Ocean's Triumph

by Carlton, Demelza

  Only if I wanted to kill him to hide the truth before he could return and tell others what I was, I told myself, dismissing the silly fantasy. No man could love a dragon.

  I didn't see nor hear William for a few days, though I heard the rattling engine of his motorcycle as he headed down the jungle track to Waterfall and back every morning. Ever curious, on the third, lonely evening, I headed back to Flying Fish Cove to see if I could work out why.

  I edged around the ship by the pier. The rock dust billowed off the deck and floated as brown scum on the waves around the ship, marking its partially-loaded cargo clearly. The port workers laboured tirelessly to load the ship, fearful of the swell that could roll into the cove with little warning. Such a swell could smash the ship against the pier and put the whole port out of action for months. Not to mention they wouldn't get paid for the valuable phosphate the ship would spill into the churning waves.

  William's house on Rocky Point was ablaze with light. Two dark-haired men sat on the veranda, blowing smoke rings at the fluttering bats. William appeared in the doorway, conversing with another man I recognised as Kaito, the Japanese engineer on the Trevessa, who'd given me my first taste of green tea. Before he unwittingly introduced me to jujitsu as he beat William in a fair fight on the aft deck.

  The two smoking men rose and all four of them descended from the veranda. A couple clicked on torches while William and the fourth man held some sort of lanterns. William strode ahead, leading them down the track to Waterfall. And the clearing outside the Grotto, where I'd seen William fight before.

  My heart leaped into my throat as I dived beneath the surface, undulating out of the cove and around the point before I dared to skim across the waves in the closest thing to a sprint my fins could manage. I needed to reach the Grotto pool before them so I could see this fight. I couldn't stand the suspense of hearing every blow and not knowing if William was hurt.

  I bruised my body against the walls of the narrow tunnel to the surface, but today I didn't care. I needed to find a vantage point where I could see without being seen. I burst through the warm, shallow pool and shimmied up the rope to the mossy rock clearing. The wet season meant there was plenty of jungle around, but it also meant that the broad leaves would block my view. I needed to get somewhere up high.

  The cave roof loomed above me and I didn't pause to think of the risks involved in the climb. If I could get on top of it, I could look down on the fighters and hide behind a tree branch if one chanced to look up. I slipped and scraped my shin on the rock, but still I climbed. I could hear voices and there sounded like more than four men on their way here. It sounded like half the miners were tramping the track to the Grotto to watch the fight.

  I managed to reach a spot where rainwater had pooled, carving a depression in the rock over the centuries until it was a bowl big enough to hold and conceal a worried, young mermaid. Or me, at least. Unfortunately, it also held a thriving community of curious red crabs. They shied away when I first appeared in their midst, but my stillness seemed to entice them back again. I wanted to sing to them to send them scuttling away, for all sea creatures obey a siren's song, but the approaching men were too close. I couldn't risk them hearing me. For if I could climb this rock, so could they.

  It was one thing to reveal myself to William, but to fifty or a hundred men who saved up a week's pay for five minutes with one of the ladies of the White House? It would be worse than my last night on the Trevessa, when I'd unwittingly charmed the whole crew with a song.

  I crouched lower, hoping the leaves hid me as I peered between them at the shadowy figures marching into the clearing. A few held lanterns or torches, but the dim light made them seem more ghostly than real. They spread out, forming a ragged circle around the edges of the clearing. In the centre, I saw rocks had been laid out in a rough fighting ring. The lanterns were placed at intervals between the rocks, illuminating the stage for the violence that would come. No one seemed to be bothered about the crabs sidling across their ring – they all seemed engaged in a heated discussion. I caught the phrase the Chinese grocer had called the Japanese sailors in the port – Riben guizi – and the name McGregor a lot, but my Chinese was too poor to understand much more than that. When scraps of paper started changing hands, I guessed that they were betting on the outcome of the fight.

  The crowd parted to allow two Japanese men, followed by William and Kaito, into the ring. The two I didn't know moved to opposite sides of the circle. William set his lantern down on a flat rock.

