In an indirect way, the seahorse was responsible for her joining the carnival,
for falling in love, and for rescuing a beautiful, four-foot Merman.
***
Everyone remembers the discovery
of the Mercreatures nine years ago. Discovered on a small island in the
Southern Ocean, the first creature to be captured, a female they called Ariel,
was displayed at the London Zoo until her death two years later. Another
four found themselves in other zoos throughout the world. None had fared
well.
Two others
had been sold to private owners – Donald Trump and Ken Parker. The Trump
Mercreature's fate was unknown, but Parker had arranged for his to be displayed
in his Miracle World Exhibition in Australia. He had been nicknamed the
Carnival-Merman and he spent his time in a large aquarium, supervised by a team
of marine biologists and scientists, sometimes touring with the carnival known
as Parker's Phantasmagoria.
His name was Poseidon.
***
Alice worked in the Animal World
section of the Entertainment Park as an assistant curator. She often
visited the Mercreature, but she wasn't allowed to do anything other than
observe; the exhibit was far too important for the likes of her.
Once, she had been walking past the
exhibit in the late afternoon, and had seen pale blue light coming from
inside. Curious, she had gone inside and had seen Jamie McIntyre standing
in front of the aquarium. The blue light emanating from the display
poured over him like water. He was wearing jeans and a grey
t-shirt. Alice had stood looking, secretly watching him.
Jamie worked in the Big Tent,
where the clowns, trapeze artists, magicians and animal acts worked. He
was a general labourer, doing odd jobs, constructing things, cleaning up. She
had never spoken to him before but, that night, he had turned and had smiled.
"He's beautiful, isn't he?"
he'd said.
Alice stepped closer and looked at the
Merman, asleep on his bed of rocks. His perfect pale grey face, smooth
and round; his long grey limbs; his webbed hands; his lithe, shiny body – he
was extraordinarily wonderful.
"Yes," she had said.
"Do you think he's happy?" he
asked.
"Oh, I doubt it," she
replied.
He turned to look at her.
"How can you tell?"
"How could he be happy, without
the ocean or his family or his fellow creatures?" she had replied and he
had nodded, turning to look at the sleeping Mercreature, watching it silently,
thoughtfully.
"Victor says it's just a sea
mammal, like a whale or a dolphin."
"Whales and dolphins are very
intelligent."
"We kill them. I mean, the
Japanese do, don't they? And the Norwegians."
"Whales?"
"Yeah. Whales."
"But… are they like us, do you
think? I mean, we have families and lovers. They're just
fish."
He looked at her. He had clear
blue eyes. He told her of a dolphin they had found dead on a beach.
It had drowned. There were marks in its skin which came from the
beaks of other dolphins who had been trying to lift it to the surface to
breathe. They had tried to save it. They knew what to do, but had
failed.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Alice," she replied.
"Just because they're different,
Alice, don't underestimate their minds," he said, then he had left.
She
had watched him leave. She had looked back at the tank and had
raised a hand to touch it with her fingers. The Merman opened his yellow
eyes, looking at her through the thick glass.
***
Mercreatures (mermen and mermaids) – stelleptipus arieluss
Mercreatures are large amphibious
mammals who live on the island of St Victoria. Although sea creatures,
they have many similarities with humans and monkeys. Up to fifty million
years ago, the ancestors of Mercreatures lived on land as apes, however, over
the millennia, they have evolved into an aquatic species. This
evolutionary trend is likely to be the result of mutations within the species
which favoured individuals who competed for food on an island with limited food
and space.
Physically they still resemble
humanoids, with two arms and legs, a humanoid-shaped head; however, they are
smooth-skinned, with no hair; their flesh is silver-grey and they have eyes
with a transparent lid which protects them underwater. Their hands and
feet are webbed and larger than land mammals. When diving underwater,
they put their legs together and spread their feet so that they resemble a
large tail fin. The average Mercreature stands four and a half feet tall.
As mammals, Mercreatures are
warm-blooded, have mammary glands to suckle their young and have to surface to
breath air. Mercreatures breathe air through their lungs and therefore
must surface regularly, however they have a far greater lung capacity than most
mammals and can remain underwater for up to half an hour. When
underwater, their heart rate slows and their lungs collapse, allowing them to
withstand great pressure.
