Review of Australian Fiction, Volume 10, Issue 6 by Paddy O'Reilly

Author:Paddy O'Reilly
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781922171627
Publisher: Review of Australian Fiction

So here we are, standing up to our hips in the dawn sea, dressed in bikinis and pantyhose. We’re holding our arms high and she’s gripping my right hand like she’s the referee and I’m the winner of the bout. She’s gripping my hand so hard it hurts and I think of those years at school when all I wanted was to be her, the glorious, take-no-prisoners, bulletproof Josie. I can see the transparent blue of a box jellyfish drifting toward us on the lip of the swell, its tentacles performing a slow shimmy in the seawater. There are probably millions of broken off tentacles here too, random strands riding the currents, wrapping themselves around the driftwood and the seaweed, the tiny silver fish and the human beings.

‘I feel better now,’ Josie says. ‘The water is refreshing.’

My arms are getting tired. It’s tempting to let them drop into the cool sea.

‘Thanks for coming,’ she says.

‘Of course I came. I’d always come.’

Our raised arms start to tremble with the strain.

‘I think I’m going to go back to shore now,’ she says. She lets go of my hand and leans over to kiss me on the cheek. The movement causes water to lap over the waistband of my pantyhose. I wait for the excruciating sting, but nothing happens. ‘Coming?’

‘I’ll stay in a minute longer.’ I wrap my arms around my chest and stare out to the horizon, white-blue against the dark line of the sea.

The jellyfish washes past me on the swell, its gelatinous body bumping harmlessly against my nylon-wrapped thigh.

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