  Both men took off their shirts and passed them into the crowd. One of the miners hung the white cotton on two adjacent rock pinnacles, where they fluttered like ghosts.

  William squared up, his hands open instead of clenched into fists. Kaito spread his arms wide, palms up, in some sort of invitation.

  "Ready for your rematch, Kaito-san? It was a lucky kick that won it for you last time. Luck favours me this week. I bet even the local dragon will be watching this fight."

  Some of the miners laughed and translated the comment to those around them. White teeth caught the light as many more smiled.

  "Dragons don't favour gaijin. They are tricky, cunning creatures who might make it seem so. I am ready, MacuGuregoru-san," Kaito replied calmly.

  I wasn't. But no one cared what I thought.

  Kaito aimed the first blow and William's arm blocked it. A jab, a block, a kick, a dodge, another kick, a caught foot, more jabs, a foot released, circling, circling...the two men moved faster than I could fathom, reacting to the other's slightest movement. This dance was far more deadly than the one I'd witnessed on the Trevessa. William ducked and wove as sinuously as I could – and that was saying something. The smaller man seemed to have increased his skills, too, for some of his blows landed – though so did William's. Neither stopped to nurse their injuries, though, which I assumed must be minor.

  Circling, circling...Kaito thrust his hand up at William's chin and he jerked back to avoid it. Kaito followed up with a kick to William's midsection that folded him in two, making him expel all his air in a shout as he flew several feet to the edge of the ring.

  I crammed my fist in my mouth to stop myself from screaming. I couldn't watch this man hurt William. I had to intervene, to stop him, to...

  "You have improved, MacuGuregoru-san," Kaito said. "Now, you dance as skilfully as the girl fighter on the ship."

  The girl who beat him in a fair fight. I jumped to my feet, determined to leap into the ring and end this.

  Kaito's eyes met mine and he froze.

  William rolled to his feet. "A girl who beat you, Kaito-san. Maybe her ghost whispers instructions to me as we fight, so that I may be just as victorious." He crashed into Kaito, sending him to the ground. I couldn't see what he did to him, but I heard the Japanese man grunt in pain.

  I dropped to my knees again, hiding behind the branches that had hidden me so well before.

  "MacuGuregoru-san, the winner!" one of the Japanese non-combatants declared. A loud cheer went up from many throats – but not all, I noticed as several miners threw their bets to the ground in disgust.

  William offered his arm to Kaito to help the man up. Both bowed to each other, though Kaito bent lower than William did.

  The smack of flesh on flesh became jovial as the miners congratulated Tuan, as they called William, before collecting their lanterns and moving off toward home.

  Soon only the three Japanese men and William remained. The two whose names I didn't know made as if to wait, but Kaito waved them on, so they left, too.

  "Is it true?" Kaito asked.

  "Is what true?"

  "The girl who died with the Trevessa. Does her ghost truly visit you?" Kaito persisted.

  William sighed. "Yes. Every day."

  Kaito smiled. "Perhaps she comes to watch you fight. Her spirit will rejoice in your victory today."

  "No." William sank to the ground. "I fight to forget. When I'm in the ring, exchanging blows and focussed only on the bou
t, that's the only time she's not there. It's the only time I don't feel a coward for deserting her."

  "I felt her presence here tonight, MacuGuregoru-san. If she has watched you for so long, then she knows you are no coward. It took four men to hold you back in the lifeboat, but if they hadn't, you still could not have saved her. You must pick your fights, my friend. No man is a match for sharks." Kaito held out his arm and William took it, rising as he grimaced.

  "I almost wasn't a match for you tonight. Maybe I'm getting old." William limped toward his lantern and hooked his fingers around the handle.

  "Luck smiles on you tonight, then, along with spirits and maybe even a dragon." Kaito inclined his head in my direction and headed off with William trailing after him.

  Seventeen

  I waited for William to return to the cave, determined to show myself. Kaito had seen me; surely he'd tell William and then William would come looking for me.