Tiny slits in their neck, resembling
gills, are, in fact, the Mercreature equivalent of dolphin blow-holes and are
used to rapidly suck in air when on the surface; when underwater, these slits
close, trapping the air inside, preventing water from entering.
Mercreatures have an extremely
efficient circulation system. As well as breathing less frequently and
taking deeper breaths than land mammals, they have more oxygen-carrying red
blood cells and can regulate where their blood is distributed. During a
deep dive only essential organs such as the heart and brain get oxygen-rich
blood.
Unlike dolphins and whales, they spend
much of their time on land (in this they are similar to seals), using water
only to rehydrate and to hunt for food or play. They sleep and mate on
land, though they remain close to the ocean, often sleeping on rocks or on the
sand.
There have been numerous sightings
of Mercreatures over the years by sailors and explorers. Their
human-like shape and the tail-fin-like effect when they dive no doubt have
contributed to the mermaid myth. The first modern Mercreature was discovered
and caught in 2013. Mercreatures exist in the New York, London, San
Francisco and Halifax zoos. Two are privately-owned. The Carnival
Merman, also known as Poseidon, is on permanent display at Miracle World in
Australia.
In 2017, the United
Nations declared them a protected species and their island was given World
Heritage listing. It is now forbidden to trade in Mercreatures.
***
Jamie had a guitar. Sometimes he would sit at the back of the storage bay
and play. Alice would sit just out of sight and listen. He played
well. He liked melodies that were gentle and intricate. The day
after they had met in the Merman enclosure, she heard him playing and, this
time, instead of hiding, she walked into view. He glanced up, paused in
his playing then, when she nodded for him to continue, he resumed.
She sat near him. She watched his fingers playing the strings. She
wished she could play a musical instrument like him.
"He cries, you know," he said without looking up.
"Sorry?"
"At night. Have you ever been here at night? You can hear
him. He cries. It's like a wail."
"That's awful."
He stopped playing.
"I saw a documentary about them catching him. They flew over low in
a helicopter. There were a whole bunch of Mercreatures on the
rocks. They scattered into the water. They dropped a net and he was
caught up in it. They pulled him up. The others watched him from
the sea, being taking up into the air. They had to shoot him with a dart,
to prevent him from tearing the net open and falling. They still sedate
him sometimes, when he becomes too agitated. He bit one of the trainers
once and they sedated him for a whole week. He just lay there on his
rock, looking up at the ceiling of the enclosure, hardly eating."
"I've only ever seen him being calm."
"Most of the time he is. It's their nature I suppose. But
sometimes the grief and the loneliness takes hold of him and they have to
sedate him. If they don't he works himself up and throws himself against
the glass, trying to break through. I think sometimes the only thing he
wants in the world is to get out of his tank."
Alice remembered her seahorse. After a time, it's bright orange colour
faded to a kind of watery, pale pink. It had caught an infection and had
died. Poseidon was like that: pale and fading away with loneliness.
"Maybe they should find a mate for him?" she suggested.
Jamie stood up. He held his guitar like he would a child; gently,
naturally.
"That would just be putting two of them in jail," he said, then he
headed off and Alice watched him; watched the slow swing of his hips and the
shape of his back and shoulders, until he disappeared behind a caravan.
***
Interest in Poseidon had been big at
first but, as with all new things, it was waning. The owner was making
changes. He had opened a café called The Black Lagoon Café.
Poseidon was being marketed as a kind of horror creature, with a poster of him
on his legs, arms raised, as if attacking. The artist had made him
greener than he was, more reptilian. His skin was, in reality, more like
a dolphin's, grey and shiny.
The souvenir shop now sold plastic models of him in the same pose as the
poster. There were key rings, mugs, tea towels, t-shirts, all with
Poseidon's image on them.
Then they went a step further. They stopped sedating him for a while and
waited until he started throwing himself at the glass, then they had a woman in
a one-piece white swim suit stand in front of the glass and they took
photographs. They shot him with a dart before he could do any harm to
himself. The photograph they turned into a poster showed the woman
screaming, with an angry Poseidon behind her, looking as if he were about to
attack her.
Being a Merman wasn't enough now; they were turning him into a monster.
***
Despite the return of his sedation,
Poseidon continued to be unsettled. Perhaps he could pick up the change
in the atmosphere now that he was being billed as a threatening monster, rather
than a benign sea creature, and the crowds were more excited?
The scientists looking after him protested but the carnival was more of a
sideshow than a scientific exhibit and crowd numbers were back up, so the
promotion continued.
