Ocean's Gift

by Carlton, Demelza

  That night I dreamed about Vanessa in blue lace.

  39. Belinda

  “Some humans plan to speak to the fishers regarding changes to the oceans and changes to rules next week. They will fly here and speak of these matters in the Fisheries camp. We should attend, and take the time to question the human visitors closely. Perhaps we can avoid a trip to Perth.” Vanessa’s words took me by surprise. She had limited our contact with humans, after the incident with the deckhand.

  Maria’s surprise was no less than mine, but she spoke first. “You wish us to attend? You understand the human terminology best, so you should be the one to question the humans.”

  “If we all attend, we will recall more,” Vanessa explained. “However, I can ask all of our questions if you feel your human vocabulary is too limited. There are other changes to rules. The fishers I have spoken to suggest that fishing rules will change so that I must live on land in this camp more frequently than heretofore. I may have to fish one year in five, in order to retain our facilities here.”

  I spoke up. “In that case, I recommend you look at engaging human crew. The young human fisherman we saved the other night is capable.”

  Vanessa laughed. “I would like to see how capable the man is, before I engage his services, or trust him with anything belonging to our people. This includes our properties on land and our vessel.”

  “The humans believe he is very capable at maintaining human buildings. You, yourself, indicated you were impressed by his assistance in repairing the generator for your land camp,” I replied defensively.

  Vanessa smiled. “But I do not know how he handles a vessel, nor how careful he is. If I must employ a human, I must be entirely satisfied that the human can be trusted.”

  Maria was impatient. “Enough of the human. Undoubtedly, you will have opportunities to observe his performance, before any such decision must be made. Is this not true?”

  Vanessa’s smile grew more pronounced. “It is. I will make sure such opportunities arise. So, we are agreed that we will all attend the human speeches at the Fisheries camp next week?”

  I answered her question, buoyed by the hope of soon seeing my daughter. “Yes, we are agreed. Do you think the humans will give us enough information for us to return home next week, after the speeches?”

  Vanessa considered before she replied. “Perhaps. I doubt it. I suspect further communication with the humans will be necessary. If we had better communication with the mainland, it might be possible to leave in two weeks. I will speak to Joe tomorrow regarding the communications technology. He ordered it some time ago and indicated it should arrive this week.”

  I made a suggestion as it came to me. “You can perhaps observe his performance in installing the communications technology.”

  “I intend to observe his performance closely.” Her tone held a meaning I could not fathom.

  40. Joe

  “Your gear’s on the carrier boat. Come get it this afternoon,” the note on my door read when we returned from fishing on the Dolphin. Instead of going in to make breakfast, I wandered down to the carrier boat jetty with a wheelbarrow I borrowed from Skipper.

  “Hey, Joe,” said Dave, the carrier boat skipper. “You got some electrical equipment here. Have the Fisheries boys broken their antenna again?”

  I checked over the boxes, to make sure we had everything. “Nah, this isn’t for Fisheries. I fixed their camp already.”

  “Who else wants a satellite link out here?” Dave wondered.

  I started lifting the boxes into the wheelbarrow. “Vanessa, Siren’s skipper. She said she wants internet access, and she’s willing to pay for it.”

  Dave whistled. “Yeah, well if I looked like her, maybe I’d be able to afford a satellite link, too.” He winked.

  Annoyed, I snapped back, “She pays cash, like anyone else. I’m charging her the same as the Fisheries blokes.” If I give a discount to every client with a nice pair of boobs, I’ll never get my house.

  He shrugged. “But I bet you’d give her a freebie for a night with her.” His look turned shrewd. “I know I would.”

  My breath caught in my throat. For a night with her, I’d probably be willing to pay for the equipment, too. I shook my head and smiled. “Who wouldn’t? But we’d never dare ask and we sure as hell wouldn’t get it, even if we did ask. I’ll take her money and be happy with that.”

  We both laughed. I finished loading up my wheelbarrow, thanked him and started carting the boxes away, down the path to Vanessa’s place.

