I felt my mouth open and not close. "You mean I must do my duty here? Join with humans, here?"
Priscilla nodded. "Do not worry. We will help you."
I summoned a stunted smile as I thanked them for their consideration and assistance, but I felt sick. Not only would the Atlantic Elders violate my body, they would permit a human to violate me, too. And I would have no choice but to submit.
27. Joe
We'd been married two months before the fishing season started. I volunteered to go alone, as I'd originally planned, dreading the thought of the cold, lonely nights without Vanessa, but she wouldn't let me.
She made her arrangements and, instead of flying over, we took the Siren. The first night the Siren floated in the fishing boat harbour at Geraldton, we slept aboard instead of in a hotel. The fridge and freezers were full of supplies, the icebox was surrounded by foam eskies full of more and Marina fell asleep in Belinda's old bunk, surrounded by stuffed toys.
Sitting at the dining table, sharing a beer with Vanessa, I looked around the cabin of the Siren. I never thought I'd see it again, but I'd also never get the memory of that kitchen bench out of my mind. I turned to Vanessa to say something, but the look in her eye said she was thinking the same thing.
"We never did try out that bench without a condom," I started to say.
"There's plenty of raspberries in the freezer," Vanessa replied.
We got reacquainted with the bench, the dining table and the bunks in the lower cabin before we fell asleep, exhausted, in each other's arms, the taste of raspberry still on my tongue.
When I woke up the next morning, we were already underway, more than halfway to the Abrolhos. Marina's toy killer whales had declared war on the stuffed dolphins and fish on the dining table. I made myself some toast and went up top to the fly bridge to spell Vanessa at the controls.
I draped my arms around her and kissed her neck. She smiled and wished me a good morning, but kept her eyes on the screens and the ocean in front of her. I offered to drive, but she shook her head.
"Not seasick today?" I asked her.
"No, I don't get seasick," she replied absently. Then she stood up, pointing. "There! The Easter Group!"
I looked and saw waves breaking on the horizon and nothing else. It could have been the sun on the water. I said as much.
"No, it's Suomi. Here, take the binoculars and look," Vanessa insisted, passing them to me.
I looked through them. On the horizon was a white sand island with brown things scattered along it. The waves were breaking between us and the sand.
"Your eyes are better than mine, to see that," I told her, amazed.
She shrugged. "Of course. My eyes are better than a human's because they have to be. It's dark in the deep water and visibility can be low sometimes."
Shit. I forget that she's not human. After last night, it wouldn't surprise me if she's part angel.
To cover my embarrassment, I said, "I'll go down and get Marina. She might want to come up and see, too. If she can negotiate a ceasefire between the dolphins, fish and orcas."
Marina left her toys in apparent peace and I helped her scale the ladder. She frowned as she looked into the binoculars. "Oh look, Mummy, sea lions!" she exclaimed, pointing.
"Where?" I asked, looking through the binoculars. I could still only see the sandy island.
"On the beach, Daddy!" She laughed like she thought I was joking.
Vanessa's voice was gentle. "Daddy can't see as well as you can, Marina. You have very good eyes. Can you count the sea lions for me?"
Marina snatched the binoculars from me. "One, two, three, four, five, six!" she shouted. I caught the binoculars before she dropped them.
I looked again, but all I could see was the sandy beach. I counted the brown things and came up with six. At this distance, they didn't look like sea lions or anything alive, except maybe slugs.
Eventually, we got close enough for me to identify them as sea lions, before we turned the Siren north, to follow the best approach into the anchorage. I saw some boats tied up at jetties, but there were less than last year, particularly at Rat. Skipper's Dolphin was tied up at his jetty, but quite a few were empty. Well, it wasn't Easter yet. Maybe they weren't going to start 'til later in the season.
Vanessa tied up with minimal help from me and started unloading boxes onto the jetty. I went up the jetty in search of a wheelbarrow or a trailer to help bring them up to her house. Our house, now.
