Alien Personality

February 24, 2018July 23, 2018 ~ Piece, of the Sky

the future is now

Third night. Waves rolling in from outside the bay. Alli ran down the steps. Her trainers hit the sand. And she was off, in the direction of Mallo’s Mini-Mart.

The wind shook the palm trees. A gale was moving out on the water, further down the coast. Alli pulled her jean jacket in closer. The leaves flapped, battering each other in the breeze. The full moon lit up the beach; shadows lengthening in the sharp contrast. Rocks and crabs stood out, claws clicking in the night.

She walked past Mallo’s quickly. The clubs were quieter tonight, as if hunkering down for the incoming tempest. A few rockers hung about, holding Blue Moons. Solo cups littered the sidewalk outside the store. A Camaro sat in the parking lot, swarmed by punks and bikers.

The night ambience resumed, swallowing up Mallo’s in its wake. Alli kicked a cigarette butt on the ground.

Scorched logs from yesterday’s fire lay abandoned. Alli nudged one with her foot, watching it collapse into ash. Gusts whipped the eddies into tiny maelstroms, swirling without purpose.

The cliffs loomed in Alli’s line of sight, silhouettes against the cold, navy sky. Alli could see one of the tunnels, hollowed out by centuries of erosion, from here. It was low tide, Alli reminded herself – but still, her pulse began to drum in her ears.

The beach grew thinner. The jungle trees fell away to shrubbery and then to grass, and before Alli knew it, she was walking between the white cliffs and the sea. The surf menaced from its turf. Alli reminded herself that she could swim; swim parallel to the rip tide, not directly back to shore, headfirst into the wrathful waves.

She walked with her hand against the stone, but even the rock walls opened into the caves Ran had mentioned – various natural hallways and corridors running to the other side of the cliff, holes in which she could see the sea.

The water was close now, churning a few feet from her ankles. The lip of the islet hung a right, reaching out to the sandbars in the bay. She was through the caves and the cliffs now.

Back out in the moonlight, Alli squinted and looked around at the open water, the crashing waves, the rolling grass reaching back toward the cliffs. The sand stretched out into the sea, pining for some remote, lost land. A sand bridge to nowhere. Even the fields fell away and there was only water and sand, a primeval landscape, reversing the ancient walk uphill, upstream.

The ghost ship floated into view, metal mast winking in the night, rigging long lost and rotted. There were no ghosts, Alli thought to herself as she plodded on, through the damp sand.

She reached it – the black wreckage spread out like a spiderweb. The ocean had pounded a hole in the hull, through which, there was only darkness. Alli picked her way closer, through the seaweed carpeting the ground, making the rocks slippery. She peered into the ruin and let her eyes adjust.

Inside, shafts of moonlight illuminated dull pools of water, shrunken or swollen on the ocean’s whim. Beams had caved in. Broken wooden boxes lay discarded or smashed. Alli accidentally stepped in a puddle and soaked her foot to the skin.

“Well, are you going to go in?” a voice asked.

Alli nearly choked. She was still breathing heavily when she turned to see Ran behind her.

“You can’t – do something like that-!” Alli gasped.

“It was worth it for the look on your face,” Ran grinned, crossing her arms – which were tan and wiry, covered in fine, feathery red hair.

Alli’s heart slowed. She sat down on a beam at the threshold. She thought of her warm cabana and wondered what she was doing out here.

Ran came and sat down beside her, “Listen, I am sorry I scared you.”

Alli sighed, endorphins flooding her brain, post-scare. She stared out into the ocean. Sky and water met in an endless circle. Without the other, neither was complete.

Ran put an arm around Alli’s shoulder. That’s when Alli noticed the smaller boat, “You rowed here?”

“Yes,” Ran grinned, “I am surprised you actually came out.”

Alli shook her head, “You’re awful.”

“Come on, let me take you home,” Ran said.

Ran got up and offered Alli her hand. Alli gave her an incredulous look but put her hand in Ran’s. In the boat, Alli sat in the front, watching as Ran unhooked the oars.

They cast out into the sea, two figures on that unending horizon. The moon sunk silently, surrounded by clouds rushing southward, ahead of the storm.

urban spelunking

Songs:

“I Heard You Say” – Vivian Girls

“I Took Your Name” – R.E.M.

