I gritted my teeth so I wouldn’t say it aloud. Then I took another huge bite of my breakfast.
If you’re not going to mention sex, I’m not saying a word about it. Shit, does that mean she didn’t enjoy herself as much as I did last night? I should have taken it more slowly. I’ve fucked up royally now.
I swallowed the last of my croissant. “Whenever you want to head back to Rat is fine with me. I think I’ve had enough snorkelling and fishing to last me all weekend.”
She smiled, but she didn’t look as happy as she had last night. “Sure,” she said softly. “We can head back as soon as I’m done with the breakfast dishes.”
53. Belinda
Maria recalled little of our drunken escapade of the previous evening, remaining in bed as long as she could before we checked out of the hotel. She required human pain-relief medication and remained unwell for a considerable time afterwards.
As we packaged our purchases for transport on the carrier boat, she said little and I said less. I did not want to draw attention to the insanities of last night, or her change of heart toward humans.
Once our purchases were secure aboard the carrier boat, we had time to consume lunch before the vessel departed.
I chose a small shop a short distance from where the boat was moored. This shop sold cooked fish with chips and carried a considerable reputation among the humans for the quality of the fish. In my past experience, I felt this reputation was merited, as the fish was obtained from the fishing boats nearby, so it was fresher than most mainland fish.
Maria said that she was too unwell to consume any human food yet, so I ordered my meal whilst she sat outside the shop, looking at the vessels in the small harbour. The smell of boat fuel was strong, but not strong enough to discourage my taste for food.
Skipper watched us cross the paved parking area from the shop to his vessel. “Ready, girls? All aboard for the Abrolhos!” He grinned widely as he said this.
I permitted a small smile to cross my face in response as I boarded his vessel, followed by Maria.
We were not in the open ocean for long before Maria leaned over the side of the vessel and voided the contents of her stomach. When she was finished, she wiped her mouth and mumbled a commitment to avoid strange human drinks that were both warm and cold.
I smiled and said nothing. I thought of my whiskey, carefully packed in with our supplies. I would miss the fiery drink when we returned to the deeps, but I still had a week left in which to enjoy it.
54. Joe
The southerly was in, so it was pretty choppy in Middle Channel. We made it halfway across before she suddenly turned to me and asked me to take over.
She almost slid down the ladder and stumbled to the side before she threw up. And again. And again...
She hugged the side of the boat until we were in the anchorage. She straightened up to help me tie up at her jetty, her face pale.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I asked, worried.
She smiled wanly. “I get seasick. Thank you for getting us back safely.”
I found this hilarious. “Seriously, you get seasick?” Even the perfect woman has a flaw.
“Yes.” She sounded resigned and looked shaky as she held on to one of the canopy posts for support.
I unloaded my gear onto the jetty, then jumped down after it. “Do you need a hand?” I asked doubtfully, offering it anyway.
She smiled again, shaking her head. “No, I’ll just tidy up here a little bit, then I’ll head back to my place and make a start on something for lunch. Don’t want my deckhands complaining about me having orgies on their boat while they’re away.” She pulled a face.
I forced a laugh and loaded myself up with gear. “Thanks for a fun weekend off. I haven’t enjoyed myself this much in a long time.” Like ever.
She looked rueful. “It’s been ages since I had such a good time, too. Hey, the weekend’s not over yet. You’re welcome to join me for lunch, if you’d like.”
“Yeah, sure,” I replied.
I lugged my fishing and snorkelling gear down her jetty, toward my house. Just as I set foot on the path, one of the guys from Southern Group emerged from my veranda.
“You’re Joe, the sparky who’s deckying for Skipper this season, right?” he asked me, looking desperate.
“That’s me,” I said easily, dropping the rods on the veranda. I started to hang up my towels and boardies over the rope clothes line.
“The big generator on Basile’s blown and we need to get it fixed. We’ve got freezers full of stuff defrosting, and if we need to get any parts from Gero, we’ll need to know before tomorrow so we can get them on a plane or the carrier boat...” he babbled.
“Sure, I’ll come take a look,” I told him. “Let me get my tools. Did you bring a boat? I’ve only got my tinny.”
“Of course. I’ll give you a lift down, you can stay the night in one of the empty deckie camps, we’ll feed you and bring you back in the morning. Let me know what parts you need and we’ll radio the mainland to send it out tomorrow.” He stood there on my veranda, waiting.
I dumped my snorkelling gear on the veranda by the door and went in. I looked for a clean shirt and didn’t find any, so I went to the laundry and set off a load in the washing machine. I picked up my toolbag and headed out.
“Right, to Basile Island,” I told him.
Vanessa stepped off her jetty as we started down the path to where he’d moored his boat. She’s like a dream I want to keep having, but I have to wake up and go to work.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “Generator’s blown on Basile in the Southern Group. I’ll grab some lunch down there. I’ll be back tomorrow some time.”
She smiled and nodded. “Some of the best food on the islands is cooked on Basile. Hell, I’d take their cooking over mine any day. Good luck with their generator. See you when you get back.”
The bloke from Basile and I watched her walk down the path, go inside her house and close the door, before either of us said anything else.