Marina stood on the deck, watching us unload the boat, until she decided she wanted a ride in the wheelbarrow. She helped me push the load up the jetty to the house, then rode back in the wheelbarrow, her giggles frightening the Pacific and silver gulls into flight from the jetties on either side of ours.
Marina picked out a bunk in the house's bunkroom. Vanessa made up her bed with the special Ariel quilt cover Marina had chosen. We unpacked the food and put it away in the house kitchen while Marina built a castle in the lounge from the foam eskies. We cooked some frozen pizza for dinner and I barely had the energy to wrap my arms around Vanessa in our bed before we were both asleep.
28. Laila
I sang up fish with Priscilla and Salina. I liked the little ones, but they preferred the reef sharks, tasty morsels the length of my arm that were a meal in themselves. Both of them knocked theirs out with a quick blow on the edge of the reef, but I carefully broke the necks of each of mine before I swallowed them whole.
When we had all caught and eaten our fill, the two sisters escorted me back to the Black palace where I was expected to sleep. "Where do you sleep?" I asked petulantly.
Salina laughed. "In the Silver palace, of course. There are more of us and Priscilla snores a stream of bubbles all night."
Priscilla smacked her sister on the tail. "I do not make any noises in my sleep. I am sure it is Mother, who is entitled to make any sounds she pleases in her advanced age."
"I find it very hard to sleep in somewhere as dark and still as the palace," I confessed. I didn't want them to go and leave me alone with Mother.
"You do not sleep in a structure in the Indian Ocean? Is that possible?" Priscilla asked, laughing.
"No," I answered. "We sleep in shallow waters between the reefs, in hammocks made of kelp that shift in the currents."
Salina shook her head at her sister. "You should not make fun of the child. We have seen how the Indian Ocean sisters live and it is quite primitive. They have no buildings and make do with little. It is not her fault she is not used to civilisation."
I curled in on myself, embarrassed. "I did not know you were joking." Now I wished to go inside the palace and hide.
The girls exchanged a glance and bade me goodnight, swimming away quickly.
I headed inside. In the darkness, I found my seagrass hammock and climbed in, my eyes closed as I faced the dark ceiling. I wrapped my arms around my chest, trying to compress the ache of loneliness and fear.
I missed Estella. I wanted to go home.
29. Joe
I woke up to hammering outside. I reached over, to find cold cotton sheets telling me Vanessa was already up. I could hear Marina playing with her toys somewhere else in the house. Oh well, another morning at the Abrolhos. At least it's daylight. Today I'll put the solar panels up.
I put on some clothes and headed to the kitchen for some coffee. Marina was barricaded under the kitchen table. War had broken out between the marine mammals again and it looked like the seals were winning, because they had the high ground on top of the eskies.
I heard Vanessa say, "I'll go see if he's up," before she opened the front door. Her face lit up at the sight of me in the kitchen.
"Skipper's looking for you," she said softly.
I squeezed past her out onto the veranda, my coffee tightly clenched in one hand. Vanessa's green tea steamed on the veranda table beside a book.
Skipper stood out on the coral path, his mouth open in surprise.
"Morning, Skipper," I said easily. "Van
essa gave me a lift over in the Siren. I'm going to put up her solar panels today." I touched the boxes on the veranda with my foot.
"Oh, that would be wonderful." Vanessa's voice came from right behind me. Her arms wrapped around me and her cool lips kissed my cheek. "Thanks, Joe."
I think Skipper's jaw hit his chest, it dropped so low.
"Now you're up, I'll put some of those croissants in the oven. Did you want to stay for breakfast, Skipper?" Vanessa asked, turning.
He hesitated. "Sure," he said, sounding scared.
Vanessa stepped lightly back into the house.
Skipper's eyes on my face were hard. "You're playing with fire, mate. You take one wrong step with her and you'll fall off a cliff, or your boat won't come back one day. Don't you remember how cut up you were when she left last time? She's not one who'll settle down with anyone."
He means well, I reminded myself. She scared the shit out of him and with good reason, but he doesn't know her as well as I do. I wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for her.