  She was sitting on her veranda when I started unloading the contents of my wheelbarrow onto her deck. “Hi, Joe,” she said, standing up and putting her book down. “Did you bring me a present?”

  I laughed. “Just your communications equipment. It arrived on the carrier boat today. I can probably get it installed by tonight, if you like.”

  Her face lit up and she bounced with excitement. She was wearing one of those low-cut singlet tops again today. “Is there anything I can do?”

  Look at those boobs bounce. Shit, I want to get my hands around those curves. No, don't stare at her boobs. Look up, damn it! “Well, if you want to make me that dinner tonight, I can work through till dark and get it finished today,” I said carefully, praying that she didn’t think I meant that all she could do was cook. She seemed quite liberated enough to hit me for suggesting she limit herself to cooking.

  “Oooh, what do you want?” She was too excited to take offence, thank God.

  You. “Whatever you like,” I said vaguely, opening up boxes.

  She headed back into the house. I went to get my tools and she was still inside when I got back. I got to work.

  I was on her tin roof, setting up the satellite dish, when I heard her call my name. I stood up, looking around.

  I saw her, almost underneath me, standing close to the eaves of her house. From this angle, I could see right down her singlet top to the pale blue lace inside it. Oh, thank God I’m a sparky. Sights like this make it all worthwhile.

  “Did you want fish, steak, or pizza?” she asked, looking up at me. “The girls have some fresh fish, but I have some steak and frozen pizzas in the deep freeze.”

  “I haven’t had a pizza in ages,” I told her honestly.

  She smiled. “Oh good, that’s what I wanted, too, but I didn’t want to be lazy and just heat up a frozen pizza when I promised you dinner. You’re working so hard.”

  If I stretch out on the roof and stick my arms off the eaves, I can probably just reach those amazing tits, scoop them out of that lace…working hard, yeah.

  I forced myself to turn my eyes back to the dish. The satellite dish, I reminded myself. After a few minutes, I dared to glance back to see if she’d gone back inside the house. She was still standing there, watching me.

  “The pizzas only take twenty minutes, and I’m not hungry yet. Do you mind if I watch you?” she asked.

  “Go ahead,” I told her. Just as long as you don’t mind me watching you…right, get this satellite dish fixed to the roof, then you can take another look. Only a few seconds, or she’ll notice you staring. Then you have to get it wired up before you get another one…God I love being a sparky.

  I did everything I possibly could from the roof before I reluctantly climbed down. I drilled a few holes, wired it all up, installed the equipment inside the house…it went faster than the Fisheries camp, because her house was much smaller and it was a completely new installation. The sun was setting as I finished and her house smelled pretty strongly of pizza.

  I checked the signal and it was surprisingly good. “I’ll hook up your phone, if you like,” I offered.

  She laughed. “Um, I haven’t bought one yet. I’ll get the girls to pick one up next time they go to the mainland. It’s the internet I really want, for my laptop.” She pointed at the black bag that blended in to the rickety little black table pushed up against the wall behind the fridge.

  I unzipped the bag and starting setting up her
laptop, plugging it in to power and the uplink, before turning it on. As the little computer started up, I debated in my head what her desktop picture would be. Kittens. Puppies. Some girly movie. Please, don’t let it be some stupid buff actor. Please, don’t let it be a bloke at all. Horses. Fish. Dolphins…yeah, I bet she has a pretty picture of dolphins. I waited and was disappointed to see the ordinary, default blue background. I would have picked Vanessa for someone who’d choose her own.

  A window popped up, asking me for a password. I drew a blank. “Vanessa? It’s asking for your password.”

  I could hear her footsteps on the vinyl. Two arms came around my neck, fingers reaching for the keyboard. She rested her chin on my shoulder, her boobs squashed against my back. I sat frozen for a second, until I realised that she couldn’t quite touch the keyboard.

  “Did you want me to move?” I asked breathlessly.

  “No,” she said vaguely. She moved back, so she wasn’t touching me anymore. I dared to breathe again.