“She invited you over for lunch?” he asked, leading the way to the boat.
“Yeah. We both had a weekend off, so we went up to the Wallabis to do some snorkelling and fishing while her crew is over in Geraldton. She needed a hand to handle the boat.” I tried to sound casual as I followed him, trying not to think of what else she’d let me handle.
“Catch anything good?”
“A shark and a couple of gropers.” I made it sound offhand. Don’t ask how big the shark was, or what else we did. I’m still not sure I wasn’t dreaming.
We both climbed onto his boat, where he and the other crewman cast off. We cruised along the anchorage.
Vanessa was on her veranda, taking down some washing. She waved and smiled as we went past.
“You’re playing with fire with that one,” the bloke from Basile warned me.
“She seems real sweet and friendly to me,” I replied. So friendly she spread her legs for me...
“It’s your funeral, mate,” the other bloke chimed in.
Well, it was a quiet trip to Basile Island after that.
55. Belinda
We were the only passengers Skipper carried on his carrier boat. The vessel pounded across the waves, jarring my teeth and bones. Oh for swimming beneath the waves, the smooth flow through water…
When the islands came into view, they first appeared to be more waves on the horizon. As we approached, the browns and greens of the prostrate vegetation on the uninhabited islands made them distinguishable from waves, as the white sands blended into white foam. I could discern sea lions sleeping on the shores of these islands, secure in their isolation. Some of them were much smaller than the somnolent creatures they lay closest to, and I knew these were the juveniles, lying beside their mothers. Like our kind, the males did not remain long with the mothers and the mothers protected their own.
I thought of Zerafina, who would enjoy a swim with these sea lions, or the dolphins we played with by nig
ht. One day, when she was old enough to swim the great distances across oceans, I would take her here. We would swim with dolphins and sea lions, through coral gardens and algal forests. I knew my sisters in the deep would protect her and care for her until I returned, but I missed her still.
I looked out across the waves, which were smaller now that we were inside the Easter Group. The anchorage was in view, with the houses like coloured boxes lined up along the eastern shore. This would be the last time I would travel this way by boat. Our fishing was complete and our fishing for information neared completion, too.
I will be home soon, my Zerafina. I have such stories to tell you, of humans and dolphins, sea lions and stars.
56. Joe
The guys from Basile dropped me off at Rat before dawn, before they went to check their pots. They didn’t want me to see their fishing spots, I gathered, though I didn’t much care.
I nodded goodbye as their boat disappeared into the darkness, my pocket full of cash and a carton of beer in my arms. I’d fixed the generator, then rewired most of the houses on the island. If I get many more days like this, I’m going to buy Dean a beer. I’d never made so much money on holidays before.
I walked slowly back to my place, dropping the beer off on the veranda. There was plenty in the fridge. I wouldn’t need these for a while.
I went over to Vanessa’s place, but all the lights were out. As it was the early hours of the morning and she wasn’t fishing until her crew returned in the afternoon, she was probably fast asleep. I left without knocking on the door.
With a sigh, I trudged home to my place and went to bed alone to dream about her, a poor substitute for the real thing.
57. Belinda
The wheelbarrow was loaded with the human food from the mainland and pushed to the vessel. We unloaded it on deck, before Maria returned for a second load.
Vanessa and I shifted the food from the deck to the various refrigerated storage cabinets on the vessel, to give Maria space to unload the next wheelbarrow-load.
I noticed the smell as I stepped into the cabin, a smell I had not known since I did my duty for Zerafina. My shock was complete. She hadn’t just touched the young human, she had joined with him. From the strength of the smell, she had done this many times. I was as speechless as the young human fisherman, before I stiffly spat out the words. “So you had fun with the young human fisherman.”
Her response was calm. “I certainly enjoyed my time with him.” She looked at the food she was packing into the deep freeze unit and not at me.
I took my small bag of clothing down into the bunkroom. The smell was stronger here. I started to put my clean clothes away and collect the soiled clothes in the laundry hamper. In the hamper already were some of her and my clothing, all of it rich with the smell of sex. I lifted up my human swim clothing from the hamper, to find it discoloured with blood. I swayed, disoriented. She had enjoyed this human as much as I had enjoyed the man with whom I did my duty.
I marched up the steps to the main cabin, bringing the ruined swim clothing with me. “Is there anywhere on this vessel that you did not enjoy him? His smell is all over the kitchen and the bunkroom. I will be unable to rest with his smell permeating the whole vessel,” I hissed.
Vanessa sounded disinterested. “You can clean the vessel if his smell offends you.”
I held up the bloody human swim clothing. “What of this? It will resist cleaning.”
She glanced up, before her attention returned to the deep freeze unit. “Oh, a shark tried to attack him. I was wearing your swim clothing at the time and I did not have time to remove it. The human was unharmed. The shark fillets are in the deep freeze, here, if you would like some.”
I dismissed the offer. “Shift them to the house refrigeration units. Our fish quota is caught and both Maria and I wish to return home. We will not crew the vessel past this week. We have made arrangements for its storage.”
She turned to face me. “And if I am not ready to leave?”
