirena told us as children, of the beautiful marble city where we had once lived both above and below the surface, but the surface city had been swept away by a tsunami and only the water city remained, peopled by our sisters who lived there still.
As a little girl, I'd dreamed of the city and what it was like to live in a palace like the humans did, wishing and wondering. We all had, including Elder Sirena. She said that her mother Sephira had seen it, carved marble offset by beautiful soft corals of every hue, but the splendour was less now than it had been then, when Atlantis stood on the surface. She said there were pictures of Atlantis drawn by those who remembered it and painstakingly copied many times through history. The present pictures were carefully preserved on land and she spoke of them with longing, for she had seen them. Perhaps one day I would venture on land to see them, to compare what I would soon see with the glory it had held in the past.
But to venture on land, I would need to have contact with humans. Likely, the contact would be closer than I could bear. I shuddered at even the thought of touching a human, or permitting him to touch me.
"Are you well?" Mother asked, looking at me in some concern.
"Of course," I assured her. "Just a bit tired. I hope our stay in the Atlantic is extended, so that I have plenty of rest before we need to attempt such a journey again. It is a long swim."
She smiled at me. "It is. Even I find it a strain, swimming against the currents where we must. I will extend our stay as long as I can. But do not allow yourself to become too tired. You must appear fit and well when we arrive to meet the Council in Atlantis."
I wondered why my health was so important, but I knew Mother cared for me, though her emotions were often hidden deep. After all, she had insisted I accompany her, to keep me from contact with humans in her absence. She always had my best interests at heart.
13. Joe
I used Vanessa's old laptop to arrange flights home for the three of us. Marina fell asleep in the little six-seater plane as we flew over the Geelvink Channel to the mainland. My eyes not leaving my drowsy daughter, I offered both ladies a lift to their accommodation in my ute, parked in the Perth Airport long-term car park. Vanessa happily accepted.
I spent the whole plane trip home wishing I'd bitten the bullet and bought a house now that I had the money, but I'd kept delaying it, hoping something better would come up. It would have been perfect to be able to ask Vanessa and Marina to come and live with me in my own house, but as I still lived with my parents that wasn't going to happen.
Still, now Vanessa could help me choose our home. I brightened at the thought.
"Where would you like to live?" I asked Vanessa as she helped Marina into the back seat of my dual-cab Hilux ute.
"Hmm?" Vanessa pulled her head out of the car and closed the door. We both climbed into the front.
"Where would you like to live?" I repeated. "I have the money to buy a house now, but I hadn't decided where. Where would you like to start looking?"
Her face lit up. "I know exactly where I'd like to live. Can I show you?"
I shrugged. "Sure." I turned the key in the engine and put the ute into reverse. "Okay, so tell me where to go."
The stereo kicked in and Bittersweet Symphony blared out of the speakers. I reluctantly turned it down.
Vanessa sounded eager. "Tuckfield Street, East Fremantle."
I drew a blank. "And I get there…how?"
Vanessa laughed. "Just get onto Canning Highway, I can direct you from there."
With her directions, we pulled up alongside a beautifully renovated old two-storey house overlooking the river in East Fremantle by the time the CD had made it to Jebediah's Leaving H
ome. I looked up and down the street, but I didn't see a single For Sale sign. Even if I did, I figured they'd be "Price on Application" and I couldn't afford them. This was seriously expensive real estate.
"Vanessa," I began. "These are expensive houses. I might not have enough money to buy one of these…"
She laughed and got out of the car, walking to the gate of the nearest house. Before I could stop her, she'd opened the gate and crossed the front garden, vanishing around the back of the house.
"Vanessa!" I hissed. "You can't do that. This house isn't for sale. It's someone's home, you can't just barge in like that…"
She didn't return, so I assumed she hadn't heard me. I sat in the car, worrying. I glanced at Marina, but she'd fallen asleep in the back seat, so I went back to worrying.
The front door of the house swung open, to my dread, and Vanessa stood in the doorway, beckoning to me.
