Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine #6

The creature reclined, waved, toying comfortably with her camera.

Karen pushed the button. An alien click rang through the water. She stared at this marvelous creature. The creature waved again. Through and despite her snorkel, Karen smiled and waved back. Then, it was gone.

Karen kicked back, still keeping an eye on the corals as they got smaller, closer, and then the shell of a dead giant clam swallowed up by the white sand. Even death here looked like life.

She returned to the shore for the last boat back to the catamaran.

Sprayed down, she threw her stinger suit into a wet pile with the others and entered the cabin, air-conditioning air hitting her skin and raising goose bumps on her arms. She sat at the table on her towel and the engine of the catamaran revved as they made a lazy turn and headed away from the cay.

Soon, the cabin filled with chattering tourists. Karen sat alone at the table and stared out the window, watching the cay fade slowly out of sight. A few others slid into the booth in front of her but Karen barely noted their presence.

“Hello, gorgeous!”

The voice boomed from above. Karen looked up to see Noah. He’d pulled on a too-short T-shirt, the red skin of his belly poking out above his Hawaiian swim trunks.

This time, he was looking at the two women who had slid into the booth in front of her. One was the Asian woman she’d seen earlier, posing for the man with the camera. Her head was dry, her hair beautifully combed.

She and her friend giggled at Noah and said something in Japanese, or maybe Mandarin. Noah smiled broadly at them and then lumbered off to the back of the cabin.

Karen watched him go, wanting to go after him, to ask about the creatures, but the words had still not formed in her head without sounding like she was completely mad.

When she turned back, the woman caught her eye and smiled.

“First time on reef?” she asked with a thick accent.

“Yes. You?” Karen asked.

The woman’s friend was punching furiously at a cell phone, head down.