Monster in the Middle by Tiphanie Yanique

Author:Tiphanie Yanique [Yanique, Tiphanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-10-19T00:00:00+00:00

Belly of the Whale

Stela’s First Love Story

Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands

2007

1.

Today Johann shows Maristela how to hold the rope and release herself down. Her bare hands grip the rope; her bare feet slide down the soil, shifting aside the dirt of the mountain. He is in front of her on the trail but below her because they are going down. This mountain doesn’t lead to a valley. It leads to the ocean. At the bottom, there is not even a beach. There is only a patch of dirt just enough for Johann and Maristela to sit on. There, he fastens the flippers to her feet and tells her to spit into the goggles. He adjusts them gently, but tightly, on her sweet face. This is Stela’s first time. It is a gift he is giving her. She is fourteen and he is nineteen. It is Christmas Day.

Johann says, “The flippers are so you don’t step on the sea urchins.”

Stela looks into the water, which is shallow here. The black spines spear out of the urchins’ round bodies, making them look like underwater porcupines. Stela is afraid of them. Johann, who loves her, can sense this. “You have to dive into the shallow water, face in and flat like a board. Keep all of your body at the surface.” He says this serious but kind. “Don’t put your hands down until you’re in the deep. If you get pricked the blood will be bad and those stingers don’t come out. Just glide like Superwoman.”

Stela is certain that one of the spines will pierce her hands or face or chest. But she nods anyway. Johann smiles and then kisses her mouth.

“Follow me,” he says. And she does. As far as Stela can say, she will follow Johann forever. They bend their knees and snap forward until they are gliding over the shallow area. Stela holds her breath, anticipating the needles. Her flippered feet kick like propellers. When she can no longer hold her breath, she tests with her arms and feels nothing below her but the thickness of the water. She pushes herself to air. She and Johann are there together, swimming in the open ocean.

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