"Quick, close the door and get back in the car, before someone sees you!" I hissed, terrified someone was going to arrest her. "What if the owners come home and find you in their house?"
Vanessa laughed louder this time. "Welcome to my home, Joe. Can you bring Marina in? I put her clothes in the front bedroom, overlooking the pool. Her bed's made up, so she should be able to sleep for as long as she needs to." She disappeared back into the house.
Fuck. This place must be worth three million dollars, at least. There's no way I can afford the mortgage on this, I thought as I carried my sleeping daughter into one of the house's many bedrooms. Marina didn't stir as I tucked her into the frilly single bed, so I headed deeper into the house in search of Vanessa.
She stood in the kitchen, a pen in her hand and a notebook in front of her on the bench. She looked up and smiled when she saw me. "What do you think?"
I tried to find the words. "It's a beautiful house, Vanessa, but I can't afford the rent on something like this."
Vanessa shook her head. "I won't charge you rent, Joe. The real estate agent shifted the tenants out when I told her I was coming home. I own it."
I tried again. "I can't afford the mortgage repayments on it, either."
She looked puzzled. "What's a mortgage? This is my house. Look, I even had them put in a children's playground for Marina." She took my arm and pulled me to the glass doors that led outside, pointing. A new playground stood in the garden, with rubber matting beneath it. Behind it was a big white outbuilding.
"What's in there?" I asked, nodding at the outbuilding.
"That's the garage," Vanessa replied. "That's where my cars are."
It took me a minute to absorb this. "Cars? You own more than one car?"
Vanessa laughed. "Of course! Come and see." She slid open the glass doors, which folded up like a fan against the wall, and led the way outside. She took a key and opened the outbuilding door. She stepped inside, clicking on a light, before spreading her arms wide. "My cars."
If I'd expected an Aston Martin, a Maserati or even a Porsche, I was sadly disappointed.
Why wasn't I surprised? Every car was blue. Some classic old Holden with "Special" in a chrome badge on its aqua-blue paint; a perfectly preserved, light blue Kingswood; a Corolla in a shade of dark blue that reminded me of grapes; and a brand-new Mazda in metallic blue.
Vanessa pointed to the bay next to the Mazda. "There's space for your ute and a couple of other cars, if you like, Joe."
A couple of other cars? Does she seriously think I have a car collection?
She opened the back door of the old Holden. "Have you ever done it in the back of one of these?" she asked over her shoulder.
"Done what?" I replied, before I realised. "Shit, no." I paused. "Have you?"
Vanessa shook her head. "Would you like to?"
Does she need an answer to that? I crossed the garage to better investigate the old car.
Within five minutes, we were stiff, bruised and unsatisfied and we'd agreed never to attempt to have sex in the back seat of a Holden again. Or any car, for that matter.
I stretched as I put my clothes back on, noticing some dust-sheet-shrouded mounds between the bonnet of the uncomfortable Holden and the garage wall. "What's that?" I asked, pointing at the nearest one.
Vanessa laughed. She hadn't dressed, so she had my full attention as she moved to touch the sheet. "This is Harley. Want to see him?"
"You keep another man in your garage?" I asked doubtfully.
Another laugh. Vanessa whipped the sheet from the object beneath it, revealing a big, shiny motorcycle. "What do you think?"
I looked at it, imagining every bikie gang in Perth and wondering which one he belonged to. "I think I don't want to meet the man who owns that. Why didn't you tell me you were a bikie's girl?"
"No man owns me or mine," Vanessa said softly. She climbed onto the motorcycle and I found myself staring at a living, breathing fantasy out of a magazine. She stroked the metal and I almost drooled. "This is my Harley. Would you like a ride with me, Joe?" Her eyes were wicked as they looked up at me.
I was so turned on it hurt. "Yeah," I managed to say. "But can we start in your bedroom first?" If she said no, I was ready to drop to my knees on the concrete.
She laughed softly as she dismounted from her Harley Davidson. I only now noticed the badge that had been hidden by the curve of her boobs. "You're offering me a better ride than my Harley, Joe?"