“You can stay and dally with the human fisherman for as long as it pleases you. But we shall not. I wish to return to my daughter and Maria is impatient to return to the deep.” In my anger, my voice was bitter.
Vanessa’s voice held a warning. “We must depart together, and I lead this group, not you.”
I ignored the warning and said words I would later regret. “We have a duty to return to our people with the information we have obtained. Mating with human males is not part of our duty for this trip, or has your memory become clouded with time? If so, it is time to step down as elder and appoint your successor. Either Maria or I will take pleasure in fulfilling your role as elder, but in that case we must return to the deep immediately for the appointment to be agreed upon by the other elders.”
I felt angry that her actions had surprised me, so I made a threat I knew was empty. She could not step down as elder until her work was complete. It seemed so incongruous, then, that she should indulge the urges of this human when she had far more pressing matters to attend to.
“No, my memory has no clouds. Only bright sunlight, mystery under the stars and the currents deep beneath the surface. I shall sate myself and return with you to the deep, soon. Do you not remember when you enjoyed the time you spent with a human man?”
Her calm, assured response only served to anger me further.
“Not at present. It appears I have a vessel to clean and sanitise, and a large quantity of clothing and linen to wash, before Maria is also sickened by the nauseating smell pervading it all. If you choose to offer your body to the human fisherman again, please confine your activities to the house and your own human clothing.” I stalked to the sleeping cabin, where I quickly stripped all the linen from the beds and placed it in the hamper. I heaved the full hamper up the stairs and across the deck to the jetty.
As my furious footsteps sounded on the jetty, made heavier by the load I carried, I reflected briefly on her words. “No, I do not wish to remember the time I spent with a human man when the time spent in remembrance is time I do not share with Zerafina. My fiery daughter, from those warm nights in the arms of a human. Time spent with her is far more precious than any brief dalliance with a human man, however warm and pleasurable his embrace. Even a human who washes frequently.”
I did not know if she heard my words, but I also did not care.
58. Joe
The sun was barely above the horizon and Vanessa was already hanging out her washing, her back to me. Today she wore red and it made her look thinner, somehow. I hoped she hadn’t been really sick, instead of just slightly seasick.
I approached her as quietly as I could, just watching her.
“Good morning,” I greeted her with a smile.
She turned as if I’d hit her, and I realised my mistake. “It might be, if the southerly would calm down some.” Her voice was colder than her icy expression.
“You’re not Vanessa,” I stammered.
“No,” she replied frostily. “I am Belinda, deckhand on the Siren.” She said this as though she were announcing her appointment as the queen of the known universe, instead of telling me she was just a deckie, the same as me.
I bit back a laugh. The ice queen might have delusions of grandeur, but I didn’t want to get into a fight with Vanessa’s deckie. “Where is she?” I asked reasonably. Hell, if I’d met this one first, I wouldn’t have come within shouting distance of any of the crew of the Siren. Belinda looked like she could have taken Vanessa’s dinner shark with nothing but her teeth before using me for a toothpick.
“The Siren is moored at her jetty,” Belinda said slowly, as if to an idiot, before she turned and pointed at the boat.
“Not the bloody boat. Vanessa. Where’s Vanessa?” I asked, getting irritated.
“She’s making arrangements for the Siren to go into storage until next season, so that we can leave by Monday.” She sniffed with distaste.
“Vanessa’s leaving next Monday?” I blurted out.
&n
bsp; “If I can’t persuade her to leave any sooner, yes.” Unwilling to prolong the conversation any further, Belinda the ice queen turned on her heel and stalked up the jetty back to Vanessa’s boat.
I stuck my tongue out at the sourpuss’s back. Now that I looked more closely, I saw the differences. Belinda was thinner, with much smaller boobs. She walked more stiffly than Vanessa, as if each step required a conscious effort. Or she had a spare fishing rod up her arse. Add that to her expression and she was such a different girl, I wondered why Vanessa put up with her.
Maybe she cleans the boat like a demon. Or maybe she makes ice between her legs to fill the icebox. I started laughing and found I couldn’t stop.
Belinda turned and glared at me, almost tripping over and falling into the water. She straightened up in an air of high dudgeon, her nose in the air, as she trotted back to the Siren.
59. Belinda
Vanessa observed me in conversation with the human and she waited unhappily for my return to the vessel. “I asked you to avoid contact with the young human fisherman.”
I felt defensive. Had she not observed that he initiated the conversation with me?
Her eyes were still on the human, through the cabin window. “You gave him information that saddened him. I would have preferred to do this in a kinder manner than you did.”
I closed my eyes. I forced the words out, hoping that I wouldn’t have to put them into action. “It was not my intention to hurt the human. I will return and apologise to him, if you wish.”
Her voice was firm and commanding. “I do not. I would like you to avoid contact with him, particularly now. Our time here is limited, and I must make amends for your rudeness.”
Swiftly, she crossed the deck and climbed off the vessel to stand on the jetty. The human’s face lit up as she approached him. I watched them and listened to the conversation that the wind carried across the anchorage.
Ocean's Gift Page 13