In actual fact, in the wild, Mercreatures were placid animals. They spent
much of their time sunning themselves. They went to the water when they
wanted to exercise or fish. They also ate fruits that fell from the trees
and seaweed washed up on the shore. They had no major predators, only
some seabirds which sometimes attacked the very young.
The reason they had remained a secret for so long was that the island was at
the bottom of nowhere, on no shipping route or flight path. They were
also masters of concealment. Any sign of a ship or boat and they quickly
headed for the depths of the ocean. No doubt ancient mariners had caught
glimpses of them; strange human-like creatures slipping under the waves
in the distance with grey fins instead of legs and feet.
The only animals they attacked were fish. They were scared of humans and
might lash out in defence, but most of the time they were calm. In
temperament, they were more like sloths than monkeys.
***
One night, before she went home,
Jamie asked her to go to the Mercreature enclosure with him. He had keys,
as he needed to get in for maintenance now and then. He turned on the
lights and they flickered alive. It was strange being there after
hours. No people, no piped music, no cameras flashing.
Poseidon was swimming. When he swam he looked masculine and lithe, like
an athlete or dancer.
"He's beautiful," she said going to the glass.
"This is what he does when everyone goes. When people are watching,
he gets shy. But, when he's alone, he swims"
"But we're watching?"
"He's used to me. I come in every night. He trusts me."
Suddenly, Poseidon swam over. He floated mere inches from the glass,
looking at them. She had never been this close before. It was
incredible, looking into his eyes. You could see the intelligence in
them, the individuality. He looked at her with obvious curiosity, tilting
his head slightly. And then he reached out, pressing his tiny webbed hand
against the glass.
She jumped, startled. Jamie smiled. He took her hand and lifted it,
pressing it on the glass in the exact spot where Poseidon's was. Her
mouth fell open. She felt a shiver rush through her. For a few
seconds their hands were pressed together, separated only by the cool,
clearness of glass, and then, in a swift, graceful movement, he turned and swam
away.
She looked at Jamie who laughed.
"We have to rescue him!" she said suddenly.
He nodded.
"I'd hoped you'd say that."
***
It was Jamie who suggested Alice
disguise herself as a boy. When they found out Poseidon was gone, they'd
check the security cameras and, if they thought it was two males, it might put
them off the scent for a while.
They were going to drive down to the coast, hire a boat and sail to the island
of St Victoria, where they were going to let him go. Jamie had seen a
film called Turtle Diary, which was about a couple who rescued a turtle
from a zoo. It was where he got the idea.
They met in Jamie's flat. It was small and neat. His guitar
was propped up against the wall beside a bookcase. He had a poster of a
dolphin on the wall. He poured wine and they talked, making lists of
things they needed, the best routes, the best times. She had suggested
they do this on a whim; now it all seemed so real and dangerous.
Jamie cooked them pasta. She wondered if they would end up in bed. She
thought she wanted to, but she wasn't sure.
When it was late, he called her a taxi. He gave her a twenty dollar note
for the fare. It was a cold night and the moon was full. His face
was illuminated by moonlight, making it look white and ghostly. She rode
home feeling a little drunk and light-headed.
***
The night before they did it, they
practised dressing her as a boy. She had cut her hair short and she wore
a check shirt, pants, boots. In the bathroom she had used cloth bandages
to tape her breasts flat. She wore a fake moustache; small, nothing too
theatrical. She wore glasses as well.
Jamie told her to watch him walk. She mimicked him. He told her not
to be too dramatic; to try to walk naturally. It was necessary, she
discovered, to walk with natural confidence, to be straight and
calm. He held her by her hips and turned them gently, showing her a way
to turn so that her hips swivelled as if on a fulcrum.
"On the night, it's important you look strong and natural."
"Strong and natural," she repeated, aware of his fingers resting just
below her waist.
"We'll have to get you bigger clothes though."
"They fit perfectly."
"That's the problem. They show your shape."
"What's wrong with my shape?"
"There's nothing wrong with your shape. You're thin, Alice, but
you're shaped like a girl."
“Well
maybe you should dress as a girl? Two
girls would really throw them.”
He
thought this was funny and he agreed to try on her dress. She took him into the bathroom and used her
make-up to paint his face, smearing red lipstick onto his lips, showing him how
to press his lips together to smear the glossy paint in. He had long hair, which she tied in a
pony-tail with lilac ribbon. He was masculine,
but looked good as a girl.
