Deep Time by Anthony Nanson

Author:Anthony Nanson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hawthorn Press

9

I couldn’t at first believe anything was amiss. She floated so peaceful-seeming among the slowly twisting garlands. But her face was still underwater. What was she doing? Had something happened? I dashed out into the sun’s terrific heat, calling her name.

Out where the inlet joined the open lake, something large breached the surface. A fish, a reptile, I couldn’t be sure what. Again I called to Salome. There was no response. Like the plant matter floating round her, her body yielded inertly to the water’s motion. It was no good. I splashed into the water. Already she’d drifted out of my depth. I swam the last few metres, seized her slippery shoulders, and pulled her face into the air. Her breath gasped out and reflexively she racked in more air. I hooked my hands under her arms lifesaver-style and swam us back till my feet hit stones.

I laid her face down in the shade of a palm and slapped the small of her back as she coughed and spluttered till at last she was breathing easily. In the lake, the very spot where she’d been, there briefly surfaced the tip of a snout, a protuberant eye, a flick of long grey tail. Then the reptile’s bow wave arrowed back towards the open water.

Over and over I stroked Salome’s goose-pimpling back. ‘What were you trying to do? You could have drowned!’

Her voice came high and breathless. ‘My mommy … she’s gone … my mommy’s gone away …’

I could not speak then. All I could do was caress her back. Her surviving garlands were snarled sodden together, concealing nothing. As the flurry of crisis passed, I couldn’t help but be aware of that and the one soggy garland still clinging round my loins.

‘Why did you do that? If I hadn’t been here …’

‘I don’t know …’ She twisted on to her side and, shivering despite the heat, clasped her arms across her chest. ‘So many years I’d been hoping … When they told me she … that they’d thrown her ashes on the water … I don’t know what I … Just I wanted to be with her.’

‘Didn’t Moyedou tell you …?’

‘I know … but …’ Tears were running from the corners of her eyes. ‘All these years she’s not been there for me and I’ve known she could be dead … and then Moyedou told me … and you know how upset I got … but in a way it was like nothing had changed. She still wasn’t there, same as before … and I still needed her …’

She rallied her strength to sit up. The remains of her garlands were twisted round one side of her body. She grasped them with both hands, tugged till they came apart, and flicked away the debris. Stray petals adhered to her. Her honey-olive breasts rose and fell with her breath, their long nipples stiffened by the water.

‘Brendan, I believe she’s still here … in some way … She’s not dead really … She’s part of this land.

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