Stumble It!
On Growing an Ocean's Tail Part I
Sunday, October 31, 2010 at 08:30PM 
It was an indecent request, especially coming from him, but she already knew that. She claimed it was the boredom, the anguished sun rising and falling perpetually, the drops of sweat running between her thighs, the bars on the windows and the lock on the gate that caused her wickedness. It should have made no difference to me...still...my feelings for her had started to change. I no longer found her indispensable.
I for one loved the aimless day and the intense heat. My intentions were to cater only to my passion for alchemy-ish experiments all summer. I filled my moments with either an inordinate amount of self-imposed deadlines or nothingness- where I just stared at the ocean's horizon and contemplated its unwavering straightness. Our parents, mutual friends through the corporation, had thought it ideal for two young women coming of age to spend the summer on this isle. I thought the idea quaint for our long collegiate summer break, though I have always generally been indifferent to the way my parents think. Yet, I have to admit, knowing what their money can buy, I was just as surprised as Lily was about the de trop confinement.
Our hosts, an elderly couple, barely spoke English if they spoke any language at all. They left us alone most of the day with the exception of dinner. The husband was a burnt, crisp, wreaking fisherman and so we ate more fresh seafood than any all-you-can-eat sushi buffet back home. The lip-sealed couple tended the property which seemed to have major acreage. Still our guest-like existence and activities strictly hovered in close range to the locked front gate.
I remember the day he came to call. I had successfully grown a hybrid lilac with ruby black petals, my Environmental Mutiny professor would have been proud. The bud was at the precipice of opening. Lily was playing with her hair, humming, air-swimming and embracing invisibility in a waltz when the bane of my existence arrived at the gate. The sky shook. He rattled the lock so loudly it crashed through my complacent bliss like a canon. I noticed Lily's agitated state and I knew from that moment on things would never be the same.
He hung his rolled up white sleeves through the gate's bars and promised us both a never-before-had experience, and more importantly "a choice", for a different way of life. In a delicious, rich droll of a door to door salesman he offered a way to "drop out of the system".
"I rather like the system, What are you an anarchist?" I asked in an inadvertently disgusted manner, but to be honest I was observing him like a specimen of great degradation. I noticed chest hair, seed chains and a wedding ring. I was therefore surprised when he licked his lips and in an inappropriate manner passed his hand over Lily's arm. I warned her with my eyes that she stood within a dangerous proximity to the gate. He seemed to notice my retreat and proceeded to talk about magic and the ability to make something out of nothing through the ocean's reef, as though he knew what would lure me.
"Look I live here, all year round and I have sent other girls to this place that I speak of...it's a blue world where things like sex just don't matter, but love..." He looked at Lily and exhaled, "..that still matters. Look if you come, you won't regret it, the first night is like being at the dance club on X you know, but on the beach, all the girls they never wanna come back. Its a shortcut to fulfillment." He sucked air in through his teeth and looked hard into Lily's eyes then straight on asked her, "Are you even a little interested?"
"How do we unlock the gate?"
Leave it to Lily to answer a question with a question.
"You order a key... with me."
Lily's eyes turned puppy dog and she slobbered in my direction with a face of yearning. All I could think about was how every shortcut I ever took in my life felt like cheating, which in turn made me feel lesser not fuller. Less capable is not my idea of fulfillment. If I considered leaving I suspected that I would never see my bud bloom. The mysterious stranger was undeniably aware of my resistance, despite my lack of verbal cues. He was significantly older than us as I could see the salt and pepper spray along his temples crowning the recession of his full head of hair.
Suddenly he withdrew, "I'll give you a week to think about it." He slipped his arms out around the lock, jiggled it for effect and walked away with a confident sockless-in-sandals-swagger.
Reader Comments (8)
Ah, turning points - enabling or sinister?
This was beautiful and atmospheric - mysterious.
well-crafted and the story lures you in just like your character. can't wait to read the second part.
Beautiful imagery! Loved the rich drama!
I may be way off base here, but the whole mystery man seems like a... like a merman trying to lure them away. Very good atmosphere and pacing.
Rose
xo
Ooh, I like Rose's idea! I had wondered WHERE and to WHAT they were headed... that's a good idea.
and of course May goes...right?
That man was just...creepy.
Wonderful piece. Great descriptive language.
-Nicole
I loved it for the darkness...
long and short of it
now this one definitely leaves me wanting more...