After, they sat and drank Jack Daniels. The ice chinked in their
glasses. He said they were doing a good thing. It was a good thing
they were doing.
She drank her whiskey and, once again, felt light-headed. She didn't go
home that night. He made up the couch and she slept in his bed while he
slept in the front room. His bed smelled warm and masculine. She
closed her eyes and listened to the rain fall outside. She felt like she
was sinking into the bed, drowning.
***
They had hired a van. In the back
they had placed a plastic tub and had filled it with salt water. It was
deep enough to hydrate him, but not drown him.
They would have to sedate him. They had a fish with pills stuffed
inside. Jamie had stolen the pills from one of the scientists and knew
the correct dosage from some notes he had read.
When the van drove up and she climbed in, she had laughed.
"What?"
"Nothing," she smiled, touching him on the knee, "you make a
cute girl, that's all."
Inside, Poseidon was asleep. Jamie tossed the fish to him and he awoke,
but he wasn't interested.
"Now what?" Alice asked anxiously.
"Wait there," Jamie replied.
He returned a short while later with a dart gun.
"This is probably better anyway," he said.
He climbed up and aimed the gun, looking somewhat ridiculous in his yellow
frock.
"Sorry Poseidon," he said then fired.
The dart hit him in his side. The Mercreature felt for the dart, shocked,
but soon fell and rolled off his rock into shallow water.
Jamie unlocked the glass cage. They had brought a stretcher from the sick
bay and they somehow managed to roll Poseidon onto it. He was heavier
than they had imagined but they managed to carry him out. Outside it was
bitterly cold and the stars were sharp and bright.
With some difficulty, they managed to get him into the back and rolled him into
the tub. He lay there with his head resting on the side. They tied
his legs and hands with cloth bandages. They didn't want him panicking and
running around when he woke up.
"Will he be all right?" Alice asked.
"I think so. We can keep checking."
The left him in the back, in the dark, and climbed into the cabin. Jamie
reached out and grabbed Alice's hand, squeezing it.
"I'm glad I met you," he said, then he started the engine and they
drove off.
***
They turned on the radio. They
listened to country music while they drove out of the city, through the
suburbs, heading towards country roads. They hoped to be a few hundred
miles away before Poseidon's absence was noticed.
Alice looked at Jamie, his face lit by the passing street light – bright, then
dark, bright, then dark, his lips dark, like red lollies.
"Should
we check on him?" she asked, after a while of driving.
"When we get to a petrol station. The sedative will still be
working."
When the news came on the radio, they both expected to hear of the theft of
Poseidon but it was just news about wars and car crashes and the stock market.
They pulled into a petrol station. Jamie filled up, looking shy and
awkward in his dress, while Alice bought sandwiches, coffee, juice and
water. They checked on Poseidon. He was still asleep. He made
a little murmuring sound. Alice cupped her palms, filled them with water
and splashed his face so that it wouldn't dry out.
They closed the doors. A police car drove in behind them. They
climbed into their cab and drove off.
***
It was raining hard now. The windscreen wipers pushed the water across
the glass.
"When will he wake up?" Alice asked.
"In a few hours. He's dreaming now."
Their tyres splashed through the water on the road.
She wondered what Poseidon dreamed of.
"When
I get old, I’ll tell my grand kids how I rescued a merman and let him free,"
she said.
He laughed. He looked at her and, in the red light of the
traffic light, with his lips bright red, his face looked oddly clown-like,
but lovely.
***
They drove through the morning.
The rain eased. The sky became washed with pale light. Soon it was
day.
They found another station. They
checked on Poseidon first. He was awake. He looked at them with
perplexed, frightened eyes.
"It all right," Alice said
softly, stroking his head; wetting it again. He made a little whimpering
sound that was a bit like a dog crying.
Alice stayed with him while Jamie went
to the bathroom and became masculine again.
They bought breakfast. They ate as they drove.
"He must be awfully scared,"
Alice said.
Jamie didn't reply. He turned on
the radio. This time, when the news came on, they heard a report about
the theft of the Carnival Merman from Miracle World. "CCT footage
shows two women in their mid-twenties, driving a white van. The
Mercreature is highly valuable and would be worth millions on the black
market. Scientists at Miracle World say they are anxious about his
safety as any long absence from the water could be dangerous to his
health."
