Monachi: Masters of Water and Fire

by Jade Sánchez

  I left my room and knocked on Tess’s door.

  “One second!” she shouted. About a minute later she answered the door. “Come in,” she said, opening the door wider.

  Her cat, ‘carrot-top’ started brushing up against my leg. I leaned down and petted her. She called her‘carrot-top’ because she was an orange cat with a green cap that Tess had made for her. “Hey carrot-top!” I remarked as she stared, purring. Tess’s cat was paranoid; she never left Tess’s room.

  Tess was just finishing up untying the braid she had in her hair. “Yes?” she asked as she put the rubber band around her wrist.

  “Almost ready to go?” I asked her.

  “Yeah, just let me feed carrot-top.”

  As soon as carrot-top heard ‘feed’ she started meowing, and ran over to her food bowl. Tess went over to the mini-fridge that she had in her room, and pulled out a can of tuna. She took the lid off and poured the tuna into the bowl. “Eat up carrot-top, I’m going to the beach.”

  We left her room and went to my car. Tess’s fiery red bikini and my aqua blue bikini surely looked odd. As we were driving to the beach, Tess plugged her iPod into my car. I turned it up and we listened to some Katy Perry songs.

  After about ten minutes, we made it to the private beach.

  We began to mess around. Tess pushed me into the water. “Oh, so that’s how it is,” I said. I took her hands and threw her into the waves.

  She came back up. “Jerk! You’re a jerk!”

  “I know.”

  We cracked up laughing. It may not be that funny, but when you’re deprived from sleep, anything is funny. We had been staying up late these last few days studying for finals.

  Tess got out of the water and started running to the car. “What are you doing?” I yelled.

  She opened the trunk, ignoring me. She took out our snorkels. “Time to go under!” she yelled as she shut the trunk.

  When she came back to the sand she tossed me a pair. I put the gear on and went under. Tess was already down there. We swam out a couple of yards and started looking at all the fish.

  Tess tried to catch one, but failed.

  After snorkeling for about ten minutes, we rose above water level, and swam back to shore. We took our snorkels off and left them to dry in the sand. We laid down in half wet and half dry sand.

  After a few moments, Tess stated “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do this every day?”

  I raised an eyebrow at her. What was she suggesting? “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I’m just saying it would be nice if we could go to the beach every day, sometimes just sitting there with our summer dresses and wearing big hats, watching the waves.”

  “Tess, I know you all too well to know that isn’t just a statement. Any time you say something like that, you have a plan.”

  “Fine. I was going to pitch the idea to you about us moving away from here, and moving to Hawaii.”

  Was she crazy? I looked at her and said, “Tess, we just moved here. We’ve barely been here two months, and you’re already suggesting moving?”

  “Not right now, silly.

  If we start saving up now, we could eventually move there. It would be nice, don’t you think?”

  I thought about it. I loved swimming, so Hawaii would be perfect. “But what about our parents? If we moved there we wouldn’t see them too often. We’d probably only see them like twice a year, if we’re lucky,” I told her.

  “Maddy, you’re not a little kid anymore. We have to move eventually, so why not plan ahead?” she replied.

  She won. Logic beat me.

  We got up from where we were. We were covered head to toe, in sand. Tess jumped into the water to get all the sand off her body. I followed her into the water.

  Once we got it all off, we grabbed our snorkels and went back to the car. We tossed them into the trunk, and grabbed our towels. We put them on the seats, and sat down.

  The ride home started awkwardly silent. “So, what made you think of Hawaii?” I asked, trying to break the silence.

  “Oh, you know, stuff.”

  “What stuff, just tell me.”

  “Well, we were in the water having tons of fun. We both love water, we both love fun, Water made me think of islands, and islands made me think of Hawaii; a magical place full of fiery volcanoes, beautiful water, and a place full of supernatural myths. It sounds so Monachi. Then I thought, ‘Hey if we lived in Hawaii we could do this every day.’ Thus, my idea sprouted.”

  Tess’s brain works in weird ways, but it partly made sense. I mean, it would be cool to live there. We would feel truly at home.

  Once we got home, I knew I would have to present this idea to my parents. I took a deep breath; this argument could go either way. It could be good, and they could say that it was a good idea; or it could be bad, and take days of begging. We would just have to leave out the Monachipart. That’s between us.

  When we got home and parked in the driveway, we both stayed in the car for a while. I turned the car off so I wouldn’t waste gas, or pollute the air. “Are we ready to take the possible heat of coming up with a somewhat silly idea?” I thought to myself, as I sent the mind message to Tess.

  I got a mind message back. “Let’s do this!”

  I grabbed my things from the car, clicked the key remote until I heard a beep, and went into the house. I looked around and noticed that my parents weren’t home yet, so I ran upstairs to take a shower and get into some clean clothes.

  By the time I reached the top of the stairs and to the bathroom, I realized Tess had beaten me to it. I banged on the door. “Take a quick shower, I don’t want to wait!”