  She touched her fingers to my shoulder, walking around to stand next to me. As naturally as if this were a perfectly normal thing to do, she perched on my lap.

  I didn’t know where to put my hands or what to say. I pressed my legs together and desperately prayed I didn’t get too turned on. Most of me wanted her to sit there long enough for me to get aroused, while a small part of me wanted her to get off the leg that was slowly going numb under her weight. All of me wants her to redistribute her weight, put one leg on either side of me and get really close…

  She jumped up and I rubbed my leg as the returning circulation was painful. “Sorry, Joe,” she said. “I’ll get dinner.”

  While my mind wandered, she’d entered her password. I started checking her connections, until I heard the scrape of metal torturing metal in the kitchen. I looked up. Vanessa had a big knife and was trying to cut the pizza with it, sawing it down to the metal tray. She was putting a fair bit of effort into it, her boobs bouncing around in that singlet. If I watched her do this much longer, I was going to make a total idiot of myself and do something stupid.

  I stood up and moved to the kitchen. “Let me help.” I didn’t know what I was doing, either, but I figured I should offer. It beat watching and wishing.

  She put the knife down on the bench and stood back.

  “What we need is one of those curved pizza knives, like a big saw, that the pizza shops have,” I stated, trying to sound knowledgeable. “So, do you have one of those?”

  She yanked open her kitchen drawer. I peered in and realised she’d picked the biggest knife she had. “Ah,” I said uselessly.

  “Do you have one in your place?” Vanessa asked brightly.

  I have three knives. Two butter knives and one that looks sharper than the butter knives, but it isn’t. Then there’s the filleting knife in my fishing tacklebox…

  I answered truthfully, “No.”

  We both stared at the pizza. Well, if I were at home, I’d just pick up a knife and fork and cut it into bite sized pieces…

  “If we get a fork, maybe we can still cut it with the big knife,” I suggested.

  She pulled a fork out of the drawer and held it up with the knife. The look she gave me was trusting. “Now what?”

  “Now you stab it with the fork and try to cut it…” I began.

  She looked expectant. “Show me.” But she didn’t let go of her cutlery.

  Cautiously, I put my hands over hers, grasping both of her hands, the knife and the fork. I took a deep breath and tried to help her cut the damn pizza into vague slices. I didn’t let go of her hands till we’d finished. My hands felt like they were burning in contact with hers, but hers were cool as if this were perfectly normal. She dropped the knife and fork on the tray as soon as I let go of her hands.

  “Thank you,” she said, reaching for a mutilated slice of pizza. She took a big bite, before producing a plate to put the slice on. She chewed and swallowed. “Can I get you a drink?”

  I was closer to the fridge. “I can get it. Did you want one, too?”

  She nodded. “I’d like a beer, please.”

  I took out two beers, opened them and handed one to her. These look like the Stellas I gave her. I shrugged and drank it anyway. Nothing wrong with a Stella.

  She sat at the kitchen table and I followed suit, figuring it would look bad if I went to sit on the couch. She waited while I took a huge bite of pizza and a big swig of beer before she spoke. “So, Mr Communications Expert, where’d you learn to hack up pizza like that?”

  I almost choked. Mr Communications Expert, who can barely manage a coherent sentence around her. I almost put the satellite dish the wrong way round, because I got distracted by her boobs.

  She leaned across the table, to pound me on the back. Her boobs almost spilled out the front of her singlet, right across the table. “Are you okay?” she asked anxiously.

  I managed to swallow. Infinitely harder, I managed to drag my eyes away from her skin against the tabletop and look at her face. “Sure.” I coughed. “Um, I don’t know. Sometimes you just have to improvise with whatever’s around.”

  “What’s the dodgiest job you’ve ever had to do?” she asked.

  Ripping you off for this installation, probably. I tried not to think about it. “Last week, one of the houses over on Roma had to be completely rewired, but I’d run out of spare wire and solder for the soldering iron, so I patched the whole thing up with a couple of rolls of electrical tape. And the fisher paid me well for it, too, because it meant his power worked. When the carrier boat got in with my supplies, I went back and fixed the whole place up properly. Then the fisher paid me all over again. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he’d been living in a house that was barely held together with sticky tape.” We both laughed.