"Well, we'd better keep to the
minor roads," Jamie suggested.
"We're criminals now, I
suppose."
"We'd better push on."
***
They drove along a country road.
Trees surrounded them; pale, ghostly eucalypts in a dense forest. Alice
looked at the road map. It was an area simply called the Wooded Glen.
"Aren't you tired?" she
asked Jamie.
"Yeah, but we'll push on for a bit.
I want to reach the boat."
"It's dangerous driving when
you're tired."
He glanced at her.
"Tell me a story. That'll
keep me awake."
"I don't know any stories."
"Tell me about seahorses
then."
She laughed. She thought for a
few moments.
"Shall I tell you about their
courtship? They have such a marvellous courtship."
"Yes. Tell me."
She took a deep breath and let it out
slowly. The morning sunlight was shining through the grey clouds creating
a kind of luminous, halo effect.
"Well, when two seahorses become
interested, it's not that wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am stuff you get with most
fishes. They court for several days. It's a slow, loving
process. And, while they court, they change colour. From red to
orange to green or yellow. They swim side-by-side, holding tails, and
sometimes they grip the same strand of sea-grass with their tails and wheel
around in unison. It's called a 'pre-dawn dance.' It's very
beautiful."
"I bet."
"And then the true courtship dance
begins."
He laughed. She looked at him,
wondering if he were making fun of her, but he was smiling kindly.
"Do tell."
"Well, it lasts for about eight
hours. Can you imagine that? Eight, long, slow hours making
love? The male pumps water through an egg pouch on his trunk and this
expands, opening to reveal a colourful emptiness. That's how I heard it
described once. 'A colourful emptiness.'"
He grinned.
"The female likes this?"
"I guess so. While he opens
his pouch they both drift upwards, snout-to-snout, spiralling as they rise, and
she deposits her eggs into his pouch. When it's all over, they float back
down and then the female swims off. It's the male that has the babies see."
"And the female just buggers
off?"
"Not quite," she laughed,
"it's not as cold-hearted as that. The pregnancy lasts up to three
weeks and every morning the female returns, and they undergo a little courtship
dance again, changing colour, entwining tails, wheeling around sea-fronds,
finally dancing a little promenade dance with their tails entwined. It
lasts around six minutes and happens every morning of the pregnancy. It's
very beautiful."
"Sounds like a real little
performance."
"Weeks and weeks of lovely dancing.
How romantic."
Jamie laughed loudly and she could see
that he was happy. He reached across and touched her hand, keeping
his eyes on the road.
"What about our friend back
there? How do his lot mate?" he asked.
"More like apes. Not nearly
so lyrical."
"A shame."
"Though they often choose the
water when they have sex. They like to mate under the sea, and it's kind
of like a swimming-dance. Very balletic."
He was about to say something and he
opened his mouth and turned to her, but then the van spluttered and
stalled. He looked puzzled. And then the engine cut out altogether
and he let it drift onto the side of the road into some gravel.
***
"I have no idea what's up,"
he said, after inspecting the engine, "we've got plenty of petrol.
And the engine hasn't overheated."
"Could it be something
electrical?"
He shrugged.
"Vans aren't my thing."
He tried turning the key but there was
no response other than a little electrical whine.
"So, what do we do?" she
asked.
He ran a hand through his hair. He
looked up and down the road. He scratched his head.
"Chuck us the map book."
She reached inside and pulled it out.
He inspected it. She could see
him thinking. Then he said: "Change of plan. We can hardly
wait here and flag someone down. There's a shore line about two
miles this way.
He tapped the map.
"But what about the boat?"
"That's at least twenty miles
way. We'd never walk it. We'd be spotted anyway."
"So we release him here? Is
that what you're suggesting?"
"I don't see any other way.
It's not how this was supposed to work, I know, but this thing isn't going to
be going anywhere in a hurry and if anyone comes along they'll be likely to
discover Poseidon. We don't have much choice do we?"
Alice sighed.
"This isn't fair. How are we
going to get him there?"
"On the stretcher. We'll tie
him to it. It'll freak him out I suppose."
He looked up suddenly. In the
distance there was the sound of a helicopter.
"Come on. Let's get
moving."