My tongue felt like it was wrapped in electrical tape. She's the most beautiful woman in the world, but she's agreed to marry me and she's naked for me right now. Just say it. I let my eyes lift from her boobs to meet her enticing gaze. "Yeah. I think I can make you happier than any machine. Even that beast."
Her smile grew wider and she didn't laugh. I'd never seen her look so excited. "Let's go upstairs then." She led the way back into the house, leaving her clothes in the garage. I stumbled after, my eyes on her bare arse.
14. Laila
Mother summoned dolphins and whales, singing them up and telling them of our presence. "Ambassador Cantrella and Laila, come from the Indian Ocean to confer with our sisters in the Atlantic," she repeated to one and all, speeding them on to announce our arrival.
The water rang with crisscrossing voices, as distant creatures took up her song and broadcast it throughout the Atlantic. It was a peculiar harmony that heralded our approach.
Waters became warmer and their colours lighter, the seabed rising to form a continental shelf. The fish were unfamiliar, the seagrasses, algae and corals even more so. I felt afraid, so far from home and all things familiar.
Mother ordered me to swim on and swim I did, obedient to her authority. I could not forget that I was a child and hers to command. She was hard, but circumstances in her past had made her so. She loved me and cared for me in her own way. She would not order me to do anything that would place me in harm's way, for if I were lost she would be forced to touch another human to beget another child. That was an ordeal she could not face and one I did not wish to, either. This she knew well.
I reminded myself that as long as I was assigned to the Ambassador in the Atlantic, I was safe from any human's touch. My apprehension did not lessen, but started to take form. At least I did not have humans to dread today.
I began to see shaped stone on the sea floor. The stone looked like human structures, or what had once been structures, now encrusted in coral as everything became in time at this depth. I pointed these out to my mother.
"Atlantis, the first city of our people," she responded with satisfaction. "This is where our people first lived before the humans began to hunt us. Even Elder Sirena has not beheld its splendour." She lifted her head with pride. "We are close now."
I felt resentment at how casually she dismissed the Elder who had been my greatest teacher, but I knew Mother's admiration for Sirena knew no bounds. She envied the woman her power and her charisma, craving Sirena's approval more than she would admit. Arguments between Mother and Sirena in Council meetings had been spun into legends, but it was always Sirena who prevailed in
her human-friendly policy. Mother lived for the day when Sirena might defer to her, if only for a moment. That day had not yet come.
I looked around at the coralline city, missing the splendour Mother saw in it. I saw only stone and decay.
Between two encrusted columns I saw a tail that was neither fish nor dolphin. Then another on the other side.
The voices heralding our arrival became more musical, spinning the song with their own variations of curiosity and welcome.
Our Atlantic sisters began to appear in more than fleeting glimpses, accompanying us but at a distance.
As the water shallowed still more, the structures seemed in better repair. I saw intact arches and columns supporting beams and roofs, though the coral was ever-present, in more colours than I had ever imagined.
We headed for a large structure that must have been part of a palace above the water, the pitted steps a fitting backdrop for the five Elders lined up in front of the building.
Mother stopped in front of them and I slowed to float behind her with my head slightly bowed.
"I am Ambassador Cantrella of the Black line, Elder and Watcher of the Indian Ocean and this is my daughter, Laila. I come to consult with you on matters important to the Council of the Indian Ocean." Mother's majesty was modelled on that of Sirena, but her voice shook a little and spoiled the image for me. Her voice lacked volume and did not carry further than the few clustered before us. Mother was no less nervous than I.
The middle Atlantic sister flicked her tail and moved a little forward, closer to us. Her voice rang out to easily encompass all her assembled people. "Ambassador Cantrella of the Black, it is an honour to welcome you to the Atlantic Ocean. And you bring a child…"
Voices hissed in whispers throughout the crowd, the words too quiet for me to discern, though the wide eyes on the expressions of all were enough for me to feel a frisson of fear. What had we done?
15. Joe
"Shit. Vanessa!" I called, starting to panic.
Ocean's Infiltrator Page 4