  “Ooh, that reminds me,” she said. I felt my heart sink. She pulled a folded wad of notes out of the hip pocket of her shorts and handed it to me. “That’s how much you quoted me.”

  I took the cash, still warm from her body. My honesty got the better of me. “Look, I can’t take all this. The Fisheries camp was a much harder job that took longer. Yours was easy by comparison…” I peeled off half the notes and tried to hand them back to her. I put the rest of the warm notes in my hip pocket. This is the closest I’ll ever be to getting into her pants. “This is more than enough.”

  She folded my fingers around the notes I held out to her. “Keep it. I agreed to pay the quoted price because it’s worth it to have internet out here.” Her eyes turned wicked. “You could buy yourself a proper pizza knife and never have to eat hacked-up pizza again!”

  It was my turn to laugh. “First I’d have to learn to use it. I’d still be eating a lot more hacked up pizza, till I work that out.”

  Her eyes shone. “What else do we have to do out here at night? We could share a few pizzas and you could work on improving your skills.” Was it my imagination, or did it seem like she wasn’t talking about my talent for cutting pizza? Nah, must be just wishful thinking.

  Reluctantly, I put the extra money in my pocket and went to get some more pizza. We were both quiet for a bit, because even hacked up, the pizza was good.

  When I didn’t think I could eat any more, I started feeling guilty again for overcharging her. I stood up to leave, feeling bad that I was trespassing on her hospitality on top of ripping her off. I thanked her for the dinner as I walked toward her front door. I got the door open, before I turned back.

  “If you ever need help with anything, just ask. I won’t charge you a cent next time.” I turned and walked out, closing the door behind me. I didn’t even want to look at her.

  You just ripped off a beautiful woman for letting you look at her boobs for half the day, while hooking up a few wires in her house. And all this so you can buy a house.

  I lay face-down on my bed and stuck a pillow over my head. After a day of looking at her, I tried to shove Vanessa out of my mind and not think about her at all. I managed it until
I fell asleep and lost all control of my thoughts entirely.

  41. Belinda

  I entered Vanessa’s house to wash the soiled clothing with her washing machine. She paid little attention to my presence, her eyes on the small computer screen. The coloured light from it shimmered like sunlight on shell.

  I started a washing cycle for the clothing and returned to the kitchen, where Vanessa did not appear to have moved. I looked at her clam-like computer with distaste. “You spend too much time with that machine. It has been more than a week and you have not left the house, not even to accompany us fishing. I have seen the young human fisherman knock at your door, only to receive no answer. Are you well?”

  Vanessa did not move and continued staring intently at the screen. I noticed two small wires running from the side of the computer into her hair. I pulled on the wires and two small, round end pieces dropped into her lap. Now she noticed my presence.

  “I am sorry. There is so much information here, but a great deal of it is useless. I am trying to make sense of it, to find what is valuable.” She rubbed her eyes, looking weary.

  I shook my head. “You must also sleep.”

  She smiled, but she did not look happy. “I am almost finished. I have reviewed thousands of journal articles, newspapers and reports. Very few have noticed the changes we have seen to the ocean’s floor. One sees the warmer water temperatures, flowing down this coast, but not the cause. One sees disasters in earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunami, but the focus is on the effect on humans. Several look at changing fish populations and species of birds that eat fish, describing decreasing numbers, but not the reason why. The humans lack perspective.”

  I asked the burning question. “We approach our fishing quota. Do you feel that we have all the information we can yet obtain from the humans?”

  She gave a very human sigh. “No, I think I must speak to some of the researchers from Fisheries when they are here. I have questions which they may be able to answer. Alternatively, they may need to return to their homes to provide further information. I think we can plan to return to the deeps in less than two weeks. It will be good to swim again. How long have I been working? When will the Fisheries researchers be here?”