  When the motorcycle chugged over the rise, headed down to Waterfall, I dived into the bushes and hid, but he didn't stop. I waited for perhaps ten minutes before a robber crab started prodding my foot to work out if it was edible. I rose and stamped my foot to drive it away. The sun shone in the clearing and I'd had enough of hiding. I stepped out into the sunlight, spied a mossy place to sit and placed my behind on it. Pulling my hair down over my breasts, I hugged my knees to my chest, trying to calm my racing heart.

  The motorcycle was returning. He was coming to me.

  The motor didn't change pitch, like I knew it should. He just kept going to Settlement, without coming to see me. I sagged with a mixture of relief and disappointment. If he didn't know I was here, he couldn't reject me again – I still had hope. But I hadn't seen him.

  Every morning I waited and every morning he avoided me. Until one morning, when there was no sun in the clearing. The clouds had been massing on the horizon for days and the increasing swell told me we were in for a powerful storm, much like the one brewing inside of me. All that pent-up frustration and fury and desire and terror and love...I stared at my mossy rock and refused to wait today. The only thing that could calm me was a force more powerful than anything inside me. I needed to swim in the storm.

  I slid down the ledge and into the shallow water. I stretched, keeping my heels together, and concentrated on my form. The skin over my legs stretched and fused from my thighs down to my toes, where my flukes extended in a delicate blue fan. I let the colour creep up my body until I could feel the coolness of the change at the back of my neck. I took a deep breath, rolled over and dived.

  I knew the tunnels well, so I took them at speed, from the surface all the way down to the end of Dubhan's carved markers at the underwater entrance. I opened my gills to the swell and took my first big gulp of life-giving seawater. A powerful eddy tried to slam me against the cliff face, but I darted away, laughing, revelling in the sensation of the storm swell against my sea-skin. Mine. All this was mine – it was part of the ocean's gift, which no mere human could share. To swim with me now in the maelstrom would cost William his life.

  I laughed for joy as the ocean overpowered me and took me in her arms, wherever she wished to go. All day I swam and into the night.

  Yet all good things come to an end and so did my energy. When the next day dawned, I rode the waves back to the island and crept up to Dubhan's cave so I could sleep away my exhaustion.

  Eighteen

  My whole body felt both stimulated and sore, as if I'd had energetic sex all night, but I knew I hadn't. I could only think of one remedy for it – another day of more swimming. I stretched and sighed.

  "Apalala? Please...please come out. I've brought my curse with me to the island and I don't know what to do anymore. I thought I could hide from it here, but everything's falling apart here now, too. Everything I touch is cursed."

  I leaped up at the sound of William's voice, motivated by many things, including the faint possibility of sex instead of a swim.

  "The Islander stood offshore for two days until we finally managed to bring it close enough to Waterfall to lighter things ashore. She's just left – even I had to man a boat and I'm the worst sailor we have. The cove is impossible – I've never seen a swell so big. Must be thirty feet or more. Monstrous. It carried away the loading pier and smashed it to kindling on the beach by the coolie houses. And then the waves started eating away at the Settlement road itself – there are waves washing right up to the doors. When the pier went, the waves battered the timbers into the buildings along the shore. The only storm I've ever seen like this was the one that took the Trevessa. It's my curse. It must be."

  His feet weren't dangling over the pool today. Instead, he paced up and down the ledge as he spoke.

  "I thought it would be enough. The pier, all the damage...the swell's starting to go down this morning, so we thought it was all over and safe to move people back into their houses. And that's when the damn plateau came tumbling down. A bloody landslide...boulders as big as bungalows, bouncing down the hundred-foot cliff onto the houses below. Mud moving like a waterfall, all the way to meet the sea in the cove. It's a miracle no one's dead. Instead, now we have a hundred homeless coolies and nowhere to put them but our houses or the Club and Jackson swears it's all my fault – as an engineer, I should warn him when things are going to go wrong and he's right. The ocean's trying to attack us from all sides and the cliffs are fighting back! This place is cursed and it's all because of me.

  "I saved that girl from the ocean with my own hands. Pulled her barely alive from that flimsy raft and carried her aboard the ship. I gave her my clothes. I helped her dress. I fed her, protected her, took care of her and I swore to her I always would. Then that storm came and sank the ship. I let her get dragged into a different lifeboat that overturned in the waves and I let her get left behind. I loved her and when she needed me most, I deserted her and left her to die.

