BooksBarbecue
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

Usually, in these sorts of circumstances, people say: ‘I didn’t think.’ But I did think. I don’t remember what, precisely. I just know it wasn’t thoughtless on my part, which is why they’re making me see a psychologist now. Mostly, it was that I didn’t want to be the witness, skulking roadside in the dark, looking the other way, waiting for it to be over in a squelch of black ink, blue blood and brains. I wanted to help her. To be able to do something. For her. For myself. To just, finally, do something.

It was dark. The car flicked its headlights from high to low beam. That must be why my depth perception was so out of whack. I thought I had enough time.

I lunged forward and grabbed.

My hand wrapped around a slimy arm.

Was the octopus surprised? Are they capable of surprise?

I remember being out in the tinny once with Jem. We were cruising about with a pod of dolphins, who were surfing our wake. Jem climbed up on the bow of the boat and reached down to where one was coasting along beside us and grabbed it by the dorsal fin, and I swear it started and looked over its shoulder at him, and with that, quick smart, the whole pod disappeared. There was something so human-like about the dolphin’s facial expression.

It was the same thing that night: the octopus started as if it was surprised, turned to me and, somewhat dreamily, curled a tendril-like arm up and around my wrist. Her suckers folded to fit the contours of my skin and she latched on, holding me as much as I was holding her. Together we were caught in the headlights.

The car hit us. Not full on, but still, it was enough to send me flying. I landed heavily on my chest. My breasts compressed beneath me. I skidded on them across the red gravel that edges the road. Momentum rolled my jumper and shirt up under my chin and exposed my stomach and chest. I was shredded. Strips of skin and flesh peeled back to expose the silicone beneath. I ground to a stop. Chin down like a brake. A disembodied octopus arm in my fist. Suckers still clinging to me. She lay a few metres away.

I hadn’t let go. I’d flung the octopus. Ripped her arm from her head. She twitched. Nerves.

Look at us, lying here, I thought, as the world went slack. The octopus and I.

TWO

TWO

A SEAL’S TAKE

A SEAL’S TAKE