Up Through the Water

by Darcey Steinke

  His mother had told him a few nights ago that she wouldn't be going anywhere with Birdflower. She'd said she was going to rest for a while. And though he still felt anchored to her, the weight was not half what it had been.

  Lila got out of the car. Her hood blew back from her jacket and she held her hands up to the gulls. He watched the many wing tips brush her, knowing they must feel like breath. In this way she was like his mother. They were more alive than most people, and this gave them power to draw things to them. For a moment it seemed the birds would lift her above the ferry. He rested his eyes. And when he opened them, the birds were gone and she was making her way through the pressing wind back to him.

  From her car, heading back along the beach road, Emily could see the truck's rear lights as they inched over the ramp onto the ferry. It seemed right that her car and Lila's were bookends to the wide mile of beach and lavender sky.

  After he left, her mood always varied; sometimes she was light-headed, other times more somber, even teary. Every year she swam. Last summer there'd been a host of Medusa jellyfish sending off green light. The year before she'd stroked straight out, so far that when she turned, the shore looked like a mirage. Once she tried to stand on a sandbank. Barnacles, like white teeth, cut the fleshy part of her foot and blood dribbled into the sand.

  The car passed the campground. Tents and trailers looked emberish and exotic in the dawn. The pony pen clattered by. She pulled over, got out, and walked the path that led to the water. The sea smelled of living things, and it reminded her always of her own scent.

  Just above the horizon was a thick purple, and above that, a halo of lemon. She slid out of her loose jeans and pulled her sweatshirt over her head. Her toes made twirling ropes in the water behind her, and when the sea was to her breasts, she dived in. Emily saw dark shapes in the water and thought of the weird fish, sea grubs, and mole crabs that lived underneath. She rolled onto her back. The moon was fragile as a paper nickel and the rising sun sent a snake of light across the water toward her. Nobody swims much past autumn, she thought, but I do.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Acclaim For Up Through The Water

  Half Title

  Other Books By Darcey Steinke

  Title

  Copyright

  Dedication

  June

  One: Mermaids

  Two: John Berry

  Three: Ponies

  Four: Blow Smoke

  Five: Fish Market

  July

  Six: Deep Sea Fishing

  Seven: MTV

  Eight: The Fourth

  Nine: This Place Was Real Nice

  Ten: Norfolk

  Eleven: Meridian

  Twelve: The Vegetable Truck

  Thirteen: Nude Moon

  August

  Fourteen: Lila's Worried

  Fifteen: Tall Boys

  Sixteen: Ferry To Shore

  Seventeen: The Shark

  Eighteen: Earring

  Nineteen: Summer Rooms

  Twenty: Tides