“Dreams” – The Cranberries

Soft Girlfriend

February 22, 2018July 23, 2018 ~ Piece, of the Sky

gamecube, yes

The stars poked through the clouds. Alli stepped outside of her seaside cabana, with the thatch roof, and went down the steps to the beach. The gray waves, flecked with foam, reached the beach from some unknown shore. The black ocean of the night held on to its secrets.

Alli walked down the beach in the direction of an assortment of lights. The wind caressed her shoulders. She twirled her key ring around one finger. Mallo’s Mini-Mart on the island was open 24-7. Why not get some eggs for tomorrow? Some soy milk?

The half-moon hung like a silver plate in the sky. The sand, gray in the moonlight, latched onto her toes in the sandals. Hermit crabs curled away, hiding themselves out of sight. This vacation was courtesy of Xen. The plate of bananas, piled high, on the cabana’s glass dining table. The terry cloth bathrobes. The complementary jacuzzi. All of it.

They had barbecued hamburgers and bratwurst that afternoon, at the resort party. People had jet-skied up and down the shore, throwing up white waves of spray.

At night, the jungle was quiet. Occasionally, there was the rustling of leaves and quivering underbrush. The night felt alive, trembling on the edge of a knife.

The mini-mart swam into view, its bright bulbs welcoming in the harsh darkness of the AM. A few late-night party-goers still wandered around, sitting at the tables outside, stewing over mango smoothies constantly stabbed with red straws.

Alli went into the store, a cat’s bell announcing the presence of another shopper. Like a 7-Eleven, off the shoulder of a freeway, the store was still packed. A guy in a leather biker’s jacket, stood flipping through People.

Cartons of eggs lay in the refrigerator aisle, all lined up behind the glass, next to roast turkey and coffee creamer. Alli opened the door and picked up a carton. Just as she was straightening up, to close the door, she caught sight of someone in a lurid Hawaiian shirt and slightly distressed, acid-washed jean shorts, with earlobe-length lionesque orange hair. Her heart jumped for a moment; the woman turned to open an adjacent glass door and get out some milk and Alli’s heart stopped pounding. It wasn’t Nealy. Just a look-alike.

The line was relatively short. Alli stood behind someone in a wife beater and a bike chain necklace, with the eggs and a packet of gum she had also picked up. The cashier, sporting a neckbeard, rang up her items. Back outside in the warmth of the darkness, now holding a plastic bag, Alli let her chest unclench. She strolled over the sand, back toward the cabana, rigged up with cable and super-fast Wi-Fi.

She didn’t notice the person in the Hawaiian shirt until she was right up alongside her and caught her left elbow. Alli looked around, startled.

“I’m sorry to scare you,” the lionesque person said, “We’re on the same cruise.”

Alli laughed, “I only heard the waves; I never heard your footfalls.”

“I take jiu-jitsu and other martial arts,” Lion said, by way of explanation, shrugging her shoulders.

“What’s your name?” Alli said. She was still confused but relaxed her shoulders.

“Ran,” said the lion, putting her hands in her shorts pockets.

Alli rubbed the back of her neck, “Well, you can’t come sneaking up on me like that, Ran. What if I knew judo?”

Ran, grinned, looking more like a wolf than a lion here, “I guess I would have to best you in a fight.”

“Lucky for you, I don’t know how to fight,” Alli said.

“Where is your cabana?” Ran wondered, kicking at the sand.

“It’s in that direction,” Alli gestured with the bag of eggs, “But why do you want to know? What if someone is there already?”

Another wolf-like grin, “If that were so, it wouldn’t explain how you were looking at me in Mallo’s.”

Alli smiled, “You are pretty sure of yourself. I got you mixed up with someone else.”

Ran looked up from scrutinizing her fingernails, “The question is, who?”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Alli smirked, “I bid you goodnight.”

“OK, take care,” the lion waved. She moseyed off back in the direction of the mini-mart and the clubs.

Alli’s smile faded. The sea breeze ruffled her dress shirt. The sweat on the back of her neck cooled. If she didn’t squint, if the moonlight were coming in at a different angle, she would have sworn it was Nealy, ambling back to the store, meandering back in time.

The white caps broke, pounding the sand. The palm trees stood silently, island sentinels, staring backward, far across the sea.

food to go