  I heard a reply, “I’ll try!”

  That meant that I was going to be waiting another thirty minutes.

  While I was waiting, I went to my room. I lit a candle; the same candle I lit the night I officially got home after that awful ordeal five years ago. I stared at it for what seemed a long, long time, as the flame danced around the melted wax forming a smooth puddle of liquid roses. Whew, the memories that candle held. If it could only talk. Just then, I felt a cold breeze go through me, and heard in a faint sound… “ Maddy.”

  Are you serious? Am I losing my mind? Was it Tess mind messaging me from the bathroom? No, that wasn’t Tess. Penny, is that you; after all these years? Nothing. No response. No breeze. No voices, or whispers. Just the flickering candle. I shook it off as crazy, and went to get on my computer when I heard the shower turn off.

  I guess for once in her life, Tess actually did take a short shower. I ran out of my room and headed for the bathroom at the end of the hall. I heard Tess’s toothbrush turn on and off. Tess opened the bathroom door shortly after, with a towel wrapped around her body, and one around her hair. She stuck her tongue out at me. I gave her a quick smile, and nudged her out the door.

  I prepared a really hot shower, steaming up the bathroom. I climbed in, cleaned up quickly, and then got out. When I went to brush my teeth I noticed something on the mirror; drawn from the steam and dripping the pattern down the mirror in water droplets. It was some sort of symbol; it looked like fire, yet looked like water, meshed into a circle pattern. Where did that come from? Tess? Penny? And just as I was pondering where it came from, it disappeared. Just like that. Gone. The mirror was back to just a solid, steamy nothing.

  Tess and I need to have a talk for sure. But it can wait, for now.

  After brushing my teeth, I tied my hair up in a towel, threw a large pink towel around my body and went to my room. I got into my nightie, sat on my bed and brushed my hair.

  I heard the front door open and close. My parents were home. I went out of my room, and knocked on Tess’s door. “Hey Tess they’re home. Time to go, present the idea,” I told her, hoping she was in there, and that I wasn’t just talking to a door.

  She came out seconds later, with her nightie on.

  We went downstairs and braced ourselves. I went up to my mom. I tapped her shoulder.
/>   “Yes Maddy?” she asked, as she turned around.

  I glanced at Tess and winked. We mind messaged a countdown; Three… two… one… and in unison, said;

  “Hey, what do you think of the idea of us moving to Hawaii?”

  Seven years later… It’s been almost 2 years since we were sitting on a beach in San Diego, where we devised the plan to move to Hawaii.

  And now, as I was looking out the window on the plane that was taking us to Hawaii to live, my stomach was twisted in anticipation of what the future may bring. Or maybe this feeling was just my love for flying on an airplane.

  I could hear the high pitched sound of airline noise, as well as the sound of heavy breathing that Tess was making as she lay her head on my shoulders, with her headphones on, sleeping intently.

  I glanced out the window and saw nothing but clear blue sky and endless ocean. I couldn’t help but wonder if some crazy, “Monachi” would suddenly appear out my window; well other than the one I see reflected though the glass, ha-ha.

  Shaking the few pieces of ice that were melting in the plastic cup they give you on airlines, I started to think about the events that unfolded years ago, back when I was just a 12 year old kid in school, and now I’m 21. Hey 12-21, that’s weird, can I reverse what happened in the past, like I can reverse the digits of my age? Just curious. Would I change anything from the past, like all the death…or would it happen anyway? Would that affect the future? A paradox? Where was I…oh yeah, drifting my thoughts back in time without a Tardis.

  I don’t know if it’s even called a Tardis anymore, they’re changing it so much. Though, I would try to stand clear of that subject unless one wants Tess shooting her mouth 1000 mph about it. Anyways, I kept looking out the window thinking about how it wasn’t easy to convince my mom to help pay for us to get here, so I better enjoy it.

  As the plane began its final descent, I was once again looking out the window. I recognized the street we were going to live on. I could tell because I looked up the earth view online before we left, and it’s not hard to miss. There was a long and winding road that led to a cobblestone courtyard, with a tall, sculptured rock water fountain splitting the road. Not far from the fountain, I saw two kids playing in their yard, looking about 11 or 12.

  Something about them, that I just couldn’t place, seemed very familiar. The girl had long, bright red hair that I could see from way up here. The boy’s hair looked like a mix of browns, and reds, and seemed to shine unusually bright as well. Who knows, maybe it seemed weird because we were going to land soon, or that I just had ‘plane fatigue.’

  All of a sudden, a symbol formed in the clouds. It kinda looked like the water-fire symbol that I have seen oh, so many times before, yet with a different elemental pattern. I would’ve loved to have gotten a second look, but it was gone. If I had blinked, I might have just missed it altogether.

  What did that mean? Is it a signal? A sign? A warning? Are there other Monachi’s out there? Like us, but different?