***
With some difficulty they put Poseidon
on the stretcher, binding him by his wrists and ankles. He wasn't too
heavy but it was awkward carrying him through the dense forest that was marked
on the map as The Wooded Glen. The ground was covered in
moss. The trees soaked up the sound so it was like walking through a
sacred place, hushed and lonely.
"Are you okay?" Jamie asked.
"I'm all right."
"I shouldn't have got you into
this."
"It was my suggestion,
remember."
"They'll charge us. He's
worth a fortune. And a protected species to boot."
"Well we've done it now. It
was the right thing to do and you know it. He would have died back
there. It was just a matter of time."
"Is he okay?"
"He's quiet. He's
terrified. He won't have any idea about what is happening to him."
She looked at his grey face; it had no
nose but it was very human-like. Carrying him like this, through the
silent, white trees, was eerie. It was like carrying someone to a secret
execution in the forest. Did he think he was going to die?
"He'll be drying out. He's
not too heavy?"
"I'll cope. He'll be all
right, won't he?"
Jamie didn't answer. They just
kept on walking.
***
They heard the helicopter coming
closer. They put the stretcher down and crouched down.
"They must have seen the
van. They're searching for us."
"It might be a coincidence."
"Maybe? But I bet you
Parker found the van and now they're searching the forest. He's after his
investment. Damn! They shouldn't be able to see us through the
trees though if we don't move."
They both looked at Poseidon who
whimpered softly. He looked at them with frightened, yellow eyes. Alice
wanted to hold his hand, but would he understand her meaning?
They waited until the helicopter flew
off into the distance and then they headed off again.
***
"What are we going to do when this
is over?" Alice asked as they carried the supine Mercreature through the
shadowy trees.
"Well, we can't go back, can
we?"
"We'll have to keep on
running."
"I suppose so. If we can
make it to the train station a few miles east, we can catch a train down to the
city. We can get a room, think things out. Work out where we're
going to go."
"It's us now,
isn't it?" she asked a little tentatively.
He looked over her shoulder at
her. He nodded and smiled gently.
"Us," he said firmly.
That's when Poseidon started making a
moaning noise. He struggled frantically with his ties.
"What's the matter? What's
up?"
They put him down.
"Take it easy, fella."
Alice stroked him but he struggled and
struggled. Jamie sniffed the air.
"He can smell the ocean," he
said.
Alice understood.
"Let's put him out of his
misery."
***
They carried him down to the
beach. The sea was grey and rough. The salt wind was cold on their
faces. Exhausted from their walk, they lay the stretcher carefully on the
sand.
"What should we do?" Alice
asked.
"Just untie him I guess."
So they both knelt down. Alice
took care of the feet, Jamie undid the ones around his wrists. Poseidon
leapt up. Alice was afraid he might attack them; it would be a reasonable
thing for him to do in the circumstances. But, instead, he just stared at
the ocean in awe, staggering a little, as if drunk, and unsure on his webbed
feet. It was as if he did not know what to do, as if he couldn't believe
what he was seeing. He was frozen on the spot, sniffing the
air, listening, looking.
Then, without a thought for Alice or
Jamie, he walked steadfastly towards the water, over the wet sand, into the
foamy surf; he paused, briefly, the white foam frothing around his sleek
ankles, then he waded deeper and deeper, until the waves were around his
waist. Alice hoped he might turn and wave, but that was too much of a
human gesture to expect. Instead, he dipped under the waves suddenly and
they saw him swimming for a few metres - just a hint of shiny grey skin -
and then he was gone forever.
"He'll be okay, won't he?"
Alice asked after a while, almost sobbing.
"I think so."
"Will he find his way home?"
"I don't know."
"Jesus, what if he drowns or gets
eaten by a shark?"
"He's in his element now.
He'll be all right. He belongs out there."
Jamie put an arm around her waist and
she wasn't surprised by the gesture. She rested a head against his
shoulder. They stood in silence, wondering.
"Well that's that, I
suppose," said Jamie at last, "the end of our little adventure."
"Or the beginning?" Alice
suggested.
He looked at her and smiled.
"Come on," he said,
"we've got some running to do."
They headed back through the wood,
holding hands. Just before they disappeared into the trees, Alice took
one more look at the ocean; at the silvery, turbulent waves and the pale,
grey horizon.
He was out there somewhere, swimming
like a dancer, supple and powerful and free.
Jamie pulled her along and they walked
deeper into the dark forest, and soon the only thing left of the now unseen ocean
was the sighing sound of waves behind them.