I kept my voice low, so Vanessa might not hear me. "I remember how cut up I was when she left. I blew through more than four cases of beer in a couple of days. The next time I saw her, I proposed and eventually she agreed. I married her." I held up my hand, the morning sun glinting on the new gold ring. "Shit, I'd rather swim with sharks than live without her. We have a little girl now. Marina."
Vanessa's hearing was as good as her vision, it seemed. She appeared beside me before Skipper could say another word. "Did Joe tell you?" she asked excitedly. When she held out her hand, the diamond caught the light of dawn more spectacularly then my plain gold band.
"Mummy! Mummy! There's a cheeky lizard in the kitchen!" Marina squealed, running out onto the veranda. A king skink followed her, as long as her arm, moving more slowly and quietly.
Skipper stared at Marina, as she fastened herself around my leg.
"There he is!" Marina shouted, pointing at the skink. "Look!"
The lizard hurried between the decking to hide beneath the house. I didn't blame him.
Marina tried to climb up my leg, realising the lizard could be underneath her. I lifted her up to my hip. She looked at Skipper and so did I.
"Who's the man, Daddy?" Marina asked, opening her big, blue eyes wide.
"This is Skipper, sweetheart. He's a fisherman. He catches lobsters," I told her, trying not to smile.
She stuck out her little hand. "Pleased to meet you, Skipper. How do you catch a lobster? Do you swim after him?"
I fought to keep from laughing. If Skipper had to swim after lobsters, he wouldn't catch many.
Skipper came up the steps to the veranda and shook Marina's hand carefully. He looked from my face to hers and I knew he could see the similarities. He started counting under his breath.
He managed a smile for Marina. "Well, I put a big box in the water with some lobster food inside and wait for him to come and get his dinner. He eats the lobster food until he's too fat to get out of the box and I come and get the box with my boat. Then I catch him in the box."
Marina clapped her hands in delight. "I want to see the lobster in the box!"
"You can come fishing with us next week, sweetheart," Vanessa told her.
"Yay!" Marina squealed, sliding down my leg and running into the house. I heard the killer whales launch an attack on the seals. Apparently now they were fighting over lobsters.
The kitchen timer went off. Vanessa excused herself and went inside.
"How old is Marina?" Skipper asked me, urgently.
"She's three and a half," I told him, knowing what the next question was going to be.
"Shit, you move fast. Why didn't you tell me you slept with Vanessa on your first season out here?" His voice dropped so low I barely heard it.
Because I didn't believe it myself. I still can't believe I'm married to her. "Would you have believed me?" I said instead.
We both laughed.
"No," he admitted. He looked grumpy then. "I said she'd try to steal you from me. You're the best deckie I ever had."
I spoke without thinking. "That's what she said, too." Oh shit. I know she heard that.
Skipper's laugh was short. "You've changed," he said shrewdly.
I was thoughtful. "Yeah, I have. I got lucky and married an incredible woman I don't deserve. I just hope my luck holds and she doesn't find out."
"Croissants are ready!" Vanessa called from the kitchen with a smile. Her eyes were on me and they were filled with love.
Oh God, please don't let her find out. I don't ever want to lose her.
30. Sirena
I watched Marina in the water from the deck. Joe gripped the side of the boat, ready to spring to her aid at the slightest suggestion she needed him, but I only smiled. She could swim better than he could.
"Watch this, Daddy!" I heard her call and looked around to see what she had summoned. I saw the shadow before Joe did, crossing the deck to stop him, but I was too slow.
"No, Marina! Watch out!" Joe shouted, leaping over the side and into the water.
The hammerhead changed course.
Marina screamed a command at it, but Joe didn't understand what she said. He headed toward the shark, as she screamed again.
"Shit," I muttered as I vaulted over the side after him. I felt my shorts rip as I shifted to my tail, but that didn't matter. I wrapped myself around Joe, pulling him back toward the boat, as I sent the shark away from him and I.
"NO!" Joe shouted again, struggling to get away from me.
Marina looked at me. "Keep my Daddy safe, Mummy," she said, her face pale with fright. She called the shark again, her voice stronger and clearer now.
