juvenilia

"Alone"

"Alone"

More appalling juvenile fiction.

If you enjoyed last week's installment, "Battle for Our Home," you might like this one. Style notwithstanding the information about diving equipment I was learning from reading adventure novels by Willard Price as a little kid in the local library was really outdated. The same thing happened with Patricia Cornwell novels and forensic science but I was not allowed to write my projects about boiling bones on the same kitchen stovetop where you made sauce from a recipe you'd inherited through your Italian-American heritage on Sundays. Nor was I allowed to recite Dulce et Decorum Est in assembly.

I was so excited. I just could not believe that we were going to Australia! We had been saving for a long time, which made the trip even more special. I still could not believe it! The belt was loaded with four pieces of lead to weigh us down, and we had an aqualung to breathe with. I was so glad to be going diving, especially here. The wet suit seemed clinging and rubbery at first, but as we entered the water it seemed to disappear. A thousand cool caresses were passed over me in the first moment submerged. As we approached the reef, I was hit by a dazzling colours, many of which I had never seen before. The coral was glowing in the water, created by the tiny sculptors of the sea. Then, a silver-blue body appeared, gambolling and leaping in it’s joy. A dolphin! I followed it, charmed by it’s playful manner. I clung on to it’s back and it took me for the ride of my life. Twisting, turning; it sent me into ecstasies! After playing for a while, I tapped it and pointed the way we had come. When we arrived back at the coral reef, all that was left of the tour was a reddish tinge in the water. In panic I swam upwards, but froze. Two of them. One above, one below. Spiralling slowly towards me. “Sharks,” was my only thought, but I did not move. I was paralysed in terror. They circled nearer and nearer. I realised that I was trembling. I was too numb to scream. They nosed around me. I jerked when my belt was suddenly ripped off. Every muscle was tense and rippling. The sandpapery hide ripped my wetsuit, and a cold rush flooded in. I jumped. The larger creature was moving towards me. Face to face. Eyes locked. I felt punished. I knew nothing more.

Danny also blogged about outdated forensic science today.

Jo Livingstone