  "And her ghost followed me here. I can't eat or sleep without seeing her. And I know I'm not crazy because Kaito saw her, too! Here! I wish I'd had a water dragon with me when you might have been able to save her and help me fight off the sharks. So, tell me, Apalala: have you seen my Maria?"

  Nineteen

  I slipped into the darkness, out of sight, so I could shift to my human form. My skin paled to cream as my legs parted. I took one more deep breath, blowing water out my gills before I closed them. Kicking hard, I burst to the surface, but William was no longer in sight. I'd been so slow changing that I'd missed my chance.

  Perhaps he was headed back to Settlement. I leaped as high as I could, hoping to catch a glimpse of his retreating back. I saw a flash of white between the trees and I knew it was him. "William, WAIT!" I shouted, scrambling up the slippery rocks. I slipped and banged my knee on the way down, scraping my shin against the rough stone. "Please, William. Wait for me." Slowly and more carefully, I tried to climb up again. Angry tears splashed on my hands, but I persevered.

  "I said stop haunting me!" William pounded into the clearing, as furious as I'd ever seen him. "If I could have saved you, I would have. I'd have married you, Maria, I swear it. I didn't want you to die and haunting me won't help. I wanted you to stay in the lifeboat with me! If it helps lay your ghost to rest, then I'm sorry I didn't save you from the sharks. I'm sorry for everything I ever did to you!"

  "Marry me? You never asked me to do that, William." I dragged myself over the rock lip and rolled so that I was face-up on the grass, panting. After a moment, I gritted my teeth and climbed stiffly to my feet. As William's words started to sink in, I began to laugh. "I'm no ghost, William. Ghosts aren't clumsy enough to slip while climbing out of this damned pool. Ghosts don't bark their shins and bleed, either. And crabs don't try to nip off ghosts' toes. Get off me!" This last was directed at a curious red crab as I aimed a kick at the creature. It backed away slowly until it decided to return to investigate. The creature's claw prodded my foot, then closed around my big toe. I stomped my other foot to frighten it. "I said – "

>   A large hand grabbed the crab from behind and lifted it away from me. William's other hand curled around my ankle. "You're not. You're real. My God..." His fingers trailed upward, tickling my thigh and continuing over my hip to my ribs. "Real. You're..." He seized my shoulders and kissed me fiercely. At first, I stiffened in shock at the unfamiliarity of being touched, but I forgot all of that in the blaze of my desire. My uncertainty burned away as I knew all I wanted right now was his body against mine, with nothing between us. My fingers made swift work of his shirt buttons as his tongue danced with mine so expertly it was as if we'd never parted.

  He shrugged out of his shirt and coat, one arm at a time, as the other arm held me tightly to him. He threw the clothes over a tree branch, not turning to notice if it had caught them or if the crabs had carried them off. I unbuckled his belt and felt his pants slide satisfyingly down his legs. An awkward moment ensued while he kicked off his boots, socks and pants, all the while kissing me as if he thought I'd disappear the moment he stopped. With nothing but his cotton drawers between us, I knew he wanted me as much as I wanted him.

  His eyes followed mine down to his straining shorts and he tried to cover himself with his hand. "I'm sorry. You have this terrible effect on me..."

  My hands shook with excitement as I reached for the waistband of his drawers. How many years had I ached for him? Too many. "I know the cure." Creamy cotton flew off into the jungle and I threw myself at him. We both smacked into the mud, my body partially on top of his. I squirmed until I felt him hot and hard against my belly. I sat up, letting my thighs slide open over his hips until my knees landed in the mud.

  William caressed my hip with one hand as his other adjusted himself, teasing me with the tip. "Are you sure?"

  "No," I admitted. "I might not cure you." I tilted my pelvis and ground my hips against his, enveloping him before he realised what I was doing. His groan made me grin. "I might make you desire me over and over and over again." I anticipated his thrust, riding him hard so he drove deep inside me. It was my turn to moan with pleasure as he matched my rhythm with unerring skill.