He fought me but I held on grimly, keeping his head above the surface. "Watch, Joe. Or I'll sing you into paralysis and leave you on the deck. She wasn't in danger until you jumped in the water and distracted the shark."
He relaxed a little, but his voice came out through gritted teeth. "How can I watch while a shark attacks my little girl?"
I pressed my lips to the back of his neck. "Watch what your little girl can do, Joe. She wants to show you."
Marina called the hammerhead one more time, guiding him to swim past her, and she caught hold of him. Giggling, she rode that shark for a good hundred metres up the channel, before ordering him to take her back.
I pushed Joe up the ladder, not taking my eyes from my clever girl, until she returned to me.
She was breathless with excitement. "Can I ride on Ham again tomorrow?" she asked, as she dismissed the shark back to the depths.
I looked at Joe. He was hyperventilating on the deck, his head between his knees. His eyes were bulging and I felt sorry for him.
"Maybe another day, sweetheart," I told her. "Better stick to dolphins when Daddy's around. I think he's a little bit scared of sharks."
She crept over to Joe and gave him a hug. "Don't worry, Daddy. I'll protect you from sharks. I won't let them hurt you," she said.
He put his shaking arms around her, hugging her more tightly than necessary.
31. Joe
The first morning fishing I struggled to get up. "Your coffee's on the sink. Take it on board. Marina's asleep on the bunk below," Vanessa told me quietly as she shook me awake. "We need to be back before Skipper heads out."
I sat on the deck with my coffee, as she cast off and pulled out into the anchorage without my help. I drank the coffee as quickly as I could, because the pots weren't far out.
I was useless at spotting the buoys, but she didn't ask me to help with that. We took it in turns to hook the ropes up to the winch and empty the pots into the tubs.
Her pots had pink bow-shaped plastic tags on them now, not a pink ribbon to be seen. They were still full of old fat lobsters, all of them alive.
"What happened to the ribbons?" I asked.
"They perished. Belinda ordered these to replace them," Vanessa said.
My head was starting to wake up. "Do the old lobsters seriously
like pink?"
She hesitated. "No," she admitted, not looking at me.
Well, I thought it was stupid then, too.
"Then why the pink tags?" I pressed.
She took a deep breath, still not looking at me. "The ribbons and the tags help to identify my pots under the water. So the girls could put the lobsters in the right ones."
I whistled. "You mean your deckies stocked your pots and then pulled them up full? Where'd you get that many big lobsters?"
She looked fearfully at me. "They sing them up from the deeps. They aren't in the pots long enough to die, or eat each other. I don't bait them, either."
"Who filled your pots last night?" I asked.
"Two of my sisters are here for the week. They will be replaced by two others next week, if they grow bored. We will catch our quota more quickly than before." Vanessa said this in a low voice, her eyes on the deck.
"You told my mother you didn't have any family," I said slowly.
She looked up. "My mother and blood sister died a long time ago. These sisters are two of my people, that's all. We are all sisters to each other. Sister is just a title among my people, like Mr, Miss or Mrs among yours." She looked at me, curiously.
I took my chance. Looking deep into her eyes, I asked her the most important question. "Why did you tell me that pink ribbons work for big lobsters?"
She bit her lip, but she didn't look away. "Because I owed you a favour and I thought improving your catch would be appropriate payment. I didn't know the girls would swamp your boat while they were filling the pots, or that they left you on a rock and in danger. My attempt at payment only placed me deeper in your debt." Her eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry."
Shit, I'm confused. I don't get how she's responsible for me getting my dinghy stuck on a rock. But she's crying and I know what to do about that. I walked up to her and put my arms around her. "It's okay," I told her, with no idea what I was talking about.
Clack. Something clamped on my foot and left me in agonising pain. "Fuck!" I shouted, trying to shake the fat bastard off my foot. I like Skipper's little lobsters better than these fat bastards. His only break one toe, but this one's breaking my whole foot.
Ocean's Infiltrator Page 8
