The Drowned Forest by Angela Barry

Author:Angela Barry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peepal Tree Press Ltd

Nina

On the last Sunday morning of June, Nina found Genesis sampling some of the dishes ranged along the kitchen counter.

‘Morning,’ Genesis said, licking her fingers. ‘You’re early.’ She pointed to the clock: eight-thirty. ‘All dressed and going to your… mystery place.’

Nina laughed. ‘No mystery today. I’m going to Sharon’s baptism.’

‘Which Sharon?’

‘My niece Sharon. Janet’s oldest.’

‘Isn’t she… like… in her forties?’

‘Thirty-nine.’

‘Not too old?’

‘Not for this. A baptism. Not a christening.’

Genesis shrugged. ‘All this Christian stuff… I don’t get it.’

Nina propped herself on a kitchen stool. ‘Listen. I’m telling you this as someone who’s been in this Christian stuff, as you call it, all my life. Who’s been completely sure… until… These days I’m not as sure as I used to be.

‘Anyway, here goes. Sharon is being baptized with water and the Holy Spirit because she has taken Jesus Christ as her personal saviour and wants to be born again in his blood.’

‘Right.’

‘She wants her life to be different. You can see why.’

‘Sharon. Isn’t she the one with the three kids?’

‘And three fathers and no husband and a job at the checkout counter. That Sharon.’ Nina sighed. ‘She’s tried a lot of things to get her life in order but since she joined Elder Zuill’s church, she really does seem a lot better.’ She stood up. ‘That’s why I’m going. For her and my sister.’ She picked up her keys. ‘When they baptise her, I want to be there.’

She was at the door when she heard quick footsteps behind her.

‘Can I come?’

Nina was taken aback. Months of invitations to religious services of all kinds had been politely and not so politely declined.

Fifteen minutes later, Nina and Genesis were following a group of people through windblown shoreline bushes onto a beach, removing their shoes as they walked.

The white glare of the sun struck their eyes as they emerged from the undergrowth and saw the sea before them. The air was already hot but the sand was still cool underfoot. A line of worshippers headed towards an escarpment that rose out of the sea, providing an emphatic fullstop to the beach. There was an opening in the limestone spur and when Nina and Genesis ducked through it, they found themselves in a space very different from the bright blue water and broad curve of pink sand behind them. A fragmented circle of rock surrounded a tiny bay. The congregation stood on the sand and looked out at water so protected from the open ocean that it rose and fell as though barely breathing, while a wall of boulders broke the back of the ocean waves before allowing them to slip into the cove. There was no glare here. A filtered light placed the water at the green end of aquamarine.

‘They’re wearing white,’ Genesis whispered.

‘Yes,’ Nina whispered back. ‘The saints wear white.’

‘The what…?’

A couple of women behind them started humming. As the humming grew louder, those in white took up position by the edge of the water, then formed a double line on either side of the entrance to the cove.

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