Indigo Moon by Eileen Merriman

Author:Eileen Merriman [Merriman, Eileen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780143778660
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SIX:

RIGEL

‘Are you sure you don’t want dessert?’ the flight steward asks. ‘We have Geneti-berry crumble or a cheese platter, followed by either coffee or a twenty-five-year-old tawny port.’

I shake my head. ‘I think I’ll just go to sleep,’ I say, which couldn’t be further from the truth, despite the fact that it’s nearly one am. Across the aisle, I see that Rawiri has already closed the hatch on his sleep capsule and activated the tint on the windows.

‘Yes, it’s still a few hours until we land.’ She smiles. ‘Not like in the old days, though, when it used to take almost a whole day to fly across the world. Would you like me to make up your bed?’

‘Sure, thanks,’ I say, wondering how planes could even stay up in the air if they used to be so slow. I take the opportunity to go to the toilet, using mango-scented soap to wash up, followed by a single-use fluffy white towel. Wow, I guess this is how celebrities live.

After brushing my teeth, I return to my seat, which has been converted into a bed complete with sheets, a pillow and a kiwi-bird-patterned blanket. I enclose myself in the capsule and turn off the lights. My limbs are heavy, my head thick with exhaustion. I start drifting in and out of sleep, jerking into wakefulness every few minutes. Damn it, if only my brain would shut up. All I can think about is how the hell we’re going to go about finding Indigo and my dad, and how I missed the chance to kiss Brie, not necessarily in that order.

Eventually, I give up and do what I always do when I can’t sleep. Within seconds, I’m drifting in a completely different way, floating in the tepid currents swirling around the coral kingdom of the Great Barrier Reef.

It’s been a while since I visited the reef, but as always I’m blown away by the technicolour world down here. It’s different nearer the surface, of course — most of the reef is grey and dead — but in my surgeonfish form I can sneak into places where humans can’t reach.

A black and white fish darts around me, its twin-dorsal fins waggling suggestively. Do you ever sleep? It’s quite beneficial, you know.

Nice cardinal fish, I think-answer. And I could say the same about you.

I was quite looking forward to a nice snooze, actually, especially after the aged port I had with my dessert.

So, go. I swim past a giant clam, taking care to avoid being washed into its open shell. That would suck. I don’t need a bodyguard.

Just checking you weren’t doing anything crazy. Rawiri-fish nibbles at a frond of seaweed.

Such as what? I cruise over a lavender-coloured lump of coral. I wasn’t going to try and possess anyone right this minute, if that’s what you’re worried about. Maybe after breakfast, when I’m more refreshed.

I sense an uncharacteristic ripple of alarm in my uncle’s thought-stream. Let’s just wait until we get to London, hmm?

I was joking.

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