Rest of the day
No. “Oh yeah, duh.”
Maria shook her head. “If we have to move places again, I’m going to be sick. All these humans nowadays. They spread like the plague. Won’t be long until there’s nowhere else to go.”
Dread made Jasmine’s stomach turn. “Can’t we just turn into seals and swim away?”
“I mean, sure, but for how long? We can’t swim forever. They’ll find us on the beach and either club us or tear us right out of our skins and make us their wives.” Maria sucked her teeth. Her weaving turned more aggressive. “Damn fishermen. Can’t breed with their own kind, so they grab us. It’s not our fault we’re prettier than their own women.”
Jasmine couldn’t parse the mechanics of everything Maria said, but it wasn’t good. This must be what animals feel like in real life. What about them finding our skins and marrying us? Is that some kind of rule? “How far away are the humans from here?”
“Not far enough,” Valerie said bitterly.
“About two days’ swim,” Maria answered. She scowled at Jasmine. “Don’t you go to the wharf with Jamie, you hear? It was dangerous enough sending you to that island alone.”
Jasmine shook her head. “No. Absolutely not.” That she swore, and yet she already wondered what she would find at the wharf. Humans, she thought. It’s been a while since I’ve seen those.
Jasmine spent the rest of the day sitting with Maria and her friends, watching them weave items out of the vegetation. At one point she got up to find the cot Maria had mentioned. It was among a clearing in the grass behind the rocks were dozens of other cots woven out of grass were hidden. Atop almost every cot was an empty seal skin like what Jasmine carried, all of varying colors and sizes. After determining which cot was hers based on a sense of familiarity, she laid her skin down on it and returned to the colony.
There she found cliques of people she knew hanging around, chatting, laughing, enjoying the calm and balmy weather. A few folk came up from the beach carrying their skins. They were the ones Jasmine had seen laying on the beach as seals earlier, probably resting after a long day of catching fish in the ocean. I guess I’m going to do some of that tomorrow or someday. I hope it’s not too hard.
As the day waned into night and the overcast sky became a uniformed black the colony began retiring to their cots. Jasmine had spent the last few hours catching up with friends, those she’d known for years but also just met. That felt like ages ago, when reality as she knew it did not fracture itself so regularly into a barely recognizable mirror of similar yet different fractal images. She could ease her mind with the company of her friends and family, feeling like she was hanging out with them on some special occasion, even though this appeared to happen regularly. It came to an end eventually, and the colony went together at once to retire for the night.
But before Jasmine went to bed, she sought out Jamie to ask her a few questions.
Written by TheGreatJaceyGee on 19 October 2024