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Back The Octopus and I
Chapters (19)
  1. COVER PAGE
  2. PRAISE
  3. TITLE PAGE
  4. COPYRIGHT PAGE
  5. DEDICATION
  6. CONTENTS
  7. ONE
  8. CROSSING ISTHMUS
  9. THE OCTOPUS INCIDENT
  10. TWO
  11. A SEAL’S TAKE
  12. THE MULTI-COLOURED KNITTED KNOCKERS
  13. NO BIRD IS ONLY AN I
  14. THREE
  15. I AM SHE
  16. SPUN AIR
  17. THE OCTOPUS AND I
  18. NOTES AND REFERENCES
  19. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

‘Speaking of gems,’ she says. ‘I think I’ve left him. Jem, that is.’

Flo nods. ‘Had a feeling it might’ve been coming.’

‘Yeah, he’s,’ Lucy pauses, frowns. ‘I don’t think we’re right for each other. I don’t know if we ever were; it just seemed like we were because I wanted us to be, because I wanted that life with him. I think I wanted and loved it more than I wanted and loved him, you know? I feel awful because he was there for me when I was sick but then afterwards everything changed and we just didn’t work anymore. And he’s, he’s …’ Lucy sniffles, and takes a deep breath. ‘He’s done something. I … I—’ Sobs shudder her body and stop her vocal cords. She can’t get the words out.

‘Later,’ Flo says. ‘We can talk about it later.’

They sit in silence as Lucy’s breathing calms.

Eventually Flo ventures: ‘Need somewhere to stay?’

‘I guess,’ Lucy croaks miserably.

‘I’ll make Harry’s room up for you.’

‘Harry—Harry’s gone?’

‘Yeah,’ Flo says. ‘Not far, though. He’s moved three doors down, into Paul and Claire Brinkman’s place. They’ve been trying to rent it out for donkey’s and then, the other night, he said to me, he said: I gave Paul a call and I’m moving into his old place tomorrow morning. And he’s taken over Gray’s old boat too—given the boys who’ve been leasing it a fortnight’s notice and told them they can stay on as deckies, if they want. So it’s just me now,’ Flo says. ‘Just me and you for as long as you want to stay.’

‘Thanks, Flo,’ Lucy says. Then she starts telling Flo about this thing she saw on the telly, on one of those paddock-to-plate cooking shows, about these people who brine then smoke mussels before pickling them in vinegar and oil.

‘Want to give it a crack?’ Lucy asks.

THE OCTOPUS AND I

THE OCTOPUS AND I

What worried the little female seal most was how swollen her belly was. She worried that she wouldn’t be able to launch herself high enough to get up and into the school of herded fish. And while she worried, her belly grew and grew until she realised it was now or never. He was right. Soon she would have a pup and then she couldn’t leave, even if she wanted to.

Her worries in that regard weren’t unfounded, but what should have worried her more was actually finding her friend. The ocean is so big. There are seamounts and islands and all the different fish and whales and dolphins and birds floating and diving. There are crabs and crayfish and octopuses and squid and great forests of swaying weed. There are glittering hazes of bioluminescence and clouds of krill so fine they get lodged in your orifices if you swim through them (when she was a half-pup she had one whispering in her ear for a week, until it died and fell out). There are boats and there are sharks, big and small. There are packs of orcas that roam and comb, hunting. And in between all these things there is so much water unbroken and rolling. So much water. There are currents and other currents, crisscrossed with gyres and undercurrents and eddies, muddled by tides and swells.